Perilous
Times
Under shadow of Japan, $1 billion sought for Chernobyl
Nuclear Dead Zone
By Richard Balmforth
KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine looks to the world on Tuesday to pledge
more funds to help it contain the consequences of history's worst
nuclear accident, but donors seem likely to put up less than the
740 million euros (more than $1 billion) it seeks.
Leaders from the Group of Eight industrial powers and the European
Union are gathering in Kiev for a conference marking 25 years
since the Chernobyl disaster, which has been brought into sharper
focus by the nuclear crisis at Fukushima in Japan.
A European-backed venture foresees construction of a new shell
over Chernobyl's No. 4 reactor, which blew up in April 1986, to
contain radioactivity leaking through a makeshift shelter from
hundreds of tons of radioactive material inside.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Monday
that the Commission would allocate an extra 110 million euros
toward this and allied Chernobyl projects.
"We hope our key partners will also step up their contributions in
order to complete the works of the shelter by 2015," he said.
G8 countries were expected to put up a total of 332.8 million
euros, diplomatic sources, quoted by Interfax news agency, said.
But a Commission official, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said total pledges were likely to come far below the 740 million
euros that Ukraine sought.
"If we get more than 500 million euros we will regard it as a
success," the official said, adding that there was a question mark
over the contribution from Japan, normally one of the main donors
on Chernobyl.
"They are now looking to see how much money there is to solve
their own problems," the official said.
Two hours before Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich was
scheduled to open the event in central Kiev, nine women staged a
bare-breasted demonstration in front of the conference hall,
accusing his administration of undemocratic practices.
The women, of the Femen protest movement, held up placards and
chanted slogans like "Political Chernobyl" and "Yanukovich is
worse than radiation." [ID:nLDE6AC094] They were arrested.
WEEK OF COMMEMORATIONS
Tuesday's "donors' conference" launches a week of commemorations
in Ukraine marking the Soviet-era explosion and fire at the
Chernobyl plant, located on Ukraine's northern border with
Belarus.
A prevailing southeast wind carried a cloud of radioactivity over
Belarus and Russia and on into parts of northern Europe.
The official short-term death toll from the accident was 31, but
many more died of radiation-related sicknesses such as cancer. The
total death toll and long-term health effects remain a subject of
intense debate.
Prypyat, the town closest to the site, is now an eerie ghost town
at the center of a largely uninhabited exclusion zone with a
radius of 30 km (19 miles).
A makeshift shelter or 'sarcophagus' erected over the damaged
reactor within eight months of the accident has developed cracks
and holes, and is no longer considered reliable.
The new containment projects foresee construction of a convex
structure more than 100 meters high that will slide into place
over the damaged reactor, sealing it at least until the end of the
century.
During that time, work can be undertaken to dismantle the present
shelter and move radioactive material to a safer place.
World leaders attending the conference include French Prime
Minister Francois Fillon, whose country is current chairman of the
G8, and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Some leaders may visit the Chernobyl site itself, about 110 km (70
miles) north of the capital.
Chernobyl has remained the benchmark for nuclear accidents. On
April 12 Japan raised the severity rating at its Fukushima plant
to seven -- the same level as that of Chernobyl.