beyondbrics

The world’s attention is glued to Japan’s nuclear crisis but another potential time bomb is still ticking alongside the European Union’s eastern border in Chernobyl, Ukraine, site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.

On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the tragedy, Ukraine is stepping up efforts to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from the international community to build a proper shelter for nuclear waste at the site. The persistent fear is that the existing shelter is temporary, parts of it are dilapidated and it could leak – or even collapse, triggering a large-scale release of radiation.

One of four nuclear reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant – all shut down now but still home to massive quantities of dangerous nuclear waste – exploded on April 26, 1986 when Ukraine was still part of the USSR. The accident sent radioactive clouds into Europe and across the world, polluting areas in Ukraine and Belarus particularly badly.

Ukrainian authorities say the tragedy caused up to a million deaths. Victims included Soviet workers who heroically took part in immediate efforts to put out the fire and built a temporary confinement, as well as many more ordinary citizens said to have died prematurely from related diseases triggered by radiation.

“The tragedy in Japan reinforces the importance and urgency of building a new shelter in Chernobyl,” said Serhiy Lyovochkin, chief of staff to Ukraine’s president Viktor Yanukovich.

Speaking at a briefing with journalists on Thursday, Lyovochkin said Ukraine expects top world leaders, including José Manuel Barosso, head of the European Commission, to attend a Kiev summit meeting in April to discuss the issue – and to deliver on pledges to provide long-delayed funds to build a new protective sarcophagus over Chernobyl.

Cash-strapped Ukraine was hit particularly hard by the 2009 global recession. Gross domestic product plunged 15 per cent. The country says it needs help to build a newer, safer and long-term shelter.

Despite the explosion at reactor number four in Chernobyl, Ukrainian officials kept other reactors at the site working, only agreeing to shut them down in 2000 after international aid was promised to build a sarcophagus over the site.

International donors, including the European Commission, have committed about €2 bn to projects aimed at cleaning up the area and securing reactor number 4.

But Kiev, which still restricts access to a 30-kilometre zone around the Chernobyl plant, says it still needs more than €700m in fresh funds to construct the proposed €1.9bn sarcophagus and a nuclear waste storage facility. At a “pledging conference” to be held on April 19 alongside the summit, donor countries and organizations will be asked to make fresh commitments.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has contributed €135m and is assisting Ukraine in raising and managing funds as well as implementing construction of a new safe confinement for the damaged reactor 4 and completion of an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel.

In a recent statement, the EBRD described the Chernobyl site as “a disaster that is still presenting the international community and Ukraine with a major challenge.”

Further reading:
Nuclear power: Too hot to handle, FT
Nuclear power file, beyondbrics