“The United States yesterday made a commitment to provide $40 million to the Chernobyl Shelter Fund at a donors’ conference held in London,” the release said.
The announced contribution is in line with the US historical burden share of the fund, and comes in addition to more than $330 million it has already provided, the department noted.
“With these funds, the United States will continue to support Ukraine and the multinational effort to secure and return to an environmentally safe condition the site of the Chornobyl nuclear accident,” the release explained.
The Chernobyl Shelter Fund was set up in 1997 to assist Ukraine in making the site of the current shelter over Chernobyl's destroyed reactor 4 stable and environmentally safe. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is managing the fund.
April 26 marks the 29th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident — one of the worst man-made disasters in history, when one of the four nuclear reactors exploded. Vast areas estimated at 50,0000 square kilometers, mainly in the three then-Soviet republics of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, were contaminated by the fallout from the critical nuclear meltdown. Some 200,000 people were relocated following the accident.
