Chernobyl, 14 Years Later

For 14 years, Ukraine has coped with the legacy of the world's worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl and the path to recovery is still long. Now the government is again promising to shut the ill-fated plant, but refuses to give a date.

"Chernobyl will be closed down," Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko pledged Tuesday night, the eve of the accident's anniversary. He spoke after laying a wreath at a memorial to firefighters who were among the first to combat radioactive flames from the disaster and among the first to die.

The pre-dawn accident on April 26, 1986 sent a cloud that rained radiation over much of Europe and contaminated large areas in then-Soviet Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.

According to Ukrainian government figures, more than 4,000 of those who took part in the hasty and poorly organized Soviet cleanup effort have died, and more than 70,000 Ukrainians were fully disabled by the disaster.

Overall, about 3.4 million of Ukraine's 50 million people, including about 1.26 million children, are considered affected by Chernobyl. Of them, 400,000 adults and nearly 1.1 million children are entitled to state aid for Chernobyl-linked health problems.

But despite the terrible legacy, Chernobyl's closure long urged by Western nations and environmentalists the world over remains uncertain.

The plant now has just one working reactor, No. 3. The 1986 calamity ruined its reactor No. 4. Another of Chernobyl's RBMK reactors has been inactive since a 1991 fire and a third was stopped in 1996.

Ukraine had promised to fully close down Chernobyl by the end of 1999, but delayed the closure until an unspecified date this year, saying it is too strapped for energy and needs financial aid to build two new reactors as compensation.

Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on Ukraine to give a definite closure date for what many see as the embodiment of the evils of the atomic era.

"It is essential to have a date fixed," Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said during a visit to Kiev this month.

Yushchenko, touring the plant 80 miles north of the capital, was noncommittal Tuesday, saying only that the date might be released by the summer meeting of international donors for Chernobyl.

The Group of Seven richest nations promised aid in 1995 to help Ukraine close Chernobyl, but Kiev complains the money has been slow in coming. Yushchenko reiterated that, asking for more support.

"Despite the world's good political understanding of the Chernobyl problem, Ukraine is left alone to deal with practical liquidation of the danger that Chernobyl represents," he said.

The government says Ukraine spent $5.7 billion to battle the effects of the disaster during Soviet times and $5 billion since independence in 1991.

Over the past year, Western money has helped Ukraine conduct repairs on the leaky concrete and steel sarcophagus over the exploded reactor, and workers have started to build a nuclear waste storage facility.
Still, much remains to be done.

With the economy declining badly since the Soviet collapse, state funding covered only an average of 51.6 percent of Chernobyl relief needs from 1996-98. Financial constraints forced the Cabinet to actually finance just 85 percent of Chernobyl-linked social programs in 1999.

The 2000 budget allocated only $290 million of at least $830 million needed a year for social and health programs to help Chernobyl victims, Emergency Situations Minister Vasyl Durdynets said recently.

Officials say the health of affected populace is steadily deteriorating. The number of diseases among affected children is 17 percent higher on average than among their ordinary counterparts, and the incidence of some illnesses twice exceeds the norm.

A Health Ministry report released last week said thyroid cancer among Ukrainian children has risen dramatically since the accident. About 1,400 people who were children or adolescents at the time of the disaster have been operated on for thyroid cancer so far.

Chernobyl-related troubles are not limited to health issues.

The working reactor has suffered repeated shutdowns this winter over failures at its safety valves. The government is far from clear on what to do with about 6,000 plant workers and their families once Chernobyl is closed. Vast areas of Ukraine remain contaminated. Tons of nuclear fuel apparently are still inside the sarcophagus.

"The Ukrainian people have performed a heroic deed during those 14 years as they fought to contain this tragedy," Yushchenko said. "Ukraine must not be left alone."