April 26, 2004
18 years after
Some articles
Chernobyl:
18 years of silence
As the 18th anniversary of this
global disaster nears, Elena, a scientist living in the Chernobyl area -- Kiev,
Ukraine -- takes us with her on a motorcycle trip through the region. She tells
us the story of what happened and, in photographs, what is there today.
On the Friday evening of April 25, 1986, the
reactor crew at Chernobyl-4, prepared to run a test the next day to see how
long the turbines would keep spinning and producing power if the electrical
power supply went off line. This was a dangerous test, but it had been done
before. As a part of the preparation, they disabled some critical control
systems - including the automatic shutdown safety mechanisms.
The flow of coolant water dropped and the power
began to increase.
When the operator moved to shut down the
reactor in its low power mode, a domino effect of previous errors caused a
sharp power surge that triggered a tremendous steam explosion, which blew the
1000 ton cap on the nuclear containment vessel to smithereens.
Some of the 211 control rods melted and then a
second explosion, the cause of which is still the subject of disagreement among
experts, threw out fragments of the burning radioactive fuel core and allowed
air to rush in -- igniting the tons of graphite insulating blocks.
Once graphite starts to burn, its almost
impossible to extinguish. It took 9 days and 5000 tons of sand, boron,
dolomite, clay and lead dropped from helicopters to put it out. The radiation
was so intense that all of those brave pilots died.
It was this graphite fire that released most of
the radiation into the atmosphere and troubling spikes in atmospheric radiation
were measured as far away as Sweden - thousands of miles away.
The causes of the accident are described as a
fateful combination of human error and imperfect technology.
In keeping with a long tradition of Soviet
justice, they imprisoned all the people who worked on that shift -- regardless
of their guilt. A man who tried to stop the chain reaction in a last desperate
attempt to avoid the meltdown was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He died 3
weeks later.
Radiation will stay in the Chernobyl area for
the next 48,000 years, but, humans may begin repopulating the area in about 600
years -- give or take three centuries. The experts predict that, by then, the
most dangerous elements will have disappeared -- or will have been sufficiently
diluted into the rest of the world`s air, soil, and water. If our government
can somehow find the money and political will power to finance the necessary
scientific research, perhaps a way will be discovered to neutralize or clean up
the contamination sooner. Otherwise, our distant ancestors will have to wait
until the radiation diminishes to a tolerable level. If we use the lowest
scientific estimate, that will be 300 years from now. Some scientists say it
may be as long as 900 years.
I think it will be 300, but people often accuse
me of being an optimist
I
Remember...
In Ukrainian language (here we don`t like to
say "the") Chernobyl is the name of a grass, wormwood (absinth).
Here, this word scares the holy bejesus out of people. Maybe part of the
reason for this, among religious people, is
because the Bible mentions wormwood in the book of the Revelations - which
foretells the end of the world:
REV 8:10 And the third angel sounded, and there
fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the
third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
REV 8:11 And the name of the star is called
Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died
of the waters, because they were made bitter.
If I tell someone that I am going to take a
relaxing spin through the "dead zone," the best case response is --
"Are you nuts?"
My dad used to say that people are afraid of a
deadly thing which they can not see, can not feel, and can not smell. Maybe
that is because those words are a good description of death itself.
Dad is a nuclear physicist and he has educated
me about many things. He is much more worried about the speed my bike travels
than about the direction I point it. My trips to Chernobyl are not like a walk
in the park, but the risk can be managed. It is similar to walking on a high
wire with a balancing pole. One end of the pole is the gamma ray emission
intensity and the other end of the pole is the exposure time. But the wire is
also covered with a slippery dust -- and this is the major risk. Inhaling the
radioactive dust that is kicked up by a vehicle or a herd of horses can
severely poison your lungs.
My bike trips to Chernobyl require a working
understanding of biology and physics, also knowing geography and ecology of a
zone.
Dad and their team have worked in the
"dead zone" for last 18 years doing research about the day it all
happened. The rest of the team is comprised of microbiologists, doctors,
botanists and other professions with long names and many syllables.
I was a schoolgirl back in 1986 and within a
few hours of the accident , dad put all of us on the train to grandma`s house.
Granny lives 800 kms from here and dad wasn`t sure if it was far enough away to
keep us out of reach of the big bad wolf of a nuclear meltdown.
Time to go for a ride.
An
abandoned amusement park in Pripyat, a ghost town too close to the reactor to
be safe for former residents to return. April 26, 2004
New
Life Trickles Back to Chernobyl
By Simon Ostrovsky
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
CHERNOBYL, Ukraine -- Maria Dika remembers the
flash of flames and a collapsing wall as Chernobyl's reactor No. 4 exploded in
the world's worst nuclear disaster 18 years ago Monday.
Although she took an extremely high dose of
radiation on that day, Dika, who was working as a security guard at the power
plant, again lives in the glum town of Chernobyl, just 10 kilometers from the
reactor.
"The radiation got used to us," said
Dika, a jolly 42-year-old who now manages a hostel for maintenance workers in
the contaminated zone. "I was born and spent my life here. It's my
home."
Life is returning to the 30-kilometer-radius
exclusion zone around Chernobyl, as many former residents have taken part-time
maintenance jobs at the plant or returned to their native villages nestled in
pine forests.
Once the area had a population of close to
120,000 people, who were evacuated in the aftermath of the disaster.
Undeterred by radiation levels that in places
are dozens of times higher than acceptable norms, some 500 former residents
like Dika have since returned, while 4,000 others are shuttled into the zone to
work on the gradual powering down of the plant.
The area has also become a bonanza for
scientists studying the effects of radiation on plant and animal life that has
reclaimed much of the area.
But even as scientists work to minimize
radiation levels, the danger of a new tragedy lingers, this time in the form of
a radioactive dust cloud.
Experts warn that the collapse of an unstable
wall in reactor No. 4 could release some of the 200 tons of nuclear fuel
encased inside the unit by a protective shell of concrete and steel that was
hastily thrown up in the aftermath of the disaster.
The reactor exploded in the early hours of
April 26, 1986, when technicians failed to power down its core after a series
of poorly timed tests, killing 30 people immediately and exposing more than 8
million people in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia to radiation.
Victims blame Soviet authorities for informing
locals of the accident too late, after they had already been exposed to
enormous amounts of radiation.
On Saturday, some 5,000 people marched in Kiev
to commemorate the disaster and call attention to the plight of Chernobyl's
late victims.
Thousands have died, but the total number of
victims may never be known because of the difficulty in determining whether
ailments are related to radiation.
It is known that the frequency of thyroid
cancer in contaminated areas has jumped since the accident, though this
consequence is becoming evident only today.
Radiation-induced thyroid cancer usually takes
more than 15 years to set in. It will peak in the next few years, said
Volodymyr Sert, a doctor who runs a Red Cross mobile diagnostic unit that
screens residents in contaminated areas.
The organization registered 68 cases in the
Zhytomyr region last year compared to just 15 in 1986.
In Laski, a half-deserted town 90 kilometers
west of Chernobyl, background radiation levels are 30 times higher than in
Kiev, 200 kilometers to the south of the reactor site.
Thyroid cancer cases are particularly high
there because iodine deficiency caused the thyroids of locals to absorb the
radioactive iodine released when Chernobyl exploded, Sert said.
And these people are still at risk of receiving
a new dose of radiation.
Nuclear fuel trapped in the remains of reactor
No. 4 are causing the structure to deteriorate, said Yulia Marusych, a
spokeswoman for the plant.
"God knows how long it will hold,"
she said, pointing to a meter-tall model of reactor No. 4. The real reactor
loomed outside the plant's observation deck.
The aging gray shell of the sarcophagus
encasing unit No. 4 leaks radiation through some 100 square meters of cracks
and holes on its surface, Marusych said. A dosimeter gave a reading of 1,600
roentgens per hour, or 90 times background radiation levels in Kiev.
There are plans to construct a 100-meter-high
metal shell to cover units No. 3 and No. 4. The project, funded by
international donors and lenders, as well as by the Ukrainian government, comes
at a $768 million price tag and is scheduled to be finished by 2008.
"I hope it will be in time," Marusych
said.
