Ukrainian officials solemnly marked the 14th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster yesterday – but said they couldn’t afford to close the damaged plant.
Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko on Tuesday repeated promises to close the only reactor still working at the plant by the end of the year – but aides said yesterday they first would have to find a substitute source for the lost energy.
“To close down Chernobyl without proper works and financing will be very difficult,” Ecology Protection Minister Ivan Zaiats said.
The plant’s No. 4 reactor exploded and caught fire April 26, 1986, sending a toxic radioactive cloud over much of what was then the Soviet Union in the world’s worst nuclear accident.
Three people were killed immediately and 28 emergency workers died in the next three months. Government figures indicate 70,000 Ukrainians were disabled as a result.
But a United Nations report released yesterday said the worst health consequences are yet to come.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said 3 million children will require medical treatment as a result of the radiation leak, and “many will die prematurely.”
“Not until 2016, at the earliest, will [we know] the full number of those likely to develop serious medical conditions” because of delayed reactions to radiation exposure, he said.