The explosion at block number four at the Ukrainian nuclear power constitutes the third largest nuclear disaster in the world, surpassed only by the criminal bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Before Chernobyl, the most dangerous nuclear accident had been that at the Three Mile Island plant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States, at the end of the 70s. The consequences of the Chernobyl disaster were universal in scale. Of 193 tons of fuel accumulated in the affected block's reactor, close to 4% escaped into the atmosphere immediately after the explosion on April 26, 1986.

According to scientific studies, the volumes of radioactive iodine, strontium, plutonium and other escaped isotopes were equivalent to the effect of the simultaneous explosion of 500-plus atomic bombs the size of those dropped by the United States on Hiroshima, when Japan was a defeated enemy at the end of World War II.

Fourteen years after the lethal accident, the situation at the nuclear power plant is still cause for concern to specialists. The Kiev government stated that it was prepared to totally shut down the plant at any moment, a commitment that it finally fulfilled in mid-December 2000, and which is viewed as a considerable contribution to universal nuclear safety.

By closing the last of the three remaining blocks, the Ukrainians honored the commitment agreed in the Ottawa Memorandum of December 1995 where, in their turn, the big powers offered $2.3 billion USD, of which $1.4 billion USD were earmarked for the construction of two new nuclear reactors to replace the Chernobyl station. This final operation cost a total of $4 billion USD, on account of the steps it involved, including the rehabilitation of the environment and the creation of compensatory capacities via the reconstruction of the second reactor at the Khmeinytzky nuclear plant, and the fourth reactor at the Rivne station, known as the Kh2-R4 project. Both of the latter are in Ukrainian territory

At the same time, closing the Chernobyl plant required the stabilization of the country's electricity generation system and compensation for the energy produced by the shut-down reactors, as well as the construction of safe depositories for spent nuclear fuel and other waste. During 14 years of sacrifice, the government and people of that European country have faced the consequences of the disaster, which contaminated more than 50,000 square kilometers of its territory, populated by more than 3.2 million inhabitants (including one million children) distributed in 2,294 localities. In 1990, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution on international cooperation to reduce and address the effects of the accident, and various countries and institutions responded in line with their possibilities.

However, what have the big powers done? Ukraine is hoping that the Group of Seven will fulfill their commitment to lend aid to Kiev after the shutdown of the Chernobyl plant, according to Anatoli Zlenko, the country's foreign minister, who stated that immediate compensation is needed to solve the problems created by the closure. In that context he affirmed that only the European Reconstruction and Development Bank and the European Commission have loaned Kiev funds, $215 million USD and $585 million USD, respectively.

The most developed countries in the world promised Ukraine $3 billion USD to cover the costs of Chernobyl. But promises are only promises. "In the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ukrainian government, the Group of Seven and the European Commission on the shutdown of Chernobyl, there are no conditions attached to cooperation between Ukraine and the International Monetary Fund, the Ukrainian embassy in Cuba stated.

However, he commented that the U.S. Eximbank, as co-creditor of the cooperation project, says that it will not finance the reconstruction of the above-mentioned reactors until Kiev pays off a remaining debt of some $63 million USD. Ukraine cannot commit itself to this because, by doing so, it would endanger the restructuring of its $1 billion USD debt to the Paris Club.

The second problem lies in the energy deficit provoked by the closure, bearing in mind that the European Union offered the insufficient figure of 24 million euros to tackle that problem. Fortunately, Russian President Vladimir Putin has reached an agreement with his Ukrainian counterpart Leonid Kuchma for the transmission of necessary electrical energy to Ukraine, until the latter country can make up for the deficit caused by the Chernobyl shutdown. The closed reactor --the only one continuing in operation-- was generating 5% of the country's electricity needs. Now the nuclear plant has itself become a gigantic consumer of energy.

As can be appreciated, closing a plant of this nature is not a matter of simply turning a key, but a highly complex series of operations for specialists.

Another problem to be faced is the displacement of several thousand Chernobyl workers, a social adversity whose solution signifies costs totaling $600 million USD for transferring families, creating jobs and housing, and other measures.

The costs incurred by works to completely close down the plant are calculated at some 670 million euros, given that shutting down a nuclear plant is as difficult as constructing a new one. The basic works include completely enclosing the damaged reactor in steel and concrete which, together with the shutdown operations, amounts to approximately $1.5 billion USD.

It should be recalled that Ukraine directs 12% of its state budget to Chernobyl's costs and every worker in the country contributes 11% of his or her wages to those funds. But on its own, the country can never confront the enormous financial costs of rehabilitating the environment and protecting the population affected by the nuclear accident, affirms Volodymyr Ya. Krasilchuk, Ukrainian charge d'affaires in Havana.

Krasilchuk praised the medical care received by child victims of the Chernobyl disaster at the José Martí Camp at Tarará beach, east of the Cuban capital. Formerly Pioneer City (a recreation center for Cuban elementary schoolchildren), it was converted in 1990 into a giant sanitarium consisting of more than 15 high-level scientific institutions to treat children and other victims of the disaster, from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

He explained that in the Cuban program's 10 years of existence, 16,500 minors and 2,700 other affected Ukrainians, Belarussians and Russians affected by nuclear radiation have been treated.

At the beginning of the third millennium, institutions and governments throughout the world have been called on to offer still-needed help to the children and other victims of Chernobyl.

The consequences of the worst nuclear disaster in peacetime are still with us.

© 2001 Granma Internacional

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