House construction near nuclear reactor in Kyiv could lead to second Chornobyl - MP
KYIV. June 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The construction of a multi-storey building in the sanitary protection area of the operating nuclear reactor of the Institute for Nuclear Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine at 42/1 Nauky Avenue in Kyiv could lead to another technogenic disaster similar to Chornobyl, deputy chairman of the committee on corruption prevention and counteraction, MP Boryslav Bereza, has said.
"Building on the reactor cooling system is fraught with [the potential for] a man-made disaster. When Chernovetsky was in office, there were also attempts to start building there, but the former mayor did not allow [it]. Popov, with his attitude to criminal authorities, tried to ban construction there. At the moment we can see that the construction is being planned and preparatory work is underway. All is [now] more than serious, and in case of construction another Chornobyl is possible in Kyiv," Bereza said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine in Kyiv.
According to the head of the measurement and diagnostic systems department at the Institute of Nuclear Power Plant Safety, Oleksandr Kuchmahra, the building is located directly on the route of the reactor cooling system and reactor power cables.
In addition, the house will be located in the sanitary protection zone, where there should be no residential building. The distance from the reactor to the building does not even meet the minimum acceptable standards.
The reactor itself, built in the 1960s, is located 800 meters from the potential construction site of the multi-storey residential building.
"During the operation of the reactor light radionuclides are emitted into the atmosphere, and they manage to decay within a radius of 300 meters. However, the distance between the vent pipe of the cyclotron U-240 and the place of the proposed construction of a residential building is a mere 250 meters. If houses are located in the area, radioactive substances, having not decayed, will get into the organism of people living there," Kuchmahra said.
"Simply put, there is a pipe, from which radionuclides and radioactive aerosols are spread by the wind. And if a house is put on the place of winds - everything will deposit locally in this area. And the radiation doses will exceed the norm by hundreds of times," initiative group chairman Serhiy Petrenko added.
He noted that attempts to appeal to officials to solve this problem have been unsuccessful, and activists opposing the construction have received threats from "titushki" (hired thugs) and even law enforcement officers.
According to Petrenko, the tenant of the plot is Budconsulting Invest LLC.
"It's hard to say who the developer is, while the tenant in 2006-2012 filed zero balance. During this period five different developers appeared. The latest was North Ukrainian Construction Alliance from Nizhyn and one of the most powerful construction companies in Kyiv, which I was asked not to name," Petrenko stated.
He said there are now attempts to resell the land plot to a well-known construction company in Kyiv. Budconsulting Invest itself has no plans to carry out construction.