Fifteen years after Chornobyl: new issues (04/22/01)

Fifteen years after Chornobyl: new issues

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Today the Chornobyl nuclear power station is out of commission, fifteen years after a test procedure in the fourth reactor went awry. The resulting explosion sent a huge radioactive cloud over northern Europe and contaminated a good portion of the territories of Ukraine and Belarus. The last Chornobyl reactor was idled on December 15, 2000, but that does not mean that the last of the problems have been resolved.

In closing the nuclear power plant the government in Kyiv rid itself of both internal and external political pressure. It fulfilled promises it had made to the West to mothball the nuclear complex by the beginning of the second millennium. It also silenced those within the country who maintained that the power plant could remain a safe and effective electricity generator for this energy-hungry country for another decade.

Today the clean-up operation has begun. It involves not only de-commissioning the plant - the removal of thousands of nuclear fuel rods and their reprocessing, a process that will take another seven years - but also the rebuilding of the crumbling cover over the fourth reactor, the clean-up of the irradiated surrounding area, including a cooling pond and the most acute current problem, the relocation and retraining of the thousands of Chornobyl workers.

It is the last issue that is causing much consternation among Ukrainian politicians. Four months after a worker at Chornobyl flipped the toggle switch that halted the last functioning reactor there is an uneasy feeling here that the world, having attained its objective to close the hazardous complex, is quickly forgetting that while the plant may be out of service Ukraine continues to need help with the aftereffects.

Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma traveled in March to the site of the world's worst nuclear accident to review the situation himself. Afterwards he reminded journalists that much still needs to be done.

"I am not all that satisfied with the pace of the closing," said President Kuchma, who has pledged to take the plight of the workers under his patronage and not allow for a single man to go unemployed.

In addition to citing the West's failure thus far to approve financing to support the completion of two new nuclear reactors - one at Khmelnytskyi and the other at Rivne - to offset the energy-producing lost with the shutdown of Chornobyl, the president said he was disappointed with the way worker retraining and relocation was proceeding.

Unemployment in Slavutych - the city hastily built to house the Chornobyl workers after the 1986 disaster left Prypiat, their home until then, uninhabitable - today stands at 21 percent, a figure that will continue to rise. The tidy factory town about an hour's ride northeast of the doomed nuclear plant is threatened with obsolescence if it doesn't find a further reason to exist and, most importantly, a commercial base.

Ukraine and the West have put together a nine-point plan for saving Slavutych, which did not even exist prior to 1987, but a year later had a population of more than 15,000 inhabitants.

The main thrust of the redevelopment plan is the retraining and relocation of Chornobyl workers. The upside of this effort is that the work force is considered among the most highly skilled in Ukraine. The downside is that most have a very specialized skill within a very specialized industry. The hope is that a good portion of the workers will relocate to the Rivne and Khmelnytskyi areas and work at newly finished reactors there, if they ever do get completed.

Others are looking for work outside Ukraine, in Russia, Iran, India and China. The last three countries have dynamically expanding nuclear industries and have a shortage of skilled labor. However, for Ukraine such relocation means an unwanted brain drain, which authorities are hoping to prevent.

The Slavutych redevelopment plan also calls for constructing a state university and an extensive international research institute on the medical aspects of nuclear radiation. It foresees the development of a fund to finance the final phase of the already existing International Chornobyl Center as well as a $100 million credit line to develop 5,000 jobs in Slavutych. In 2000, even before Chornobyl closed, Slavutych lost 1,000 residents, although 585 were replaced with new arrivals.

Another no less immediate problem is a much-reduced municipal revenue base after the closure of Chornobyl. This year the city expects a 60 percent drop in revenues from 40 million hrv to 17 million hrv.

Volodymyr Udovychenko, the fast-talking, upbeat and outspoken mayor of Slavutych, told The Ukrainian Weekly on April 13 that the city needs to reform its infrastructure immediately to absorb the financial hit it is taking.

"The city has more social support structures than it can afford today," said Mr. Udovychenko.

He also said officials need to undertake an analysis to determine what types of employers the city might attract. Mayor Udovychenko said Slavutych has a powerful tool to attract commercial firms in its designation as a free trade zone. In the last few months alone it has created 284 new jobs. Currently there are five commercial projects underway, which would provide up to $30 million in new investments and 1,770 additional jobs if they are completed.

Although that number would not fully replace the more than 5,000 jobs that will be lost, the mayor acknowledged that it would go a long way towards securing the city's future.

He admitted that outside investment has been slow in coming, mainly because foreigners seek more guarantees than the government is willing to provide, including the desire to own the land on which their businesses stand. Nonetheless, the mayor criticized the West for its timidity and its failure to follow-up with promised financing programs.

"Even the micro-crediting program is not going forward," said Mr. Udovychenko, referring to a plan to offer small-credits to potential small business entrepreneurs.

He said that a dialogue continues and plans have been laid with TACIS, the European Union's aid organization, and with the U.S. Agency for International Development, but thus far there has been little follow through.

"We need plans to be activated, to be realized. We need credits - not tranches" explained the frustrated mayor.

At a conference of the International Federation of Chemical Energy and Mine Workers held in Kyiv on April 9, Raina Hurki, representative of the trade union, said the West may be suffering from "Chornobyl fatigue" as donor countries of the West have been saturated with the issue of Chornobyl over the last year and need some respite before re-engaging in Chornobyl support activities. He also said there is a feeling among some nations that Ukraine continues to present an endless shopping list, which intimidates them.

"You need to show the West that you are working," Mr. Hurki told the audience of Ukrainian nuclear power industry workers.

Another international conference, focused on a review of what the world has learned from Chornobyl and held in Kyiv in the run up to 15th anniversary commemorations, echoed that sentiment, with several Western organizations confirming that they are not abandoning Ukraine, but re-gearing to continue to help.

"The resettled population needs long-term economic support. International help is still needed," said European Commission General Secretary Andre von Hauerben in remarks at the opening of the conference.

Zygmund Domaretsky of the International Atomic Energy Agency added that the focus of Western aid must shift. "The Chornobyl accident is usually discussed in technological terms. Rarely is the human element considered: the farmer who can no longer farm his land; the mother whose child has thyroid cancer," explained Mr. Domaretsky.

It is this sort of paradigm shift that will be required if Slavutych is to avoid the fate of Prypiat, the city that housed the Chornobyl workers before the man-made disaster occurred, and which today sits barren of humanity and with no future.

Mayor Udovychenko is guardedly optimistic that his town will avoid Prypiat's fate and 10 years hence it will continue to be a thriving community.

"I hope there will be security here, that we will no longer be considering Hamlet's refrain: 'To be, or not to be.' We are sure the answer is 'to be,'" Mr. Udovychenko underscored.

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