The effort has proved more complicated than previously thought and is likely to last for over 60 years. The cheapest alternative, according to the think tank, would be to pour the damaged reactors into a giant concrete sarcophagus and then buy off all plot land in the closed zone. The area, which for a very long time would be uninhabitable, is twice as large as Stockholm municipality.
The earthquake occurred in 2011 and led to the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986.