The uranium extraction in the Ukraine is practically stopped. As the news agency dpa reports, the conveyor belts at all three uranium mines in the country are at a standstill due to a lack of funding.
In the state shafts in the Kirovohrad Oblast, only the essential services for ventilation, pumping out and cleaning of the water work.
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About 5000 workers are on unpaid leave. The reason for the shutdown are debts of the state company Energoatom in the amount of the equivalent of four million euros, it said. Energoatom is the only buyer of uranium.
Power cut could cause environmental disaster
The operation in the three shafts has been discontinued, the operating company is facing bankruptcy next spring, reported the news site »Korrespondent.net«. For a long time there have been wage arrears and a lack of protective clothing and equipment.
As the news agency dpa reports, trade unionists also fear a power cut due to unpaid bills. This means that water that penetrates into the area could no longer be pumped out and the area’s groundwater could become radioactively contaminated. According to the correspondent, this could lead to an environmental disaster.
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The state-owned company Energoatom operates four nuclear power plants. The 15 power plant blocks produce over half of the electricity in the Eastern European country. The fifth power plant at Chernobyl was gradually shut down after the accident from 1986 to the end of 2000.
The explosion of block four in the then still Soviet nuclear power plant is considered to be the greatest nuclear disaster in the civilian use of nuclear power. As a result, radioactively contaminated areas around the nuclear ruins were closed. There were thousands dead and injured. Tens of thousands of people were forcibly relocated.
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