UK Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks this week co-chaired the Chernobyl Shelter Fund pledging event on behalf of the G8 at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London.
At the event, the G8 pledged $185 million to the fund with other donors making up the total amount pledged to $200 million.
The Chernobyl Shelter Fund was set up in 1997 following the G7 summit in Denver and is managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on behalf of the donors. The fund finances a large-scale international project to make the sarcophagus at Unit 4 of Chernobyl environmentally stable.
Malcolm Wicks said: "Securing the safety of the Chernobyl site after the 1986 accident demands the continued commitment of the international community. The UK is playing its part and has contributed $53 million to the fund.”
Pledging conferences held in New York in 1997 and Berlin in 1999 have already raised over $700 million from the G7 and other donor countries for this $1 billion project.
Diagram of the proposed new shelter facility
Poll: Should the UK’s railways be renationalised?
Rail passenger numbers declined from 1.27 million in 1946 to 735,000 in 1994 a fall of 42% over 49 years. In 2019 the last pre-Covid year the number...