Funds Mar Nuclear Safety

Managers and unions in the nuclear power industry warned Monday that safety standards might deteriorate due to lack of funds, possibly leading to Chernobyl-like accidents."Social tensions are growing, sharply reducing safety at the plant," The Associated Press quoted Pyotr Sorokin, the director of the Balakovo nuclear power plant in central Russia, as saying at a news conference."But when we tell the authorities the situation can lead to another Chernobyl, we are told: 'You are not alone, all plants are in the same position,'" Sorokin said.A statement released Monday by the nuclear energy workers' union said that "planned measures for the maintenance of safety" of nuclear power plants had been stopped.But the union's spokeswoman, Svetlana Sochkova, contacted by telephone Monday, could not name any plant that has had to stop safety checks. If the checks reveal the need for new parts, the plants, strapped for funds by the mutual debt crisis that has put a stranglehold on Russian industry, will have a dilemma: Shut down indefinitely or risk a nuclear accident."Every reactor bloc has to stop once a year for checks, and equipment for which the safety term has expired must be replaced," said Sergei Yermakov, a spokesman for the state nuclear energy agency, Rosatomenergo. "But unless the plants have the money to buy new parts, they will not be able to replace them."David Kyd, the chief spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, said by telephone that the agency did not "believe any acute danger has arisen in Russia."But we know there are problems, there are financial difficulties, like in other areas," he said.Kyd said that the situation was much worse in Ukraine, the site of the Chernobyl reactor accident in 1986, the world's worst. Qualified staff were leaving their jobs, spare parts were harder to obtain, and the mutual debt crisis was more acute.Yermakov said that Russia's 15 nuclear power plants have received only 2 to 3 percent of payments owed them for the energy they delivered in May. Without these payments, the plants cannot afford regular maintenance of their equipment, he said.He added that the atomic energy industry, which accounts for 12 percent of Russia's total energy production, is owed a total 674 billion rubles ($414 million) by the United Energy Network, the state electric energy monopoly.However, Vladimir Nuzhin, head of the contracts department of the United Energy Network, said that the energy monopoly was owed a total of 8.8 trillion rubles by Russia's energy consumers and therefore could not pay the nuclear plants.Yermakov said most routine checks are scheduled from May to September when the country consumes less energy."It would be extremely dangerous to skip any of those checks or not to replace parts in due time," he said.Yury Dorosh, the chief engineer of the plant in Smolensk, said by telephone that his staff has conducted all regular checks. He said the plant would not be allowed to continue work if any of the measures were overlooked."We are going to stop one of our three reactors this week for a safety check," Dorosh said. "But if we do not have the money to replaced the worn-out parts we will not put it back in operation."