- Title: UKRAINE: HEAVY RAIN FLOODS REACTOR AT CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR PLANT.
- Date: 11th July 2000
- Summary: CHERNOBYL, UKRAINE (JULY 10, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV/ZOOM OUT: VARIOUS OF CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR POWER PLANT 0.14 2. GV: REFLECTION OF CHERNOBYL STATION IN PUDDLE 0.19 3. GV/CU: WORKERS LEAVING BUILDING AND GETTING ONTO BUS, WHICH DRIVES AWAY (5 SHOTS) 0.44 4. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) CHIEF SPOKESMAN FOR CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR PO
- Embargoed: 26th July 2000 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: CHERNOBYL, UKRAINE
- City:
- Country: Ukraine
- Topics:
- Reuters ID: LVA7DGLU1Y0KFX8Z3IT4OJUNC1YB
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant, scene of the
world's worst nuclear accident, shut down its only functioning
reactor on Monday after a heavy rainstorm flooded several
parts of the facility.
The stationwas closed down on Monday (July 10)
morning. According to the chief spokesman of the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant, Stanislav Sheketelo, the shut down hadn't
led to an increase in radiation levels.
"Today, on July 10th at 7. 02 a.m., the power generator was
shut down. At 1. 50 p.m., water flooded the diesel-powered
generator of the station. What has happened will not affect
radiation levels and does not present any danger to the
population," he told journalists.
The plant is due to be restarted on Monday July 17.
Staff at the plant have pumped almost all the water from
the generator and are checking all the equipment.
The third reactor is the only one operating after the
fourth exploded in April 1986, spewing a radioactive cloud
over Europe and contaminating large areas of Ukraine, Russia
and Belarus.
Another reactor was halted in 1997 after it exhausted its
safe lifespan and the other has not been used since a fire
nine years ago.
Ukraine promised last month to close the stricken plant on
December 15 after Western leaders pledged additional funding.
Over the past six years, Ukraine has been locked in
difficult talks with the West aimed at winning hundreds of
millions of dollars in return for the closure of the station.
Ukraine needs the money to build two new replacement
reactors.
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma conceded recently that
Chernobyl, located just 110 km (70 miles) north of the capital
Kiev which has 2. 6 million people, was no longer safe from a
technological point of view.
Experts estimate that Chernobyl accounts for between six
and eight per cent of Ukraine's electricity output, which has
halved since independence in 1991. They say the whole complex
of measures linked to Chernobyl's closure would cost more than
two billion US dollars.
(moscow bureau/lh)
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