Sergey Kurykin and Yuri Kulish

Minister of ecology and natural resources Sergey Kurykin, left, and head of the Kharkiv’s rescue service Yuri Kulish tells about the situation on the Kyiv’s plant “Radikal”, Kyiv, Monday, Oct 22, 2001. According to them, this time we escaped the ecological catastrophe, caused by the quicksilver spilling, but the situation is still extremely dangerous. Within the 47 years of plant existence, its territory ground gathered 900 tons of quicksilver and 135 tons of sulfuric acid. At present the Kharkiv rescue service specialists conduct the scheduled sinking of quicksilver from elecrolyzers into 42-kg special cisterns. The cisterns will be taken in special transport to the special plant “Nikitrtut” Donetska oblast. According to Kulish, before the start of the work the level of pollution in the plant’s shop 50-fold exceeded the standards while present level – 30-fold. The price of work on the sanitation of the enterprise’s territory makes up Hr14.8 million. Photo by Alexander Sinitsa/ UNIAN