Ukraine's environment minister emphasizes G-7 commitments (06/30/96)

Ukraine's environment minister emphasizes G-7 commitments

by Yaro Bihun

WASHINGTON - Yuri I. Kostenko, Ukrainian minister for environmental protection and nuclear safety, says the G-7 countries have not been forthcoming with promised assistance, without which Ukraine will not be able to keep its side of the bargain to close down the Chornobyl nuclear power plant by the year 2000.

Mr. Kostenko, who was in Washington for talks with U.S. government and congressional leaders, discussed the G-7 agreement and other energy-related issues at a news conference here on June 12.

During the news conference, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation President Nadia K. McConnell announced the launching of the foundation's newest project, dubbed "Chornobyl 2000," which aims to help Ukraine close the ill-fated power plant and achieve energy independence.

Tracing the history of Ukraine's promise to close Chornobyl and the G-7 promise of aid, Mr. Kostenko noted that during the talks with the G-7 following President Leonid Kuchma's announced intention in April 1995 to close Chornobyl, Ukraine identified four conditions that had to be met before the nuclear plant could be closed:

1. The lost energy-producing capacity would have to be compensated for by the completion of two reactors under construction at the Khmelnytsky and Rivne power plants.

2. The Chornobyl sarcophagus would have to be made secure.

3. A nuclear waste conversion plant and waste repositories would have to be built to handle Ukraine's needs. He noted that 95 percent of Ukraine's nuclear waste is currently being stored at Chornobyl.

4. The social needs of dislocated workers would have to be addressed.

The G-7 accepted these conditions, he said, and in a memorandum of understanding agreed to last December, grouped these needs into two categories: profit-making programs (like creating new energy-producing capacity) for which Ukraine would get credits, and non-profit-making programs (like the Chornobyl decommissioning and sarcophagus) for which the assistance would be in the form of grants.

Mr. Kostenko said that in the first category, if Ukraine does not receive the credits necessary to complete the Khmelnytsky and Rivne plants soon, it cannot close Chornobyl by 2000. "As yet we do not have the credit sources for the completion of these two units," which will require $280 million and 30 months to complete, he said.

In the second category, he explained, more than $1 billion in grants is needed over 10 years to decommission Chornobyl, and from $1.6 billion to $2.5 billion to secure the sarcophagus. So far, he added, only $500 million has been received for the sarcophagus and all of the other grant needs.

The problem with the G-7 agreement is that it is a political document which does not spell out the details. The United States will head the G-7 next year, he said, and that is why he is in Washington, discussing the issue with U.S. leaders. He added, however: "So far, our negotiations have managed to define neither the sources from which these grants will come, nor which country will pay how much."

"Ukraine cannot do it alone," he stressed.

Mr. Kostenko pointed out that Ukraine spends almost a $1 billion a year on the aftereffects of the Chornobyl tragedy and almost singlehandedly covers the costs of its denuclearization program. U.S. assistance via the so-called Nunn-Lugar funds "is not quite enough to cover this wide-scale disarmament program," he explained.

"And to further burden the national budget with the cost of closing the Chornobyl plant will result in the collapse of our entire social welfare system with all of its expected negative political consequences," he said.

Mr. Kostenko described the sarcophagus problem as critical. There are 3,000 cubic meters of radioactive water in Chornobyl, he said. "And if this water transfers through the cracks into the Dnipro River - the main water basin of Ukraine which supplies two-thirds of our population and economic potential - and pollutes it, it will be impossible to use this water."

"The main problem for us is the source of financing, and our talks with G-7 experts and officials of the U.S. government have shown that now nobody knows what kind of financial sources will be financing this very long and very expensive program," he said.

While in Washington, Mr. Kostenko met with Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and other congressional leaders, as well as with James Collins, the State Department's coordinator for the new independent states, and other officials at the departments of State and Energy, the National Security Council, U.S. Agency for International Development and the World Bank. His weeklong U.S. visit also included a two-day visit to national parks in the Pacific Northwest.

U.S.-Ukraine Foundation President McConnell explained that the Chornobyl 2000 program will include an information campaign to develop public support for the G-7 plan to close Chornobyl by the year 2000 and help Ukraine achieve energy self-sufficiency.

"The enormity of the consequences of Chornobyl have not peaked," she said. "Let's not forget the innocent victims of Chornobyl, but let's also help create something positive: an energy independent and Chornobyl-free Ukraine."

Mrs. McConnell noted that the initiative was being launched with the support of Ukraine's Ministry of Environmental Protection and Nuclear Safety and its Embassy in Washington. It has also received pledges of support from such Ukrainian American organizations as The Washington Group, Ukraine 2000, the Tri-State Children of Chornobyl Relief Committee, Friends of the Popular Movement of Ukraine (Rukh) of Northern New Jersey and the Coordinating Committee to Aid Ukraine.

The U.S.-Ukraine Foundation is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization whose goal is to foster democratic and free-market development in Ukraine.

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