(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-17 23:16

KIEV - Ukraine signed deals with Western firms on Monday to build a new arch-shaped shelter to encase the wrecked fourth reactor at the Chernobyl power plant, site of the world's worst nuclear accident, and to store spent nuclear fuel.

With President Viktor Yushchenko looking on, the head of the now-decommissioned station signed a deal with the French-led Novarka consortium to erect the new shelter. The project is due to be completed over four to five years and cost $1.39 billion.

A second deal was signed with US-based Holtec International to build a facility to house spent fuel from the station's other three reactors. A total of US$396 has so far been allocated for that project.

"We are talking about a unique project for this planet. The danger linked to the site of the accident is not confined to Ukraine's borders," Yushchenko told ceremony participants.

Various projects have been proposed since the mid-1990s to replace the "sarcophagus" hastily erected by workers and troops over the reactor in the weeks and months following the April 26, 1986, fire and explosion at the plant.

But agreement on financing, overseen by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, was only announced last month. Donors, mostly foreign governments, have so far contributed 739 million euros.

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