WILL CHERNOBYL CLOSE 14 YEARS AFTER THE EXPLOSION?

After the Chernobyl catastrophe in April, 1986, at least three times authorities announced the shut down of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. First, it happened after the first parliamentary hearing on Chernobyl in the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1989. Then, after the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, the same decision was adopted by the Ukrainian Parliament (Supreme Rada). But no one of these decisions worked.

Now, after U.S. President Clinton has visited Ukraine and promised $80 million to Ukraine to render the disaster site safe and improve investment in the Ukrainian energy industry, Ukraine has made the third decision to close Chernobyl NPP by the end of 2000. Now, it is opened that decision will be implemented. This is good news.

But the bad news on the Chernobyl catastrophe released by the United Nations in its report notes that the worst health consequences of the explosion are yet to come. The booklet titled "Chernobyl, A Continuing Catastrophe" issued in late April, 2000 by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, emphasized that seven million people in Ukraine. Belarus and Russia are still suffering the effects of the Chernobyl catastrophe from 14 years ago. Three million among the victims of Chernobyl are children who need immediate treatment. These three countries are the most contaminated and effected and still spent a big part of their minimal budgets to help Chernobyl sufferers.

According o the UN report, serious medical consequences will develop more because of delayed reactions to radiation exposure not being known until 2016 at the earliest. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said that an original list of 60 UN Chernobyl projects had been shortened to the nine most urgent, sharing three in each country - Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. In addition to these projects, there will be modernization of hospitals, creation of a network of children's treatment centers, and cleaning up kindergartens, schools and hospitals.