BBC4 charts Chernobyl tomb build

The Chernobyl structure is taller than the tower of Big Ben

BBC4 in the UK has commissioned a one-off documentary about the creation of a 36,000-tonne steel megastructure to contain the radioactive waste left by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster.

Windfall Films, part of Argonon, has produced Inside Chernobyl’s Mega Tomb (1×60′) for BBC4 in association with Nova/WGBH, PBS Distribution, France Television, NHK and N24.

The doc will air on BBC4 this month and in spring 2017 on PBS in the US.

It follows a team of international engineers as they race against the clock to create the new building before Chernobyl’s original concrete sarcophagus – built to last just 30 years – collapses.

The steel megastructure is taller than the tower of Big Ben in London and three times heavier than the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

“Specialists from more than 30 countries have joined forces to realise the US$1.5bn project that will protect European skies for the next 100 years,” said Carlo Massarella, creative director and executive producer at Windfall Films.