UKRAINE: EUROPEAN AND UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBERS TOUR CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

Record ID: 216073

  • Title: UKRAINE: EUROPEAN AND UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBERS TOUR CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
  • Date: 6th December 2000
  • Summary: CHERNOBYL, UKRAINE (DECEMBER 04, 2000) (REUTERS) 1. MV SOLDIER STANDING BY MONUMENT TO FIREMEN KILLED DURING 1986 CHERNOBYL DISASTER 0.05 2. MV UKRAINIAN AND EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT MEMBERS LAY WREATHS AT MONUMENT (3 SHOTS) 0.23 3. SLV BUSSES WITH DEPUTIES SET OFF TO PRIPYAT; BUSSES ENTER PRIPYAT (3 SHOTS) 0.43 4. SCU RADIOMETRE SHOWING
  • Embargoed: 21st December 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CHERNOBYL, UKRAINE, KIEV
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Reuters ID: LVAAE5VKE299EJQ5XQ55AEOCKVIW
  • Story Text: A group of European and Ukrainian parliament
    members toured the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, hearing
    objections from the stations workers' whose jobs will
    disappear this month when the station closes.

    The delegation of Ukrainian and European parliament
    members arrived in Chernobyl on Monday (December 4) to meet
    the management and workers of the station before it is
    permenantly shut down later this month.

    Chernobyl is due to be shut down for ever on December 15,
    fourteen years after one of its reactors exploded in the
    world's worst peacetime nuclear disaster.

    One in sixteen Ukrainians is suffering from cancer and
    other diseases caused by radiation.

    Many victims of the disaster now rely on small state
    pensions for their livelihoods, which are often paid late or
    only in part.

    But the Chernobyl plant is the only source of work for many
    of Ukraine's highly-skilled nuclear engineers.

    "The closure of the station will be the end not only for me
    but also for the rest of my colleagues. I won't commit suicide
    but it will be hard for me to find another job because that's
    the only thing I can do", said Union activist Ivan Lavrichenko.

    With the Ukrainian economy stuck in a post-Soviet
    depression, the released plant workers will have a struggle to
    find new employment.

    The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
    (EBRD) is also due to announce this week whether it will lend
    Ukraine $215 million to complete two nuclear reactors. These
    are desperately needed to plug gaping holes in the power
    supply once the Chernobyl nuclear power station closes.


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