A decade wasted, working out costly impractical projects and stillborn programs, politicizing and overdramatizing things. Still no visible progress in solving any of the Chornobyl problems. Such was the conclusion of most experts at a round table trying to figure out a way to make the Chornobyl nuclear power station a safe environment. Although shut down, there is no guarantee that it will not surprise us with yet another radioactive discharge. Inside the Sarcophagus remains 95% of the molten reactor fuel with 19 million Ci biding its time. Radioactive dust is produced by the cracking of lava-like materials contained in nuclear fuel. High humidity inside the Sarcophagus damages the steelwork, while groundwater carries radioactive dust and contaminates the environment with radionuclides. Despite the assurances of the CNPS management that “everything is under control,” representatives of the VR environmental policy and Chornobyl relief committee say that having everything under control is impossible in view of limited access to highly radioactive sections of the power unit.
According to Volodymyr Hoshovsky, chairman of the subcommittee for new environmentally safe technologies, Sarcophagus maintenance costs UAH 38 million. Currently, a mere UAH 18.9 million is available out of UAH 21.7 million earmarked. This year, CNPS safety subsidization shortage reached UAH 94 million, including UAH 6.8 million worth of safe operation of the Sarcophagus, and UAH 9.7 million worth of the project to make the sarcophagus environmentally safe. In addition, this year’s back wages of the station’s personnel amounted to UAH 7.1 million, with overdue gas and electricity bills totaling UAH 6 million.
Meanwhile, there is another finance source, the Chornobyl Fund, mostly sustained by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Of $710 million worth of initial appropriations, $130 million was spent in the preparatory phase, before shutting down CNPS. Further measures are to be taken by international organizations winning the tender. According to Heorhy Kopchynsky, member of the advisory board at the Fuel and Energy Ministry, the bids thus far submitted are markedly understated, calling in question the possibility of computing objectively high administrative costs.
CNPS management says, however, that work is under way to reinforce the Sarcophagus steelwork and prepare for the construction of a new more reliable containment. Meanwhile, international companies are building a plant to process liquid and solid radioactive waste.
From the standpoint of international experience in closing nuclear power units, the question of nuclear waste disposal suggests itself. Here waste management must be dealt with most thoroughly, considering that this kind of waste takes 200,000 years to die. Spain, for instance, built an underwater burial site, while Holland buried its waste deep beneath the surface of the earth. Building burial sites is, of course, expensive and time-consuming. Preliminary estimates show that this would cost Ukraine $2-3 billion and take 20-25 years. Emlen Sobotovych, director of the Institute of Environmental Geochemistry, says they have been working on this since 1994. The problem of adequate burial site location has passed from one state program to the next and Ukraine’s commitment to close 13 more nuclear power units by 2020 does not make solving it any easier.
INCIDENTALLY
Premier promises to repay back wages
December 16, Premier Viktor Yanukovych promised to take urgent measures to repay back wages due the Chornobyl nuclear power station’s staff and make payments to the International Chornobyl Fund. Interfax Ukraine reports that, visiting CNPS and Slavutych to inspect the construction site of an installation to prepare spent nuclear fuel for processing and the Sarcophagus, Mr. Yanukovych said he had reason to believe that “the president’s instructions and Ukraine’s international commitments are not being fulfilled... I will report this to the president and I think he will instruct us to make sure the current requirements are observed.” The head of government suggested that a “uniform mechanism” be worked out to solve the Chornobyl problems, adding that the process should be supervised by the fuel-and-energy vice premier. Anyway, the president will have the final say in the matter. Premier Yanukovych also stressed the need to eliminate duplication and overlapping of functions between the Fuel and Energy Ministry and the Ministry for Emergencies in dealing with CNPS. As for the probability of reactivating one of the Chornobyl power units, as proposed by some experts, the premier said the issue had not been considered: “We are having talks with EBRD and the issue has not been raised. If we act according to plan and carry out every project, there will be no need to reactivate Chornobyl. This is dangerous.”
December 17, activists of the Chornobyl Union of Ukraine staged a rally of protest in Kyiv, demanding that the government study the possibility of reactivating the Chornobyl nuclear power plant and refrain from cutting budget funding for Chornobyl victims and rescue and cleanup team survivors. According to Interfax-Ukraine, slogans were chanted, aimed against the G7 states, those addressing the rally insisted that Chornobyl plant had been shut down not to benefit the Ukrainian people, but to please Europe and America. CUU activists demanded that the G7 states meet their obligations to compensate for the closure of the power plant. Otherwise the protesters threatened to reactivate the station — or, at least, some power units.
The activists also protested against the budget bill’s clause allowing the government to cancel Chornobyl victims’ benefits. CUU Vice President Volodymyr Yatsenko told journalists about the proposed changes in legislation, concerning Chornobyl victims’ benefits and privileges. “No one has seen these bills,” he said, but if ratified, they would change the status of Chornobyl- affected territories and reduce the categories of Chornobyl victims entitled to compensations and benefits. Korosten, for example, might lose the status. The rally passed a resolution addressing the president, cabinet, and parliament of Ukraine, as well as all the G7 embassies.
