1992
March: Ukrainian government reports that cracks have appeared
in the sarcophagus. An international competition is to be held for a design
for a replacement roof.
May & August: forest fires lift radiation levels in Belarus,
again
July: Ukrainian government launches an international competition
(‘Shelter-2 competition’) for the best project to prevent the ruins of
the reactor from threatening public health and the environment. A new shelter
(‘sacophagus’) is urgently needed.
18 September US experts estimate the economic damage for Ukraine
due to Chernobyl at about US$150 billion
15 October Block 3 is brought back online. Number 2 will follow
at the end of the month
29 November Ukrainian nuclear experts warn for Americium-241.
This Pu-241 daughter emits alpha-radiation and is seen as more dangerous
as its parent. Experts say alpha-radiation will be much higher in 50-70
years from now and hope it will not spread outside the 30km zone. (see
August 4, 2005)
1993
January to March: Establishment of a thyroid centre in Gomel
by the Otto Hug Strahleninstitut, Munich. Gomel is a large city with a
population of 500 000 in the most severely contaminated region of Belarus.
April: World Health Organisation expects sharp rise in both
leukaemia and cancers, after numbers in both are increasing
18 June: The international Shelter-2 competition ends. But Ukrainian
government does not award a first prize.The French consortium Campenon
Bernard receives a second prize. None of the 19 concepts on the shortlist
fullfills all Ukranian requirements. Unclear what happens next. Ukraine
is looking to establish an international fund to raise money.
22 October: Ukrainian government decided, due to electricity
shortage not to close the remaining Chernobyl reactors and suspends a moratorium
on new built
9 December: Russian geochemist Valerin Kopejkin claims that
if international radiation limits for Strontium-90 would be installed in
the Ukraine, Kiev has to be evacuated.
1994
February. US-MIT releases report: emissions at Chernobyl 5 times
higher between than official IAEA estimate of 50 million curies. MIT claims
185-250 million Curies was released.
9/10 October Closure of Chernobyl remaining reactors in 1996
at the earliest
1995
February: The first phase of the EU-study for stabalising the
sarcophagus ends. The study claims it is a huge open radiation source.
The consortium is pointing to the danger of collapse of the firsdt sarcophagus
and the problems of radiactive waste in case of constructng a second containment.
Start of construction is foreseen in April 1996.
March: 100 times more thyroid cancers in Gomel, Belarus, WHO
claims in report published in British Medical Journal.
13 April: President Leonid Kuchma declares Ukraine is ready
to shut down the remaining reactors of the plant by the year 2000. His
statement follows a meeting with European Commission officials in Kiev.
25 April: Ukrainian minister of public health Andrej Serdchuk:
125,000 people died due to Chernobyl, 432,000 still treated, 3.66 million
affected.
July: In a resolution adopted at a Kiev Conference organised
amonst others by WHO, it is said that mental disorders spreading among
Chernobyl-affected people
20-23 November: new findings presented at a WHO conference in
Geneva, suggest that radiation could also be increasing the incidence of
strokes, heart attacks and liver disease, as well as damaging the brains
of babies at the womb
22 December: At a meeting in the Canadian capital Ottawa, Ukraine
and the G7 group of the world's leading industrialised nations sign a Memorandum
of Understanding, agreeing to close Chernobyl. It involves commitments
worth a total of some US$2.3 billion in aid from the G7 to support Chernobyl's
closure by the year 2000. The agreed package of loans for Ukraine's energy
sector includes the completion of two more modern nuclear reactors at Rivne
(R4) and Khmelnytsky (K2) stations in the west of the country. The aid
package includes US$498 million in G7 member grants and $1.8 billion in
loan financing from international agencies. Most of the grant money --
US$349 million - will be for nuclear decommissioning and safety. More than
$1.9 billion will be spent to upgrade nuclear plants and the energy sector
as a whole.