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Viktor Yanukovych: Coal sphere should be immediately reformed
05.12.2007, 17:55
Viktor Yanukovych stresses that recent events at the Zasyadko mine bring out clearly a vital necessity to reform the coal sphere and efficiently change the issues of research activities, labor protection and state financing of mining industry of Ukraine as a whole.
"The accident at the Zasyadko mine last weekend has become another tragic page of Ukrainian history. We have never had such accident before. The phenomena we face today, our mining sphere faces, have not been researched yet and are unknown. I spoke with scientists and they say that the science has practically no investigations on the phenomena which take place at such depths. They do know what kind of gas it is because they fail to take samples, there is no access to this area, to this bloc of beds," the Prime Minister noted, opening the Government sitting.
As the Head of Government noted, according to preliminary conclusions of international experts, the matter concerns a gas mixture which sufficiently differs from traditional gas methane. This fact, in its turn, requires thorough revision of the current norms of safety.
"Today the norm of methane is till 4 percent but the mixture probably lowers this percent significantly. It means that there should be other aeration parameters, other output of miners etc. We have discussed this issue with experts. And we have very seriously and thoroughly touched on this problem with the President. And very soon we will take very important and fundamental decisions," Viktor Yanukovych said.
According to the Prime Minister, he has already signed appeals to heads of governments of Russia, Poland, Germany and the USA with a proposal to make efficient and unbiassed examination to make our miners be ready for such emergency situations in the future. "Because people's life is always our top priority," Viktor Yanukovych stressed.
At that the Prime Minister emphasized the importance of the coal industry for Ukraine's development and ensuring its energy safety and also stressed that mass closing of mines would strike a crushing blow for Ukraine's economy.
According to the Prime Minister, today the country needs additional coal production volumes at the rate of about 20 million tons. And taking into consideration the paces of production development and world tendencies, this need will only increase in future.
"Having such coal supply as we have we cannot be dependent on importers. Moreover, if we speak about land supplies our railway infrastructure is not ready for serious increase of coal supply – and needless to say about unreadiness of the ports. That is why the economy should be taken into account while taking any decisions," Viktor Yanukovych underscored. | |
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