Chernobyl’s Last Working Reactor Restarted After Repairs

Ukrainian authorities Friday restarted the last working nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl power plant, ignoring international pressure to shut it down.

Reactor No. 3 was restarted at 5:30 a.m. Friday after almost five months of repairs. It was initially running at about 5% of capacity and was gradually increasing its output, said a spokeswoman for the plant who declined to give her name. She wouldn’t say when the reactor was expected to reach full power.

Officials at Chernobyl insist that Reactor No. 3 is safe.

Western governments and environmental groups have long urged Ukraine to close the plant, and a 1995 agreement between Ukraine and the Group of 7 leading industrialized nations calls for the facility’s closure by 2000.

“We’re completely opposed to restarting Chernobyl,” Ben Pearson, an antinuclear activist in the Amsterdam office of the environmental group Greenpeace, said this week. “Chernobyl is probably the most dangerous reactor in the world.”

Local news media gave little attention to the restart, and most Ukrainians’ reactions ranged from neutral to fatalistic.

“Anything may happen; I rely only on God,” said Halyna Yanovska, a street vendor in Kiev, the capital.

Ukraine says it needs $1.2 billion from the West to finish construction of two new reactors to compensate for the output that will be lost by closing Chernobyl.

The government says it is planning to shut down Chernobyl at an unspecified time next year.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which has played a leading role in the discussions on financing the new reactors, was supposed to make a loan decision in September.

But it has taken no action, and other potential lenders are expected to wait for the bank’s decision before they commit any funds.

The Chernobyl plant had four working nuclear reactors. However, Reactor No. 4 exploded in April 1986, spewing radiation over much of Europe. Ukrainian authorities have blamed 8,000 deaths on the world’s worst nuclear accident.

The reactor is now encased in a steel-and-concrete sarcophagus, and two more reactors have been permanently shut down since then.

Meanwhile, workers have begun repairs on the sarcophagus, which was hastily constructed after the accident to prevent additional radiation leaks. Work will continue through December to strengthen the sarcophagus’ concrete beams.

Ukraine operates 14 reactors at five power plants, which supply about 40% of the country’s energy.