Re: CNN reports, Chernobyl to be repaired...

["Mario Iannaccone" <miannacc@dhhs.state.nh.us>]

Here is the news story off the wire

08:00 AM ET 11/22/97

Ukraine's Kuchma gives go-ahead to fix Chernobyl


         By Irene Marushko
         KIEV, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma
said on Saturday that $337 million pledged by various countries
was enough money to start repair work on the leaking cover
enclosing Chernobyl's destroyed fourth reactor.
         An international conference held in New York earlier this
week pledged a contribution of $37 million to help fix the
``sarcophagus'' hurriedly constructed after the 1986 accident.
         The G7 group of industrialised nations earlier promised $300
million for the project while Ukraine will contribute another
$150 million.
         ``Including Ukraine's contribution this is enough to begin
wide-ranging work on the structure, the sarcophagus,'' Kuchma
told a news conference after returning from the United States,
where he also met U.S.Vice-President Al Gore.
         But he did not detail where cash-strapped Ukraine would
obtain all the money for the sarcophagus reconstruction plan,
estimated to cost $760 million and consisting of 22 technically
complex and perhaps hazardous projects.
         ``The most important political result was that we were able
to push forward the issues surrounding this global catastrophe
and to demonstrate the absolute necessity of solving the
problems of fixing the sarcophagus,'' Kuchma said in reference
to the New York conference.
          Kuchma's statements signalled a turnaround from Ukraine's
complaints that the funding wasn't enough, after G7 countries
decided in June to give Ukraine only $300 million instead of the
$700 million it had expected.
         Chernobyl's fourth reactor exploded on April 26, 1986,
sending a cloud of radiation over Ukraine and parts of Belarus,
Russia and Europe. Crews of ``liquidators'' dumped concrete on
to the reactor to form a tomb to contain leaking radiation.
         Questions remain on how best to repair the concrete covering
which scientific studies have shown may be leaking radiation.
         ``The problem of constructing a cover is not a problem to be
solved in one year, but in 10,'' Kuchma said, adding that many
studies remained to be done on how to prop up the crumbling
structure.
         ``There are still 30 tonnes of nuclear fuel missing. Where
are they? Are they inside, or where?'' he said.
         Ukraine, which has reported 4,300 deaths and large numbers
of children vulnerable to thyroid cancer since the disaster, has
promised to close Chernobyl's last operating reactor by the year
2000 in exchange for $3.1 billion in funding from international
donours.
         Kuchma said there were discussions at the conference on
forming an international fund to help Ukraine-- independent
since 1991 but left to pay for the Soviet-era disaster --
contend with the aftermath of the disaster.