The New Safe Confinement arch pictured at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine on April 22, 2016 (AFP Photo/Genya Savilov) 
 
 Kiev (AFP) - A giant arch shielding radioactive waste from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster began sliding into place Monday with a mission of keeping the site safe for generations to come. 
 
 The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) -- the project's main sponsor -- is planning to complete the installation on November 29 at a total cost of 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion). 
 
 At least 30 people were killed on the site of the accident in Ukraine, at the time a Soviet republic. 
 
 The world's worst man-made disaster left thousands dead or dying of radiation poisoning over large swathes of the western part of the former Soviet Union. 
 
 Reactor Number 4 exploded on October 26, 1986 during a safety check that went horribly wrong. 
 
 The accident remained hidden from the world by the Kremlin authorities for weeks. 
 
 "The start of the sliding of the arch over Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is the beginning of the end of a 30-year long fight with the consequences of the 1986 accident," Ukraine's Environment Minister Ostap Semerak said. 
 
 The ill-fated reactor is currently being protected by a concrete dome that was hastily built by Soviet rescue workers and is in danger of leaking nuclear waste. 
 
 The EBRD called the construction and sliding of the arch "one of the most ambitious projects in the history of engineering". ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Time-lapse footage shows the giant shield move towards the reactor 
 
 Work has begun at Chernobyl in Ukraine to move a giant shield over the site of the world's worst nuclear accident. 
 
 The concrete and steel arch will eventually cover the remains of the reactor which lost its roof in a catastrophic explosion in 1986. 
 
 The blast sent a plume of radioactive material into the air, triggering a public health emergency across Europe. 
 
 The shield is designed to prevent further radioactive material leaking out over the next century. 
 
 It measures 275m (900ft) wide and 108m (354ft) tall and has cost $1.6bn (£1.3bn) to construct. 
 
 The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which is leading the project, describes the arch as the largest moveable land-based structure ever built. 
 
 Containing the world's worst nuclear accident 
 
 Ukraine marks Chernobyl 30th anniversary 
 
 In pictures: Chernobyl's eerie exclusion zone 
 
 It began moving on Monday using a system of hydraulic jacks and will take about five days to be put in its final position. 
 
 Work will then begin to safely dismantle the reactor, which has been sealed inside a so-called sarcophagus, and to secure the huge amount of radioactive material still inside. 
 
 Image copyright Ebrd Image caption The vast arch weighs 36,000 tonnes and rolls along a special track 
 
 Experts fear that if parts of the reactor collapse inside the sarcophagus, further radioactive material could be released. 
 
 The shield, known as the New Safe Confinement, had to be built away from the scene of the accident as the radiation immediately above the reactor is still too intense. 
 
 Image copyright EBRD Image caption The sealed remains of the reactor could collapse, releasing further radiation 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Most of those who died were workers at the nuclear plant 
 
 Ukraine's ecology minister, Ostap Semerak, said the start of the operation to cover the reactor was "the beginning of the end of a 30-year long fight with the consequences of the 1986 accident". 
 
 "The credit for construction of this one-of-a-kind technological structure goes to an expert team of engineers and builders," he said. 
 
 The meltdown and explosion at the Soviet-era plant was the worst nuclear disaster in history, spewing a cloud of radioactive material that drifted into other parts of the then-USSR, including Russia and Belarus, and northern Europe. 
 
 The number of people killed remains disputed. A 2005 report by the UN-backed Chernobyl Forum said that fewer than 50 people had died as a result of exposure to radiation, most of them workers killed immediately after the disaster, but some survived until as late as 2004. 
 
 The forum estimated that up to 9,000 people could eventually die from radiation exposure, although Greenpeace claims the figure could be as high as 93,000. ||||| To safely entomb the radioactive wreckage of Chernobyl, the site of the infamous 1986 nuclear accident, a mobile metal arch is now on the move that is taller than the Statue of Liberty. The giant arch, the largest man-made object ever to move on land, is now sliding over the ruins in Ukraine. 
 
