U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Steven PIFER said last Wednesday at a press conference in Kyiv that Washington would not cease to “solve the problems” of helping Ukraine overcome difficulties related to the Chornobyl nuclear power plant shutdown even after December 15, the day the station will be decommissioned. He also stressed that the Chornobyl shutdown is a security question concerning, first of all, the citizens of Ukraine. However, as Ambassador Pifer said, the U.S. “is unable to suggest concrete decisions” in the nearest future about nuclear waste disposal and social issues. He only hopes the U.S. Eximbank will finance “some U.S. participation in this project,” but is unable to name the concrete amount of U.S. aid to Ukraine. In his words, the problem is that no firms have yet been identified to take part in the project. However, the ambassador noted the U.S. contribution will be “sizable.” A similar hope was also expressed by Borys Tarasiuk, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, in the TV program Epicenter on the eve of Bill Clinton’s visit to Kyiv.
According to Mr. Pifer, one of the main problems is that the original cost of the Chonobyl shutdown project, estimated by the EBRD, turned out higher than the U.S. expected ($2 billion). The EBRD is now working on reducing the cost of this project.
The other problem is that the forthcoming Berlin conference of donor countries may fail to collect the $360 million necessary to complete the project. The “seven,” according to Ambassador Pifer, will do its utmost to gather this amount. President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine said in connection that the Chornobyl station would be closed even if the G7 failed to allocate the funds required for implementing the Shelter project. According to the President, “it is a point of honor for those who pledged to provide aid to Ukraine to fulfill these pledges.”
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