The power plant stands at the center of the
10-kilometer-radius dead zone. In Chernobyl town, which stands on the perimeter
of the dead zone, a skeleton firefighting crew monitors forest fires to prevent
radiation from spreading. The occasional bus trundles down the main street
ferrying workers from the reactor.
In contrast to the lush green fields outside
Kiev, agricultural lands in the 30-kilometer exclusion zone have been abandoned
-- brown plots dotted with stunted trees. Deserted houses with broken windows
line the road, and only the rare farmer passes by on a horse-drawn cart.
Unlike the areas surrounding the exclusion
zone, scientists say, the dead zone will remain uninhabitable.
Too heavy to be carried by the winds that blew
lighter radioactive elements as far away as Austria and Scandinavia, plutonium
-- with a half-life of 24,000 years -- settled around the reactor, said Valery
Kashparov, who directs the Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology.
But with the proper funding, less radioactive
areas, including parts of the exclusion zone, could be made safe for human life
in less than a year, said Kashparov, a chain-smoker who said tobacco use is
much more hazardous than radiation exposure.
His institute has developed a number of
techniques to make produce safe enough to consume and sell outside the
contaminated areas.
"Most of the radiation absorbed by people
doesn't come from being in a radioactive area, it comes form eating produce
grown there," Kashparov said.
Research by the institute -- which was founded
a month after the disaster to study and fight its effects -- shows that only 5
percent to 25 percent of radiation absorbed by the body comes from background
radiation and contaminated air and water.
"Eighty to 95 percent comes from eating
contaminated food, especially milk and mushrooms," Kashparov said.
Just by tilling and fertilizing pastures,
radiation intake would drop by eight times, Kashparov said.
"Tilling the pasture means cows will eat
clean grass; the cows' meat and milk will in turn be clean, yielding cleaner
manure used to fertilize potatoes, which in turn are fed to pigs," he
said.
"Unfortunately the government is not doing
enough to inform people and to help finance the purchase of fertilizers."
Almost 20 years after the disaster, little is
known about the long-term effects of radiation.
"People think that smaller doses of
radiation over a long period of time are less dangerous than a large dose all
at once," said Dmitry Grodzinsky, a radiobiologist at the Ukrainian
Academy of Sciences.
Sitting in his dark Kiev office, Grodzinsky
warned that the effects are not smaller, just different.
"An organism which is in an area of higher
radiation is constantly agitated as the radiation destroys its cells. To
adjust, the organism destabilizes its own genome so that it can adapt,
resulting in more mutations in its offspring," he said.
Grodzinsky gave pine trees with extraordinarily
long needles as an example.
He said as far as effects of radiation exposure
go, cancer is a bigger danger than genetic instability.
"Radiation is like a lottery. Particles
may shoot through your body and just destroy some cells. But in 600 cases out
of 1 million, it causes cancer."
Radioactivity certainly spawns myths.
When the 50,000 residents of Pripyat, a town
just two kilometers from the reactor, were evacuated, they were not allowed to
take their pets. Within a few months rumors spread of giant mutant dogs roaming
the zone.
"What really happened was that the dogs
got hungry and ate all the little dogs until none where left. Natural selection
reclaimed Chernobyl," Grodzinsky said.
Ukraine-nuclear-Chernobyl-ecology,
sched-feature
Ecologists not a force in Ukraine 18 years after Chernobyl
by Anya Tsukanova
Ecologists not a force in Ukraine 18 years after Chernobyl
by Anya Tsukanova
KIEV, April 26 (AFP) - Eighteen years after Ukraine was struck by the world's worst nuclear accident -- the Chernobyl disaster -- ecological movements remain almost non-existent in the former Soviet republic still reliant on nuclear energy.
Radioactivity spewed by the April 26, 1986 explosion of Chernobyl's fourth reactor contaminated most of Europe, where it sparked a debate on the problems and dangers of nuclear development.
For Ukrainians, however, the tragedy's consequences had more of a political resonance than an ecological one -- five years before the downfall of the Soviet Union, Chernobyl exposed the lies and irresponsibility of the Soviet authorities charged with dealing with the crisis.
But although cases of cancer of the thyroid multiplied tenfold since 1986, Ukraine's population, a quarter of which lives below poverty level, is more concerned about daily survival than "ecology which is an abstract notion," said Olga Honcharenko, expert in Kiev's international sociology institute (KMIS).
According to a poll by KMIS, environmental problems place only 12th on the population's list of priorities.
Ukraine still has 13 nuclear reactors in four power stations, which produce nearly 45 percent of the national energy output.
Meanwhile the government has met little resistance in its plans to soon complete the construction of two VVER nuclear reactors -- a Russian design whose safety has been questioned in the West -- and its plans to build a third thereafter.
The political party who could logically raise such concerns on a national level -- Ukraine's Green party -- has lost electoral trust because voters see it as having colluded with industrial bosses, analysts say.
With 30,000 officially registered members, the Greens are the largest ecology party in Ukraine. They won 5.43 percent of the vote during the 1998 legislative elections -- but four years later failed to even enter parliament, scraping a meager 1.3 percent.
While the Greens explain this setback by a poor electoral strategy, others see it as a well-deserved punishment for inaction and accuse the party of colluding with industrial bosses who own heavily-polluting factories.
The Greens' electoral list of 2002 in fact included Vasyl Khmelnitsky, who controls the important steel producer Zaporizhstal, and Olexander Koval, former chief of the iron alloy factory of Nikopol.
"They have discredited the Greens' ideology by selling places on their list," said Yuri Shzherbak, who had created the party in 1990 and headed it until 1992.
Vitaly Kononov, current leader of the Greens, dismisses such charges, saying that all party members "behaved properly and voted like the party asked them to."
The long-haired Kononov said that the party's current priorities were fighting against genetically-modified products and boosting the quality of drinking water -- nuclear energy did not figure on the list.
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Ukraine-nuclear-Chernobyl,
sched-feature
Plans to build new shell over Chernobyl reactor stir debate
by Sylvie Briand
CHERNOBYL, Ukraine, April 26 (AFP) - The construction of a giant shell over the cracked sarcophagus at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant has stirred controversy 18 years after an explosion at one of its reactors spewed 200 tonnes of radioactive magma into the air in the former Soviet republic.
"All it would take is a good earthquake" for the sarcophagus, a mass of concrete slapped together over the fourth reactor in the days after the April 26, 1986 explosion to collapse, said Olexander Antropov, an engineer and President Leonid Kuchma's advisor in Chernobyl.
To avoid a new catastrophe, the international community donated over 700 million euros to construct a shell of 20,000 tonnes of steel -- enough to cover the statue of Liberty -- over the unstable reactor.
Kiev estimated that construction of the shell, due to be launched later this year and completed in 2008, would cost over a billion dollars. "There is no such thing as a 100-percent hermetic shell. But this one would keep the wind from blowing off radioactive ash," Antropov said. But the giant project has prompted mixed feelings with Ukraine's scientists and engineers, who argue that the reactor's radioactive waste should be extracted and stored before the shell is built.
During a recent public seminar, held in the town of Slavutich where Chernobyl employees live, many experts also voiced fears that the project did not "take into account climatic changes that may take place in the future" and that the shell was not conceived to resist earthquakes topping 7.0 on the Richter scale, as it should.
Antropov in his turn argued that "technology is not sufficiently advanced for robots or radio-controlled machinery to extract the reactor's waste" whose radioactive intensity equals dozens of bombs the scale of Hiroshima.
"Within 30 or 50 years, radioactive emanations from certain elements, such as cesium 137, would decrease. But ideally we should wait 150 years before touching this magma," he said.
Ukrainian authorities, however, do not have this much time at their disposal, most importantly due to fears of ground water being contaminated.
"There is actually a meager contamination of subterranean waters which does not represent any danger. Ground water acts like a filter and prevents radioactivity from leaking, particularly into the Pripyat river" which passes the station on its way to Dniepr, Antropov assured.
The shell's concept would allow the waste to be removed when possible as
well as reinforce the concrete sarcophagus and the wall dividing the third and fourth reactors, engineer Vasyl Rybakov said.
The closing of Chernobyl in December 2000 had also resolved the problem of tackling the used fuel of its four reactors.
The treatment and storage centers for the used fuel and liquid and solid waste, as well as a sorting system, are due to be constructed in Chernobyl by 2005 thanks to funding from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Union.
