UKRAINE : UKRAINE NOT ABLE TO CLOSE CHERNOBYL BY THE YEAR 2000 WITHOUT FINANCIAL HELP

Record ID: 216059

  • Title: UKRAINE : UKRAINE NOT ABLE TO CLOSE CHERNOBYL BY THE YEAR 2000 WITHOUT FINANCIAL HELP
  • Date: 17th April 1995
  • Summary: KIEV, UKRAINE (APRIL 17, 1995) (REUTERS TELEVISION - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV NEWS CONFERENCE 0.04 2. SCU HEAD OF UKRAINE'S NUCLEAR POWER AUTHORITY MIKHAIL UMANETS SAYING THE UKRAINE SHOULD DRAW UP A TIMETABLE BY MAY 15 ON CLOSING THE STATION AND THE WEST HAS TO COME UP WITH A FINANCING PLAN BY JULY AND THAT IF THE FINANCE PLAN IS
  • Embargoed: 2nd May 1995 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KIEV, UKRAINE
  • City:
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Reuters ID: LVADC5CV0E9QCKKB4L4G9ZKJESI9
  • Story Text: The head of Ukraine's nuclear power authority on Monday (April 17) told the West his country could not honour its pledge to close Chernobyl by the year 2000 without major financial help.

    Mikhail Umanets told a news conference the West would have to help come up with about 4.5 billion U.S. dollars to close Chernobyl and build a replacement for the station, site of the world's worst nuclear accident on April 26, 1986.

    "The political decision (to close the station) is just a skeleton, though a good one," Umanets said after discussing the promise to close the facility with President Leonid Kuchma.

    Kuchma last week promised Ukraine would close Chernobyl within five years, provided the West helped.

    But he disclosed no figures on how much the operation would cost and a visiting European Union delegation pressing for its closure gave no guarantees on financing.

    A fire and explosion at the station's fourth reactor nine years ago sent a cloud of radiation across most of Europe and contaminated large swathes of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Up to 8,000 people are thought to have died from radiation-related diseases as a result of the explosion.

    Umanets said Ukraine would insist on financing to build a new power station, possibly a gas-fired plant, and erect a new "tomb" over the station's stricken fourth reactor to replace the cracked original erected hastily after the disaster.

    Chernobyl's director, Sergei Parashin, last week proposed building a gas-fired plant and suggested 18 Western countries and Ukraine could each contribute about 200 million (U.S.) dollars.

    Parashin told Monday's news conference Chernobyl's safety record was as good as Ukraine's other four nuclear power plants. He said his plant could function for many years if the West failed to come up with the financing.


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