Chornobyl Block Three to Be Brought On Line by Fall Chills

This year, maintenance is to be carried out within 132 days and be completed before the cold comes in the fall. This is a very strenuous task, taking into account inadequate funding and logistical support of not only of the repairs but also the whole station infrastructure. Hence the station's managers and leading experts have already dubbed the current maintenance as the most crucial in this station's history.

The station's respective repair services and contractors from the Pivdenteploenerhomontazh (Southern Thermal Assembly) Enterprise are to inspect of the basic equipment, replace about one hundred special-purpose ducts where nuclear fuel is spent, and repair some pipelines in the reactor apparatus.

"By and large," general manager of the nuclear power station Vitaly Tolstonohov told The Day, "annual routine maintenance is not an extraordinary event for us or for any other nuclear power plant. And we are going to exert every effort to prove that the station has the right to be fully functioning. I hope the third unit will continue working as long as we technically ensure its reliable and trouble-free operation," Volodymyr KOSTENKO reports.