Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Congressional Hearings Transcript

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vironmental remediation project. This ministry of the government
is responsible for the direction and coordination of all activities in
Ukraine that relate to the Chernobyl accident. The Ministry of
Chernobyl works with sister agencies, such as the Ministry of Environment,
the Institute of Nuclear Safety, the Ministry for Energy,
UkrAtom, and the Ukraine Academy of Sciences, but it is the central
hub of the spokes on this wheel. The Ministry of Chernobyl coordinates
the activities of the other agencies.
LATA completed negotiations, and that documentation is now
before Vice Prime Minister Masik, before the Ministry of Justice,
and before the Ministry for Foreign Economic Affairs for review.
This particular program is a little bit different than the others
that you've heard about. Earlier testimony today talked about
emergency measures that were taken immediately after the accident.
Those measures included construction of the sarcophagus, the
800 burial sites for radioactive contaminated materials, and removal
of populations from villages, evacuation, and things of that type.
The second phase of activity that you've heard about is studies.
There is a great deal of international study going on, and anybody
who's been to Chernobyl runs into vans from all nations.
The program that we have worked out with the Ukrainian government,
however, is a remediation program. It's a program not designed
to study, not designed to take emergency measures, but designed
to permanently resolve the issue. This program has been
filed with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna and
has been filed with the Commission of European Communities in
Brussels, and we have meetings scheduled with these organizations
to review in detail their comments on this project.
Currently, LATA is scheduled to sign a contract with the
Ukraine Government on the 5th of August that will launch this remediation
program. We envision that early phases of the program
would be supported by seed money from grant funds. The grant
funds will be sought in the United States, from international agencies,
and in Europe. Eventually, as a market economy evolves, the
program calls for support by the sovereign debt capacity of
Ukraine and operating funds of Ukraine, but that cannot happen
immediately. There are many steps to go through to build up the
financial structure to support this project.
The contract that we will sign next week covers the first 10 years
of remediation activity. We have had discussions envisioning a 30-
year program to completely eliminate the consequences of the accident
at Chernobyl.
The program is "comprehensive." It's a word they selected in the
very first letter of invitation that they sent to us. There were four
reactors operating at the time of the accident, with two more under
construction. One blew up, three continued to operate until a fire
last October, when number two went down, and now the other two
have been turned off. The program covers the accident site as well
as the three remaining reactors at the Chernobyl site. Although
the three remaining reactors are not operating, they do have to be
decommissioned and demolished.
In regard to reactor site number four, which is the reactor that
blew up, the program covers the migration of contamination. This
map will give you a superficial understanding of this very complex