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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

UKRAINE IS LURED INTO THE NUCLEAR TRAP

30 July, 1999 - 00:00

By Volodymyr SKACHKO

German Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder promised to
provide some hard currency for Ukraine as part of the international community's
deal to help close the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Station. Precisely, this
money will be meant to modernize and reequip two nuclear power units at
the Rivne and Khmelnytsky nuclear power plants, as agreed with the Group-7
countries determined to recompense Ukraine's 2000 losses incurred by Chornobyl
closure.

Experts at the Verkhovna Rada's Committee for Environmental
Protection, Rational Use of Natural Resources, and Chornobyl Relief Program
(headed by Yuri Smailenko) expect $800 million per power unit thus closed.
However, Germany's parliamentary Social Democratic coalition and the Green
Party spoke at the Bundestag against such allocations, contrary to ex-Chancellor
Helmut Kohl's assurances; they want all this money to be spent on nuclear
power units, but on steam/gas/thermal ones.

It is also true that Ukraine signed a nuclear waste burial
agreement, July 7, with an international consortium headed by the French
company Framatone. Under this document, a burial site for spent nuclear
fuel (known as SVIAP-2) will be equipped at Chornobyl, using 60 million
ECU provided by the European Commission.

The new director general of Chornobyl NPS, Vitaly Tovstonohov,
says SVIAP-2 is an extremely important project, because it can accommodate
50,000 containers of spent nuclear fuel for 100 years.

This could be referred to as an accomplishment, in the
sense that the red tape habitually involved in begging for money has been
broken. Except for two circumstances.

In Ukraine, many people are alarmed by the ecological condition.
Many want all nuclear power stations eliminated. Yet these stations exist.
Besides, nuclear power is the cheapest in Ukraine, as it is anywhere else
in the world. The said parliamentary committee has it that all nuclear
power units make up a mere 23.8% of Ukraine's power-generating capacities,
while producing 43.5% of Ukraine's electricity.

And this is not the main point. The total generating capacity
of two nuclear power units at Khmelnytsky and Rivne, if and when duly re-
equipped, will amount to 2,000 megawatts. Of course, building a new thermal
power station using someone else's money would be simpler and safer. There
are other reasons in Ukraine. All thermal power stations use gas and all
gas supplies are from Russia and/or Turkmenistan and today's arrears on
gas supplies (determined as of July 1, 1999) amount to $1.111 billion.
In addition, the gas supply shortage causes the closure or partial capacity
operation of thermal power stations with a total generating capacity of
10,000 megawatts. In other words, if Ukraine had the money to pay for Russian
gas it would have more electricity and the Chornobyl station could be closed
down more or less painlessly.

As it is, Germany prods Ukraine, consciously or otherwise,
to the debtor's prison while caring for Ukraine's and its own ecology,
offering to build a steam/gas power station (in which case Kyiv will have
to look for the money). Even President Kuchma understood the implication,
declaring on the eve of Mr. Schroeder's visit: Ukraine will not be able
to close down Chornobyl before the year 2000 unless paid to reequip the
two nuclear power units. His statement makes sense, considering the country's
lamentable financial condition.

There is another aspect the Ukrainian President seems to
have overlooked (or maybe prevented to take into consideration). Prior
to signing the Framatone-SVIAP-2 agreement, a Yuri Samoilenko-headed VR
committee prepared a letter addressed to Mr. Kuchma containing interesting
and hair-raising data. Among other things, it has it that the French will
build their containment/burial site without resorting to advertised bidding,
in which case other as reputed consumers could offer bids (e.g., SGN-Walter
Bau-Ansaldo {France-Germany-Italy} or AECL {Canada- Great Britain}).

Also, relying on the said VR committee's data, Framatone
will build the containment/burial site using NUHOMS technologies, under
license acquired from U.S. Vectra Systems. Back in 1996, USNRC recorded
quite a few NUHOMS technological shortcomings, including defective container
design, ecology safety divergences, etc. In January 1997, USNRC passed
a resolution suspending NUHOMS technologies, on account of 2,059 [sic]
shortcomings to be corrected.

After that Vectra Systems went bankrupt and modifying NUHOMS
caused such power-generating giants as Pennsylvania Power & Light Company,
Baltimore Gas & Electric Company, Duke Power, etc. Robinson plans to
close down its nuclear power units and abandon NUHOMS modules because of
excessive operating expenses.

Ukraine thinks nothing of using NUHOMS technologies and
the President shows no response — and he should, considering his professional
background and understanding of the potential threat.

There is the VR Committee member Hryhory Dashutin's statement
to the effect that several weeks ago the Chornobyl NPS leadership was against
the signing of the French contract — and then suddenly agreed. Another
fact worth considering.

Needless to say, there are strange aspects to this story,
including the differences over the SVIAP-2 arrangement between the bureaucrats
(e.g., Energy Ministry, Enerhoatom Agency, Chornobyl NPS leadership) and
the parliamentary committee. They may serve as evidence of the struggle
between the nuclear lobby groups fighting to push through certain projects
for certain amounts paid them. Regrettably, this is standard practice in
today's Ukraine, formally referred to as corruption or force major circumstancesЕ

Another possibility is that the nuclear power stations
are actively opposed by gas traders or coal tycoons that can sell steam/gas
thermal power stations' fuel and receive dividends. Borys Diordiyev, head
of the Chernobyl NPS labor union, made a straightforward statement to this
effect on Ukrainian television.

Be it as it may, Ukraine, known for its disastrous Soviet
policy of “peaceful nuclear energy” climaxing in the Chornobyl disaster
and Dynamo Soccer Club must attach top priority to its nuclear safety and
make all such measures public knowledge, so that all questions are answered
in no uncertain words and nothing is kept secret as practiced under the
Soviets. This, of course, applies to what is referred to as “top-level
nuclear blackmail” — meaning Chornobyl, for if anything happens there again
the whole world will suffer. In that case no one will argue about money;
there will be no one left to argue about it.

N.B.: Oleksandr Smyshliaev, head of the state administration
for nuclear regulation under the Ministry of Protection of the Environment
and Nuclear Safety of Ukraine, told The Day's Oleksandr Michelson
that the tender for the construction of the containment was carried out
in keeping with set rules and procedures, and that Framatone turned out
the successful bidder. As for the technologies to be used, it was stated
that no NUHOMS shortcomings were known to the parties concerned, yet they
could exist because there are a lot of technologies and they all have advantages
and drawbacks. Mr. Smyshliaev pointed out that “we will license no such
project when posing any danger to the residents of Ukraine.”




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