Chornobyl engineers in U.S. on study tour funded by USAID (12/02/01)

Chornobyl engineers in U.S. on study tour funded by USAID

CINCINNATI - Sixteen engineers from Ukraine's Chornobyl nuclear power plant were in the United States for a three-week study tour that will help them build a permanent, leak-proof shelter for the closed reactor.

"This is a mammoth project, possibly the largest construction job in the world at this time," said Lee Cole, president of Cincinnati's Center for Economic Initiatives (CEI), which has organized the study tour. "Western governments are giving about $750 million to this project. It will provide employment to some 6,000 people who worked at Chornobyl when it was operating."

"The U.S. government has asked CEI to assist with this project. The United States, along with a number of other Western nations, asked Ukraine to close Chornobyl and make it safe for the future. CEI is helping not only with making Chornobyl safe, but also with redeploying its staff into new jobs," Mr. Cole added.

On a study tour on October 29 through November 18, the Ukrainian group learned about testing techniques, management systems, refitting nuclear power plants to use fossil fuels, and modern construction equipment and building materials. Construction experts in four states volunteered to share their time and knowledge.

The tour was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and organized by the non-profit Center for Economic Initiatives (CEI) in Cincinnati.

CEI Vice-President James Titus and Thomas Dunn organized and lead the study tour. They are partners in Dunn & Titus PSC, a Cincinnati-based architectural and construction management firm.

A CEI-run study tour in October brought 15 information technology (IT) specialists from Chornobyl to the United States. They are developing an IT industry to employ former Chornobyl staff.

The Center for Economic Initiatives has been using the study tour method to give businesspeople from the former Soviet Union a first-hand look at modern technologies, management and productivity methods and free-market competition. U.S. businesses volunteer to show their sites and explain their operations.

This Chornobyl engineers' study tour was CEI's 11th, and USAID has funded another two.

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