MOSCOW, April 25 (RIA Novosti) - The Commonwealth of Independent States issued an appeal Tuesday for the world to join efforts to build a new confinement shelter at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
The heads of CIS states adopted the decision to publish the text of the appeal on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the world's worst civilian nuclear accident during a summit in the Russian city of Kazan in August 2005.
The document said that although enormous efforts had been taken to deal with the disaster, "the Chernobyl nuclear power plant remains a source of potential danger in the center of Europe."
A sarcophagus was built over the destroyed reactor after the accident, but needs to be replaced because cracks have been discovered.
"Reducing this threat to the minimum in the near future and through the use of new technologies is in our common interests," the document said. "That is why it is necessary to combine the scientific and financial potential of the international community to increasing the safety of the shelter."
Vast areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, as well as northern Europe, were contaminated by the fallout of a reactor explosion in the fourth unit of the Chernobyl NPP in Ukraine on April 26, 1986.
About 135,000 people were evacuated from within an 18-mile zone, which has left the surrounding area looking like a ghost town to this day. Many people, however, stayed or have returned to live there, even though radiation is still leaking from the site.
"The situation in affected regions is very complicated following the destruction of environmental infrastructure, the outflow of the workforce and demographic problems," the document says.
The statement, signed by the leaders of 12 CIS member states also said that the main efforts in dealing with the continuing aftermath of Chernobyl should be focused on the socio-economic rehabilitation of the affected areas.
According to the officials from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, an institution that has been entrusted with the management of the Chernobyl Shelter Fund, the construction of the new, environmentally safe shelter will cost $768 million and it will contain what is left of the reactor for at least 100 years.
