12 Years Chernobyl, Shell pulls out

Please save the Planet Politicians suck Legalise it! Main index	MotorOil - PasokOil \| Go Shell - Go to hell \| No way Norway! Guinea pigs \| Victory! \| Energy from the sun 1st human clone \| El Nino 12 years Chernobyl \| Shell pulls out Boycott lists \| Animal testing 12TH YEAR OF THE CHERNOBYL THE TRAGEDY IS STILL CONTINUING Kiev,Ukraine, 24 April 1998 (Greenpeace). Today, on the eve of the Chernobyl remembrance day the Ukrainian Nuclear industry is keeping its unsolved problems. The consequences of the Chernobyl disaster are growing worse from one day to another. About 50.000 square kilometers are contaminated by radiation, more than 8 %(four million people) of Ukrainian population are affected. 350.000 took part in the liquidation of the catastrophe constituencies. 160.000 people were evacuated from their homes. Ukraine still spends about 750 mln. US $ of an annual budget on Chernobyl-related cleanups and health problems. 3.2 million people live on the contaminated territories, health problems rate among the disaster-fighters increased 2.5 times, death rate - 2.4 times. Chernobyl-caused handicapped people number increases for 10,000 persons every year. In the meantime the Ukrainian authorities refuse to provide the governmental aid to more and more people suffered from the disaster. According to the 1995 Ukrainian official data 120.000 people have died as a result of the accident. Since 1996, the Ukrainian Government has changed the methods of the Chernobyl statistics. . According to the latest information provided by the Ukrainian official sources only 3576 deaths have been caused by the Chernobyl accident. The change in calculations happened due to the political and financial reasons in order to represent the Nuclear industry as a safe one in the endeavors to get loans for the new nuclear reactors, especially now on the eve of the European Bank for the Reconstruction and Development Annual meeting scheduled in Kiev for the 8-12th of May. The Bank may take the decision about the loans for reactors completion. Greenpeace Ukraine is doing its best to tell the public the truth about the Chernobyl tragedy which is still going on, about the nuclear power industry in Ukraine and to reveal the real problems. Nuclear reactors don't work all by themselves, their construction is connected to the whole range of problems - uranium mining, radioactive materials transportation, processing and radioactive waste dumping. Memorandum of understanding between Ukraine and the Big Seven includes the condition for the new reactors completion at Khmelnitsk and Rivno NPPs on the least cost basis only, the units don't meet the requirement so far. Ukrainian governmental officials go on pressing for reactors completion at any cost ignoring the independent experts conclusions, the economic reasons and just the common sense. The authorities simply forget that " the any cost" will be paid by the Ukrainian people who have already been bearing the burden of Chernobyl catastrophe outcomes. The sarcophagus poor condition and the lack of funds for its repair are the most colorful evidences for the evils of the nuclear path for the Ukrainian energy sector development. To keep it at the sufficient safety level it needs financial and technical support of the entire world community. Greenpeace Ukraine believes that Ukraine indeed needs world public aid to turn the Sarcophagus into a safe installation. However Greenpeace also insist that Chernobyl NPP which is meant to be shut down by the year 2000 should not be a pressure tool towards the West. West aid to Ukraine should be allocated for energy saving technologies and renewable energy implementation not for the new nuclear facilities. The alternatives can replace the Chernobyl units in terms of power; they also can start qualitatively new stage in the Ukrainian energy sector development. With approximately 50 percent of available power-generating facilities being out of business in the country building the new nuclear units is unreasonable from the economic point of view and of extreme danger from the ecological one. The only possible option is the new power policy that would encourage saving and rational use of power. Greenpeace on the Internet: http://www.greenpeace.org SHELL pulls out of U.S. anti-climate lobby group LONDON, April 21, 1998 - Greenpeace International welcomed Shell's announcement today that the multinational oil company would be withdrawing its membership from the Global Climate Coalition: the US industry lobby group which attempts to undermine government action to combat climate change. Chair of Shell Transport and Trading Co, Mr Mark Moody-Stuart, responding to questions by journalists over the contradiction between Shell's concern about climate change and ongoing membership of the GCC, reportedly said that Shell was withdrawing and that differences were irreconcilable. This was at the London launch of a new Shell report. The Shell Report 1988 - detailing the company's 'triple bottom line' of economic, social and environmental performance. "Shell's withdrawal of support for the anti-climate position of the GCC is good news - it further discredits the GCC's efforts and increasingly shows them and their members up as the neanderthals of the climate change debate," said Kirsty Hamilton, Greenpeace International. Oil companies like Exxon, Texaco, ARCO and Mobil remain members of the GCC along with Ford, Chrysler and General Motors. "Shell must now deal with the core issue for climate protection: halting oil exploration and expansion and switching investments rapidly into renewable energy," Hamilton said. Greenpeace International Executive Director, Thilo Bode, wrote to Mark Moody Stuart recently raising the issue of Shell's ongoing membership of the GCC when the Coalition opposed the US government ratifying and implementing the December 1997 "Kyoto" climate agreement. This followed a year of campaigning by Greenpeace for Shell to withdraw. In Moody-Stuart's reply to Greenpeace, he confirmed Shell's support for ratification of the Kyoto agreement. However he also stated: "On new oil and gas exploration, we will clearly have to agree to differ." Shell plans to spend half a billion dollars over the next five years on renewable energy, compared to capital investment in oil and gas of around $7.5 billion in 1997 alone [1]. Hamilton said burning oil and other fossil fuels is pushing us further towards dangerous climate change. "Technical analysis by Greenpeace shows we can only afford to burn around a quarter of current fossil fuel reserves without risking climate changes that the world cannot adapt to," she said. Shell and BP are the most vocal oil companies in supporting precautionary action on climate change - however they continue exploring for new oil in frontier areas like the Arctic and North East Atlantic. "It is a priority that these developments stop and that the commercialisation of renewable energy is accelerated." Greenpeace on the Internet at http://www.greenpeace.org Back to please save the planet ! Back to oldies ... Back to index

