Chernobyl Scrap Going Up For Sale

KYIV, UKRAINE - Officials at the site of the world's worst nuclear accident announced plans recently to sell scrap and other equipment from the Chernobyl nuclear plant, saying the government was not giving it enough money to continue operating.

Plant spokesman Viktor Kapusta said authorities hoped to raise the funds by selling things like pumps to maintain ongoing operations such as monitoring radiation levels. He called the decision a "forced measure," saying the federal government owes the plant $3.2 million (U.S.).

About 30 workers are sorting out the equipment and estimating its value, Kapusta said. He said the equipment being sold was "clean, safe and environmentally friendly."

He refused to say how much the plant operators were hoping to bring in.

"We shouldn't be sitting around twiddling our thumbs," he said. "We should try to make money ourselves."

An estimated 7 million people suffer radiation-related health problems from the disaster at Chernobyl's reactor No. 4, which exploded and burned in 1986. The radioactive fallout affected vast parts of Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and much of northern Europe.

The destroyed reactor was entombed in a hastily built concrete-and-steel shelter, which Ukrainian experts say is in need of urgent repairs. The last reactor at the plant was shut for good in 2000, but many call the plant a ticking atomic time bomb.

Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly warned a previously estimated figure of $758 million was far from enough to build a new protective shelter for reactor No. 4 by the end of 2008. Officials have asked for an additional $350 million.