Ukraine repeats pledge on Chernobyl anniversary eve

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Ukraine repeats pledge on Chernobyl anniversary eve

CHERNOBYL, Ukraine, April 25 (Reuters) - Ukrainian Prime 
Minister Viktor Yushchenko, speaking on the eve of the anniversary 
of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, renewed pledges on Tuesday to 
close the plant by the end of the year. 

Yushchenko and his ministers stood in persistent rain to lay red 
carnations by a monument in the largely deserted town of 
Chernobyl, 13 km (eight miles) from the plant, honouring those who 
died containing the fire and mass radiation escape. 

``Chernobyl will be closed, there is a (government) order,'' a sombre 
Yushchenko, standing by the grey monument depicting firefighters, 
told reporters on the eve of the 14th anniversary of the world's worst 
civil nuclear disaster. 

Chernobyl's number four reactor exploded on April 26, 1986, 
spreading a poisonous radioactive cloud over much of Ukraine, 
Russia, Belarus and parts of Western Europe. 

Thousands of workers drafted in from many parts of the Soviet 
Union struggled to erect a concrete ``tomb'' over the shattered 
reactor, dumping sand and chemicals on the fire and building a rail 
line to bring in building materials. 

Wednesday's commemorations will be marked by processions 
through Slavutych, a town built after the disaster, and in Kiev, 120 
km (75 miles) to the south. Bells will toll at 1.26 a.m., when the 
explosion tore off the reactor's roof. 

President Leonid Kuchma, who has pleaded with the West to help 
Ukraine deal with the consequences of the disaster, will visit a Kiev 
church honouring victims and open two medical centres, including 
one dealing with bone marrow transplants. 

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, whose former Soviet 
republic suffered most from the catastrophe, will tour regions where 
contamination remains a serious problem. 

A march is planned later in the day in the Belarussian capital 
Minsk by Lukashenko's liberal and nationalist opponents who focus 
on the disaster as a rallying point. 

Ukraine has promised to shut the only reactor still working at 
Chernobyl by the end of 2000 and urged the West to provide funds 
to finish replacement reactors at two other plants. 

UKRAINIAN PM SAYS CHERNOBYL SHUTDOWN ``LENGHTY'' 

Yushchenko gave no firm date for the closure, saying it was ``a 
complex and lengthy process'' as it put a large question mark over 
the fate of thousands of people. A staff of about 6,000 keep the 
stricken station running. 

The Group of Seven industrialised nations says that Ukraine must 
make good on its closure promises before it provides funds. 

Yushchenko said impoverished Ukraine had already spent $5 
billion dealing with the aftermath of the accident. 

``With a minimum of fuss, one country has been struggling for 14 
years to eliminate consequences of the accident which hit not only 
Ukraine but the whole world,'' he said. 

Ukrainian health officials say 3.5 million people, over a third of them 
children, have suffered illnesses as a result of radioactive 
contamination. U.N. figures show that millions in Ukraine, Belarus 
and Russia still live on contaminated land. 

Soviet officials initially tried to hush up the tragedy, but the 
accident became a turning point in Kremlin leader Mikhail 
Gorbachev's ``glasnost'' policy of openness. Official reports say 31 
people died in the immediate aftermath of the accident. 

But the real scale of the catastrophe, which displaced hundreds of 
thousands of people and turned bustling villages and towns into 
ghost communities turned out to be far greater with little respite in 
sight. 

The death toll directly attributable to the disaster is now put at 
several thousand. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
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