Japan boosts Chernobyl safety aid

By HISANE MASAKI Staff writer

Japan will contribute an additional $22.5 million in aid to an international project aimed at ensuring the safety of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, government sources said Friday.

The aid will be pledged at a meeting of senior officials from the Group of Seven major economies and Ukraine scheduled for May in Berlin, the sources said. The G-7 comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

The goal of the Berlin meeting, which will be jointly chaired by Germany and Ukraine, is to raise funds for the second -- and final -- phase of a $700 million project launched three years ago to reduce the risks still posed by the Chernobyl plant.

Under the project, the aging sarcophagus enclosing the ruined No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant will be repaired and strengthened. The No. 4 reactor was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident in April 1986.

Although the Chernobyl plant has four reactors, three were closed after the 1986 accident due to safety concerns. At present, only the No. 3 reactor is in operation, although it too will be shut down by the end of the year.

Ukraine is currently constructing new nuclear power plants to make up for a power shortage that will result from the complete closure of the Chernobyl plant. The new plants are due for completion in 2002.

At their previous meeting in Denver in 1997, the G-7 countries pledged a total of about $300 million in aid for the first phase of the Chernobyl project. The U.S. was the largest aid donor, committing $78 million. Germany committed $52 million and Japan pledged $22.5 million in aid.

Since the demise of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991, the U.S. has placed importance on its relations with Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, for strategic reasons concerning Russia. Ukraine has been seeking stronger ties with the 15-nation European Union and the U.S.

Relations between the U.S. and Russia have deteriorated sharply over the bombing of Yugoslavia by U.S.-led NATO forces during the Kosovo conflict and over the war in Chechnya.

Earlier this month, Bill Richardson, U.S. Energy Secretary, visited Kiev and confirmed a U.S. financial commitment to the Chernobyl project.

"The United States will make a very big contribution, the largest contribution of any country, to the sarcophagus at Chernobyl. We have a very strong relationship with Ukraine and we want to enhance it," Richardson reportedly said in the Ukraine capital.

Safety at Chernobyl is a matter of grave concern for the G-7's European members because of its proximity.

Neither can the Japanese government view the issue nonchalantly because of a growing concern about safety at its own nuclear power plants following the country's worst nuclear accident at a uranium processing facility in Tokai, a small town about 125 km northeast of Tokyo, last autumn.

Sources said that leaders from the Group of Eight industrialized nations will reaffirm their continued cooperation to ensure safety at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant at a summit in Okinawa in July. G-8 comprises the G-7 countries plus Russia.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/news2-2000/news.html#story3

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 20, 2000