However, work on this project "is proceeding more slowly than expected due
to Ukrainian bureaucracy," Italian engineer Arnoldo Simonassi said.
sb-cal/yad/bm
Plans to build new shell over Chernobyl reactor stir debate
by Sylvie Briand
CHERNOBYL, Ukraine, April 26 (AFP) - The construction of a giant shell over the cracked sarcophagus at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant has stirred controversy 18 years after an explosion at one of its reactors spewed 200 tonnes of radioactive magma into the air in the former Soviet republic.
"All it would take is a good earthquake" for the sarcophagus, a mass of concrete slapped together over the fourth reactor in the days after the April 26, 1986 explosion to collapse, said Olexander Antropov, an engineer and President Leonid Kuchma's advisor in Chernobyl.
To avoid a new catastrophe, the international community donated over 700 million euros to construct a shell of 20,000 tonnes of steel -- enough to cover the statue of Liberty -- over the unstable reactor.
Kiev estimated that construction of the shell, due to be launched later this year and completed in 2008, would cost over a billion dollars. "There is no such thing as a 100-percent hermetic shell. But this one would keep the wind from blowing off radioactive ash," Antropov said. But the giant project has prompted mixed feelings with Ukraine's scientists and engineers, who argue that the reactor's radioactive waste should be extracted and stored before the shell is built.
During a recent public seminar, held in the town of Slavutich where Chernobyl employees live, many experts also voiced fears that the project did not "take into account climatic changes that may take place in the future" and that the shell was not conceived to resist earthquakes topping 7.0 on the Richter scale, as it should.
Antropov in his turn argued that "technology is not sufficiently advanced for robots or radio-controlled machinery to extract the reactor's waste" whose radioactive intensity equals dozens of bombs the scale of Hiroshima.
"Within 30 or 50 years, radioactive emanations from certain elements, such as cesium 137, would decrease. But ideally we should wait 150 years before touching this magma," he said.
Ukrainian authorities, however, do not have this much time at their disposal, most importantly due to fears of ground water being contaminated.
"There is actually a meager contamination of subterranean waters which does not represent any danger. Ground water acts like a filter and prevents radioactivity from leaking, particularly into the Pripyat river" which passes the station on its way to Dniepr, Antropov assured.
The shell's concept would allow the waste to be removed when possible as
well as reinforce the concrete sarcophagus and the wall dividing the third and fourth reactors, engineer Vasyl Rybakov said.
The closing of Chernobyl in December 2000 had also resolved the problem of tackling the used fuel of its four reactors.
The treatment and storage centers for the used fuel and liquid and solid waste, as well as a sorting system, are due to be constructed in Chernobyl by 2005 thanks to funding from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Union.
However, work on this project "is proceeding more slowly than expected due
to Ukrainian bureaucracy," Italian engineer Arnoldo Simonassi said.
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Ukraine-Chernobyl-commemorate
One hundred people mark anniversary of Chernobyl disaster in Kiev
One hundred people mark anniversary of Chernobyl disaster in Kiev
KIEV, April 26 (AFP) - Some 100 people attended an overnight religious service in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, commemorating the victims of the worst nuclear accident in history, in Chernobyl in the north of the country, 18 years ago.
Under a thin rain, men and women laid wreaths
at the foot of a monument to the firemen who died of radiation poisoning after
they were sent to clean up the site of the disaster.
"Each year, there are fewer of us to
attend this service," said 40-year-old Tetyana Lazarenko, who, along with
her family, was evacuated from the town of Pripyat, where Chernobyl employees
used to live next to the nuclear power plant, 36 hours after its fourth reactor
exploded in April 1986.
"I lost a town, friends, people who were
close to me. We all had health problems because of radiation," she added.
"You cannot forget such a tragedy," said Lazarenko, who now lives in
Kiev with her husband and three children.
Another overnight service was held at Slavutich, a town in northern Ukraine housing employees who worked at Chernobyl until it was closed down in December 2000.
Another overnight service was held at Slavutich, a town in northern Ukraine housing employees who worked at Chernobyl until it was closed down in December 2000.
A radioactive cloud was spewed high into the
atmosphere when Chernobyl's fourth reactor exploded, burning for 10 days and
spreading radioactive material over three-quarters of Europe.
Officially, 31 people were immediately killed
by radiation following the blast on April 26, 1986, but unofficial estimates
hold that as many as 25,000 of the workers that were sent to clean up the site
have since died.
Tens of thousands were crippled from their
exposure to high radiation doses and now say their government allowances are
not enough to live on.
Over 130,000 people were evacuated from the
disaster area and nearly six million continue to live in contaminated zones, in
northern Ukraine, as well as stretches of Belarus and Russia.
Ukraine closed down the fourth and last reactor
of the Chernobyl power
plant in December 2000.
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plant in December 2000.
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Ukraine-nuclear-Chernobyl
Flowers and sorrow as Ukraine marks Chernobyl disaster anniversary
KIEV, April 26 (AFP) - More than a thousand people throughout Ukraine Monday attended commemoration ceremonies to mark the 18th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, the world's worst nuclear accident.
In the early hours of April 26, 1986, the core of Chernobyl's fourth reactor exploded and for 10 days the station spewed radioactive material equivalent to more than 200 Hiroshima bombs into the air, contaminating a large part of Europe.
In the capital Kiev on Monday a hundred people, many of them former Chernobyl employees or relatives of people who died in the tragedy, laid flowers at a memorial to firefighters dispatched to the accident site and who died soon afterwards.
According to a Soviet estimate at the time, 31 people died as a result of the accident. But since 1986 an estimated 25,000 people from all over the Soviet Union who came to clean up after the accident have lost their lives.
"Every year there are less of us to take part in the ceremonies," said Tetiana Lazarenko, who was evacuated with her family from the town of Pripiat, three kilometers (two miles) from Chernobyl, 36 hours after the accident. "I've lost a town, friends, relatives. All of us have problems as a result
of the radiation. We cannot forget this tragedy," said Lazarenko, who today lives in Kiev with her husband and three children.
Some 2.3 million Ukrainians, including 450,000 children, today suffer from radiation-related illnesses, including many with thyroid cancer, according to the Ukrainian health ministry.
Each year on April 26 an open-air service is held at the Orthodox church in Kiev, where a memorial pays hommage to Chernobyl's victims.
Early Monday President Leonid Kuchma placed flowers at the base of the monument and later in the day about 1,000 people gathered there.
Another religious service was held overnight in the northern town of Slavutich, where many of Chernobyl's employees live.
Mykola Fessik, originally from the Ukrainian city of Poltava, was rushed to Chernobyl to help build the sarcophagus over the damaged reactor. He was 22 at the time.
"I ingested a huge dose of radiation and today I can no longer work. My legs no longer carryme. But I am a nobody and am worth nothing to my government," said Fessik, who receives about 40 dollars a month as a victim of the disaster.
He is one of an estimated 600,000 people who were sent to Chernobyl between 1986 and 1990 to help with the clean-up after the accident. Some 130,000 residents had to be evacuated from around the station in the days following the disaster.
The Chernobyl station was closed in December 2000 in return for international financial aid. But the station, with its sarcophagus covering about 200 tons of radioactive magma, remains a concern.
Kiev is due later this year to begin construction of a giant shell over the sarcophagus, which is due to be completed in 2008 at a cost of more than a billion dollars.
sb-yad/zak/jfs
Flowers and sorrow as Ukraine marks Chernobyl disaster anniversary
KIEV, April 26 (AFP) - More than a thousand people throughout Ukraine Monday attended commemoration ceremonies to mark the 18th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, the world's worst nuclear accident.
In the early hours of April 26, 1986, the core of Chernobyl's fourth reactor exploded and for 10 days the station spewed radioactive material equivalent to more than 200 Hiroshima bombs into the air, contaminating a large part of Europe.
In the capital Kiev on Monday a hundred people, many of them former Chernobyl employees or relatives of people who died in the tragedy, laid flowers at a memorial to firefighters dispatched to the accident site and who died soon afterwards.
According to a Soviet estimate at the time, 31 people died as a result of the accident. But since 1986 an estimated 25,000 people from all over the Soviet Union who came to clean up after the accident have lost their lives.
