UKRAINE cannot afford to shut down the stricken Chernobyl nuclear power station without massive aid from the international community, its Prime Minister, Mr Yevgeny Marchuk, warned yesterday.
Both he and the Belarus President, Mr Alexander Lukashenko, called for international aid to help cope with the economic consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which remains the world's worst civilian nuclear accident.
Mr Marchuk told delegates in a conference on the disaster, which happened on April 26th, 1986, that his country was committed to closing down the power station by the year 2000. He stressed that "without real concrete financial support from the international community, the Ukraine ... cannot do this alone."
Supported by the Russian Emergency Situations Minister, Mr Sergei Shoigu, Mr Marchuk drew a bleak picture of the social and economic consequences of the catastrophe. He warned that the concrete sarcophagus, laid down to smother the threat of further radioactive releases, was in poor condition.
The sarcophagus remained the "heaviest heritage" and its maintenance, essential to contain the 200 tonnes of radioactive fuel still locked into the stricken reactor, represented "an enormous financial burden," he said.
There were 3.1 million people, including one million children, living in contaminated areas within Ukraine, and 542 cases of thyroid cancer had so far been noted, he added.
Mr Lukashenko said that economic damage resulting from the Chernobyl disaster was "equal to 32 annual budgets" for Belarus totalling 5235 billion (£1491/2 billion) "by the most modest estimates".
The Vienna conference has been timed to mark the 10th anniversary of the explosion of Chernobyl's reactor number four on April 26th 1986. The Soviet built RBMK reactor exploded following human errors during testing procedures.
Thirty one plant were killed, 135,000 residents evacuated and 4.9 million people were exposed to radioactive fall out within an area as big as England. Experts say that strengthening the sarcophagus' around reactor No 4 is a priority.
The G7 are thought to be offering $2.5 billion in loans $514 million in aid for the shut down of the plant, but the figures do not include the replacement the sarcophagus. The final package will be decided at another conference on nuclear safety in Moscow on April 19th-20th.
The four day Vienna conference also aims to study the increase of thyroid cancers in children in the region. According to documents issued by organisers, a total of 424 cases of thyroid cancer were reported between 1990 and 1995 among those under the age of 15