In today’s Bulldog wrapup of science and technology news:

  • Massive Chernobyl shelter safely put over exploded reactor
  • Chevy Bolt isn’t stylish, but GM is pushing its practicality
  • Top German spy warns of political cyberattacks, Russia links
  • 2 Taiwanese teenagers win World Robot Olympiad in India

The details:

  • Massive Chernobyl shelter safely put over exploded reactor

Workers completed a massive shelter over the Chernobyl nuclear plant’s exploded reactor on Tuesday, one of the most ambitious engineering projects in the world that one expert said had closed “a nuclear wound.”

The half cylinder-shaped shelter was locked in place over the plant’s reactor No. 4 after being moved in on hydraulic jacks for two weeks. It marks a significant step toward containing the consequences of the world’s worst nuclear accident, which occurred 30 years ago in what is now Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko described the new shelter as “the biggest moving construction that humanity has ever created.”

Workers will now begin dismantling unstable parts of the original cover, the so-called sarcophagus, which was built over the reactor shortly after the disaster to contain radiation.

The April 26, 1986 explosion at the reactor sent a cloud of radioactive fallout over much of Europe and forced the evacuation of about 115,000 people from the plant’s vicinity. A 30-kilometer (19-mile) area around the plant has remained largely off-limits and the town of Pripyat, where the plant’s workers once lived, was turned into a ghostly ruin of deteriorating apartment buildings.

The new shelter is 275 meters (843 feet) wide and 108 meters (354 feet) tall and cost about 1.5 billion euros, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. More than 40 governments have contributed to funding its construction, which involved 10,000 workers.

EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti hailed the shelter as “a testament to the lasting international solidarity with Ukraine and the commitment to nuclear safety.”

Hans Blix, chairman of the Chernobyl Shelter Fund, said “thirty years after the accident, pains and costs are still there but the healing process has come a long way.”

“Moving together two halves of the huge arch and sliding the gigantic shelter in the position over the historic reactor is like closing a wound, a nuclear wound that belongs to all of us,” he said.

  • Chevy Bolt isn’t stylish, but GM is pushing its practicality

The executive in charge of marketing the new electric Chevrolet Boltkeeps coming back to one word.

“Driving an electric vehicle is just now practical,” Darin Gesse says of the Bolt. He repeats “practical” with the same fervor that Elon Musk might say “compelling.”

Gesse isn’t plugging style or promising to awe your neighbors like Musk and Tesla Motors. In fact, the styling of the Bolt is so ordinary the people next door may not even notice the hatchback in your driveway.

What Gesse and General Motors want consumers to see is a car that will cater to their everyday needs — commuting, shopping, transporting children and gear — all on one charge of the battery. It’s the first electric to get more than 200 miles per charge (238 to be exact) and fit most buyers’ budgets (around $30,000, after a government tax credit).

There are other things to like: gobs of interior space, a near-silent ride, no tailpipe emissions, and a 6.5-second zero-to-60 time that can beat a lot of old V8 muscle cars.

The Bolt hits showrooms in California and Oregon in days and rolls out nationwide next year. The highly-anticipated Model 3, Tesla’s first mass-market car, won’t be ready until at least the end of next year.

While GM is proud of its head start, the company didn’t even take pre-orders for the Bolt. Meanwhile, more than 300,000 people have already plunked down $1,000 to reserve the $35,000 Model 3.

  • Top German spy warns of political cyberattacks, Russia links

Germany’s foreign intelligence chief is warning of cyberattacks aimed at political destabilization as the country prepares for an election next year, and says evidence suggests Russian involvement in hacking during the U.S. campaign.

Bruno Kahl, who leads the Federal Intelligence Service, told Tuesday’s edition of the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung that his agency knows of “cyberattacks that have no other point than causing political insecurity.” He said that “Europe is in the focus of this attempted disruption, and Germany in particular.”

U.S. authorities have concluded Russia was responsible for hacking Democratic National Committee emails, which Russia denies. Kahl said he has “indications it comes from those quarters.”

He said it’s technically difficult to assign blame to any “state actor” — but that “some things speak for it being at least tolerated or wished for on the part of the state.”

“The perpetrators have an interest in delegitimizing the democratic process as such — whomever that later helps,” Kahl was quoted as saying. “I have the impression that the outcome of the American election isn’t causing mourning in Russia so far.”

  • 2 Taiwanese teenagers win World Robot Olympiad in India

Whizzing around a green felt table chasing a soccer ball beaming infrared light, the boxy robot shoots — and scores — and wins its Taiwanese teenagecreators first prize at this year’s student robot games.

The two breadbox-sized scooters, playing goalie and kicker, from the team called “Wings of Storm” were up against another Taiwanese team’s robots in the “Football” category of the World Robot Olympiad held over the weekend in the Indian capital of New Delhi.

“We have been practicing since primary school,” said Liaw Jia-wun, 15, thrilled to have won with his teammate. “We never in our lives could think that we would win the worldchampionship.”

Other categories at the robotics championships — attended by more than 450 teams from 50 countries — asked participants to create robotics solutions to reduce or recycle waste, leading teams to build robots that emptied trash bins or scooped up building debris for future use.