Subject: Chernobyl: Leaking radiation and sucking up Canadian money

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/chernobyl-leaking-radiation-an...

Chernobyl: Leaking radiation and
sucking up Canadian money

Thirteen years after Canada and other nations
pledged $768-million to render the destroyed
nuclear reactor safe, the cost has ballooned
to $2-billion and the job still isn't done

Doug Saunders, Globe and Mail, Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Kiev — Almost a quarter-century after its explosion killed hundreds
and shocked the world, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor still sits
crumbling amid an uninhabitable wasteland in northern Ukraine, still
emits surprising amounts of radiation, and still absorbs vast amounts
of money.

Much of that money, at least $71-million of it, has come from
Canadian taxpayers, intended to pay for a project launched in 1997
under a pledge from leaders of the G-7 countries to enclose the
reactor in a permanent, sealed sarcophagus.

It was meant to be finished in eight years and cost $768-million
(U.S.), a symbol of a resurgent Ukraine returning to democratic
government and an open economy, putting the 1986 disaster
permanently in the past.

But in a story of tragic disappointment that exemplifies the web of
corruption and distrust that so often ensnares relations between
Ukraine and the West, 13 years later the cost of the project has
ballooned to almost $2-billion and construction has not even begun.

Canadian officials describe it as a “money sink” that has fallen prey
to the worst aspects of Ukraine's failed development, a physical
manifestation of the once-wealthy country's political decay.

Later this year, after the G-8 conference in Huntsville, Ont., the
Canadian government will be asked to make another pledge, likely
in the tens of millions of dollars, in an effort to raise another $200-
million to $300-million to get the job done by the end of 2012, before
the reactor decays further and poses an even graver danger. While
the reactor's original sarcophagus, built in a hurry after the disaster,
was recently reinforced, it is a flimsy structure that could collapse,
sending a radioactive dust cloud into the atmosphere. Portions of
the reactor core are still exposed to open air and rainwater.

On Sunday, five years after the Orange Revolution raised hopes
of a more democratic and economically prosperous Ukraine,
Ukrainians will go to the polls in the final round of a presidential
election that has already eliminated incumbent President Viktor
Yushchenko, blamed by the West for many of the problems
surrounding the Chernobyl containment project. But for the
bankers and Canadian government officials who have been
working for a decade and a half to protect the world from the
radioactive ruins of Chernobyl, there is a fear that the New Safe
Confinement project, as it is known, will again spin out of control.

“In order to avoid any funds being lost to corruption, we had to take
great care, and sometimes it meant that there were periods of years
where none of the Ukrainians were doing anything,” said Vince
Novak, head of nuclear safety for EBRD -- the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development. The EBRD, a development-finance
body that aids post-communist economies, was appointed by the
G-8 to manage the Chernobyl project.

Most of the delays and cost increases are tied directly to the political
turmoil that has embroiled Ukraine since the 2004 Orange
Revolution. Mr. Yushchenko, the reformist President in whom the
West had placed its hopes, proved to be a terrible manager of both
the project and his cabinet, and corruption and cronyism flourished
under his watch. At least one minister who headed the project was
notorious for corruption and links to organized crime, and others
allowed such practices to flourish.

It did not help that Yulia Tymoshenko, his first prime minister, was
purged by Mr. Yushchenko after a few months, creating factional
splits that hobbled the project. She is now running for president
against Viktor Yanukovich, a pro-Russian candidate who, like her,
has his own business interests.

At least a dozen cabinet ministers have controlled the project since
it began, in some cases seizing it from their counterparts after only
weeks, EBRD officials said.

“We've seen constant changes of personnel on the Ukrainian side
happening very, very, very often,” said Balthasar Lindauer, deputy
director of the EBRD's nuclear safety program. “As soon as we
finish explaining the project to one minister and staff, there would
be a power struggle and it would be taken over by another minister,
and all the institutional memory would be lost and we'd have to
start again.”

In one case, the officials spent several days in Kiev explaining the
project to a new minister and winning assurances from Mr.
Yushchenko that the contracting would begin, the staff would
remain in place and there would be stability. Just as they got off
the plane after flying to Spain for another project, they were
informed that the President had given it to another minister.

Many of the ministers seemed utterly disinterested in actually
enclosing the reactor, officials said. Chernobyl became a source
of largesse. Today, a decade after it was shut down completely,
the reactor still has more than 3,000 employees on its full-time
payroll – a classic example of the communist-style employment
system that still plagues Ukraine. Many Ukrainian officials
seemed determined to use the containment project to boost
these employment levels.

On several occasions, officials loyal to either Mr. Yushchenko or
to Ms. Tymoshenko have attempted to bypass the competitive
bidding process and give key contracts to organizations close to
their friends or the government.

The EBRD maintained control of the funds and the bidding
process, and refused to allow such deals. But policing such
disputes took years, and sometimes resulted in damaged
relationships.

When a contract for the main construction project was awarded
to a French company in 2007, there were concerns that the
tendering process had been corrupt, so the EBRD ordered a
lengthy audit.

The audit last year showed that the contract was reliable. But
work has still not begun.

The EBRD is currently in the midst of a new cost estimate to
determine how much more money it will need from the G-8
countries, and its officials say they are determined to use a
hoped-for period of stability after Sunday's election to secure
enough money to get the project done by the end of 2012.

“They will need at least a couple hundred million euros more,”
said a Canadian official involved in the project. “And we will
probably be contributing a significant amount because this is
a priority for us.”

__._,_.___