UKRAINE IS LURED INTO THE NUCLEAR TRAP

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.”