Post date: Apr 18, 2011 4:40:58 PM
European Commission allocates 110 million euros for new Chernobyl nuclear reactor shell.
KIEV, UKRAINE (APRIL 18, 2011) REUTERS - The European Commission will allocate an extra 110 million euros (USD157 million) towards the cost of building a new shelter over the Chernobyl nuclear reactor which blew up in 1986, commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said on Monday (April 18) in Ukrainian capital Kiev.
"European Union is fully committed to supporting nuclear safety, and specially regarding Chernobyl. Tomorrow, on behalf of the European commission I will announce at the Pledging Conference an extra European Union pledge of about one hundred and ten million euros," Barroso told journalists during a joint briefing with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich.On the same day, EU and Ukraine signed the Agreement on financing nuclear safety action programm 2010 part 2.
The European Union is one of the principal stakeholders taking part in an international conference in Kiev, opening on Tuesday, at which nations will pledge cash to build a new shell over the reactor and provide for nuclear waste storage.
Ukraine says about 740 million euros' extra cash in all is needed to make the Chernobyl reactor safe from leaking radioactivity until the end of the century.