Chernobyl reactors to be closed down

WASHINGTON - Ukraine has reached an agreement with a US delegation to shut down the two remaining operating reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the Energy Department said yesterday.

The department said the Ukrainian vice-Prime Minister, Valeriy Shmarov, and a delegation led by the Deputy Energy Secretary, Bill White, reached an agreement-in-principle to shut down the reactors at the plant, the site of the world's biggest nuclear accident in 1986.

The two governments will conduct an analysis of ways to close the plant as quickly as possible and assess alternative power sources to meet Ukrainian energy demands. Reuter