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from the one-step-forward-two-steps-back dept.
While many will have forgotten about the steam explosion and subsequent graphite fire at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in what is now Ukraine (and many readers won't have been born when it happened), there are still very many people working on making it environmentally safer than it would otherwise be, or were, up until a few days ago.
The damaged reactor was encased in a hastily built 'sarcophagus' to minimise the mixing of radioactive debris with the general environment, especially the dust. The 'sarcophagus' was showing signs of collapse, which would have released a considerable amount of radioactive dust, so as a co-operative endeavour between the Ukraine, the European Union and the USA, the Chernobyl Shelter Fund was set up in 1997 to create an environmentally safe confinement that would last at least 100 years.
The new, safe confinement structure is being built on rails to be moved over the existing buildings, and a major milestone in the project has been achieved this month, as the first half of the new structure has been built and moved into a holding position: that's 12,800 tonnes moved just over 100 metres sideways.
However, progress is threatened by Ukraine's political and economic crisis. Ukrainian officials say the project, originally scheduled for completion in 2015, will not be finished on time. Additionally, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which partially funds the project, is not expecting contributions from Ukraine in the near term.
Edited to reflect stalled progress missed by the submitter.
(Score: 2) by ngarrang on Thursday April 17 2014, @02:34PM
The United States would like to argue that it is not entirely inappropriate to continue using THE before a country name. There are other instances of this naming system that are in place. The Ukraine can complain all they want, but THE is here to stay.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by MrGuy on Thursday April 17 2014, @02:40PM
This actually illustrates my point quite nicely.
The USA is referred to as such because it's part of the official name of the country - "THE United States of America."
The "The" in "The Ukraine" came from the soviet-era name for the country (don't have the specifics in front of me, but something like "The Ukraine Soviet Socialist Republic")
When the USSR broke up, the country ditched the Soviet-era naming, and went back to calling itself "Ukraine," which is what it had been called prior to the Soviet era.
Keeping the "The" is denying the country it's current proper name. It would be similarly inappropriate in this day and age to refer to Chennai as Madras, or Mumbai as Bombay.
(Score: 2) by mattie_p on Thursday April 17 2014, @02:44PM
Correct. There was a story on NPR [npr.org] (National Public Radio) the other day about this.
(Score: 1) by MrGuy on Thursday April 17 2014, @02:50PM
I blame the board game Risk for this, honestly. Many people (at least of a certain age group to which I belong) learned an awful lot of our world geography from that game (in which the country is "The Ukraine.")
As we all know, mistaking a board game for real geography can be dangerous [youtube.com].
(Score: 2, Informative) by pTamok on Thursday April 17 2014, @03:22PM
Original submitter here:
Sorry about the inappropriate use of 'The': it wasn't my intention to insult the inhabitants of Ukraine.
My intention in submitting was to flag up an interesting technical/engineering achievement: moving a 12,800 tonne structure intended to confine a challenging radiological problem.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by M. Baranczak on Thursday April 17 2014, @03:22PM
This might come as a shock to Americans, but English was never widely used in that part of the world. So the official name never had the word "the" in it. As a matter of fact, Ukrainian and Russian (like all Slavic languages) don't have articles at all, so this issue only comes up when translating into English.
Seriously, people. Ukraine is dealing with a crashing economy, massive corruption, a leaking reactor, and an invasion by Russian soldiers who claim they're not Russian soldiers. This is really the least of their problems.
(Score: 2) by TK on Thursday April 17 2014, @04:24PM
Well then what other pedantic minutiae can we spend weeks arguing over under the pretense of "helping" while we ride out these crises?
The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Thursday April 17 2014, @07:25PM
I suggest you go get the specifics in front of you before making categorical statements.
"The Ukraine" was the official namb long before the advent of the Soviet Union. It dates back to the mid 1700s [google.ca].
That being said, a country has the right to call itself what ever it wants. Still its unfair to jump on everyone who uses the old terminology with no ill intent.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.