"Every year there are less of us to take part in the ceremonies," said Tetiana Lazarenko, who was evacuated with her family from the town of Pripiat, three kilometers (two miles) from Chernobyl, 36 hours after the accident. "I've lost a town, friends, relatives. All of us have problems as a result
of the radiation. We cannot forget this tragedy," said Lazarenko, who today lives in Kiev with her husband and three children.
Some 2.3 million Ukrainians, including 450,000 children, today suffer from radiation-related illnesses, including many with thyroid cancer, according to the Ukrainian health ministry.
Each year on April 26 an open-air service is held at the Orthodox church in Kiev, where a memorial pays hommage to Chernobyl's victims.
Early Monday President Leonid Kuchma placed flowers at the base of the monument and later in the day about 1,000 people gathered there.
Another religious service was held overnight in the northern town of Slavutich, where many of Chernobyl's employees live.
Mykola Fessik, originally from the Ukrainian city of Poltava, was rushed to Chernobyl to help build the sarcophagus over the damaged reactor. He was 22 at the time.
"I ingested a huge dose of radiation and today I can no longer work. My legs no longer carryme. But I am a nobody and am worth nothing to my government," said Fessik, who receives about 40 dollars a month as a victim of the disaster.
He is one of an estimated 600,000 people who were sent to Chernobyl between 1986 and 1990 to help with the clean-up after the accident. Some 130,000 residents had to be evacuated from around the station in the days following the disaster.
The Chernobyl station was closed in December 2000 in return for international financial aid. But the station, with its sarcophagus covering about 200 tons of radioactive magma, remains a concern.
Kiev is due later this year to begin construction of a giant shell over the sarcophagus, which is due to be completed in 2008 at a cost of more than a billion dollars.
sb-yad/zak/jfs
Russia-Ukraine-nuclear-Chernobyl-UN
UN urges continued international help to Chernobyl victims
MOSCOW, April 26 (AFP) - The United Nations urged the international community on Monday -- the 18th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident -- to remember people still affected by the Chernobyl disaster.
"The international community must renew its efforts to help the people of the affected regions take control of their lives again," Jan Egeland, the UN under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said in a statement received by AFP in Moscow.
"The aftermath of the Chernobyl accident is simply too much for people in the contaminated areas of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine to cope with alone."
"We simply cannot turn our backs," said Egeland, who is also the UN coordinator of international cooperation on Chernobyl. "We can and must do more to help bring development and hope to the affected people."
In the early morning hours of April 26, 1986, the core of Chernobyl's fourth reactor exploded and for 10 days the station spewed radioactive materials into the air that were equivalent to more than 200 bombs exploded over Hiroshima and contaminated a large part of Europe.
Nearly 8.4 million people in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia were exposed to radiation and 150,000 square kilometers (60,000 square miles) were contaminated and today some six million people continue to live in affected areas, the UN said in its statement.
Some 2.3 million Ukrainians, including 450,000 children, suffer today from radiation-related illnesses, including many with the cancer of the thyroid, according to the Ukrainian health ministry.
yad/zak/gk
UN urges continued international help to Chernobyl victims
MOSCOW, April 26 (AFP) - The United Nations urged the international community on Monday -- the 18th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident -- to remember people still affected by the Chernobyl disaster.
"The international community must renew its efforts to help the people of the affected regions take control of their lives again," Jan Egeland, the UN under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said in a statement received by AFP in Moscow.
"The aftermath of the Chernobyl accident is simply too much for people in the contaminated areas of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine to cope with alone."
"We simply cannot turn our backs," said Egeland, who is also the UN coordinator of international cooperation on Chernobyl. "We can and must do more to help bring development and hope to the affected people."
In the early morning hours of April 26, 1986, the core of Chernobyl's fourth reactor exploded and for 10 days the station spewed radioactive materials into the air that were equivalent to more than 200 bombs exploded over Hiroshima and contaminated a large part of Europe.
Nearly 8.4 million people in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia were exposed to radiation and 150,000 square kilometers (60,000 square miles) were contaminated and today some six million people continue to live in affected areas, the UN said in its statement.
Some 2.3 million Ukrainians, including 450,000 children, suffer today from radiation-related illnesses, including many with the cancer of the thyroid, according to the Ukrainian health ministry.
yad/zak/gk
Anna
Ivanovna has returned to her radioactive house and garden in Chernobyl. It is
better to die from radiation than from starving, she says.
Belarus-Chernobyl-politics
Demonstrators mark Chernobyl anniversary in Belarus capital
MINSK, April 27 (AFP) - Some 3,000 people demonstrated in the Belarus capital Minsk late Monday to mark the eighteenth anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, the world's worst nuclear accident, that occurred in northern Ukraine but affected large areas of Belarus.
The demonstrators demanded that the government halt production of food in contaminated areas and increase allowances for people living in those areas and for those who were sent to clean up the site of the disaster 18 years ago and have severe health problems today.
The authorities had not allowed Monday's meeting, and riot police tried to prevent it from taking place, beating up three young men in the process.
A reactor in the Chernobyl nuclear power station in Ukraine exploded in April 1986, contaminating large areas in the north of the country along with stretches of Belarus and Russia.
Some 25,000 people died since the disaster in 1986 and nearly six million people continue to live in contaminated zones, many crippled by the effect of the radiation.
Twenty three percent of Belarus territory, on which some 1.5 million people live, is still contaminated.
Ukraine closed down the fourth and last reactor of the Chernobyl power plant in December 2000. But the station, with its sarcophagus covering about 200 tonnes of radioactive magma, remains a concern.
Ukraine is due later this year to begin construction of a giant shell over the sarcophagus, which is due to be completed in 2008 at a cost of more than a billion dollars.
vk-eh/bm
Demonstrators mark Chernobyl anniversary in Belarus capital
MINSK, April 27 (AFP) - Some 3,000 people demonstrated in the Belarus capital Minsk late Monday to mark the eighteenth anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, the world's worst nuclear accident, that occurred in northern Ukraine but affected large areas of Belarus.
The demonstrators demanded that the government halt production of food in contaminated areas and increase allowances for people living in those areas and for those who were sent to clean up the site of the disaster 18 years ago and have severe health problems today.
The authorities had not allowed Monday's meeting, and riot police tried to prevent it from taking place, beating up three young men in the process.
A reactor in the Chernobyl nuclear power station in Ukraine exploded in April 1986, contaminating large areas in the north of the country along with stretches of Belarus and Russia.
Some 25,000 people died since the disaster in 1986 and nearly six million people continue to live in contaminated zones, many crippled by the effect of the radiation.
Twenty three percent of Belarus territory, on which some 1.5 million people live, is still contaminated.
Ukraine closed down the fourth and last reactor of the Chernobyl power plant in December 2000. But the station, with its sarcophagus covering about 200 tonnes of radioactive magma, remains a concern.
Ukraine is due later this year to begin construction of a giant shell over the sarcophagus, which is due to be completed in 2008 at a cost of more than a billion dollars.
vk-eh/bm
The nuclear power plant in
Chernobyl
Tuesday, Apr. 27, 2004. Page 4
Candles,
Flowers and Rallies for Chernobyl
By Anna Melnichuk
The Associated Press – The Moscow Times
The Associated Press – The Moscow Times
Vasily
Vaschyuk, right, toasting his firefighter son Monday at Mitinskoye Cemetery.
KIEV -- Across the former Soviet Union, people
lit candles, laid flowers and held demonstrations Monday to remember the 18th
anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Hundreds of Ukrainians filled the small
Chernobyl victims' chapel in Kiev at 1:23 a.m. Monday, the exact time of the
explosion. Later, they laid flowers and lit candles at a small hill wheremarble
plates are inscribed with the names of hundreds of victims.
Nearly 1,000 mourners gathered Monday afternoon
at Kiev's memorial to Chernobyl victims, a soaring statue of five falling
metallic swans. Some placed flowers and photos of deceased relatives at its
base.
"Nothing can be compared with a mother's
sorrow," said Praskoviya Nezhyvova, an elderly retiree clutching a
black-framed photograph of her son, Viktor. She said he died of
Chernobyl-related stomach cancer in 1990 at age 44.
Volodymyr Diunych, a driver who took members of
the hastily recruited and inadequately equipped cleanup crews to the site,
recalled watching as residents were evacuated "in an awful rush" days
after the disaster.
