Ukraine Spends Over $66M on Chernobyl Plant Every Year – Report RIA Novosti, PUBLISHED September 21, 2013 Maintenance of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, costs Ukraine some 50 million euros ($66.7 million) a year, the station’s head said Wednesday. The plant’s director Igor Gramotkin told reporters that even since the plant stopped operating, maintenance work has continued to keep the area safe and shut down the reactors, Ukraine’s Unian news agency reported. The Chernobyl disaster occurred on April 26, 1986, when one of its four nuclear reactors exploded. The last of the other three reactors was shut down in 2000. A new containment structure – the New Safe Confinement (NSC) – sponsored by the international community is now under construction at the explosion site. “I am sure that within the next two years it [the NSC] will be in place,” Gramotkin told reporters. “And then the most difficult part begins, which unfortunately falls on Ukraine,” he added, according to the news report. When the new enclosure is set up, work will be carried out to take down unstable older constructions and remove fuel-containing material from inside the original covering structure. Topics: East Europe, Ukraine Other news: US, Russia Sign Nuclear Energy Agreement Sergey Kirienko, the director general of Rosatom, Russia’s state atomic energy corporation, also signed the deal in Vienna. Rosatom Inks Deals, Edges Closer to UK Nuclear Reactor Market Rosatom signed a memorandum on collaboration in nuclear energy. Russia Questions IAEA on Syrian Nuclear Risks Russia has handed over an official request. |
Hero of the day Jacques Repussard: knowledge, independence, proximity They told me: "Mr Repussard, we're not used to responding to anti-nuclear organisations". To which I replied: "We will not reveal any state or trade secrets, but we will not leave them without any answer". INTERVIEW
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