A full quarter of a century after the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, EPTV visits Ukraine to examine the work being done to combat the tragedy's enduring legacy.

Reporter: The fallout from Chernobyl

We must not forget  the Chernobyl disaster.

What has remained  from Chernobyl is waste

and it is also becoming a European  challenge for the future of nuclear energy.

I'm not sure if it is absolutely necessary  to come up with new studies.

In our energy-scarce, post-peak oil world,

the alternative to reactors  is mass starvation.

25 years after the catastrophe, we are  well aware that its long-term consequences

We've come to Ukraine's  Institute of Clinical Radiology.

Today it still treats children with problems  linked to the 1986 nuclear disaster.

They are the children  of 'Chernobyl's children',

a new generation  growing up weak and unhealthy

because their immune systems  do not respond.

Children who live near  the restricted area also come here.

Among the children who live  in the contaminated areas

diseases of the digestive tract  constitute one of the main problems.

The old problems  are now joined by a new threat.

The old sarcophagus, built in 1986  to contain the radiation from the plant,

Cracks and fissures that rain  and snowmelt seep through.

The international community  is working against the clock

that will cover Chernobyl's  regrettably famous reactor 4.

26 years after the tragedy  the world is still footing the bill.

The cost of this huge project,  of which the EU is the principal donor,

is estimated to be almost a billion euros.

as it is being built in a contaminated area  and requires rigorous safety measures.

But at last, the project's first phase  has been completed.

The new cover is already 22 metres high.

Raising such a structure  has never been done before.

So we were all a little...  I wouldn't say worried

but we were all anxious to see that  everything we had planned on paper worked

and indeed it is going to work very well.

The new cover's aim is to prevent  the fuel and radioactive dust

being able to escape into the atmosphere  or filter down into the groundwater,

which in the long term  could lead to contaminated rivers.

The entire fuel inventory of Chernobyl  is still within the old sarcophagus.

This structure will insulate the sarcophagus  from the environment

and provide all the necessary tools to carry  out the waste-management operations

and the disassembly of the sarcophagus  over the years to come.

An area as large as Luxembourg  was lost following the Chernobyl accident.

This is the exclusion zone,  the restricted area.

Here lies the ghost town of Pripyat,  evacuated after the accident.

Ukraine has paid a big price  for the Chernobyl accident.

It amounts to around 200 billion dollars  in financial losses over the first two years,

more than half a million people  who died from disease,

and areas where it's not possible  to grow any healthy crops to eat.

Nikolay worked at the plant  and was one of the liquidators

who took part in the work  to stop the disaster.

He shows us the file which lists  the 30 illnesses he is suffering from

I'm trying to do everything  to correct my mistake

as a person who chose to carry out  an activity which brought danger to society.

I mean I worked with nuclear energy  and that turned out to be dangerous.

Ukraine does not have  a strong anti-nuclear movement.

In a difficult economic environment,  everyday existence is a struggle.