Ukrainian PM: Western assistance a must for shutdown of Chornobyl (03/10/96)

Ukrainian PM: Western assistance a must for shutdown of Chornobyl

by Marta Kolomayets
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Although Ukrainian government officials remain committed to closing down the Chornobyl nuclear plant as the 10th anniversary of that station's nuclear accident draws near, they have reiterated conditions - primarily substantial Western assistance - if they are to honor their pledge.

Prime Minister Yevhen Marchuk, who visited the Chornobyl plant on March 1, suggested to reporters that Ukraine would have to keep the nuclear power station on line unless the West came up with money to shut down the plant, located 135 kilometers north of Kyiv.

"If the G-7 (the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Japan, Italy and Germany) continues to delay this issue... the time will come when we will no longer be able to listen to anyone but will act according to the laws of physics and safety considerations," said Mr. Marchuk at a press conference in Slavutych, the town built after the tragedy to relocate evacuated Chornobyl employees.

After touring the plant, the Ukrainian government official said safety standards at the plant are so high that the station "poses no threat at all." His sentiments were echoed by personnel at the plant, a work force of 5,000. Some 500 of these workers were employed by the station in April 1986 when the fourth reactor exploded, spewing radioactive particles throughout Europe and contaminating large regions of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

"Why close a site that works and is reliable? Let us get on with the job," Mykola Tkachenko, a deputy officer, told Reuters during Mr. Marchuk's tour of the plant. "I have worked at the station for 15 years, and we have heard talk about closing it down for eight years. I no longer think about this," he added.

Plant works "magnificently"

Serhiy Parashin, director of the Chornobyl plant, confirmed the sentiments of his workers, telling journalists that the plant works "magnificently."

It should be noted, however, that during his visit Mr. Marchuk did not talk about modernizing the plant's two functioning reactors - something that would be needed to keep the plant operating well into the 21st century. (Reactor No. 4 exploded in April 1986, in the worst civil nuclear accident in history, and Reactor No. 2 was damaged by a fire in 1991.)

Dmytro Markov, President Leonid Kuchma's press secretary, told journalists on March 6 that "the Ukrainian leadership's position on the shutdown of the Chornobyl plant remains unchanged."

"The Ukrainian president has made a political decision on the Chornobyl shutdown. The president realizes the degree of responsibility he has toward the Ukrainian people and the international community," said the press secretary at a regular weekly briefing.

President Kuchma pointed out after his return from Washington last month that the international community has forgotten the tragedy that occurred almost 10 years ago.

"And, we, a state that perhaps suffered the most because of this accident, are too indifferent on many issues. We must be more outspoken; we should let the world know how much we have suffered economically. But more importantly, how the consequences of the accident have affected our health and the health of future generations," he explained.

"The world community is pressuring us to close the station - and it has forgotten about all the other consequences. So, this is the time to speak out," said President Kuchma, explaining that the Ukrainian government had already formed a committee chaired by Prime Minister Marchuk to focus more world attention on the Chornobyl issue.

Indeed, under Western pressure, President Kuchma agreed in early 1995 to close the plant, but, despite promises of aid, no concrete help has been delivered to Ukraine.

During talks in Washington, President Kuchma invited U.S. Vice-President Al Gore to come to Kyiv to commemorate this painful anniversary. The U.S. government is planning an airlift of humanitarian aid to be delivered to Ukraine by the U.S. leader sometime in April.

On March 1, President Kuchma was invited by Presidents Boris Yeltsin of Russia and Jacques Chirac of France, the co-chairmen of the G-7 summit scheduled to take place in Moscow on April 19-20, to join the world leaders as they discuss specific issues of nuclear safety and G-7 assistance to Ukraine.

Although the G-7 has promised $2.3 billion in loans and aid to close down the Chornobyl station, Mr. Marchuk told reporters during his visit to the power station that he is wary of these pledges because money has often been the subject of controversy over Chornobyl.

Memorandum signed last year

Ukraine's minister of environmental protection and nuclear safety, Yuriy Kostenko, who late last year signed a memorandum of understanding with Canada's Vice-Premier and Secretary of the Environment Sheila Copps that provides financial assistance from the G-7 countries to close down Chornobyl by the year 2000, also has been skeptical of aid from the West. He has said on many occasion that the financial aid package is not enough to cover the costs of sealing the nuclear site, disposing of tons of radioactive waste from dumping areas, completing the clean-up, finding new energy sources for Ukraine, and providing training and new jobs for those workers who will be left unemployed after the plant is decommissioned.

"It really will cost tens of billions of dollars to cover the costs associated with the shutdown of Chornobyl when you take into account the losses Ukraine will carry in the energy sector, the costs of providing social protection, cleaning up the environment, and so on," said Mr. Kostenko.

Prime Minister Marchuk said Ukraine had already spent $3 billion from its own budget over the past four years to eliminate the aftermath of the Chornobyl accident.

According to the Ukrainian government official, 5 percent of all the tax earnings from the budget are channeled toward dealing with the aftermath of the Chornobyl accident. He added that these expenditures are five times what Ukraine spends on health care, culture and education.

He explained that Ukraine is likely to spend $10 billion of its own funds on the Chornobyl clean-up over the 10-year period that began with the declaration of Ukraine's independence in 1991. This, he added, does not include the costs of shutting down the station.

"Ukraine has the moral right to pose the issue of aid to the developed nations," he said. "We have already spent and will continue to spend billions of dollars."

Ukraine has suffered most

"Ukraine has suffered more than anyone else and is spending more than anyone else," said the prime minister.

Mr. Marchuk was in the Chornobyl zone to discuss how to restructure Ukraine's energy sector, to confer with the directors of all of Ukraine's nuclear power plants - Rivne, Zaporizhzhia, Southern Ukraine, Khmelnytsky and Chornobyl. He also visited the workers' town of Slavutych in order to acquaint himself with the living conditions of the Chornobyl plant's personnel.

According to Mr. Marchuk's press service, his one-day trip had three objectives: to study the prospects for reorganizing nuclear power engineering, to examine safety conditions at the plant and to look at the personnel's social problems.

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