Green fury at tender for nuclear reactors

Date: 01/08/02

GREEN activists have attacked the European Commission for helping to bankroll two nuclear reactors which will replace the ill-fated Chernobyl plant in Ukraine.

The National Ecological Centre for Ukraine is urging Commission President Romano Prodi to cancel a call for tenders relating to Khmelnitsky 2 and Rivne 4 (K2R4).

Olexi Pasyuk, an energy expert for the group, said the reactors, designed in the Soviet era, had been 'heavily criticised on economic, safety and social grounds'.

In 2000, the Commission approved a €598 loan to the Ukrainian nuclear power company Energoatom for the K2R4 project.

Now it has invited tenders for a contract worth up to €250,000 for providing legal advice on finalising details of the loan.

Pasyuk said the EU should instead focus on promoting generation from renewable sources, better efficiency and boosting the safety of existing nuclear facilities.

Green activists have attacked the European Commission for helping to bankroll two nuclear reactors which will replace the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine.