Pictures | This is the new 36,000-tonne "sarcophagus" that covers the Chernobyl reactor

Ukraine and its European partners officially opened Wednesday the new metal dome that covers the accident reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power station, concluding a process that took two decades. It is the largest mobile metal structure in the world that completely seals the remains of the fourth reactor at the nuclear power station where the most serious nuclear accident in history took place in 1986.

With 108 meters high and 36,000 tons weight, which could completely cover a cathedral like Notre Dame de Paris, had been installed in 2016, several years late, and completed in December 2018. It will ensure the safety of the site for a century and will allow the dismantling of the protection. installed at the end of the Soviet era.

Chernobyl: all the secrets of the giant sarcophagus that seeks to contain radiation

The cost of the works was 1,500 million euros (approximately $ 1,700 million), financed by a special fund of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and badistance from 45 countries. "This is a new step in the transformation of Chernobyl into a safe environment," said the EBRD in a statement. "Today we are receiving the keys to this installation, created by the combined efforts of dozens of countries to protect the planet and the entire humanity from radioactive contamination," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

A "controversial scale of death"

Chernobyl reactor number 4 exploded on April 26, 1986polluting, according to some estimates, up to three quarters of Europe. After this disaster, the authorities evacuated hundreds of thousands of people and a vast territory of more than 2,000 km2 was abandoned. Three other reactors at the plant continued to operate after the disaster. The last one was stopped in 2000, marking the end of all industrial activity in Chernobyl.

The Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters in Japan (2011) were ranked at level 7 ("significant effects on health and the environment"), the highest level of severity at the international level. nuclear accidents (INES). In 2005, controversial UN report estimates 4,000 confirmed deaths or come as a result of the accident in the three countries most affected by the disaster.

A year later, the non-governmental organization Greenpeace estimates 100,000 deaths. In addition, in 1998 the Ukrainian authorities reported 12,500 deaths among "liquidators", known as those who worked to mitigate the effects of the accident.

Myths and truths about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986