Ukrainian coal pit fire kills 34 miners

[Ruth Sponsler <jk5554@yahoo.com>]

The Ukraine, home to Chernobyl, is in the news

again...



I decided to do a little calculation using information

from the article below.  First, using data from

http://www.uic.com.au/ueg.htm that states that a 1,000

MwE power station chows down on 8,600 tons of

coal/day, I figured that such a station would consume

3,139,000 tons of coal in a year.  Then, if, there are

6 deaths per 1 million tons of coal from mining in the

Donbass (see below), then this would imply that there

are 18 deaths _per year_ from _mining_ the coal

required to fuel a 1,000 MwE station.  



Now, compare and contrast with Chernobyl.



Where is the outcry over this?  



~Ruth 2



from

http://www2.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&eid=1222952



=============================================

Ukrainian coal pit fire kills 34 miners



By Elizabeth Piper 



KIEV (Reuters) - A fire has raced through a coal mine

in eastern Ukraine, killing 34 miners trapped hundreds

of metres underground in the latest of many mining

tragedies to plague the ex-Soviet state. 



As television pictures showed shocked and distressed

miners debating the causes of the inferno around the

rusting colliery on Sunday, President Leonid Kuchma

sent condolences to the families of those who died.

Some were as young as 25. 



Kuchma's press spokeswoman said the president had

vowed to do everything "to urgently find out the

reasons" for the fire, which broke out about 570

metres (1,800 feet) below the surface and was still

blazing 12 hours later. 



A top-level investigating team dispatched to the site

was bound to raise again the question of what to do

about Ukraine's ageing pits, where on average six

people die for every million tonnes of coal produced. 



"They have found their bodies, they are all dead," a

spokesman for the Emergencies Ministry in the capital

Kiev said. 



Officials in Donestk, in the heart of the ageing

Donbass coalfield, said the men had suffocated to

death and their bodies were being brought

to the surface. 



 They said rescue efforts had later turned up the body

of another miner, who was not supposed to be working

at the time, bringing the death toll to 34. 



Television pictures showed a thick plume of smoke

rising from a vent.  The mine shaft, built in Soviet

times, was badly rusted, with battered

trains moving down lines overgrown with grass and

weeds. 



SENT TO THEIR DEATH 



Miners, still wearing their red helmets, fought back

tears, smoking together in small groups outside the

shaft. The more than 70 who were rescued were

receiving treatment. 



Bereaved families said management had sent miners down

for the morning shift well after the fire had broken

out. 



"People are saying that they knew there was a fire but

they still sent people down there," sobbed Olga, whose

son was killed in the blaze.



"Oh my God...those who came out to change shifts said

there was a fire, and they still sent down our

children." 



Ukrainian media said a fire had also broken out

overnight in a coalmine further west near the town of

Krivih Rih. Sixty men working underground were safely

brought to the surface and the fire was

extinguished. 



The fires were a bitter reminder of Ukraine's legacy

of creaking Soviet infrastructure. 



About 300 miners died last year and almost 150 have

been killed so far this year in Ukraine's deep coal

mines, plagued by poor working conditions, a lax

regard for safety rules and lack of funds for

modernisation. 



In 2000, at least 80 miners were killed and seven

injured when a methane gas explosion ripped through

the Barakova coal mine in the eastern town of Luhansk

in the country's worst mining disaster since

independence in 1991.



07.07.2002 20:45, Reuters



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