PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF CHERNOBYL (No. 2) (17 April 1996)

That this House notes that, on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, two reactors remain operational and the sarcophagus covering the ruins of reactor 4 is in danger of collapse, there are a further 14 reactors of the Chernobyl type RBMK as well as several more pressurised water reactors VVER-230 of uncertain safety in parts of the Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union; further notes that the Memorandum of Understanding between the G7 and Ukraine signed at the December 1995 G7 summit agreed to provide economic assistance to Ukraine to shut down Chernobyl by 2000 but that the Chairman of the Ukrainian Supreme Council, Olekjandr Moroz has recently stated that Ukraine has not made a decision to close Chernoby, citing the absence of adequate non-returnable grants from the West; and therefore urges the Government to ensure that the outcome of the forthcoming G7 summit in Moscow is a definite commitment to the closure of Chernobyl and real progress in a programme to render other similar reactors as safe as technically possible, looking to take them out of commission at the earliers date and encouraging investment in energy efficient measures that would eliminate the need for Chernobyl type reactors and the two ne w nuclear reactors proposed for Khmelnitsky and Rovno.

Sponsored by:
Lynne Jones (Labour)