€550m pledge to build shelter at Chernobyl site

INTERNATIONAL leaders pledged millions of euro at a Kiev conference to complete a permanent shelter to secure the ruins of Ukraine’s exploded Chernobyl power station.

“The catastrophe at Chernobyl power station left a deep wound that Ukraine will need to live with for many years ahead,” Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said in his opening speech.

“We thank the international community for not leaving Ukraine alone with this problem.”

Announced contributions totalled €550 million, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said after the conference.

Yanukovych said to transform Chernobyl into an “ecologically safe site” it was necessary “to build a new sarcophagus around the damaged reactor [and] secure a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel”.

“The catastrophe has affected millions of people, thousands died and tens of thousands continue to suffer,” Yanukovych said.

Thomas Mirrow, president of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, which administers the projects, announced that it would release €120-180m in the coming months.

European Commission president José Manuel Barroso pledged €110m from the EU for a hi-tech shelter over the ruined reactor, shored up since the 1986 explosion with a temporary concrete structure.

“More than 40 countries and international organisations are represented here today in a powerful show of unity... in transforming Chernobyl into a secure and environmentally safe site,” Barroso said.

“Recent events in Fukushima, Japan, have also reminded us of the danger this issue may represent,” Barroso said. “We need today to reaffirm our solidarity.”

Officials representing more than 50 countries met at the donors’ conference in central Kiev ahead of the 25th anniversary of the disaster on April 26.

Mr Fillon promised a €47m contribution.

Ukraine is hoping for €740m to complete a giant shelter that will slide on rails over the damaged reactor and its concrete cover, known as the sarcophagus, which was recently shored up after it became unstable.

It also needs the money to build safe storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel from the plant, which still contains radioactive magma and fuel rods after it exploded during a planned test by engineers.