Chernobyl Target Of Energy Study

The group of seven (G7) leading western industrial countries are applying growing pressure on the EBRD to play a lead role in financing the $1 billion completion of the 1,000mw Khmelnitsky 2 and Rivne 4 nuclear reactors, which Ukraine is insisting on as part of the price for agreeing to close the stricken Chernobyl plant.

Two of the four reactors at the Chernobyl site, scene of the world's worst nuclear disaster 10 years ago, are still in operation accounting for around five per cent of Ukraine's power generation.

The EBRD, which faced protests over its planned involvement in financing completion of two nuclear reactors at Mochovce in Slovakia close to the Austrian border, is a reluctant participant in the Ukraine project.

 

Its leading shareholders in the G7 have told it they expect'' its active engagement in securing'' financing of the completion of Khmelnitsky and Rivne.

The bank is insisting that the Ukraine project must meet its general sound banking'' principles for lending and in particular that it complies with its policy for participating in the nuclear sector.

Having been attacked by environmental groups for the partiality of the studies it commissioned on the Mochovce project, the EBRD was at pains yesterday to emphasise the independent nature of the Ukraine study.

It has asked a panel of international experts to assess Ukraine's current and future energy needs and explore possible energy saving measures as well as power generation options, and to report by November.

The bank is insisting it could only go ahead with funding completion of the two reactors if the project was shown to be part of the least cost option for meeting Ukraine's energy needs. The analysis, which is being funded by European Union and US government aid agencies, would determine whether completing the two reactors to internationally recognised safety standards'' was