In all, 7 million people in Belarus, Russia and
Ukraine are estimated to suffer physical or psychological effects of radiation
related to the April 26, 1986, catastrophe, when reactor No. 4 exploded and
caught fire.
An area half the size of Italy was
contaminated, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to be resettled and
ruining some of Europe's most fertile agricultural land, the United Nations
said.
Many people injured or displaced because of the
explosion complain about inadequate government support.
Sergei Shchvetsov, the head of Russia's
Chernobyl Union, said 40,000 people disabled in operations to clean up the
blast live in Russia and the "volume of benefits to which they are
eligible is narrowing every year," Itar-Tass reported.
Greenpeace activists held a small protest
outside the Department for the Inspection of Radiation Security in Moscow,
carrying signs reading "No more Chernobyls."
Meanwhile, in the Ukrainian town of Slavutych
-- built to house Chernobyl workers displaced by the accident -- people held a
solemn memorial meeting early Monday to honor the memory of their relatives,
friends and colleagues.
More than 2.32 million people have been
hospitalized in Ukraine as of early 2004 with illnesses blamed on the disaster,
including 452,000 children, according to Ukraine's Health Ministry. Ukraine has
registered some 4,400 deaths.
The most frequently noted Chernobyl-related diseases
include thyroid and blood cancer, mental disorders and cancerous growths. The
United Nations said in a statement that in some areas of Belarus, thyroid
cancer among children has increased more than 100-fold when compared with the
period before the accident.
April 27, 2004
Somber Ceremonies Recall Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster
By Anna Melnichuk
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS – St Petersburg Times
KIEV - Across the former Soviet Union,
people lit candles, laid flowers and held demonstrations Monday to remember the
18th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which spread radiation over
much of northern Europe.
Hundreds of Ukrainians filled the small
Chernobyl victims' chapel in Kiev at 1:23 a.m. Monday, the exact time of the
explosion. Later, they laid flowers and lit candles at a small hill where
marble plates are inscribed with the names of hundreds of victims.
Nearly 1,000 mourners gathered Monday afternoon
at Kiev's memorial to Chernobyl victims, a soaring statue of five falling
metallic swans. Some placed flowers and photos of deceased relatives at its
base.
"Nothing can be compared to a mother's
sorrow," said Praskoviya Nezhyvova, an elderly retiree clutching a
black-framed photograph of her son, Viktor. She said he died of
Chernobyl-related stomach cancer in 1990 aged 44.
Volodymyr Diunych, a driver who took
members of the hastily recruited and inadequately equipped clean-up crews to
the site, recalled watching as residents were evacuated "in an terrible
rush" days after the disaster.
In all, 7 million people in Belarus, Russia and
Ukraine are estimated to suffer from physical or psychological effects of
radiation related to the catastrophe of April 26, 1986 when reactor No. 4
exploded and caught fire.
An area half the size of Italy was contaminated,
forcing hundreds of thousands of people to be resettled and ruining some of
Europe's most fertile agricultural land, the United Nations said.
Many people injured or displaced because of the
explosion complain about inadequate government support.
Sergei Shchvetsov, the head of Russia's
Chernobyl Union, said 40,000 people disabled in operations to clean up the
blast live in Russia and the "volume of benefits to which they are
eligible is narrowing every year," Itar-Tass reported.
Greenpeace activists held a small protest
outside the Department for the Inspection of Radiation Security in Moscow,
carrying signs that read "No more Chernobyls."
About 800 have returned to their old homes in
Chernobyl. They feel that they have nowhere else to go. And since the enemy is
invisible, the try not to think about it. But everything is radioactive
poisend…
Kiev Post:
Chernobyl's
18th anniversary remembered
Apr 26, 2004 14:20
(AP) Across the former Soviet Union, people lit
candles, laid flowers and held demonstrations April 26 to mark the 18th
anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which spread radiation over much
of northern Europe.
In all, 7 million people in the former Soviet
republics of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine are estimated to suffer physical or
psychological effects of radiation related to the April 26, 1986, catastrophe,
when reactor No. 4 exploded and caught fire.
An area half the size of Italy was
contaminated, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to be resettled and
ruining some of Europe's most fertile agricultural land, the United Nations
said.
undreds of Ukrainians filled the small
Chernobyl victims' chapel in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, at 1:23 a.m. (2223
GMT Monday), the exact time of the explosion. Later, they laid flowers and lit
candles at a small hill where marble plates are inscribed with the names of
hundreds of victims. Nearly 1,000 mourners gathered Monday afternoon at
Kyiv's memorial to Chernobyl victims, a soaring statue of five falling metallic
swans. Some placed flowers and photos of deceased relatives at its base.
"Nothing can be compared with a mother's
sorrow," said Praskoviya Nezhyvova, an elderly retiree clutching a
black-framed photograph of her son, Viktor. She said he died of
Chernobyl-related stomach cancer in 1990 at age 44.
Volodymyr Diunych, a driver who took members of
the hastily recruited and inadequately equipped cleanup crews to the site,
recalled watching as residents were evacuated "in an awful rush" days
after the disaster. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union's traditional May Day
celebrations went ahead in Kyiv, 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Chernobyl,
only five days after the accident.
Soviet authorities had withheld much
information on the world's worst nuclear accident, both from its own people and
from the rest of the world. Only last year, Ukraine's security service
declassified secret files documenting malfunctions and safety violations at the
plant that caused the release of small doses of radiation from time to time
long before the explosion.
Ukraine shuttered Chernobyl's last working
reactor in December 2000, but many problems remain.
Ukrainian experts say that the
concrete-and-steel shelter that was hastily constructed over the damaged
reactor needs urgent repairs, but authorities claim that there are no serious
safety threats. Meanwhile, many people injured or displaced because of the
explosion complain about inadequate government support.
Sergei Shchvetsov, the head of Russia's
Chernobyl Union, said that 40,000 people disabled in operations to clean up the
blast live in Russia and the "volume of benefits to which (they) are
eligible is narrowing every year," the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
Greenpeace activists held a small
protest outside Russia's Department for the Inspection of Radiation Security,
carrying signs that read "No more Chernobyls."
Meanwhile, in the Ukrainian town of Slavutych -
built to house Chernobyl workers displaced by the accident - people held a
solemn memorial meeting early Monday to honor the memory of their relatives,
friends and colleagues. More than 2.32 million people have been
hospitalized in Ukraine as of early 2004 with illnesses blamed on the disaster,
including 452,000 children, according to Ukraine's Health Ministry. Ukraine has
registered some 4,400 deaths.
The most frequently noted Chernobyl-related
diseases include thyroid and blood cancer, mental disorders and cancerous
growths. The United Nations said in a statement that in some areas of Belarus,
thyroid cancer among children has increased more than 100-fold when compared
with the period before the accident.
The reported numbers of thyroid
cancer cases in
Belarus after Chernobyl range from
1200 up to about 10 000
16 April 2004, WISE/NIRS Nuclear Monitor 608 3
ASSESSMENT OF CHERNOBYL
HEALTH CONSEQUENCES RESISTED
The secretary-general of the United Nations,
Kofi Annan, has repeatedly placed particular emphasis on the fact that millions
of people continue to be directly affected by the consequences of the Chernobyl
accident, that the acute suffering including health disorders continues, and
that this disaster is a matter of global concern.
(608.5598) E. Lengfelder, H. Rabes, H.
Scherb
& Ch. Frenzel - Among the New Independent States (NIS) countries, Belarus is mostly
affected by the extent of radionuclide deposition, thyroid cancer incidence and
many other effects. Internationally, there is an intense and controversial
discussion about which health effects in the population, and to what extent,
are truly caused by radiation exposure and which are attributed to radiation,
but are scientifically unsound. There are serious issues to consider when
answering these questions, and scientists and the quality of their work become
a very important factor, also in achieving political goals. For the huge number
of patients suffering, for example from hypothyroidism or thyroid cancer, it is
insignificant whether their disease can be scientifically attributed to
radiation. Furthermore, it is also insignificant for the health system of the
country, from which they expect to receive appropriate treatment.
The
Chernobyl accident was the largest and most severe disaster in the history of
civil nuclear technology. One that can and will happen again in one of the more
than 400 nuclear power stations world wide, most being located in areas with a
population density several fold greater than in the case of Chernobyl. The
questions and answers concerning the particular health consequences of the
accident and the possibility and effectiveness of countermeasures, are of extreme
political and economical importance.
