
A new structure built to confine the Chernobyl reactor at the centre of the world's worst nuclear disaster has been previewed for the media ahead of its handover the Ukraine.

Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded and burned on April 26, 1986, leading to an estimated 4,000 premature deaths, hundreds of thousands of people being resettled and hundreds of billions of pounds worth of damage.

The blast showered radiation over the local area, including nearby regions of Belarus and other portions of Europe.

A complex construction effort to secure the molten reactor's core and 200 tonnes of highly radioactive material has taken nine years to complete under the auspices of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The 'New Safe Confinement' at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The half-cylinder of concrete has entombed the damaged Reactor No.4 since it exploded in 1986

Workers at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The 'New Safe Confinement' structure took nine years to build and was constructed to prevent the decaying reactor from further contaminating the environment

A journalist inside the 'New Safe Confinement' which contains the old sarcophagus entombing the destroyed Reactor No.4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant

A view inside the 'New Safe Confinement' of the old sarcophagus entombing the destroyed reactor. The structure was built to eventually allow the reactor to be dismantled

Workers inside the 'New Safe Confinement' which contains the old sarcophagus. The process of decommissioning the reactor cost €1.5 billion (almost £1.3 billion)

A view inside the 'New Safe Confinement'. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development managed a fund with contributions from 45 countries to build the containment structure

Workers inside the 'New Safe Confinement'. They have been working to secure the molten reactor's core and 200 tonnes of highly radioactive material, which has taken nine years to complete

The half-cylinder structure was shifted into place in November 2016 to prevent the decaying reactor from further contaminating the environment and eventually allow its dismantling

In 2016, an internationally funded project erected the largest moveable structure ever built, known as the New Safe Confinement (NSC) to protect against release of radioactive substances.

In November that year the 'New Safe Confinement' structure was shifted into place to prevent the decaying reactor from further contaminating the environment and eventually allow its dismantling.

The Ukrainian government will soon be taking control of the new confinement structure.

Journalists were shown the new safe confinement shelter with all its equipment installed today ahead of its handover to Ukrainian authorities.

The 354ft (108-metre) tall metal, 36,000-tonne, half-cylinder covers the steel and concrete sarcophagus that has shielded the open reactor core since November 1986, seven months after the explosion that exposed it.

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The plant in Ukraine exploded and burned on April 26, 1986, leading to an estimated 4,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of people being resettled

Seating for a small cafe at the entrance to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in Dytiatky. The nuclear power plant and power lines can be seen in drawings behind the seats

A worker at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explains a model of the exploded Reactor No.4 in Pripyat, Ukraine, today

Inside the control room for the 'New Safe Confinement' at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant that manages the project to contain the hazardous radioactive material

A model of the destroyed Reactor No.4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant shows figures of workers and the exploded shell of the reactor

Workers at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant taking a break today. Work has been going on for nine years to contain the hazardous reactor

Posters and portraits in a building in the abandoned city of Pripyat, inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Pripyat was evacuated in the immediate aftermath of the disaster and remains abandoned to this day

The NSC will create a space where the concrete and steel sarcophagus that was originally built quickly in the immediate aftermath of the disaster to contain the plant can be dismantled and decommissioned.

An interim store facility will provide a place for the spent nuclear fuel from the Soviet-era Reactors No. 1, 2 and 3 to be safely stored.

The project cost €1.5 billion (almost £1.3 billion) and The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development managed a fund with contributions from 45 countries, the European Union and €715 million in the bank's own resources.

The HBO series does not show the sarcophagus being built, but it does feature the Chernobyl 'liquidators' - the civil and military personnel who were conscripted to deal with the fallout of the meltdown.

No official record was made of the liquidators' health in the months and years that followed, but estimates suggest 60,000 – roughly one in ten – died prematurely as a result of exposure to the high levels of radiation.

Workers at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukraine, today. A storage facility has been built to provide a place for the spent nuclear fuel from the Soviet-era Reactors No. 1, 2 and 3 to be safely housed

A worker inside the 'New Safe Confinement' which contains the old sarcophagus entombing the destroyed Reactor No.4

Bumper cars in the abandoned city of Pripyat, inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The ghost city was founded in 1970 as the ninth nuclear city, a kind of closed city not open to outsiders.

Today tourists wander through parts of the previously closed city, taking pictures at a rusty Ferris wheel, one of the most famous landmarks in the abandoned city of Pripyat. Outsiders were banned from entering the city when the nuclear power plant was operational

Tourists are seen in the picture being guided around the abandoned city of Pripyat and shown the buildings and houses where workers at the nuclear plant lived and worked

Frozen in time: Tourists stop for pictures at a sign marking the entrance to the abandoned city of Pripyat

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 240,000 recovery workers made up of soldiers, firefighters, engineers, miners, farmers and volunteers, called upon in 1986 and 1987 alone.

They carried out tasks such as clearing the reactor's roof of radioactive material, helping with the evacuation of the city of Pripyat and transporting dangerous nuclear cargo away from the area to be contained.

Private donations, rather than state aid, paid for the only monument to their sacrifice and included a statue in the exclusion zone entitled 'To Those Who Saved The World'.

Deaths from the long-term effects of the radiation poisoning total around 4,000, including those killed by the immediate blast.

But a joint consortium of the United Nations and the governments of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, said the toll could be as much as more than 93,000, as conclusions from various health and science organisations differ.

Around 240,000 Chernobyl 'liquidators' - civil and military personnel conscripted to deal with the fallout - took part in the clean-up operation, with around 60,000 of the dying prematurely due to radiation exposure