West to build Chernobyl radioactive waste plant
Date: 17-Sep-99
Country: UKRAINE
Author: Pavel Polityuk
The head of Ukraine's state-run company Energoatom Myrkol Dudchenko said
the 17.4 million euro ($18 million) contract signed in Kiev on Thursday,
would help the country to carry out its promise and shut the Chernobyl
station.
Under the contract a consortium formed by Belgium's Belgatom, a unit of
Tractebel , Italy's Ansaldo Nucleare and France's SGN undertook to build
facilities for around 23,000 cubic metres of Chernobyl's liquid
radioactive waste by 2001.
"The start of construction works is a step towards a timely closure of
the Chernobyl station," Dudchenko told a news conference. "It shows that
the West fulfils its promise to help close the station," he said.
The construction is financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development under an international assistance programme designed to
boost safety of nuclear power sites in eastern Europe.
"This contract is a real challenge for us and we can assure you that we
will do our best for your satisfaction," said Marcel Gaube of Belgatom,
adding that the three companies had been involved in similar programmes
in Central and Eastern Europe.
Chernobyl's reactor number four exploded in April 1986, spewing a
poisonous cloud of radioactive dust over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and
Western European countries in the world's worst civilian nuclear
disaster.
The disaster-prone station is now run on one reactor after one reactor
was switched off after a fire in 1991 and another one closed down in
1997 after exhausting its safe lifespan.
Ukraine had initially promised to close down Chernobyl in 2000 in
exchange for foreign aid to complete two replacement reactors. But it
has dragged its feet on closing the station, blaming the West for
failing to provide the promised funds.
It is not clear when Chernobyl could be finally shut.
Earlier this year, three French companies signed a contract with
Energoatom to construct an interim storage for nuclear waste at
Chernobyl, worth 69 million euro ($72 million). The storage should be
completed by 2003.
