Nur Nihmatullin, Director of the Enerhoatom National Company, has ordered the dismissal of Serhiy Parashyn as Director General of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, replacing him by Vitaly Tovstonohov, an Enerhoatom officials.
Serhiy Parashyn is the last nuclear station head fired by Enerhoatom. Why should this happen to the nuclear soldier (as he called himself half-jokingly half-seriously) who remained the Chornobyl general for so long and whom a number of experts considered to belong to the cream of Ukraine’s intellectual elite?
Interviewed by The Day, Mr. Parashyn noted that there is a serious legal flaw in Enerhoatom: the company has no license to operate nuclear power stations, while the stations lost this license after the national company was founded. He also believes that a company put together so haphazardly, and contrary to the law, will not be able to effectively manage Ukraine’s nuclear power network from Kyiv.
Mr. Parashyn suggested to the President that the process of setting up Enerhoatom should be suspended and revised, because there were serious violations of the law. Moreover, he thought that the company leadership would be incapable of processing all the field data and that this would have far-reaching consequences.
However, the main reason for his retirement seems to be that he simply did not fit in the President’s personnel pattern which provides for obedient administrators who show no initiative, cause no trouble, and obey orders from above.
There are other aspects worthy of public note. Quite often decisions made in the economic sphere are justified by what is described as political necessity, meaning that most such decisions are rash. Mykola Dudchenko, Chairman of the Parliamentary Nuclear Power Industry Subcommittee, thinks that one such political decision was made in resolving to close down Chornobyl, so that now Ukraine is its hostage and the government is forced to demonstrate a precedent of political obedience, as evidenced by holding back the startup of Power Unit 3.
Big time politics and rash decisions are also evident in the history of the National Nuclear Power Company (currently Enerhoatom).
Founded under a Cabinet decree in October 1996, it received its current President Nur Nihmatullin in September 1997. Volodymyr Horbulin said the appointment was well chosen and described the man as a "highly qualified specialist with an experience, and most importantly a highly respected one." Nur Nihmatullin was considered Horbulin's man and thought him the NSDC Secretary's protege. The Day's information sources, however, indicate that Parashyn's retirement was not agreed upon with Volodymyr Horbulin. Naturally, this leaves one wondering where such important decisions are made.
The above events suggest that the system of managing Ukraine's nuclear power stations could be adjusted to the coming elections, first parliamentary (in which Parashyn vied independently and was expelled from the board of Enerhoatom in retaliation) and then presidential (in which Enerhoatom may invest financially).
PS: Interfax Ukraine quotes President Kuchma as saying last Friday that Serhiy Parashyn "became totally engrossed in the parliamentary campaign, forgetting about his work, and should have been fired long ago."
Reuters Photo







