The national nuclear energy company Enerhoatom's joint labor committee
resolved last Wednesday to start a collective labor dispute with the management.
Nuclear workers believe that the government, by transferring a mere Hr
15 million to the company account (which is less than half its monthly
wage liability), violated the officially approved redemption schedule.
Unconfirmed sources state that union leaders have to exert serious efforts
to contain outbursts of protest at nuclear power stations.
This coincided in time with Ukraine's power system's disconnection from
that of Russia. Power Industry Minister Oleksiy Sheberstov said that the
shutoff was caused by Ukraine's surpassing Russian power allocations. On
October 6 alone, Ukraine was supplied 52 million kWh more than scheduled,
including a 22 million kWh overflow which should not exceed 18 million
kWh.
To resume cooperation with Russia, Ukraine will have either to increase
its generating capacity or shut off some of its consumers. Mr. Sheberstov
added that to prevent breakdowns, the Power Energy Ministry will resort
to "fan" shutoffs, and that it could not disconnect all consumers in default
(51% are disconnected to date). On October 5, however, he reported to the
Cabinet that the coal stock is 1.7 million tons higher than last year's,
and the same applies to fuel oil, whereas water reservoirs are filled to
capacity. Power supplies can be resumed not earlier than the spring of
1999, meaning that the frequency decline may reach a critically low level,
in which case automatic shutoffs will follow any malfunctions at power
stations.







