PRYPYAT, Nov. 30 - The winner of a European Bank for Reconstruction and Development tender for the construction of a new safe confinement for the Chernobyl nuclear power plant's fourth reactor may be announced in December, a Chernobyl official said.

"The process [of choosing the project's developer and contractor] is underway, and will probably be completed in December," Ihor Hramotkyn, the director general of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant specialized state enterprise, said.