GP Demands Closure of All Chernobyl-Type Reactors

[the.greenbase@green2.greenpeace.org]

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Original-TO:      World Press (Green2:Green2:Gnl:INET)
Original-Cc:      The Greenbase (Green2:Green2:Gnl:Main)
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                   GREENPEACE PRESS RELEASE
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GREENPEACE DEMANDS URGENT CLOSURE OF ALL CHERNOBYL-TYPE 
REACTORS
 
Vienna, Tuesday 2 April 1996 -(GP)-  Greenpeace today released
the  results of an independent assessment of RBMK's, Chernobyl
type  reactors.(1) The study shows that despite the
expenditure on  backfitting operations, RBMK reactors are
inherently unsafe  and remain a constant threat of causing
another disaster on  the scale of the Chernobyl accident.
 
"This report confirms that all RBMK reactors should be closed 
immediately. The only beneficiaries of backfitting operations 
are the nuclear engineering companies", said Antony Froggatt
of  Greenpeace. "Due to the decline of the nuclear power
business  in the West, those companies are desperately looking
for orders in Central and Eastern Europe". 
 
Until recently, Western governments agreed that the 'highest 
risk' reactors, the RBMK's and VVER 440-230's, must be closed 
immediately. The only attempts to backfit these, were made 
under strict conditions of early closure of the reactors. 
However, in the past months, there has been an apparent shift 
in policy.
 
Certain governments of the G7 countries appear to have agreed 
to invest in new backfitting operations, so reactors known as 
inherently dangerous can continue to operate. 
 
So far, the expensive backfitting programmes have not been 
successful. Whatever the marginal safety increases from the 
involvement of Western firms, the operation of RBMK reactors 
would not be approved to Western standards.  
 
"RBMK's generate only about 5% of the electricity in the 
Ukraine and 7% in the Russian Federation. They could easily be 
made superfluous by implementing cheap and immediatly 
effective energy efficiency measures", said Greenpeace's 
Helmut Hirsch.  "Western aid programmes should focus on energy
efficiency programmes, instead of on backfitting decrepit 
reactors which can never be made sufficiently safe". 
 
The economies in Central and Eastern Europe are in transition 
and consequently new technologies can and should be 
introduced. The region has an enormous potential for the 
implementation of energy efficient technologies and renewable 
energy sources. Failure to close down the RBMK reactors are 
mainly due to the lack of political willingness to investment 
in alternatives.
 
Greenpeace urges the G7 and the European Union Nations, as 
well as the international financial institutions, to stop 
investments in extending the operation of dangerous reactors 
and the completion of new nuclear reactors. Later this month, 
the Heads of State from the G7, Russia and Ukraine will be 
meeting in Moscow to discuss nuclear safety and the closure of 
Chernobyl. Greenpeace is calling upon that meeting to agree 
definite shutdown plans for all RBMK's as a first step to a 
global phase out of nuclear power.
______________
 
For more information, please contact:
 
- Eloi Glorieux or Helmut Hirsch in Vienna:
++.43.1.713.00.31 - Karen Richardson in London:
++.44.171.865.82.81
- Antony Froggatt in Kiev: ++.380.44.244.38.34 
 
 
(1) "RBMK Report 1996 - A Critical Assessment of the Chernobyl 
Reactor Type", by the Physikerburo Kollert & Donderer, Bremen, 
Germany. April 1996. (Report commissioned and edited by 
Greenpeace)
 
Notes for Editors:
 
* RBMK stands for "Reactor Bolshoi Moshchnosti Kanalni". It is 
a Russian designed reactor which uses water as a coolant and 
graphite as moderator. Shortly after the Chernobyl accident, 
Western experts urged the closure of all RBMK reactors. Today, 
ten years later, 15 reactors of the same RBMK type are still 
in service: 11 in the Russian Federation, 2 in Ukraine 
(Chernobyl 1 and 3) and 2 in Lithuania.
 
* In December 1995, Ukraine and the G7 countries drafted a 
"Memorandum of Understanding", in which they agreed in 
principle to close the Chernobyl plant by the year 2000. 
Technical and financial assistance to replace those reactors 
has so far not been materialised. The US Office of Nuclear 
Energy, Science and Technology, have released their 1997 
budget figures. These have a specific line item to "provide 
instrumentation and control upgrades at RBMK and VVER 440-230 
plants". The director of the German Safety Agency, GRS, said 
that it would be irresponsible not to make safety-technical 
improvements at Chernobyl in the next 4-5 years, i.e. in and 
after 2000 when the station is supposed to be decommissioned. 
 
 
 

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