KYIV, Apr. 4 (Ukrainian News) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has placed new conditions to finance work to transform the Chernobyl Shelter into an ecologically safe system, a government official said on Tuesday.
Following a meeting with EBRD president Joachim Jahnke, Deputy Prime Minister Oleh Dubyna told journalists that the EBRD would soon announce the new conditions, but did not specify what those conditions would be.
“Next week they will present the issues that are preventing them from organizing the technical and economic basis of the project,” Dubyna said, referring to the EBRD.
At the same time, Dubyna said that Ukraine fulfilled the main condition for financing the transformation of the Shelter object at the end of last year – the closure of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
Dubyna added that the Cabinet of Ministers is prepared to agree with the construction of an arch-type Shelter alternative, which involves the construction of a second sarcophagus in the form of an arch over the existing object.
The cost of transforming the Shelter object is estimated at $760 million.
All the work on constructing the Shelter will be financed by funds from donor countries, which have already said they would provide around $730 million.
The EBRD is the manager of the Shelter Fund.
The bank has prepared a three-year plan for tenders to purchase equipment, materials and services to conduct work on the Shelter object. The bank has planned to conduct the first tender in the first quarter of this year.
