The 540 MWe plant went into commercial operation in 1972 and was the last in a series of six such units constructed in France between 1956 and 1971. During a visit to the Chernobyl site, Ukraine President Leonid Kravchuk told workers that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant will continue to operate and that his country will continue to build new nuclear plants. European Union foreign ministers are scheduled to sign a cooperation agreement with Ukraine at their next monthly meeting in June. The EU is also considering helping Ukraine complete two new nuclear power plants in order that Chernobyl may be closed. China and Japan have signed an agreement to promote bilateral exchanges of information on nuclear power plants.
Japan is concerned about acid rain and other forms of pollution from Chinese coal-burning plants.
It believes greater use of nuclear could reduce such pollution. The US Department of Energy will handle the safety upgrades at Soviet-designed reactors if nuclear contractors walk away from the work. Contractors and DOE have disagreed over whether the federal government should indemnify US companies involved in the reactor upgrades performed under the Lisbon Initiative. Work done by US companies to date has not involved liability issues. In Ukraine, the US Trade and Development Agency is to provide a grant to the Zaporozhe nuclear plant for a feasibility study to construct storage facilities for spent fuel.