Pledging conference raises $36.25 million for Chornobyl
by Khristina Lew
NEW YORK - A pledging conference organized by the United States collected $36.25 million from the international community on November 20 to begin rebuilding the sarcophagus encasing damaged reactor No. 4 at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. International experts put the cost of securing and rebuilding the sarcophagus at $760 million, $300 million of which was contributed by the Group of Seven industrial countries and the European Commission at the G-7 summit in June.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Federico Pena, who co-chaired the pledging conference with Ukraine's Minister for the Environment and Nuclear Safety Yurii Kostenko, called the outcome "terrifically successful," and announced that work on the sarcophagus can begin immediately.
Norway was the largest contributor at the conference, donating $5 million to the Chornobyl Shelter Fund, a special account created by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to collect funds contributed by governments and the private sector. The EBRD will administer the entire reconstruction project, called the Shelter Implementation Plan (SIP), and establish a Contributors Assembly that will meet annually to vote on project implementation.
Countries that contribute 2.5 million ECU, approximately $2.75 million, will be given a vote in the Contributors Assembly. Countries that contribute less will be allowed to join the assembly without a vote. At the November 20 pledging conference held at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, all but two of the 13 countries - Israel and Luxembourg - contributed 2.5 million ECU or more.
As chair of the G-7 this year, the United States initiated the pledging conference in order to assist Ukraine in the shutdown of Chornobyl by 2000. Forty-five countries were invited to participate, and representatives from countries such as Switzerland, Russia, Indonesia and Ireland heard Vice-President Al Gore and Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma, who served as the conference's honorary co-chairmen, address the gathering at its conclusion.
Vice-President Gore applauded the amount of funds contributed to the SIP, but noted that more is needed. "I remain very confident that the process will continue," he said. The vice-president said stabilizing and improving the safety of the sarcophagus is "a critical part of the support needed to assist Ukraine in meeting the 2000 deadline for closure of Chornobyl," and commended President Kuchma on his commitment to close the plant. In December 1995 Ukraine signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the Closure of Chornobyl with the G-7 and the European Commission.
Not just a Ukrainian problem
Mr. Gore pointed out that Chornobyl is not merely a Ukrainian problem, but a threat to the environment of the entire planet. "Chornobyl was a product of a closed authoritarian system that was not accountable to its citizens for its actions. It also served as a powerful symbol of what can happen when irresponsible leaders and closed societies approach such overwhelmingly powerful technologies like nuclear energy with hubris, naiveté and even disdain," Mr. Gore said.
President Kuchma, who arrived in New York from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on November 19 after witnessing independent Ukraine's first astronaut fly into space aboard the U.S. space shuttle Columbia, said that his country annually allocates 12 percent of its national budget toward alleviating the consequences of Chornobyl. He told conference participants that since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the international community has been slow to assist Ukraine in combating Chornobyl's aftereffects.
"There is no such thing as a peaceful atom," he said. "Ukraine has the full moral right to turn to the world community for support and help."
Leon Fuerth, Vice-President Gore's national security advisor, told reporters after the conference that contributions amounted to what organizers had expected. "It's a start, but we still need a considerable chunk over a number of years," he said.
The Shelter Implementation Plan is not expected to be completed before 2005, and organizers plan to approach the private sector for contributions to the Chornobyl Shelter Fund. "We are looking for another Ted Turner," said Hennadii Udovenko, Ukraine's minister of foreign affairs and president of the United Nations General Assembly. Mr. Turner, the CNN mogul, this year pledged $1 billion to the United Nations.
Shelter Implementation Plan
According to Carol Kessler, senior coordinator for nuclear safety at the State Department and chairman of the G-7 nuclear safety working group, the Shelter Implementation Plan consists of 22 projects that have 297 constituent activities. The plan has four goals: to stabilize the sarcophagus; to put in shielding so workers in the shelter will be protected from the radioactive fuel-containing masses that remain inside the sarcophagus; to build an environmentally secure shelter over the sarcophagus; and to help Ukraine devise a strategy to manage the radioactive materials inside the shelter over the long term.
Yuri Poluneev, EBRD executive director for Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, Georgia and Armenia, said the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will provide services for financing the project, procurement, goods and services. He said the conference collected the amount of money expected, but noted that "in 1999 we will have to look for more money."
The U.S. contribution to the Shelter Implementation Plan is $78 million; Ukraine will contribute $50 million in-kind to the SIP and $100 million in-kind to ensure that the necessary infrastructure is in place. On November 20 the United States and Ukraine also signed an agreement to jointly complete a 290-megawatt heat plant that will serve the Chornobyl site after the last reactor is shut down. The U.S. contribution to the project is $10.5 million.
In addition to addressing the pledging conference, President Kuchma held talks with Vice-President Gore within the framework of the U.S.-Ukraine Binational Commission and met with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on November 20. The Ukrainian president and his delegation departed for Kyiv that evening.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, November 30, 1997, No. 48, Vol. LXV
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