12 years Chernobyl | Shell pulls out

12TH YEAR OF THE CHERNOBYL
THE TRAGEDY IS STILL CONTINUING

Kiev,Ukraine, 24 April 1998 (Greenpeace).
Today, on the eve of the Chernobyl remembrance day the Ukrainian Nuclear industry is keeping its unsolved problems. The consequences of the Chernobyl disaster are growing worse from one day to another. About 50.000 square kilometers are contaminated by radiation, more than 8 %(four million people) of Ukrainian population are affected. 350.000 took part in the liquidation of the catastrophe constituencies. 160.000 people were evacuated from their homes. Ukraine still spends about 750 mln. US $ of an annual budget on Chernobyl-related cleanups and health problems. 3.2 million people live on the contaminated territories, health problems rate among the disaster-fighters increased 2.5 times, death rate - 2.4 times. Chernobyl-caused handicapped people number increases for 10,000 persons every year. In the meantime the Ukrainian authorities refuse to provide the governmental aid to more and more people suffered from the disaster.
According to the 1995 Ukrainian official data 120.000 people have died as a result of the accident. Since 1996, the Ukrainian Government has changed the methods of the Chernobyl statistics. . According to the latest information provided by the Ukrainian official sources only 3576 deaths have been caused by the Chernobyl accident. The change in calculations happened due to the political and financial reasons in order to represent the Nuclear industry as a safe one in the endeavors to get loans for the new nuclear reactors, especially now on the eve of the European Bank for the Reconstruction and Development Annual meeting scheduled in Kiev for the 8-12th of May. The Bank may take the decision about the loans for reactors completion.
Greenpeace Ukraine is doing its best to tell the public the truth about the Chernobyl tragedy which is still going on, about the nuclear power industry in Ukraine and to reveal the real problems. Nuclear reactors don't work all by themselves, their construction is connected to the whole range of problems - uranium mining, radioactive materials transportation, processing and radioactive waste dumping.
Memorandum of understanding between Ukraine and the Big Seven includes the condition for the new reactors completion at Khmelnitsk and Rivno NPPs on the least cost basis only, the units don't meet the requirement so far. Ukrainian governmental officials go on pressing for reactors completion at any cost ignoring the independent experts conclusions, the economic reasons and just the common sense. The authorities simply forget that " the any cost" will be paid by the Ukrainian people who have already been bearing the burden of Chernobyl catastrophe outcomes.
The sarcophagus poor condition and the lack of funds for its repair are the most colorful evidences for the evils of the nuclear path for the Ukrainian energy sector development. To keep it at the sufficient safety level it needs financial and technical support of the entire world community. Greenpeace Ukraine believes that Ukraine indeed needs world public aid to turn the Sarcophagus into a safe installation. However Greenpeace also insist that Chernobyl NPP which is meant to be shut down by the year 2000 should not be a pressure tool towards the West.
West aid to Ukraine should be allocated for energy saving technologies and renewable energy implementation not for the new nuclear facilities. The alternatives can replace the Chernobyl units in terms of power; they also can start qualitatively new stage in the Ukrainian energy sector development. With approximately 50 percent of available power-generating facilities being out of business in the country building the new nuclear units is unreasonable from the economic point of view and of extreme danger from the ecological one. The only possible option is the new power policy that would encourage saving and rational use of power.
Greenpeace on the Internet: http://www.greenpeace.org

