Chornobyl 13 years after: money is the major problem (04/25/99)

Chornobyl 13 years after: money is the major problem

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Although the situation around the Chornobyl nuclear power plant is stable and the radioactive fallout that contaminated an extensive portion of Ukrainian territory and its population has somewhat dissipated, experts are not prepared to say that the threat posed by the incapacitated reactor No. 4 and the radiation it released has gone away.

Thirteen years after the largest nuclear accident in history, the main reason Chornobyl remains a problem for Ukraine and the world is money - more precisely the lack of it.

It is money that is needed to finally shut down the Chornobyl nuclear facility and construct a shelter on the reactor that sent huge radioactive plumes over Ukraine and much of Europe when it exploded on April 26, 1986; to build alternative energy-generating sources for Ukraine, which is heavily dependent on Russian oil; and to finance the treatment and care of thousands of children and adults affected by the tragedy.

While the world awaits the closing of the Chornobyl nuclear complex and the capping of the damaged reactor with a new sarcophagus, Ukraine's officials continue to await additional international financing, even as they maintain that Ukraine will fulfill all its commitments to the G-7.

They explain, however, that without further financing for the completion of two new nuclear facilities at Rivne and Khmelnytskyi, the remaining nuclear reactor at Chornobyl will not be coming off line anytime soon.

"The Chornobyl nuclear power plant will continue to operate until the G-7 countries meet their commitments to Ukraine," said President Leonid Kuchma on April 21.

He noted that, in addition to providing funding for the completion of a total of six reactors near the cities of Rivne and Khmelnytskyi, the West had also agreed to provide a nuclear waste storage facility in Ukraine.

At a summit in Denver in 1997 the Group of Seven industrialized nations had agreed to provide Ukraine the financing needed to be able to take the Chornobyl nuclear facility off line, and Ukraine had agreed to do so by the year 2000. Today only one of the four nuclear reactors at Chornobyl is still functioning, although Ukraine has threatened to bring a second reactor back on line should no support for Ukraine's precarious energy problems come quickly.

The financing programs, which have come under the auspices of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, have been bogged down by 74 demands put on Ukraine, which include a requirement that Ukraine revamp its energy sector, still heavily government-dominated, and provide evidence that the two new reactors would generate sufficient cash flow to repay the loans.

Ukraine insists that it can still close Chornobyl by the year 2000, but that the onus is on the West to make sure that happens.

At a meeting with President Kuchma, Christian Poncelet, the head of the French Senate, agreed that construction of the Rivne and Khmelnytskyi reactors must be completed. Interfax-Ukraine reported that he promised to discuss the matter with the head of EBRD, Horst Koehler, upon his return to France.

An even more immediate problem for the world and Ukraine is to build a cap onto the protective concrete shelter in which the fourth nuclear reactor is encased. The current sarcophagus, hastily erected by Soviet authorities in the weeks after the explosion, is quickly deteriorating and already showing signs of radioactive leakage.

A donors conference, held in 1997 in New York under the auspices of the United Nations and with U.S. Vice-President Al Gore and Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma acting as co-chairmen, raised some $390 million for the shelter facility. Ukraine said at least $2 billion is needed to properly fix and close the Chornobyl facility, and to resolve many of the social problems associated with the disaster.

Approximately $150 million already has been spent on the shelter in the form of consultative work and preparation for the construction of the permanent dome around reactor No. 4, according to Oleksander Slavis, press secretary of the Chornobyl Shelter Fund in Ukraine.

The initial phase of construction of the shelter facility is scheduled to begin this summer with work on reinforcement of the major girders that support the roof of the current sarcophagus.

Even though the concerns for a new shelter remain acute and immediate, the most chronic problem for Ukraine is to deal almost singlehandedly with the aftereffects of the Chornobyl explosion, which has forced upon it huge expenditures to clean up the regions that were contaminated and to provide medical care for the thousands of liquidators and residents who today suffer the results of radiation exposure.

According to Volodymyr Kolosha, first vice minister for emergency situations and Chornobyl matters, about 90 percent of the financial burden is borne by Ukraine, which amounts to approximately $120 million annually from Ukraine's meager coffers.

Today only 600 people - mostly elderly longtime residents - have permission to live in the 30-kilometer Chornobyl zone, which is off limits to the general population. But millions still live on the many thousands of other acres contaminated to a lesser degree in all the northern oblasts of Ukraine.

The people who live in the northern regions suffer twice as many ailments and illnesses as does the rest of Ukraine's population, according Ukrainian government statistics.

At a press conference marking the 13th anniversary of the Chornobyl tragedy, Mr. Kolosha said that 95 percent of new contamination of citizens comes from food products grown or found in the five oblasts most affected by the radioactive fallout of Chornobyl: Rivne, Volyn, Zhytomyr, Kyiv and Chernihiv.

