KIEV -- Kiev could put back closure of the crippled Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station to April 2001 if the international community fails to finance the shutdown as promised, a senior official told AFP Wednesday.
The Ukrainian authorities had originally said they would close the facility, scene of the world's worst civilian nuclear accident in April 1986, on December 15 of this year.
"We are studying the possibility of delaying the closure of Chernobyl to the end of the heating period," said Olexander Bilichenko, a senior executive with Energoatom, which runs Ukraine's nuclear power stations.
The authorities are obliged to heat homes throughout the bitter winter months in Ukraine, when electricity consumption reaches its peak.
Only one of Chernobyl's four reactors remains in operation but it alone provides five percent of the country's power needs.
"Halting Chernobyl is a complicated business and we need financing," said Bilichenko. He said no definitive decision to keep the station open had been taken.
Under a 1995 agreement Ukraine pledged to close down the power station in exchange for some 2.3 billion dollars.
Part of the funds would be used to finance completion of two replacement reactors in the west of the country.