Greenpeace Urges EBRD Not to Loan to Ukraine

Nuclear power plants in Rivne and Khmelnytsky, where Ukraine is completing a construction of two reactors to compensate for power losses inflicted by the planned closure of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (CNPP), are in a dangerous condition. This information has been disclosed by the well-known environmental organization, Greenpeace, which quoted a Vienna University report commissioned by the Austrian government.

As is known, soon the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is to hold a Board of Governors meeting to solve the problem of loans for the construction of the two reactors. Greenpeace claims it has ample grounds to suggest that the bank should postpone furnishing funds to Ukraine. “These reactors are dangerous, not needed, and the EBRD must now delay its decision on whether to finance them in the light of this safety study,” said Tobias M Я nchmeyer, one of Greenpeace’s most active antinuclear representatives.

The EBRD Board of Governors plans to meet on December 6-7. The bank management will consider the question of issuing a $215 million loan to Ukraine. It will be recalled that EBRD President Jean Lemierre when in Kyiv recently said that the reactor funding issue should at last find a positive solution for Ukraine (i.e., the money will be allotted). Simultaneously, he emphasized certain factors that stand in the way of these loans. In addition, it is known that some countries of Western Europe actively oppose nuclear plants on the continent. In this respect, Ukraine is considered a high-risk state, although Kyiv is claiming the absolute safety of both the now functioning and to be built reactors. Instead, Greenpeace says experts have underestimated “the risk of earthquake” in the Rivne and Khmelnytsky regions. Moreover, Ukraine lacks money to fulfill the energy sector modernization program the EBRD has offered (in other words, the Greens are hinting Ukraine will not be able to bring its nuclear power plants up to Western safety standards). The anti-nukes suggest, as an alternative measure, that the bank invest in other, non-nuclear, energy sectors.

Meanwhile, the G7 and the European Union pledged in 1995 in Ottawa to grant Ukraine a loan precisely for building the replacement reactors in exchange for closing the CNNP in 2000. Experts then agreed that nuclear reactors were the best option both for Ukraine and the creditors (they will cost the borrowing countries far less than any other energy projects). Kyiv is most likely to keep its promise and shut down the CNPP on December 15 even if Ukraine does not start receiving the loans. During the visit to Kyiv by President of the European Commission Romano Prodi the Ukrainian head of state, Leonid Kuchma, said “...there should be no even ‘ifs.’ The CNPP will be shut down.”