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Chernobyl Donor Conference Falls Short of Goal

   VOA News  April 19, 2011
   French PM Francois Fillon, left, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych,
   center, and President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso
   during the Chernobyl Pledging Conference in Kiev, Ukraine, April 19,
   2011

Photo: AP

   French PM Francois Fillon, left, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych,
   center, and President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso
   during the Chernobyl Pledging Conference in Kiev, Ukraine, April 19,
   2011

   International leaders have fallen short of the $1.1 billion goal at a
   donors conference in Kyiv to help clean up the site of the Soviet-era
   Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine.
   Tuesday's event raised over $785 million and kicked off a week of
   meetings to help mark the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.
   The 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl plant, near Ukraine's border with
   Belarus, spewed a radioactive cloud over much of Europe.
   The money is needed to help complete the construction of a long-term
   shelter over the reactor. In the months following the explosion,
   workers fashioned a so-called sarcophagus to block the radiation. But
   is has already outlasted its proposed service life and is
   deteriorating. The new cover will slide over the top of the damaged
   reactor and is expected to seal it until the end of the century.
   After the new shelter is in place, the reactor can be disassembled.
   Some of the money raised will be used to build a storage facility for
   nuclear waste from Chernobyl.
   Among the top donors were the European Bank of Reconstruction and
   Development, European Commission, United States, Germany and Russia.
   But Japan, which had been one of the top donors in previous years, was
   unable to contribute because of its own nuclear troubles following a
   tsunami and earthquake. Other countries unable to donate because of
   their own economic problems included Spain, Ireland and Canada.

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