70 yrs to build Chernobyl sarcophagus

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@ix.netcom.com>]

For information ...

  KIEV, Ukraine  - Ukraine will need about 70 years to  
make safe the concrete ``sarcophagus'' encasing its fourth 
reactor at Chernobyl -- scene of the world's worst nuclear 
accident, Ukraine's environment minister said Wednesday. 
  ``We must remove nuclear fuel from the sarcophagus to rule  
out the possibility of a chain reaction occurring inside the 
devastated reactor,'' Yuri Kostenko told a news conference. 
  Ukrainian officials and experts from wealthy Group of Seven  
(G7) nations held two days of talks in the town of Slavutych, 
built to house workers and their families after the 1986 
disaster, to discuss Kiev's promise to shut the site by 2000. 
  ``After the period for negotiations finishes it will take 15  
years to get the funding and then prepare the site for closure. 
Then we require up to 50 years to remove and process the fuel,''
Kostenko said. ``Nobody knows how much it will cost.'' 
  The meeting in Slavutych, not far from the 17-mile  
no-man's-land zone surrounding Chernobyl nuclear power station, 
focused on funding the closure and work needed to fix the 
concrete sarcophagus built to prevent leakage. 
  Experts have said it is leaking radiation, and sudden high  
radiation levels in the ruined reactor in September generated 
fears of a nuclear chain reaction within the structure. 
  Kostenko said Ukraine has received only $185 million from  
the West, including 137 million from the European Bank for 
Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the rest from the 
European Union. 
  The G7 leading industrialized states have pledged $3.1  
billion in grants and credits to help Ukraine meet its pledge to close
Chernobyl's one working reactor by the year 2000. 
  ``Ukraine has not got its money yet and our chief task next  
year is to open an account where the money to fund closure can 
come in,'' Kostenko said. 
  Experts from both sides are due to have a major meeting in  
Denver, Col. next June. 
  The Ukrainian government closed reactor number one last  
month. 
  A 1993 Franco-British project to build a new tomb made no  
progress and Western officials had said it might be abandoned as too
expensive at over $1 billion. 
  Kostenko reiterated that Ukraine could reopen Chernobyl  
reactor No.2, closed after a fire in the control room in 1991, 
if an emergency situation arose. 
  Reactor number four exploded on April 26 1986, sending a  
radioctive cloud across much of Europe. 

Sandy Perle
Director, Technical Operations
ICN Dosimetry Division
Office: (800) 548-5100 Ext. 2306 
Fax: (714) 668-3149

E-Mail: sandyfl@ix.netcom.com    

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