Chornobyl memo may be signed December 20 (12/17/95)

Chornobyl memo may be signed December 20

by Marta Kolomayets
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The "memorandum of mutual understanding" between Ukraine and the G-7 regarding the shutdown of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant may be signed in Ottawa on December 20, Environment Minister Yuriy Kostenko told reporters during a news conference on December 8.

As previously reported, the memorandum was initialed in Vienna on December 1, with both sides promising to work together to solve the complicated issues of closing down the nuclear power station, providing alternate energy sources for Ukraine, accommodating workers who will be left without jobs and securing an ecologically safe environment for the European continent.

Mr. Kostenko told reporters the timetable for closing down Chornobyl is explicitly linked to terms set by the Ukrainian government in April of 1995. This includes Western financing for the complete shutdown of the plant, and guarantees of an alternative power plant to provide Ukraine with its energy needs.

According to the Ukrainian minister, who is scheduled to travel to Ottawa to sign the agreement with Canadian Vice-Premier and Ecology Minister Sheila Copps, the West continues to raise the point that the plant should be closed by the year 2000.

"But, the decommissioning of the nuclear power plant may last for decades," he added.

Mr. Kostenko also explained that mention of the year 2000 as a deadline date for closing the plant was omitted from the text of the memorandum. However, Western negotiators told The Weekly that the date remains prominent in the headline of the memorandum.

Although the text of the memorandum still is unavailable to the press, Mr. Kostenko said further implementation of the points mentioned in the document would come into effect through bilateral agreements between Ukraine and the G-7 countries.

"The size of the funds will become clear only after we sign the various agreements," he said, adding that two-thirds of the $3.2 billion (U.S.) mentioned in the document will be given as credits to modernize the Ukrainian power engineering industry.

According to Mr. Kostenko, Ukraine is not planning to commission the second power unit at the Chornobyl station, which was damaged by fire in 1992; the fourth power unit was destroyed after an explosion in 1986, which spewed radioactive material throughout Ukraine, territories of the former Soviet Union and Europe.

Reactors 1 and 3 continue to provide Ukraine with 5 percent of its energy needs, but the first reactor is scheduled to be decommissioned next year.

While the West views the physical decommissioning of the power station as an answer to most of the problems, Mr. Kostenko said that with the decommissioning "a number of problems will start cropping up for Ukraine," including the transformation of the plant into an environmentally safe system, the settlement of the issue of the sarcophagus covering the fourth reactor, cleaning up the Chornobyl zone and the reburial of contaminated materials from temporary burial grounds.

The year 1996 will be a decisive one for Ukraine, for Ukraine will see how the implementation of the Chornobyl program will work, and how much money Ukraine will receive, he concluded.

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