OREANDA-NEWS. April 20, 2011. The international community, gathered at the pledging conference in Kiev, is contributing additional EUR550 million to the efforts to transform the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant into an environmentally safe site and create the conditions for a long-term solution for reactor 4 which was destroyed in the 1986 accident at Chernobyl. Major donors and the EBRD will work together to close the remaining financial gap, reported the press-centre of EBRD.

The EBRD is managing the international donor funds for Chernobyl. President Thomas Mirow said: “This is an encouraging result and we strongly welcome the donors’ strong commitment to work together with Ukraine to implement lasting solutions in Chernobyl. This is a significant achievement which represents a major step forward, but also a great responsibility for the consortium to deliver in time and within budget and make the site safe for the generations to come.”

At the conference in Kiev today 28 countries made new contributions and several additional countries announced they are still considering making pledges. EBRD President Mirow said that the Bank would make available at least €120 million to the project and that the Bank would consider additional contributions depending on efforts by other major donors. The Bank’s governors will decide about the EBRD’s new contribution at the Annual Meeting in May 2011 in Astana. The pledging conference was organised and chaired by Ukraine and France as current chair of the G8.

The additional financial means will replenish the Chernobyl Shelter Fund and the Nuclear Safety Account, the two EBRD-managed funds through which the Shelter Implementation Plan for reactor 4 and the Spent Fuel Storage Facility for reactors 1-3 are funded.

The Shelter Implementation Plan includes the construction of a new shelter for reactor 4. The start of construction of this so-called New Safe Confinement is imminent and first preparatory works have begun. The total cost for the Shelter Implementation Plan will be EUR 1.54 billion. The New Safe Confinement is the biggest project under this complex workplan and will cost about two thirds of the total amount.

It will be assembled on site and the current schedule foresees that this will be completed in summer 2015. Subsequently, the new structure will be slid over the shelter built after the 1986 accident.

The Spent Fuel Storage Facility will provide dry storage for the more than 20,000 spent fuel assemblies from operations in reactors 1-3 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The project design has received regulatory approval by the Ukrainian authorities and work on the site has begun. The design builds on existing concrete storage modules and uses a building for the processing of the assemblies. Processing will include cutting, drying and fitting of spent fuel into storage containers. The completion of the facility is expected 2014/15.

The pledging event was held on the occasion of the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident on 26 April 1986 which will be commemorated in Ukraine with a high-ranking international conference and a variety of other events throughout the country over the next days.
For more information about Chernobyl and the EBRD activities in nuclear safety see:
http://www.ebrd.com/pages/sector/nuclearsafety/chernobyl.shtml