Ukrainian Emergency Situations Minister Volodymyr Shandra told a press conference of the plans on March 14th, the Financial, a news website focusing on Georgia and Ukraine, reported.

“A plan of actions was worked out(…). As early as in April we will withdraw the last fuel elements from the plant’s reactors,” Shandra said. “Thus, by the 22rd anniversary of the catastrophe, all the reactors, except for the fourth, will be without any nuclear fuel. It will be a very serious step towards providing the security of the Chernobyl plant.”

Shanrdra also said that in autumn of 2008, the building of a confinement enclosure over the ad hoc cement sarcophagus that was dumped on the site of the meltdown in 1986, and which is cracked and crumbling, will commence.

“The financing of design works has already opened. I believe this autumn the design works will be completed, and the building will kick off,” the Financial quoted him as saying.