Ukraine Repairs Chernobyl After New Problem

KIEV, Feb 2, 2000 -- (Reuters)

Ukraine energy officials said Tuesday they had shut down the only operating reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant for the second time within days.

The reactor at Chernobyl, site of the world's worst civil nuclear disaster in 1986, had been restarted on Monday after a minor malfunction caused a shutdown last week.

But the unit was stopped again early on Tuesday after excessive pressure was detected in its water system, forcing a shutdown until Thursday, a spokesman for Energoatom, Ukraine's state-run nuclear energy company, said. "The station has been forced to prolong repair works due to a minor accident and is expected to be restarted on February 3," he said.

When the malfunction was detected, the reactor was running at 15 percent of its 1,000-megawatt capacity, he said. Reactor number three is Chernobyl's last operating unit.

Its number four reactor exploded in April 1986, spewing a cloud of radioactive dust over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and parts of Western Europe.

Another reactor was halted in 1997 after it exhausted its safe lifespan. And a fourth reactor has not been rehabilitated since a fire in 1991.

Ukraine has promised the West it will close Chernobyl in 2000 in return for help in developing alternative power sources. But there has been little progress to date toward that goal, as some officials have blamed the West for failing to provide promised funds.

http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=131006

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 02, 2000

Answers

thanks for the info Carl. something struck me in your post that i have been noticing in almost any and every article i read on the chernobyl disaster. they all indicate that it effected ukraine and europe, yet NEVER state anything about the radioactive cloud i distinctly remember nbc`s today show following day by day as it crossed over the US!!!!! wonder why `history` doesn`t seem to remember it? just wondering if anyone else here REMEMBERS our news/weather tracking it?

-- mutter (murmur@ya.com), February 03, 2000.

I remember news reporters tracking the radioactive cloud across Europe/Asia. By the time it got to the US "they" said there wasn't much radiation left and was harmless. I don't recall a state-by-state US tracking though.

-- slza (slzattas@erols.com), February 03, 2000.