Learning
from the past
If
we do not know the past, we will not be able to understand the present or make
proper decisions for the future. This definitely applies to the many
announcements and reports on the health consequences after the Chernobyl
accident that were released, in particular, by western governments,
international bodies and the nuclear industry during the past 17 years. In the
weeks following the accident, the authorities in Moscow released several orders
to keep information on the issue of Chernobyl secret. Later, in July 1987, the
order was given that the acute and chronic diseases of liqui-dators (emergency
workers) exposed to less than 50 rem, must not be attributed to the effects of
ionising radiation.
In
1990, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) organized the International
Chernobyl Project (ICP),
with
the participation of the European Commission, the United Nations Scientific
Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), and many countries
world wide, to investigate and assess the radiological situation in the three
affected Soviet Republics. 200 scientists from the West and 500 from former
USSR were sent by their governments to participate. The IAEA team lead by US
Professor F. Mettler concluded in 1991 that there were no health disorders that
could be directly attributed to radiation exposure. IAEA favored sychological stress and anxiety as the cause
of health disorders observed and this view was disseminated worldwide by the
scientists involved.
However,
in reality the number of thyroid cancer cases in children in Belarus was
already 30 times higher than the average 10 years before Chernobyl, although
the absolute number of cases was low. The IAEA and other international organizations
failed to take into account the findings and reports of Belarusian and
Ukrainian
scientists on the marked increase in thyroid cancers. Several years ago, the
BBC investigated and broadcast a TV documentary that revealed that as far back
as 1990, Professor Mettler, as the scientific representative of the USA, had
analyzed the pathological slides of thyroid cancers of 20 Ukrainian
children, confirming malignancy in all
cases, which in this age group could not be due to background incidence. Mettler
and his colleagues suppressed this fact from their reports. As a result,
international organizations and the UN did not start proper assistance programs
for the people affected and valuable time was lost.
Independent
scientists from NIS and Western countries continued to report on the increase
in thyroid cancer, while scientists working for IAEA, UNSCEAR and American and
European governments denied it. The WHO sent British thyroid pathologist D.
Williams, radiation biologist K. Baverstock and other experts to the Chernobyl
region and they confirmed findings of increased thyroid cancers and a probable
link to radioiodine exposure from Chernobyl. The BBC reported that resistance
to the idea was strongest in America. The US government had special reason to
be wary because the Department of Energy had deliberately released a cloud of
iodine131, in the 1950s, to test how well they could track a plume. This added
to existing contamination from weapons tests and large releases of radioiodine
from the Hanford nuclear facility over many years. Williams confirmed evidence
that large areas of the USA had a low-level exposure to radioactive iodine.
Naturally, the US government was very concerned and
preferred to avoid being forced to admit that they may have caused thyroid
cancers and may have to pay compensation.
According to Williams and other experts in this field, there is a strong
wish and hope that radioiodine would not be shown to be the cause of thyroid
cancer. Vested interests in the West have distorted the issue of thyroid
cancer. Fear of crippling compensation claims, the entrenched views of
scientists and industry concerns over bad PR had all obscured investigation by
Williams. According USA laws, the compensation claims of American citizens, who
developed thyroid cancer after these releases, could add up to many billions of
dollars, which the government wishes to avoid paying.
International research projects on thyroid in Belarus
Two international research programs on the health effects of Chernobyl
are of special interest. The ‘InternationalCooperation for post Chernobyl NIS Thyroid
Tissue, Nucleic Acid and Data Banks’ was formed by the USA, theEuropean
Commission on behalf of the European Atomic Energy Community, Japan and WHO
with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine invited to form a collaborative research
resource. The goals of
the study include guidelines on the avoidance of competition among
scientific groups, the study of the pathology and molecular biology of thyroid
cancer including the role of isotopes of iodine and
of other factors
influencing cancer incidence including exposure to other carcinogens, genetic
factors etc.
All resulting data is being collected in the U.K. The decisions
regarding which research group will receive cancer material and is accepted to
participate in the project, will be made by a managing committee, where the
Western participating countries and organizations are in the majority. Also of
great interest are the ‘BelAm Project’ in Belarus and ‘UkrAm Project’ in
Ukraine. The project began in Belarus in 1996 following the first compensation
claims in the US and involves the monitoring of around 12 000 people for 30
years in order to determine how many thyroid disorders, including cancer cases,
would appear. International media has been critical, arguing that the project
would be restricted to investigation of Belarusians but following the detection
of any cancer cases, treatment and aftercare would be left to the patients and
Belarusian health system, which is unable to provide all patients with
appropriate treatment.
The
articles also highlight the fact that in the USA and Europe scientific
investigations on the state of people’s health are only allowed if proper
medical treatment is also guaranteed, so why this should not apply to the
people of Belarus? In Gomel Oblast, southeast of Belarus, around 400 000 people
who were children or adolescents at the time of the accident, are known to be
at high risk of developing thyroid cancer. These people should all have regular
check-ups, as opposed to restricting those rights to a minimum number in order
to satisfy the interests of the USA. In 2000, a report by the UNSCEAR committee
contained an evaluation of the consequences of the 1986 Chernobyl accident.
It concludes that ‘there is no evidence of a major public health impact
attributable to radiation exposure fourteen years after the accident’, apart
from a high level of (treatable, non-fatal) thyroid cancers in children. With
this exception, the report states ‘there is no scientific evidence of increases
in overall cancer incidence or mortality or in non-malignant disorders that
could be related to radiation exposure.’ UNSCEAR’s statement again ignores a
large number of scientific publications on a several fold increase in thyroid
cancers in adults, a large increase in non-malignant thyroid disorders and
other diseases. It should be noted that this UN committee does not consist of
independently chosen or elected scientists, but of those sent as
representatives of the governments of the 21 nations, who have a strong
interest in the use of nuclear technology. Professor Mettler is still member of
UNSCEAR and is still representing the interests of the US government.
NGO activities in Belarus
In 1991, the Otto Hug Strahleninstitut MHM, a German non-governmental
medical-scientific non-profit organization, began several long-term treatment
and research projects on cancer and other thyroid diseases in Belarus. Numerous
experts in radiation medicine, biology, physics and statistics from several universities
and research centers are integrated within the Institute. The cooperation with
Belarus is based on long-term contracts with the Health Ministry and includes
several university institutions in the West. The laboratories and medical
institutions in Belarus received equipment and are now continuously supplied by
the German Institute to facilitate medical treatment and research.
Since 1993, the ‘Thyroid Center Gomel’ project has diagnosed and treated
more than 90 000 patients from Oblast for thyroid diseases including cancer,
processing over 220 000 blood analyses for thyroid parameters. The laboratory
regularly participates in international quality assurance programs. The
‘Histopathological Laboratory’ of the National Thyroid Center of Belarus started
in 1995 and collaborates with the German Institute, which provides equipment
and regularly supplies consumables. More than 7800 thyroid malignancies have
been diagnosed,
involving the preparation of over 40 000 pathological slides according
to internationally accepted standards. Since 1993, a fruitful international
scientific cooperation on pathology and the
molecular genetics of thyroid cancer resulted in considerable progress
in the understanding of the molecular biology of this disease and in the establishment
of a tumor tissue bank. The extension of this cooperation to provide a
molecular biology laboratory by the Institute is in progress. In 1997, the
‘Radioiodine Therapy’ project started in Gomel, and has since provided more
than 2100 diagnostic and therapeutic radioiodine treatment courses to cancer
patients through the donation of equipment and regular delivery of radioiodine.
Since 1991, Belarus has received
over 13 million Euro (US$ 15.8 million) in medical, social and scientific
support from the Otto Hug Strahleninstitut. The German Association of Chernobyl
Help (DVTH) is an umbrella organization, which integrates over 80 NGOs working
in the fields of social rehabilitation, medical care and other areas in order
to mitigate the situation in regions affected by Chernobyl. All these
organizations and their sponsors wish to discover the real consequences of
Chernobyl, rather than playing down or dramatizing its consequences of
distorting information gathered. To date, the DVTH members have given support
and measures valued at around 75 million Euro (US$ 91.5 million) to the
population in the countries affected by Chernobyl (mainly in Belarus).
