International Nuclear Safety Program faces opposition in U.S. Congress

by Eugene M. Iwanciw
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Energy program to conduct a comprehensive, cooperative program to reduce risks at Soviet-designed nuclear power plants may, once again, be in trouble. It appears that the administration's request of $50 million for the International Nuclear Safety Program (INSP) is encountering opposition in Congress. While in the past there have been congressional criticisms of the program's management, current opposition focuses on the method of financing the effort.

The program originated from U.S. commitments made at the G-7 conference in 1992, when world leaders agreed to collaborate with host countries to reduce risks at certain Soviet-designed reactors. Since that time the program's scope has expanded to include safety-related activities at 20 nuclear power plants with 64 operating reactors. The program has established partnerships with eight countries - Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia - to improve the physical conditions of plants, train plant operators, and establish modern safety technologies and methods. The U.S. effort is conducted in close cooperation with similar programs initiated by Western European countries, Canada and Japan.

In addition to the eight countries in the partnership, other countries in the immediate region - Poland, Romania, Moldova, Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia and Azerbaijan - and Western European countries, consider the program important because of the adverse impact any nuclear accident would have on their countries. The effects of the 1986 accident at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, while concentrated in Ukraine and Belarus, spread throughout the region, affecting Poland, the Baltic states and Scandinavian countries.

The INSP program is authorized by the Senate Committee on Armed Services and the House Committee on National Security as part of the Defense Authorization Bill. Congressional opposition to the program generally centers not on the program itself but on the funding mechanism. The argument of critics is that the program is foreign assistance and should be funded as such rather than through the Pentagon's budget. This disagreement could have dire implications for the program if the two committees refuse to authorize the appropriations. If the Congress fails to fund the INSP, that could also impact on the U.S. contribution to the international effort to provide funds for the closing of the Chornobyl plant by the year 2000.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, April 13, 1997, No. 15, Vol. LXV

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