OFFICIALS at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant have detected a small amount of radioactive contamination at the site of the world's worst civilian nuclear accident, the Ukrainian nuclear safety ministry said yesterday.
An area of 10 square metres (32.8 sq ft) on the floor of the building of reactor number one was discovered to be contaminated with radioactivity five times greater than normal levels last Friday, a ministry spokesman, Mr Vladimir Martynyuk, said.
He said a commission had been formed to determine how the radioactivity escaped, but added that the incident had had no detrimental effect on the environment or personnel at the power station.
Ms Galina Nosach, an engineer at the station 140 km (90 miles) north of Kiev, said the leak occurred in a corridor in the main room of Chernobyl's reactor number one.
She said the incident rated zero on the 0-7 international scale of "nuclear events" and posed no threat to staff or the environment. It was the latest in a long series of incidents at the plant, due to close by the end of the century.
"It's still not clear why this happened," Ms Nosach said by telephone. "Why does there have to be such a fuss about every little trivial occurrence? This can happen at any station. But we do understand that our station is viewed as a special one."
The incident was the second in two weeks at the station, where two reactors still produce about 5 per cent of Ukraine's electricity. Last week, a fire broke out at a storage shed near the third reactor, but was quickly extinguished.
Chernobyl's reactor number one is to be finally closed down in late November, according to Ukrainian nuclear officials, leaving a single reactor, number three, working.
Reactor number four exploded on April 26th, 1986, killing and contaminating thousands of people. Reactor number two was closed down after a fire in 1991.
Meanwhile, the Japanese Foreign Minister, visiting Kiev, said yesterday that Japan will assist Ukraine in shutting down the plant.
Mr Yukihiko Ikeda met President Leonid Kuchma, the Prime Minister, Mr Pavel Lazarenko, and the Foreign Minister, Mr Gennady Udovenko.
"Vukihiko Ikeda, resident of Hiroshima, a city that suffered a nuclear bombing in World War II, has lent special attention to Ukraine's nuclear disarmament," the Foreign Minister's spokesman, Mr Takahisa Tsugawa, said.
Mr Ikeda, who left Kiev following the talks, indicated during the meeting that Japan would also provide $5 million in technical assistance to develop the country's electronic and telecommunications sectors.