 When nuclear reactor No. 4 exploded at the Chernobyl power plant in 1986 due to errors in both operation and design, it sent plumes of radioactive dust as far away as the United States and Japan, previous research found. To contain the fallout, the Soviet Union enclosed the ruins in a structure that is technically known as the Shelter Object but more commonly called the sarcophagus. 
 
 Although the sarcophagus is massive — consisting of more than 7,700 tons (7,000 metric tons) of metal and 14.1 million cubic feet (400,000 cubic meters) of concrete — this makeshift structure was never meant to last forever, according to the World Information Service on Energy (WISE). Instead, the structure was raised as quickly as possible to limit workers' exposure to radiation. Now, after standing for decades, the sarcophagus is in danger of collapse, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. [In Photos: Chernobyl, Frozen in Time] 
 
 For example, the hastily built sarcophagus has no welded or bolted joints, so it would not take much of a seismic event to knock it down, researchers have found. Moreover, there are many openings in its roof that allowed water in, resulting in corrosion that is hastening its demise, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. 
 
 Chernobyl nuclear power plant's reactor 4 is covered by a shelter called the sarcophagus, shown here on Nov. 16, 2000. Credit: Yuri Kozyrev/Newsmakers 
 
 To safely entomb the failing sarcophagus and its deadly contents, the French consortium Novarka started building a gargantuan replacement in 2012 — the New Safe Confinement, a steel structure 354 feet (108 meters) high at its tallest point, 531 feet (162 m) wide and 843 feet (257 m) long, and weighing more than 39,000 tons (36,000 metric tons). For comparison, the Statue of Liberty, from the ground to the tip of its torch, is about 305 feet (93 m) high. 
 
 Because the ruins of the reactor are still highly radioactive, to protect the workers building the New Safe Confinement, the titanic arch was not built over the sarcophagus. Instead, it was assembled a distance away from the reactor building, and 224 hydraulic jacks are now sliding it the total distance of about 1,070 feet (327 m) into place. 
 
 "The start of the sliding of the Arch over reactor 4 at the Chernobyl NPP [Nuclear Power Plant] is the beginning of the end of a 30-year-long fight with the consequences of the 1986 accident," Ostap Semerak, Ukraine's minister of ecology and natural resources, said in a statement. 
 
 The arch is designed to last at least 100 years and is strong enough to withstand a tornado, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which led the $1.6 billion project. Inside, robotic cranes will help dismantle the sarcophagus, while vacuum cleaners will suck up radioactive dust. Cameras will help workers remotely operate the tools, and the arch's ventilation system is designed to eliminate the risk of corrosion. 
 
 The arch began its slide on Nov. 14, and the entire operation is expected to take five days. 
 
 Follow Charles Q. Choi on Twitter @cqchoi. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.
– In the aftermath of the world's worst nuclear disaster in Chernobyl in 1986, which resulted in radiation that ultimately reached as far as Japan and the US, the Soviet Union slapped together a massive sarcophagus of metal and concrete as hastily as possible to contain further fallout at the site of reactor 4. With no welded or bolted joints and a leaky roof that led to corrosion "hastening its demise," it was never seen as a permanent solution, reports Live Science. Construction began on its enormous replacement, the New Safe Confinement, in 2012. Now French consortium Novarka is using 224 hydraulic jacks to slowly slide the steel structure 1,070 feet to cover the ruins in Ukraine. (The site is too dangerous to build over.) "The start of the sliding of the Arch over reactor 4 ... is the beginning of the end of a 30-year-long fight with the consequences of the 1986 accident," says Ukraine's minister of ecology and natural resources, per the BBC. At 354 feet high, 531 feet wide, and 843 feet long, the $1.6 billion arch is taller than the Statue of Liberty and the largest man-made structure to ever move across land. It should last 100 years and withstand a tornado. Next, robotic cranes will take the sarcophagus apart and vacuum cleaners operated by remote workers will remove radioactive dust. The main sponsor of the project, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, plans to complete installation on Nov. 29, reports AFP. (Amid Chernobyl's ruins, one thing of value remains.)