Ukraine's Chernobyl experience unlikely to help Japan

KIEV, March 17 (Itar-Tass) - Ukraine's experience in the liquidation of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident is unlikely to be useful to Japan.
"They have a different type of reactors. There can be no chain
reaction and an explosion at Japanese stations. May be that's why they are not turning to us for help," Vladimir Nikitin, chief engineer at the Ukratomenergobud engineering company, told Itar-Tass. He said that Ukrainian experts had never worked with the types of reactors operated in Japan and therefore couldn't be of great help.
"As for liquidation of the consequences of nuclear contamination, the Japanese themselves are very competent in this issue," Nikitin emphasized.
He thinks Ukraine can help Japan to clear the rubble and search for
victims and send qualified medical teams to Japan.
The former Chernobyl nuclear power station director Mikhail Umanets confirmed that relief aid in the form of medical supplies and essential goods was the most important thing for Japan at the moment.
"Japan has a very high level of scientific and technological
development. We are of little help to them. There's no sense in
dispatching Ukrainians to decontaminate the territory," Umanets explained.
Alexander Dikusarov, the press secretary of the Ukrainian Foreign
Ministry, said that Ukraine had submitted a proposal to the Japanese
Foreign Ministry, offering assistance of Ukrainian nuclear power experts.
Medical teams and a mobile hospital of the Ministry for Emergency
Situations are ready to be dispatched to Japan. Ukraine has formed a team of 45 rescuers equipped for work in quake stricken areas as well as experts with sniffer dogs trained to find people trapped under rubble.
On March 11, President Viktor Yanukovich signed a decree on sending relief aid to Japan.