First Vice Minister of Health Olha Babylova estimated that in the contaminated regions 12 to18 percent of the dairy products, 20 percent of meat products, 30 percent of wild berries and 50 to 60 percent of mushrooms contain unacceptable levels of radiation.

Most of the contaminated products, if they are processed through government institutions or private firms, are filtered out before they hit the market, according to Ms. Babylova. But, unfortunately for Ukraine, its people still rely heavily on food bazaars, which are much more difficult to regulate.

"What we have a problem controlling is the food consumed or brought to market from private gardens," said Mr. Kolosha. He identified mushrooms, considered a staple in many family diets, as a major problem - especially because a favorite Ukrainian pasttime is the picking of wild fungi.

To treat those who ail from Chornobyl-related diseases, Ukraine, as ever, needs money. In 1998, in order to better utilize the financing available, the Ukrainian government initiated reforms of its Chornobyl programs in a three-step process. First, it reorganized the Chornobyl Fund, which had long been considered a den of corruption, and rechanneled value-added taxes to help finance the organization. Then it implemented changes to more effectively allocate and utilize the money available. Finally, it conducted an audit of the list of citizens who receive Chornobyl-related subsidies. More than 12,500 people were deemed ineligible for subsidies and thrown off the Chornobyl rolls.

But with more than 3.2 million Ukrainians claiming that their health has been affected by Chornobyl, the costs remain astronomical.

The Ministry for Emergency Situations and Chornobyl Matters estimates that more than 4.5 billion hrv are needed for Chornobyl-related aid. The Verkhovna Rada approved just 1.3 billion hrv, or merely 29 percent, in its 1999 budget. In 1998 it could afford to appropriate only 31 percent.

Much of that money goes for the various subsidies that officially recognized Chornobyl victims receive, including free use of public transportation. But the medical health aspect costs even more.

Ms. Babylova said that 526,209 children have been identified as having a high risk of thyroid cancer, while 1,217 of those between birth and 18 years of age at the time of the disaster have been identified as having the cancer. She called the figures alarming in view of the fact that in the pre-Chornobyl time period of 1981-1985 not a single case of thyroid cancer was registered in Ukraine. She also noted that only 11 cases of thyroid cancer have been identified in children born after 1988, after most of the original Chornobyl-related radioactivity had dispersed.

Many Western doctors refuse to recognize much of what Ukraine deems Chornobyl-related illnesses. They say that bad diets and a poor ecology, including much chemical pollution, must also be considered when assessing the reason for the poor state of health of many Ukrainians.

Istvan Turai of the International Atomic Energy Agency said at a press conference on April 22 that the fact remains that only two children have died as a result of Chornobyl-related thyroid cancer and only 12 deaths were caused by radioactive poisoning.

Interfax-Ukraine quoted him as saying the effects of the Chornobyl disaster should no longer be considered life threatening. He added that current research still had not proved that a danger exists from long-term low-level radiation exposure, even though he did admit that new research might one day more conclusively show the dangerous affects.

Research, like that being conducted by the IAEA, and an extensive 30-year U.S. investigation into the effects of Chornobyl on children and the effects of long-term low-level radiation exposure, as well as a host of other investigations into the affects of the Chornobyl disaster have turned the Chornobyl zone into a huge international laboratory. And that, according to Mr. Kolosha, is probably what the area will be for thousands of years to come.

"The Chornobyl zone will, for the most part, remain an area of scientific research," said Mr. Kolosha.

In its ongoing effort to take care of its affected children and adults, Ukraine has established 11 specialized centers throughout Ukraine to identify and treat the various maladies and diseases that affect Chornobyl victims, which in addition to thyroid cancer include leukemia and disorders of the lungs.

The latest center, a Ukrainian-American effort financed by the U.S Agency for International Development, will open in Lutsk, Volyn region, on April 26.

Perhaps the biggest blessing for Ukraine, if such can exist for this country of 50 million beleaguered by its tragic history and unsettled future, is that the Chornobyl zone has not produced any aftershocks in the form of uncontrolled forest fires or extensive flooding, which could produce another major radiation release from irradiated soil and vegetation.

"There truly must be a God, because we have not had any serious natural disasters in the region in 13 years," said Dmytro Mykhailovych, a physician with the Ministry of Health.

But that is not much solace for a government that has to find the money to pay for the programs and research needed to help its Chornobyl-afflicted citizens.

"You can only talk about a serious financial commitment to the aftereffects of the Chornobyl tragedy in terms of funding to close the Chornobyl nuclear site and cap the No. 4 reactor," said Mr. Kolosha.

"To the largest extent, we will have to take care of the social, medical and psychological aftereffects on our own," he said.

| Home Page |