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KIEV, Ukraine -- A plant to process liquid radioactive waste from the Chernobyl nuclear power complex will be built by the end of 2001, officials said.
Construction of the processing plant began at Chernobyl about six months ago and is expected to be ready for operation in December 2001, said Valeriy Ho vorov, a Chernobyl spokesman.
The plant will treat the water that was used in Chernobyl reactors and has been partially decontaminated and stored in tanks. At the new plant, the liquid waste will be solidified and placed in containers for storage, the Chernobyl press office said.
The $16 million plant, funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, will employ about 100 people.
Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986. The plant was shut down for good, under intense international pressure, on Dec. 15.
Hovorov said that officials planned to raise funds to build another facility that will process and store solid nuclear waste from Chernobyl. Construction of that plant, worth $37.53 million, could begin as early as March.
The complex will include a facility that will remove nuclear wastes from the Chernobyl plant and a plant that will sort, compress, burn, and cement the waste in preparation for storage outside Chernobyl.
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