The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced on Monday that construction of Chernobyl's New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure, which will cover a reactor destroyed in the 1986 disaster at the plant, is progressing as planned.

"We are encouraged by the solid and uninterrupted progress the construction of the NSC, the largest movable structure ever built, is making," Vince Novak, the director of nuclear safety at the EBRD, said. "We believe that this will only strengthen the determination of the international community to bring this unique project to a successful conclusion in the most cost-efficient and timely way. The international community and Ukraine want to see this task fulfilled as the NSC will eliminate risks for the people and the environment caused by the 1986 Chernobyl accident."

The NSC, which is being designed by the French consortium Novarka, with partners Vinci Construction Grands Projets and Bouygues Travaux Publics, will create a safe and secure environment around reactor 4, preventing water and snow intrusion and the release of contaminated dust for the next 100 years. The new structure is also designed to potentially allow deconstruction of the old structure. Construction is expected to be completed in 2015.