Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday gave the go-ahead to the controversial launch of a new nuclear reactor on the country’s western border with Poland, despite European protests and safety concerns.
The Russian-type water reactor, which has a 1 000 megawatt capacity, got the nod from Ukraine’s governmental commission for atomic energy and is expected to be activated within the next few weeks.
The Rivne nuclear power plant already has three functioning reactors.
The commission has declared it environmentally safe and ”conforming to international norms”, said Tetyana Kutuzova, a spokesperson for the commission.
The reactor, however, has been denied funding by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which claimed it does not meet safety levels.
Nuclear plants produce half of Ukraine’s energy. The country is otherwise forced to rely on supplies from Russia and its own devastated coal-mining industry.
In 1986, Chernobyl saw the world’s worst nuclear accident after a reactor exploded and contaminated a large part of Europe, with neighbouring Belarus suffering the worst because of wind conditions at the time.
According to a Soviet estimate at the time, 31 people died as a result of the accident. But since 1986 an estimated 25 000 people from all over the former Soviet Union who came to clean up after the accident have lost their lives. — Sapa-AFP