Chernobyl, Ukraine, Secretary-General of the United Nations visited the site of the Chernobyl explosion on Wednesday, a day after international donors pledged 550 million euros towards a permanent shelter to secure the ruined reactor.
Under a clear blue sky, civil servants, including A Chief, Ban Ki-moon, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and the head of the International Atomic Energy Association Yukiya Amano was outside the power plant for about 20 minutes.
The Ukraine needs of EUR 740 million for the construction of a new shelter on the fourth reactor exploded on April 26, 1986. The 550 million euros (785 million dollars) in promises did not meet the necessary figure at the Conference Tuesday.
"It was one thing to hear and read about the Chernobyl disaster". This is another totally different experience to see it, the head of the United Nations said after the helicopter flight site, calling his visit "extremely moving experience".
He drew parallels with the damaged power plant in Fukushima (Japan), saying that the recent disaster should provide a new impetus to take measures to improve nuclear safety standards.
"The Fukushima nuclear accident with the Chernobyl disaster has given us two strong messages." We must draw lessons from such tragedies, "he says.
Yanukovych said Wednesday that he was confident the whole sum for the project would be raised shortly and that the money raised Tuesday was sufficient to complete the construction of the shelter.
"We raised yesterday the major part of the sum." The rest, I am sure, will be collected shortly. "In fact, we have the possibility of building the new refuge to complete construction here 2015," he said.
The EBRD said in a statement Tuesday that he would work with the major donors "to close" the financial gap remains.
The money goes to a project managed by the EBRD to build a secure shelter on the existing concrete sarcophagus covering reactor, hastily erected in 1986 and supported until a few years after that he became unstable.
It will also fund an installation of safe storage for spent nuclear fuel and radioactive debris inside the reactor, which should be gradually extracted under the coating new Hi-Tech.
The two projects are due to become operational in 2015, according to the EBRD.
Copyright ? AFP 2011. All rights reserved. "More".
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