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THE GREENS APPEAL TO RUSSIA NOT TO FINANCE TO CONSTRUCTION OF THE AESs IN UKRAINE

13.12.2002   
On the eve of a consecutive inter-state negotiations to be held on 21 June in Kharkov representatives of public ecological organizations turned to Mikhail Kasyanov, the Prime-Ministrer of the Russian Federation, and to the deputies of the Russian State Duma with the appeal not to render the financial aid for finishing the construction of two atomic reactors. The appeal was signed by representatives of the ecological group "Ekozashchita" ("Ecological protection"), World Service of Information on Energy Production (WSIEP) and the Anti-nuclear campaign of the Social-Ecological Union. In the opinion of the greens, the construction of the KhAES-2/RAES-4 may result in new nuclear catastrophes and leakage of radiation. Besides, it does not correspond to the interests of Russian taxpayers.

We want to remind that earlier this year Russia promised to give Ukraine about 150 million USD for this construction. During last five years the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) discussed the opportunity of giving the credit for realizing this project, but did not come to a positive decision. Along with it, one of the EBRD expertises came to the conclusion that the construction of new AESs in Ukraine is not economically sound, and that other, cheaper, scenarios of the development of energy production industry exist. The bank evaluated the construction about 1.5 billion USD, and Ukraine intends to spend twice less.

"The design of the blocks KhAES-2/RAES-4 does not correspond to the modern international demands for AES safety. Since the readiness of the construction is already 80-90%, is it impossible to modernize the blocks", commented Vladimir Sliviak, a co-chairman of the group "Ekozashchita", who signed the appeal to the Russian government. "The KhAES-2/RAES-4 were designed before the Chernobyl catastrophe, when the majority of the modern safety systems did not exist yet".

The greens believe that the investments into the KhAES-2/RAES-4 project are linked with a high financial risk for Russia, since the Ukrainian market of electric energy is very unstable. Besides, the financing and construction of the KhAES-2/RAES-4 are illegal, since there are no results of state expertises demanded by Ukrainian laws. Now a claim is handed to the Pecherskiy district court of Kyiv from six Ukrainian citizens against the state company "Energoatom", which constructs the atomic reactors. The consideration of this claim may cause the termination of the construction of the KhAES-2/RAES-4.

Additional information: (095) 776-62-81, 776-65-46 — Vladimir Sliviak, Alisa Nikulina; e-mail: [email protected]

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Moscow, 18 June 2002

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