G-7 summit reaffirms commitment to closing down Chornobyl plant (04/28/96)

G-7 summit reaffirms commitment to closing down Chornobyl plant

by Marta Kolomayets
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Although no new ground regarding the issue of Western aid to close Chornobyl was broken at the G-7 summit on nuclear safety and security, held in Moscow on April 19-20, Ukrainian government officials expressed their satisfaction with the meeting, during which President Leonid Kuchma reiterated the country's intention to close down the plant by the year 2000.

On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear accident, which spewed radiation across most of Europe, leaders of the G-7 countries reaffirmed their commitment to grant Ukraine more than $3.1 billion to take the plant out of operation within the next three years.

The funds for the shutdown of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant include $500 million in grants and $2.6 billion in credits, with a 5 to 6 percent interest rate, which Ukraine will begin paying off in 10 years.

However, the money has not yet been disbursed, and Ukraine will now begin signing agreements so that the funds can be released, said Yuriy Kostenko, Ukraine's minister of environmental protection and nuclear safety, who added that Ukraine should begin receiving money this year. A meeting between Ukraine and representatives of the G-7 is scheduled to take place in May.

President Kuchma joined the G-7 members and President Boris Yeltsin of the Russian Federation at a working lunch on Saturday, April 20, and an afternoon session of the summit. The meeting was viewed by critics as a forum for G-7 leaders to endorse Mr. Yeltsin in his bid for re-election in June.

President Kuchma told the world leaders that when the first unit of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant is shut down to undergo maintenance later this year, it will not be put back on line.

Ukraine, which gave up its nuclear arsenal voluntarily, "has a stake in the further safe and peaceful use of nuclear materials turned over to this country and supports international efforts to prevent their illegal circulation," President Kuchma said at the summit. He also spoke out in favor of the international treaty to ban nuclear tests.

Mr. Kostenko, who held a news conference in Kyiv on April 22, said one of the Moscow summit's top achievements was the adoption of a separate resolution in the G-7 Memorandum on Nuclear Safety and Security regarding the sarcophagus over reactor No. 4 at the Chornobyl plant.

He underlined that the move to adopt the resolution - which states that the G-7 assumes responsibility to examine the problem of the sarcophagus - was unprecedented, because the document was drafted and ready to be signed before President Kuchma added the issue to the official document.

"A very important phrase has been incorporated to the final version of the document," noted Mr. Kostenko, who called the summit "a source of hope that will allow us to begin implementing solutions to the Chornobyl problem soon."

The 600-word declaration issued at the end of the summit states that nuclear safety is "an absolute priority" and that all nuclear materials must be kept securely.

"As we approach the 10th anniversary of the Chornobyl accident, it is our shared objective that such a catastrophe cannot reoccur," said the statement.

Ukrainian officials attending the Moscow summit noted that French President Jacques Chirac was very supportive of Ukraine at the meetings. During the joint press conference with Russian President Yeltsin, it was the French leader who told reporters that a feasibility study by European, Ukrainian, Russian and American experts would be financed by the West in order to assess what repairs will be necessary on the facility over the destroyed fourth reactor, which to this day contains almost 200 tons of nuclear fuel and waste products.

President Kuchma told Uriadovyi Kurier (Government Courier), the government's official newspaper, that Mr. Chirac took a very "pro-Ukrainian position," asking the right questions after President Kuchma's speech and immediately offering another $50 million to promptly begin the study. It was because of Mr. Chirac's action that the issue of the sarcophagus was resolved quickly, he added.

The secretary of Ukraine's National Security Council, Volodymyr Horbulin, said the summit raised three main points: the monitoring of the security of nuclear material and continued cooperation in the field of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament; negotiations on a total ban on nuclear tests, possibly by September; and the issue of closing the Chornobyl nuclear plant.

Foreign Minister Hennadiy Udovenko told Interfax-Ukraine that in the wake of the G-7 summit in Moscow, Ukraine's main objective in the implementation of the program to shut down Chornobyl is to draft a plan in order to fulfill the agreements reached.

"A lot of things depend on us today," noted the minister, adding that Ukraine often had missed opportunities to receive aid because of its "inability to submit specific projects for the use of credits and to register them properly."

When Ukraine receives funding from the West, this will now be channeled through the State Committee on Atomic Energy and the newly created Enerhokompania, a monopoly incorporating all five nuclear power plants in Ukraine.

Monies will be received from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which will fund the additional four reactors at the Rivne and Khmelnytsky plants being completed to substitute for the energy supply lost by the closure of the Chornobyl power plant. The World Bank will provide funding for the Starobeshiv thermal energy generating plant and for the reconstruction of one of the hydro-electric stations on the Dnipro River.

As to the social consequences of the shutdown of the Chornobyl plant, Ukrainian government officials have said that a new International Scientific Center will be constructed in the town of Slavutych, currently home to the Chornobyl plant's workers. According to President Kuchma - who encouraged all interested parties to take part in this work - this center will spur international cooperation in promoting nuclear safety.

Mr. Udovenko said Ukraine's prestige in the international arena had grown during the summit, and his views were supported by Deputy Foreign Minister Kostiantyn Hryshchenko, who observed the Ukrainian president at the summit.

"It was important that the Ukrainian president felt at home in meetings with the G-7 leaders. He is a political leader known by everyone and treated as an equal," said Mr. Hryshchenko.

After the summit meeting, President Kuchma also conducted bilateral discussions with President Chirac of France, Prime Minister Jean Chretien of Canada, Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and Russian President Yeltsin.

Members of President Kuchma's delegation included Messrs. Horbulin, Kostenko and Hryshchenko, as well as Nur Nigmatullin, the acting chairman of the State Nuclear Energy Committee, and Volodymyr Ohryzko, chief of the foreign policy department of the presidential administration.

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