S.Korea to restart nuclear reactor on Wednesday

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>]

Index:



S.Korea to restart nuclear reactor on Wednesday

Mourners Mark Chernobyl Anniversary

Belarus criticises West over Chernobyl help

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



S.Korea to restart nuclear reactor on Wednesday



SEOUL, April 28 (Reuters) - South Korea will restart a 1,000-megawatt 

(MW) nuclear power reactor on Wednesday after a four-month shutdown 

due to a radioactive leak, a state-run power firm said.



The reactor in Yonggwang, in the south of the country, has been shut 

since December last year for decontamination work and safety checks 

following the leak, which sparked public concerns about the safety of 

nuclear energy.



A twin reactor in Yonggwang undergoing scheduled maintenance work at 

the time the leak was discovered was held up for inspections before 

it was restarted earlier this month.



The shutdowns helped drive up demand for more expensive natural gas 

and oil to meet the lost energy supplies from the reactors.



"We have received approval from the government and are restarting the 

reactor at 10 p.m. (1300 GMT) tonight," a spokesman for state-run 

Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co said.



The firm, which operates all 18 of South Korea's reactors, is a unit 

of state-run Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO), which supplies more 

than 95 percent of the country's power.



"Closure of even a single reactor is a huge loss to the national 

economy. Oil prices are too high these days," the spokesman added.



Energy-deficient South Korea, which imports all of its crude oil and 

natural gas needs, relies on nuclear energy for 40 percent of its 

electricity.



Two of the country's nuclear power reactors are currently closed for 

regular maintenance work.

--------------------



Mourners Mark Chernobyl Anniversary



KIEV, Ukraine (April 26) - Mourners laid flowers and lit candles in 

gatherings across the former Soviet Union Monday to mark the 18th 

anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which spread radiation 

over much of northern Europe.



In all, 7 million people in the former Soviet republics of Belarus, 

Russia and Ukraine are believed to have suffered physical or 

psychological injuries from the April 26, 1986, catastrophe, when 

reactor No. 4 at Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded and caught fire.



An area roughly half the size of Colorado was contaminated by the 

accident, forcing the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of people 

and ruining some of Europe's most fertile farmland.



In the capital Kiev, some 80 miles south of the Chernobyl plant, 

hundreds of Ukrainians on Monday filled the small chapel dedicated to 

the disaster's victims at 1:23 a.m. local time, the exact time of the 

explosion.



Later, they laid flowers and lit candles at a small hill where marble 

plaques inscribed with the names of hundreds of victims are laid.



And nearly 1,000 mourners gathered in the afternoon at Kiev's 

Chernobyl memorial, a soaring statue of five falling metallic swans. 

Some placed flowers and photos of deceased relatives at its base.



"Nothing can be compared with a mother's sorrow," said Praskoviya 

Nezhyvova, an elderly retiree clutching a black-framed photograph of 

her son, Viktor. She said he died of Chernobyl-related stomach cancer 

in 1990 at age 44.



Volodymyr Diunych, a driver who took members of the hastily recruited 

and inadequately equipped cleanup crews to the site, recalled 

watching as residents were evacuated "in an awful rush" days after 

the disaster.



Ukraine shuttered Chernobyl's last working reactor in December 2000.



But Ukrainian experts say that the concrete-and-steel shelter hastily 

constructed over the damaged reactor following the accident needs 

urgent repairs. Authorities say the reactor site is safe.



As of early 2004, more than 2.3 million people, including 452,000 

children, had been hospitalized in Ukraine with illnesses blamed on 

the disaster, according to Ukraine's Health Ministry. Ukraine has 

registered some 4,400 deaths in connection with the accident.



Many of those injured in the explosion or displaced by its fallout 

complain the government is doing little to help them.



Sergei Shchvetsov, the head of Russia's Chernobyl Union, was quoted 

as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency that 40,000 people disabled by 

the clean up operations after the blast live in Russia and the 

"volume of benefits to which (they) are eligible is narrowing every 

year."



In Minsk, the capital of Belarus, about 1,000 people held an 

unauthorized rally to mark the anniversary and protest what they said 

was the government's weakening of programs to help Chernobyl victims.



"We're beginning to die like flies and the state's not reacting," 

said Georgy Lepin, who said he was part of the cleanup crew.



The government is allowing vegetables from the most-contaminated 

region of Belarus to be sold in the less-affected areas, alleged Ivan 

Nikitchenko, a member of the Belarus Academy of Sciences.



The most frequently noted Chernobyl-related diseases include thyroid 

and blood cancer and cancerous growths. There have also been numerous 

reports of mental disorders resulting from the disaster.



The United Nations said in a statement that in some areas of Belarus, 

thyroid cancer among children has increased more than 100-fold since 

the accident.

------------------



Belarus criticises West over Chernobyl help



MINSK, April 26 (Reuters) - Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko 

blamed the West on Monday for not helping deal with the after-effects 

of Chernobyl, still claiming victims 18 years after spewing radiation 

across his country and beyond.



The explosion in neighbouring Ukraine on April 26, 1986, was the 

world's worst civil nuclear accident and has been blamed for 

thousands of deaths due to radiation-linked illness, a huge increase 

in cancer and high radiation levels in affected areas.



"We cannot hope for anything from the international community... This 

is our pain, our burden and we will carry it alone," state news 

agency BelTA quoted Lukashenko as saying.



"Nobody will help us, not Ukraine, not Russia and certainly not 

Western countries. We have never had such help -- we have solved and 

will solve this problem ourselves," he said.



But some 1,000 protesters marched in Minsk accusing Lukashenko of 

forcing people to return to contaminated land. Banners read "the pain 

of Chernobyl."



Belarus, a former Soviet state run largely along communist-era 

command economy lines, spends about 10 percent of its budget on 

dealing with the after-effects of Chernobyl and often complains it 

gets no help from neighbours and the West.



But many international organisations say it is all but impossible to 

work in Belarus after Minsk brought in tax requirements for voluntary 

projects and demanded registration through a specially created 

department.



Red tape has forced many such groups to bypass Belarus, increasingly 

isolated after some international groups have criticised it for 

failing to pursue reforms, for crackdowns against the opposition and 

for stifling media freedoms.



In February, Belarus's government rejected a $50 million World Bank 

loan to help fight AIDS and tuberculosis.



But Ukraine has wooed the international community for funds, winning 

millions of dollars from European organisations to help build a new 

protective "sarcophagus" to block escaping radiation from the reactor 

amid fears the old one is crumbling.



President Leonid Kuchma, who led the charge to glean funds from the 

West, and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich and other officials laid 

flowers at a symbolic burial mound in Ukraine's capital Kiev to pay 

tribute.



------------------------------------

Sandy Perle

Vice President, Technical Operations

Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc.

3300 Hyland Avenue

Costa Mesa, CA 92626



Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100  Extension 2306

Fax:(714) 668-3149



E-Mail: sperle@globaldosimetry.com

E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net



Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/

Global Dosimetry Website: http://www.globaldosimetry.com/



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