KYIV                                                                                                                          20 APRIL 1996

REALISTIC ALTERNATIVES FOR NUCLEAR ENERGY IN UKRAINE EXIST !

In connection with the 10th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe, Ukrainian-American seminars on "Alternatives to Nuclear Energy" were held in Mykolaiv, Nikopol and Zaporizhzhya between April 8 and 18, 1996.

The seminars were sponsored by local chapters of the Ukrainian environmental federation, Green World, and two American non-governmental organizations, Center for Citizen Initiatives and Plutonium Free Future, which are located in California, USA. Speakers and participants included local officials from regional and local government, executives and engineers from regional and city electric power companies, and faculty and students from engineering universities.

Seminars were based on the Declaration on Human Rights which declares the right to life as the highest value. Therefore, decisions on the basic direction and specific development in the field of eneregy should be made only with the participation of all people effected by these decisions.

Seminar participants in each city expressed concern about the following energy issues:

1.    Two years ago the President and government of Ukraine ignored the wishes of the public, still shocked by Chernobyl, by deciding to create an independent Ukrainian "nuclear fuel cycle" and nuclear industry.

2.     American specialists reported that after the accident at Three Mile Island atomic station in Pennsyvania in 1979, the construction of atomic power stations in the US concluded for reasons of safety and non-profitability. The official energy policy of Ukraine creates conditions only for atomic energy, which is of global ecological danger and is economically suicidal, even without serious accidents. This is a path to non-sustainable energy, to destruction of democratic foundations of society and to lose of independence.

3.   Democratic development of Ukraine requires adoption by parliament of a law on the heating and electricity complex, the promotion of energy conservation, and the increase of efficiency in energy production and distribution. The law should include a requirement that each region create an energy commission with public participation to achieve democratic decision-making on energy issues.

4.    Ukrainian and American specialists asserted that Ukraine has a great potential for the use of renewable energy (especially wind, solar, biogas, and geothermal) and that Ukraine has the capability to produce (in Mykolaiv, Kryviy Rig, Zaporizhzhya and Kharkiv) all components for erection of gas turbine electric stations. Experience in Ukraine and USA proves that gas turbine technology is economical, flexible and ecologically clean; therefore it is a cheap and safe alternative to atomic power stations in the near future.

5.   Seminar participants heard about the permanent closure of an atomic power station in Sacramento (capital of California) by means of a popular referendum. They discussed the importance of including the right to referendum in the new constitution of Ukraine.