Look at the collective thyroid dose
The reported numbers of thyroid cancer cases in Belarus after Chernobyl
range from 1200 up to about 10 000. The figures are influenced by the risk
assessment models used, the assignment of patients to different categories of
reconstructed organ doses, the belief of some scientists that a lower
radioiodine dose is ineffective in inducing cancer etc. Recently, the authors
of this paper completed a study on the annual age-and gender-specific incidence
of thyroid cancers in the Czech Republic from 1976 until 1999. The study is
probably the largest of its kind as it accounts for 247 million person-years.
From
1978 until 1999, there was an age-dependant annual increase in the thyroid
cancer incidence proportion of 2,1% per annum. From 1988 onwards, the study
revealed an additional significant increase in the thyroid cancer incidence of
2,3% per year. Although the contamination levels due to the Chernobyl releases,
including radioiodine, in the Czech Republic were low compared to the situation
in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, resulting in low individual thyroid organ
doses, it led to a relevant collective thyroid dose in the Czech population.
Since improved medical surveillance and reporting following the Chernobyl
accident are unlikely to account for the increase in thyroid cancer incidence,
the radioiodine from Chernobyl appears to be the real causation of this disease.
This would mean that for the assessment of radioiodine associated
thyroid cancers in the Chernobyl regions, one should look carefully at
collective dose effects and at the group low in individual organ dose but very
high in number, instead of taking parts of this group as an unexposed
reference. Regarding Kofi Annan’s statement that Chernobyl is a matter of
global concern, research projects by international organizations on the health
consequences for the citizens of NIS countries after the Chernobyl catastrophe
should be obliged to guarantee therapy and aftercare to a substantial part of
the population at risk. This approach would achieve the following objectives:
* Benefits for Western countries and organizations carrying out research
projects would be
balanced with treatment for the people affected in the NIS.
* The level of the health and treatment system in the affected areas
would increase.
* The extent and the costs of health protection after a catastrophe in a
nuclear power plant can be
felt in the West and efforts to play down the consequences reduced.
This paper is originally titled:
“Assessment of Chernobyl Health Consequences meets with resistance;
Factors Influencing the Assessment of Chernobyl Health Consequences and the
Contribution of International
Non-governmental Organizations to Research and Treatment of Thyroid
Pathologies in Belarus”.
Its authors are from the following institutions:
E. Lengfelder & Ch. Frenzel - Institute of Radiation Biology, University
of Munich, Germany Otto Hug Strahleninstitut MHM & Munich German
Association for Chernobyl Help (DVTH), Munich-Ottobrunn; H. Rabes - Institute
of Pathology, University of Munich, Germany; H. Scherb - GSF-Federal Research
Center for Environment and Health, Munic
Nucleonics
Week
Volume
45 / Number 18 / April 29, 2004]
-Chernobyl
consequences continue to weigh on three countries
-Thyroid cancer
-Exclusion zone -Reducing support
-Crii-rad calls for
dissolution of Chernobyl contamination group
-Different viewpoints
-Worse than 1986
-Chernobyl-hit
republics to harmonize radiation effects data
Chernobyl consequences
continue to weigh on three countries
Eighteen years after the
Chernobyl disaster, Ukrainian military registration and enlistment offices say
this year’s draftees, who were born in 1986, are far from military medical
standards, with a large proportion having thyroid gland diseases or
cardiovascular or urinogenital problems.
Ukrainian officials connect this
phenomenon with the explosion of Chernobyl-4 on April 26, 1986, which they say
continues to impact the health of the Ukrainian population.
According to the public health
ministry of Ukraine, the sickness incidence for children exposed to Chernobyl
fallout has stabilized in recent years at 138.9 per 10,000, but the incidence
of musculoskeletal and conjunctive-tissue afflictions is up, with twice as high
incidence for children living on the contaminated territory as compared with
those living in clean areas.
More than 2.77-million people in
Ukraine hold the status of Chernobyl victims. More than 2.3-million people,
including 451,800 children, are under medical surveillance connected with
Chernobyl. Out-patient treatment covers 92.4% of the Chernobyl “liquidators”
(recovery workers), 93.9% of evacuees, 88.7% of those living on contaminated
territories, and 88.7% of children. About 30% of liquidators, 20% of evacuees,
and 22.3% of those living on contaminated territories benefit from inpatient
care.
The proportion of adults
recognized as having some illness is growing continuously and now constitutes
94.2% of the liquidators, 89.8% of evacuees, and 84.7% of those living on
contaminated territories. Nearly 80% of the affected infant population are
classified as being ill.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thyroid cancer
The most evident consequence is
an increase in thyroid cancer. Between 1986 and 2002, 2,702 surgical operations
connected with this disease were conducted in Ukraine on patients who were between
birth and 18 at the time of the accident; 1,882 of the patients were under 14.
Only 45 cases of the disease were registered among children born after the
Chernobyl accident, when there was no influence of radioactive iodine. A
similar trend is observed for those aged 15 to 18 in 1986, but the incidence of
the disease is lower than for younger children.
Thyroid cancer is also the most
noticeable consequence of Chernobyl in Russia. According to the Russian
emergency situations ministry, thyroid cancer among those who were adults at
the time of accident is showing an unfavorable trend, and this population
category has more frequent incidence of diseases of the blood, endocrine, and
digestive systems. Ministry officials say the general sickness rate of the
adult population on Chernobyl-contaminated territories in Russia exceeds the
average rate for the country as a whole.
As for liquidators, 27% of them
are disabled. Russia’s medical dosimetry registry contains records of 600,000
Chernobyl victims, 32% of them liquidators.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Exclusion zone
So-called self-settlers who
voluntarily live within the exclusion zone around the power plant site
represent a special case, since the zone contains 2.8-million cubic meters of
radioactive waste with total activity of over 200,000 curies, not including the
radioactivity remaining in the destroyed RBMK. There are 135 enterprises and
organizations working in the exclusion zone.
Now, 383 self-settlers are living
in 13 developed areas of the exclusion zone, down from 410 a year earlier. Most
of them are older people who returned to their homes on their own.
Alexander Lukashenko, president
of Belarus, stated during a tour of the most-affected areas in his country on
the eve of the Chernobyl anniversary that the early mass evacuation of people
from the affected regions had been a mistake. Belarussian territory is the most
contaminated area after Chernobyl itself, and people who based policy on that
situation in fact scared the population rather than helping them, said
Lukashenko, adding this ended up ruining Gomel region and part of Mogilyov
region.
“We committed a great act of
stupidity by relocating people in large groups, building large settlements, and
settling them in cities,” he said. People separated from their families did not
get acclimatized in new places, especially in cities, he said, stating it would
have been better to build groups of 10-12 homes in the countryside and relocate
people there.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reducing support
In Ukraine, 2,294 developed areas
in 12 regions are categorized as contaminated. Many people think the radiation
level is already considerably lowered. According to the Ukraine emergency
situations ministry, of a total of 1,290 monitored spots in the zones of
augmented radiological supervision, in 1,249 places the annual dose is below
half the allowed level of 2 milliSievert (0.2 rem).
The Ukrainian emergency ministry is
drafting legislation to amend the law now in force on the legal status of the
contaminated territories. The bill would change the boundaries of the
contaminated zones with the purpose of reducing the extent of financial
support.
In the 2004 Ukrainian state
budget, $320-million is allocated to Chernobyl problems, but ministry officials
say that in fact about $2.63-billion is needed to address problems associated
with Chernobyl under Ukrainian law.
—Alexei Breus, Kiev
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crii-rad calls for
dissolution of Chernobyl contamination group
French “counter-expert”
association Crii-rad is calling on Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and two
government ministers to disband a government-appointed working group studying
the health effects of Chernobyl fallout in France, saying that if the group is
allowed to publish conclusions, it will amount to a “state lie.”
Crii-rad expects the study to
support the hypothesis that the April 1986 Ukrainian reactor accident did not
have a significant impact in France.
The charge is the latest in a
lengthening controversy over the level of doses in France after Chernobyl and
whether authorities of the time should have ordered countermeasures to protect
the population, as happened in Germany, Italy, and other countries. The working
group was named two years ago in an attempt to resolve the controversy and
reach official agreement on the extent of fallout and its health impact.
