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This programme which was wound up in May 2007 provided support to national and international efforts to mitigate the social and economic consequences of the early shutdown of early generation Soviet reactors - as requested by the international community - and assisted nuclear power plant management, trade unions, local governments and citizens groups to plan socially responsible decommissioning programmes.
It was the Chernobyl accident of 1986 that provoked increased public concern about early generation Soviet-designed reactors. G7 governments and the EU agreed to co-operate with the nuclear power plant operators and regulators to prevent a repeat of the accident and provide financial support for safety improvements and for the decommissioning of those reactors that did not meet international safety standards or were nearing the end of their design life. Concerns were also expressed about the social, environmental and economic impact in timing the shut-down of nuclear facilities and the need to address staff dissatisfaction to prevent a further degradation in operational safety and site security. The EU and a number of western countries (e.g. Denmark, Germany, Sweden, the UK and the USA) then agreed to provide funding for a programme of complementing projects to access and address social mitigation concerns and needs.
Following a series of UK scoping studies in 2002 and 2003, a UK programme was developed with the ultimate objective to ensure that high levels of operational safety was maintained before, during and after closure and prevent the risk of proliferation of nuclear material and expertise through developing plant management, community and business capacity building programmes by
For over five years, short-term technical support with seed corn funding was directed at towns in the vicinity of Chernobyl (Ukraine) Ignalina in Lithuania and Kozloduy in Bulgaria. Lithuania and Bulgaria are now members of the European Union, with access to Social and Structural Funds but for all three countries/regions which have received UK support, all this work came to a natural conclusion and with marked success. This was officially wound up in May 2007.
In total, thirty four business and social capacity building projects received financial and technical support All projects delivered practical results and some significantly changed the lives of the local population. Implementation of the projects generated some 700 new jobs for local people, and municipalities and key town institutions are now much better equipped to address arising challenges and changes than they were before.
Examples of projects supported under the Social and Economic Consequences of Nuclear Power Plant Closure Programme
Ignalina
Kozloduy
Slavutych/Chernobyl
HTSPE Ltd, formerly PE-International was appointed as UK Project Managers to manage this Programme in October 2002.
Further information on this programme and the projects that have been supported are contained in an attached Conference Paper located in the Documents Section to the right of this page entitled ‘Building Blocks for Regeneration: Achievements and Lessons from the UK Programme Addressing the Social Consequences of Nuclear Power Plant Closures in Central and Eastern Europe’ that was presented at an International Conference in Slavutych, Ukraine in May 2007 In addition, previous years’ Global Partnership Annual Reports may be accessed via a link in the Related Documents section located to the right of this page.
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