Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko visited the site of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine on Thursday to learn lessons Japan could find useful in scrapping the nuclear reactors wrecked by the triple core meltdown in Fukushima Prefecture in 2011.
The gutted No. 4 reactor at the defunct power plant in the former Soviet republic was originally entombed in a concrete "sarcophagus" to contain the radioactive fallout. But the aging of that shell spurred a project to build a fresh steel structure over it with financial aid from Japan, the United States and countries in Europe. It was completed in November.
While the construction of the new shelter cost about €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion) and represented a milestone in addressing safety concerns at the destroyed reactor, Ukraine has yet to see substantial progress in decommissioning the site.