UKRAINE: The closure of ill-fated chernobyl Nuclear Power Station will be met with sadness by residents of Slavutich

Record ID: 215851

  • Title: UKRAINE: The closure of ill-fated chernobyl Nuclear Power Station will be met with sadness by residents of Slavutich
  • Date: 13th December 2000
  • Summary: PRIPYAT, UKRAINE (DECEMBER, 2000)(REUTERS) SV ENTRANCE TO TOWN PRIPYAT GV/LV/SLV ABANDONED CITY / CITY STREETS/ABANDONED SCHOOL/CLASSROOM/SCHOOL ROOM WITH GAS-MASKS TO BE GIVEN OUT TO CHILDREN (8 SHOTS) SV/SLV AMUSEMENT PARK / FERRIS WHEEL (2 SHOTS) GV PULL IN LV PRIPYAT WITH CHERNOBYL STATION IN THE BACKGROUND CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR POWER PLANT (DECEMBER 2000) (REUTERS) SL
  • Embargoed: 28th December 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PRIPYAT AND SLAVUTICH, UKRAINE
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Disasters
  • Reuters ID: LVAAN2FXFN672ITHHE40C9JX40WS
  • Story Text: The closure of ill-fated Chernobyl nuclear power station, awaited impatiently by the West, will be met with sadness by thirty thousand residents of Slavutich, a town built to serve the station and entirely dependent on it. Many of Slavutich residents - highly qualified nuclear engineers - feel betrayed and angry and are ready to look for jobs abroad.
    The Chernobyl disaster has forever changed the map of Ukraine, creating uninhabited zones and a ghost town.
    Until recently the town of Pripyat, located five kilometres outside the nuclear power station, was the only abandoned town in the country. During the accident, most of radioactive dust descended on Pripyat. Once a bustling town of 50,000 people, it was evacuated in just three hours in April 1986.
    Today Pripyat is a ghost town encircled by barbed wire and inhabited by stray dogs and crows.
    For Ukraine and for the rest of the world Pripyat symbolises the danger of nuclear energy. Chernobyl closure may turn another Ukrainian town, Slavutich, into a ghost town.
    Slavutich, Ukraine's youngest city, located 50 km (30 miles) from the station, was an "island of wealth" in the republic. It was built in 1986 to host Chernobyl workers and their families who were relocated from the town of Pripyat.
    Today Slavutich has a population of 26,000 people, including 9,000 children. It is considered to be the most educated town in the whole of Ukraine - over 90 percent of towns adult population has university degree.
    Although they lived near Chernobyl and worked at a troubled at the station, residents of Slavutich were considered to be very lucky. Many were receiving salaries, extremely high by the Ukrainian standards - 150-200 US dollars a month.
    Today the future for Slavutich residents looks bleak. Only between 2,000 and 3,000 workers of today's 10,000 will retain their jobs to implement shutdown procedures.
    Station officials say they fear that lack of social security and general uncertainty will force the nuclear plant's specialists to look for jobs abroad.
    Alexander Antropov, head of the reactor control room, says that some of his colleagues have already found work abroad and others are desperate to follow the suit. Many will not be very picky, because they have to feed their families.
    "Imagine, you are in your thirties and you and your family have nothing to eat. You have no food and you can't provide for your family. And in the neighbouring country you can provide them with everything. And in this case you won't look what country it is Korea, Poland, Iraq or Iran. You would go where you can find food for your family," said Antropov.
    The brain drain is not the only problem created by the Chernobyl closure. Another problem is the future of Slavutich.
    Officials estimate that over a decade several hundred million dollars will be needed to relocate Chernobyl staff and create new jobs.
    Little money has so far been allocated, and the residents of the town feel abandoned.
    Irina, Alexander's wife, is not optimistic either about her family's future, nor about the future of the town. "I don't know how we are going to live. Honestly, I can't even imagine. I don't believe anyone anymore - neither the government, nor the city administration. They have been talking for a long time about closing down the station. Press and television were also adding pressure. But nothing has been done," said Irina.
    Slavutich mayor Vladimir Udovichenko also shares the worst expectations. He is afraid that after Chernobyl closure, Slavutich will need to create more than 5,000 jobs for workers made redundant, and the currently thriving town could share Pripyat's fate. "Psychologically, the situation is very complicated here. People, who once came from all corners of the Soviet Union, are on the cross-roads. They came here in order to work at the station, but they soon realised that they had come to close it down."
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