Russia warns of economic hardships

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, DEC. 15. As the infamous Chernobyl nuclear power station in Ukraine was shut down on Friday to loud cheers from the West, Russian officials denounced the decision as unwarranted and politically motivated and predicted it would bring more economic hardships to their Slav neighbour.

The Ukrainian President, Mr. Leonid Kuchma, issued the command to halt the last operating reactor at the Chernobyl station through a television link from Ukraina Palace in Kiev, 136 km away from the plant. The station had not produced any electricity since Dec. 6, when it was halted after the discovery of a leak in a radioactive steam pipe. However, the actual closure procedure will take eight years and will end with the removal of fuel from the reactor.

The Russian Atomic Energy Minister, Mr. Yevgeny Adamov, made it clear he did not support the closure of the Soviet-built plant, which was the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986.

There were no technical grounds for shutting down the station, the Minister said in a television interview. He insisted that reactor number 3 was safe and could operate for more than 10 years. It was a purely political decision, Mr. Adamov said. The closure of the Chernobyl station turns Ukraine from an exporter of electricity into importer.

An estimated 15,000 to 30,000 people have died and some 500,000 received high radiation doses as a result of the April 26, 1986, explosion at Chernobyl's now defunct reactor number four. In terms of radiation, the blast was equivalent to 500 atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Reactor number two was shut down after a fire in 1991, while number one was halted in 1996.

Russia has taken steps to improve the safety of its RBMK reactors of the type installed at Chernobyl and refused to bow to Western pressure to shut them down, but Ukraine succumbed.

``We don't have $ 450 millions to upgrade the Chernobyl reactor'', Mr. Kuchma said in an interview to the Russian weekly Moscow News. ``If we get the money, we will use it to complete two nuclear power stations under construction''.

Under a 1995 protocol, the West promised $ 2.3 billions, comprising $ 500 millions in grants and $ 1.8 billions in loans, to help provide substitute power for Ukraine, make the Chernobyl site safe, and help soften the social impact of the closure. The closure of the Chernobyl station will deprive Ukraine of 5 per cent of its electricity generation and leave 9,000 workers jobless and their families without means of livelihood.

However, Western aid money is yet to come. It was only this week that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) approved a $ 215-million loan for completing construction of the two new nuclear plants. Ukraine needs $ 1.5 billions for the job, but Russian experts doubt it will get the money.

EBRD will not issue any more loans before the International Monetary Fund certifies that Ukraine has reformed its energy sector and has repaid earlier credits from the U.S. ExIm Bank, says Mr. Vladimir Gubarev, a Russian science writer.

Ukrainian deputies on Thursday demanded that the international community guarantee in writing that its financial commitment to fund the country's post-Chernobyl energy plans would be honoured. They also called on the Ukrainian Government to postpone the Chernobyl closure for four months, till the end of the winter heating season in Ukraine.

However, the Ukrainian presidential spokesman, Mr. Oleksandr Martynenko, said it was very symbolic that the world will enter the next millennium without the Chernobyl plant.

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