Ukraine Ratifies Nuclear Energy Pact With U.S.

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

Friday March 19 12:05 PM ET 

Ukraine Ratifies Nuclear Energy Pact With U.S.

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's parliament Friday ratified a deal with the 
United States which will allow the former Soviet republic to import 
much-needed modern technology to revamp its troubled nuclear 
industry.  

``The ratification was supported by 234 deputies,'' parliamentary 
spokesman Mykola Khotsky told Reuters, adding that the two 
countries had signed the treaty on peaceful cooperation in the field 
of nuclear energy in May 1998.   

``We are pleased that the Rada (parliament) has approved the civil 
nuclear cooperation agreement,'' said an official at the U.S. 
embassy in Kiev.  

He said the deal was made possible after Ukraine bowed to U.S. 
pressure in March 1998 not to build turbines for Iran's planned 
Bushehr nuclear power plant.  

``It is the result of the agreement to terminate (Ukrainian) 
cooperation on the project at Bushehr,'' the official said.

Kiev says U.S. technology could help improve safety at its nuclear 
reactors. A total five nuclear plants operate 14 Soviet-designed 
reactors, which generate almost half the electricity consumed by 
the country.  

The fourth reactor at Chernobyl nuclear power station exploded in 
1986, sending heavily radioactive clouds across Ukraine, Russia, 
Belarus and other European countries in the world's worst civil 
nuclear disaster.  

``We welcome the ratification and see that it strengthens our 
cooperation with the United States and allows us to improve safety 
of all nuclear equipment,'' Hennady Sazonov, a director at the 
state's nuclear energy company Energoatom, told Reuters.  

``Indeed, it is a great step toward,'' he added.

Sazonov also said the treaty could allow U.S. companies to join 
with Ukraine in setting up capacity to produce nuclear fuel 
originally supplied from neighboring Russia.  

``This agreement will open possibilities in nuclear cooperation...to 
prepare nuclear fuel for Ukraine's nuclear power plants,'' the U.S. 
official said.  

Nuclear energy authorities say Ukraine will continue to buy 
Russian nuclear fuel for now but that in time the country will also  
import part of its requirements from other sources.

Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205

"The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
              - G. K. Chesterton -
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