“Sarcophagus” Confinement Stumbles Over Ukrainian Budget
Last weekend, the interministerial commission for a complex solution to the Chornobyl problem, headed by the fuel-and-energy Vice Premier, Vitaly Haiduk, held a meeting at the nuclear power station, currently closed. Ordered revived by Premier Viktor Yanukovych, the commission summed up the phasing out of Chornobyl and conversion of the Sarcophagus confinement into an ecologically safe area. Key tasks for 2003 were discussed, along with problems with international technological aid projects. The commission also held a meeting Friday, in Kyiv, to discuss the subsidization of station-closure-related programs in the Exclusion Zone.
Budget appropriations for the Chornobyl NPS state special enterprise have been implemented in full, “although untimely and insufficient financing did not allow to carry out the 2002 work program in full and to honor all commitments under agreements made in 2002, based on the procedures of procurements of goods, works and services,” Interfax Ukraine reports, quoting the nuclear power station’s officials. In view of this, a number of works scheduled for last years had to be transferred to 2003. By the start of 2003 the nuclear power station registered UAH 27.4 million worth of bills payable and UAH 2.7 million worth of compensations due the station’s personnel. True, financing has been according to schedule since then, but the problems of processing liquid and solid radioactive waste at plants still under construction remain and the construction of special storage facilities shows an unjustifiably low rate. Since the station was closed ahead of schedule, phasing out and works involved in the conversion of the Sarcophagus into an ecologically safe area are slowed down for want of project documentation which is still being elaborated. In addition, the Chornobyl station must detach part of the funds to finance “irrelevant” projects that are not provided for by the central budget: maintenance of roads and bridges across the rivers Dnieper and Prypiat, gas distribution stations, garden plots, and a children’s keep-fit camp.
Problems stemming from the closure of Chornobyl and social protection of its personnel (currently reduced by half), in turn, beget rumors. Among other things, it is believed that the station, with a lot of fresh nuclear fuel still in its power units, continues to generate. The Day ’s expert Ludwig Lytvynsky, D.S., director of the State Science and Engineering Center for Control and Emergency Management Systems, adamantly refutes the allegation: “The Chornobyl power units are all out of service, there is no generation whatsoever, although there is residual heat caused by the decay of nuclear fuel.” He adds that the minimum storage life of heat-generating elements in the water-storage pool (Chornobyl operated RBNK-type reactors) is one year. In fact, these elements could be extracted from the pool, but the spent nuclear fuel storage facilities are still to be completed. World practices says that such fuel can be transferred to dry storage after 4-5 years’ interval. Meaning what? That we can take our time building storage facilities and transferring spent fuel there? Prof. Lytvynsky says that “it doesn’t look critical on the time chart as yet, so we have a year or two in store.” However, the liquid and solid waste-processing plants are needed now to phase out the station completely, he says. “The power unit is stopped, but it has not been phased out and is in what is known in the parlance as the ‘final stop’ phase.” So the quicker the processing plant starts operating, the quicker the phasing-out rate, “because the waste must be disposed off as soon as it forms.”
Nor was it accidental that Vitaly Haiduk, during that meeting “in the field,” instructed the Finance Ministry, State Treasury, and Ministry for Fuel and Energy to “draw up schedules of rhythmic financing” for a number of budget programs, including “Safe Maintenance of the Power Unit and Containment Building of the Chornobyl NPS and Putting it out of Service” and “Ukraine’s Contribution in the Chornobyl Containment Fund to Carry out the Program SIP.”
The commission further intends to ask the Speaker to step up hearings of the bill amending certain laws relating to the taxation of operations involving sales of raw and other materials, equipment, works and services, also works involved in the closure of Chornobyl and conversion of the containment building into an ecologically safe area, provided for by international technological aid.
For the time being, Premier Viktor Yanukovych ordered working out a bill introducing changes in the 2003 state budget to increase the financing of Slavutych now that it is deprived of revenues from the Chornobyl station. It is possible, however, that the problem of phasing out the station will be solved in an “off-budget” manner. The Fuel and Energy Ministry is studying the possibility of setting up a single nuclear generating company. Commenting on the cabinet’s proposal to corporatize the national nuclear generating company Enerhoatom and enterprises involved in the nuclear fuel cycle, Minister Serhiy Yermilov said, “No new structures are being formed so far, but the matter is being discussed.” Experts believe that establishing such a company would upgrade the system of control over the nuclear-industrial complex. Among other things, it would increase its reliability and safety in terms of radioactive waste management, and allow a complete nuclear fuel production cycle. Another possibility is that it will ease the burden on the budget, stemming from the closure of Chornobyl and the need to build a new confinement.
The Washington Post reported in early January that engineers of an international consortium led by Bechtel International Systems Corporation (San Francisco) will finish working out a concept of vaulted hangar of almost 113 meters in height (known as “safe confinement” in Ukraine) which will cover the weather- beaten Sarcophagus. The Ukrainian share in the Project SIP ($50 million), including participation in the unique construction project, is provided for by the central budget. Regrettably, the prospects of such financing look grim at this stage. State Treasure statistics point to 82.1% of the state budget expenses items financed in January 2003.