SHELL pulls out of U.S. anti-climate lobby group

LONDON, April 21, 1998 - Greenpeace International welcomed Shell's announcement today that the multinational oil company would be withdrawing its membership from the Global Climate Coalition: the US industry lobby group which attempts to undermine government action to combat climate change.
Chair of Shell Transport and Trading Co, Mr Mark Moody-Stuart, responding to questions by journalists over the contradiction between Shell's concern about climate change and ongoing membership of the GCC, reportedly said that Shell was withdrawing and that differences were irreconcilable. This was at the London launch of a new Shell report. The Shell Report 1988 - detailing the company's 'triple bottom line' of economic, social and environmental performance.
"Shell's withdrawal of support for the anti-climate position of the GCC is good news - it further discredits the GCC's efforts and increasingly shows them and their members up as the neanderthals of the climate change debate," said Kirsty Hamilton, Greenpeace International. Oil companies like Exxon, Texaco, ARCO and Mobil remain members of the GCC along with Ford, Chrysler and General Motors.
"Shell must now deal with the core issue for climate protection: halting oil exploration and expansion and switching investments rapidly into renewable energy," Hamilton said.
Greenpeace International Executive Director, Thilo Bode, wrote to Mark Moody Stuart recently raising the issue of Shell's ongoing membership of the GCC when the Coalition opposed the US government ratifying and implementing the December 1997 "Kyoto" climate agreement. This followed a year of campaigning by Greenpeace for Shell to withdraw. In Moody-Stuart's reply to Greenpeace, he confirmed Shell's support for ratification of the Kyoto agreement.
However he also stated: "On new oil and gas exploration, we will clearly have to agree to differ." Shell plans to spend half a billion dollars over the next five years on renewable energy, compared to capital investment in oil and gas of around $7.5
billion in 1997 alone [1].
Hamilton said burning oil and other fossil fuels is pushing us further towards dangerous climate change. "Technical analysis by Greenpeace shows we can only afford to burn around a quarter of current fossil fuel reserves without risking climate changes that the world cannot adapt to," she said.
Shell and BP are the most vocal oil companies in supporting precautionary action on climate change - however they continue exploring for new oil in frontier areas like the Arctic and North East Atlantic.
"It is a priority that these developments stop and that the commercialisation of renewable energy is accelerated."
Greenpeace on the Internet at http://www.greenpeace.org

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