Capable of lifting almost twenty times the load of an ordinary crane, they were used to install huge prefabricated steel forms, which were backfilled with still more concrete, entombing the escarpment of highly radioactive debris that had tumbled from the northern side of the reactor building. This became the “Cascade Wall,” which rose in a series of terraces—four colossal steps, each fifty meters long and twelve meters high—like the temple of a vengeful prehistoric god.
