The Institute covered the costs of research and development of the polymer. Another, more extensive application is planned for October to develop and fine-tune the methods and equipment for applying EKOR coatings to nuclear waste. When Reactor 4 was destroyed by an explosion and fire in April 1986, molten nuclear fuel collected beneath the ruined reactor, where it has been emitting deadly radiation ever since. Many substances have been applied in attempts to contain radiation from the fuel masses and surrounding radioactive dust at Chernobyl, but all have disintegrated within three or four months from the effects of the radiation. The ruined reactor and the nuclear fuel masses on the ground floor below are only partially protected by the concrete structure that now covers the mess.
Rainwater enters the building and carries the radioactivity into the soil and groundwater.
International donors have collected millions of dollars to build a new concrete structure over the reactor, but construction has not yet begun. Kurchatov Institute scientists also developed advanced robots to apply the EKOR coating in the dangerous working conditions under the failed Reactor 4, where humans would suffer the lethal effects of the radiation. Eurotech provided the funds to take the polymer from the laboratory stage to testing in the field. Eurotech is currently working with NuSil Technology in Santa Barbara, Calif. to test and prepare EKOR for commercial production in North America, where hundreds of nuclear waste sites emit radiation. Originally from Kiev, Gulko is a liaison between Eurotech and its affiliates in Russia and Ukraine.