Engineers at Chernobyl nuclear power station shut down its last working reactor a day earlier than planned yesterday, in an impromptu attempt to impress visiting Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma.
But officials said the plant, site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986, would be restarted, so as not to spoil a televised button-pushing ceremony planned for today, when the power station is finally to be put to rest.
The 1986 accident sent a radioactive cloud of dust over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and other parts of Europe. Around 30 firemen died immediately, and radiation has since been blamed for thousands of deaths.
Despite years of advance planning for the shutdown, there is still no safety net in place for the community which will be displaced as a result, according to the Brussels-based International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). Unions are to step up the pressure for a social plan for the Chernobyl workers and their dependants, Mr Fred Hill, general secretary of ICEM, said.