FW: Chernobyl likely to shut in Nov.2000

["Tsurikov, Nick" <nick.tsurikov@iluka.com>]

My apologies for the previous one - I forgot about the "FROM" word:


Good day,
---------------
ABC News:
WIRE:12/29/1999 10:15:00 ET
Ukraine says Chernobyl likely to shut in Nov 2000

KIEV, Dec 29 (Reuters) - A senior official said on Wednesday that Ukraine's
Chernobyl nuclear station, the site of the world's worst peacetime nuclear
disaster, was likely to shut in November 2000. 
Viktor Stovbun, executive director at state-run nuclear energy company
Energoatom, told a news conference that repairs to the plant would cost $100
million, a sum the cash-strapped former Soviet state could not afford. 
"A technical decision has been taken by the atomic regulatory agency that
the Chernobyl station will work for 200 days...and that by November 15 it
must be stopped either to be taken out of operation or for repairs," he
said. 
"We have no reconstruction projects in sight and most likely the nuclear
plant will be finally closed," he said. 
Worries over safety at the plant have persisted since one of its reactors
exploded in April 1986, spewing a cloud of radioactive dust over most of
Europe and contaminating large stretches of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. 
Thirty-one people died in the immediate aftermath of the accident and
thousands of deaths have since been blamed on it. 
Ukraine has promised the Group of Seven leading industrial nations that it
would close Chernobyl in 2000 in exchange for financial aid to complete two
reactors at its Rivne and Khmelnytska nuclear plants. 
Some nuclear officials have said Chernobyl might be shut down even before
the deadline of November 15, probably in July, due to a lack of nuclear fuel
which is supplied by Russia. 
Ukraine's five nuclear power plants use 14 nuclear reactors, covering nearly
45 percent of the country's electricity needs. 
U.S. experts have also expressed fears about Ukraine's readiness to face the
Y2K computer bug. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly told the outside world
that Ukraine's reactors face no Y2K problems. 
Copyright ©1999 ABC News Internet Ventures. 
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Happy New Year from Western Australia!
------------
Kind regards
Nick Tsurikov
nick.tsurikov@iluka.com <mailto:Nick.tsurikov@iluka.com> 
World Collection of Radiation Links:
http://eneabba.net/ <http://eneabba.net/> 

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