Slavutych specialists are busily learning foreign languages

Slavutych, the city of energy workers, is now in a state of uncertainty, Mayor Volodymyr Udovychenko told a press conference on April 18. He said this was caused by the fact that after the closure of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (CNPP) city residents encountered not only such social problems as employment of the plant workers but also some graver difficulties.

Of these, Mr. Udovychenko singled out bringing the CNPP and the thirty kilometer zone into line with environmental standards, processing and burying radioactive wastes, and decommissioning the CNPP units. The latter, in the mayor’s opinion, is the most complex problem, for CNPP employees will have to develop a hitherto unknown technology. The mayor also noted that the specialists living in Slavutych are quite capable of solving all these problems. However, to enable people to start work, measures must be worked out to persuade personnel to stay behind: 1200 left the city last year alone. Yet, the professionals employed at the plant are so far in no hurry to leave, although, according to Mr. Udovychenko, the city is displaying an obvious tendency to learn foreign languages, since highly qualified specialists want to find work abroad. “If they leave,” he pointed out, “we’ll have to seek and pay more for new specialists.”

According to the mayor, the city has not ended a single social program, has drawn up programs to improve the employment service, and the credit system for small loans. The TACIS Foundation has assisted in creating a business development model, but lack of startup capital remains a serious problem. It is necessary to implement all these programs to turn the single-purpose city into a multipurpose one. The mayor said the programs call for the creation of 5000 new jobs by 2008, and this means it will be very difficult to solve these problems without serious government and international aid.