It should have finished its work
by now, but disagreements between Chairman Andre Aurengo, a thyroid cancer
specialist, and group members from the Institute of Radiological Protection
& Nuclear Safety (IRSN) have delayed the conclusions, which Aurengo now
says won’t be ready until June.
Crii-rad was founded just after
Chernobyl as a reaction against a perceived attempt by national authorities to
cover up the extent of fallout in certain parts of France. It charges that
Aurengo is bent on defending the decisions made at the time by those authorities,
notably the country’s former radiation protection chief, Pierre Pellerin, who
deemed there was no need for countermeasures.
Crii-rad suggests that Pellerin
and the government knew of high radioactivity readings but chose to ignore them
so as to avoid panic and protect the nuclear industry. If that was the case, it
would have major implications for an ongoing legal case being investigated by
Judge Odile Bertella-Geoffroy on a complaint by more than 400 thyroid cancer
victims who charge they contracted their disease because of Chernobyl fallout
exposure in spring 1986. According to Crii-rad, which is also a plaintiff, and
press reports, documents seized in the investigation from Pellerin’s and
ministry files support the conclusion that the government knew of higher
radioactivity readings but decided not to order countermeasures.
Crii-rad is arguing for
recognition of a fallout map published last year by IRSN, which showed much
higher measurements in several areas than was the case in the maps produced in
May 1986 and July 1986 by Pellerin’s organization, Scpri (NW, 24 July ‘03, 15).
Crii-rad says the latest IRSN map is very close to its own conclusions, based
on a vast campaign of measurements and published two years ago in a Chernobyl
contamination “atlas” (NW, 28 Feb. ‘02, 12)
On April 26, the 18th anniversary
of the Chernobyl accident, Crii-rad released an open letter to Raffarin,
Ecology Minister Serge Lepeltier, and Health Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, in
which, as the association put it, they “alert the government to the revisionist
operation” that Aurengo and others are conducting, which they say is
“obstructing” Bertella-Geoffroy’s investigation by preparing to make official a
minimalist view of the Chernobyl fallout.
As evidence, Crii-rad cites the
fact that IRSN, for the first time ever since the Chernobyl disaster, has not
published an updated report on the accident and its consequences this year and,
instead of defending its own contamination map, refers to the work of the
Aurengo group as being the definitive word on the subject.
IRSN has participated in the
Aurengo group since it was named in 2002, but publication of the IRSN map last
year independent of the group’s ongoing work led to a sharp rebuke of the
institute from Aurengo, who subsequently asked IRSN to revisit its
contamination model. The institute took an unexpectedly long time to do that,
finishing only last month. In a brief reference to the work in a press release
last week, IRSN said the evaluation of uncertainties in the original model
hadn’t changed its basic conclusions.
In the meantime, notes Crii-rad
director Corinne Castanier, several people who defended the 2003 map have left
IRSN. She charged that IRSN management, which has changed since 2002 and the
merger between the former Institute of Protection & Nuclear Safety (IPSN)
and rad protection office OPRI (successor to Scpri), had pushed aside the
“progressive minority” at IRSN that recognized that contamination levels had
been understated in 1986.
Last year, Aurengo published an
article critiquing the IRSN modeling approach, which he said was insufficiently
precise and, in some cases, reached inexplicable conclusions on contamination
levels. For example, he noted it gave levels at France’s borders several times
higher than those reported by the countries on the other sides of the same
borders. He also criticized the way IRSN combined data on the Chernobyl
“cloud’s” movement and local rainfall. In the end, Aurengo told Nucleonics
Week, the IRSN model is “a succession of approximate hypotheses” that are “not
validated by measurements” on the ground.
The article was accepted as a
“reference publication” by the national Academy of Medicine and was cited as a
reference by the Industry Ministry in last year’s energy debate. This raised
hackles at Crii-rad, which appended a six-page single-spaced critique of the
Aurengo article to its letters to the French ministers.
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Different viewpoints
Didier Champion, director of
IRSN’s Environment division, said IRSN and Aurengo had “different points of
view” but noted that the approach the institute used to construct the map had
been used elsewhere, notably in the U.K. since 1988. He said the IRSN map
couldn’t be used to indicate the contamination of a precise spot because
rainfall was fluctuating in May 1986, but “overall, it gives a good idea of the
contamination” of France.
“We have to stop quarreling,”
Champion said, “especially 18 years on” from the accident.
Crii-rad is not, however, ready
to stop its quarrel, and is in fact escalating it. Besides the Aurengo
publication, which Castanier said contained scientific errors that “even an
elementary school pupil would see,” she cited a second publication last year,
this one from the Academy of Sciences by professors Pierre Galle, Raymond
Paulin and Jean Coursaget who sought to provide a “historic” view of
Chernobyl-related risks in France. Galle and his co-authors also defend the
decisions taken by Pellerin and seek, without naming the organization, to
discredit Crii-rad’s approach to the contamination calculations.
Crii-rad called the Galle article
“propaganda designed to validate after the fact Scpri’s management” of the
post-Chernobyl situation, and appended a critique of that article, too, to the
letter to the ministers.
Castanier said it was “not by
chance” that these two articles were published in the last year as the
investigation by Bertella-Geoffroy entered a crucial stage. Indeed, the result
of the analysis by court-appointed experts in the case was expected early this
year, but is still pending, and Castanier said the Aurengo and Galle
publications were aimed at “discrediting” the experts’ work in advance.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the
thyroid cancer case have said in the past that it will be relatively easy to
prove that authorities ignored higher contamination readings in discarding
countermeasures, but very difficult to prove a causal link between individuals’
cancer and their possible contamination (NW, 22 Jan., 1).
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Worse than 1986
Castanier said her organization
has hopes that because two new ministers are in place at Ecology and Health
since the government changed March 31, Crii-rad will get more reaction than the
silence that greeted its last attempt at a letter to the ministers, in
mid-2003. She said that if the government fails to stop the Aurengo group from
finishing its work and publishing conclusions, “it will be worse than in 1986”
because it will mean the present government is covering up forever the errors
Crii-rad deems were made just after Chernobyl.
She said the organization was
“giving (the government) until the end of May” to respond. If there is no
positive answer at that point, she said, Crii-rad would call a special members’
assembly to debate how it should react, with the expectation that Crii-rad
would—perhaps by the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident in two
years—”call for a completely new organization of radiation protection”
authority in France because the current system is neither independent nor
credible, in the association’s view.
Aurengo, in a statement issued in
response to the Crii-rad attack, said his group is “ready to continue its
scientific work” but noted that “this debate (on contamination models) probably
has only theoretical effect, because ground contamination does not allow one to
predict reliably (contamination) of foodstuffs and thus the beginning of the
process of animal or human contamination.”
In an interview with Nucleonics
Week, he said that even if human contamination could be estimated, it would be
nearly impossible to estimate doses, but in any case, “we’ve never seen any
effects at these dose levels.”
“What happened (in 1986), we will
never know,” Aurengo concluded.—Ann MacLachlan, Paris
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Chernobyl-hit
republics to harmonize radiation effects data
A new plan under which the three
countries hardest hit by the 1986 Chernobyl accident are consolidating their
databanks on the health impacts of radiation was formally announced when the
52nd full session of the 21-country United Nations Scientific Committee on the
Effects of Atomic Radiation (Unscear) began in Vienna April 26.
The aim is to regroup the data
under prescribed categories so as to make them comparable and thereby gain
greater statistical power.
“The problem is that the three
(countries—Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine) have done their dose assessments under
different bases, making it very difficult to make cross-comparisons. The
committee needs directly comparable information, we need to check our
conclusions by looking for consistency across the three to do our effects
assessments,” Unscear Secretary Norman Gentner told Nucleonics Week.
Gentner said a second objective
of the activity “is to enable the scientists of the three (countries) to
publish their own data and then input them into a sort of mega-analysis.” Data
to be input concern conventional time trends; quantitative correlations between
cancer rates and dose; and analytic epidemiological studies. The initial focus
is to be on the time-dependent data on group (country, age, gender) and levels
of exposure per calendar year, with the “ultimate goal” to compare analytical
studies, “the best of all,” as Gentner said.
He said it was now possible to
fit the individual databases into the same tables covering pre-accident
(1981-1985), early post-accident (1986-1990), and subsequent periods
(1991-1995, 1996-2000 in five-year periods, and then yearly to as close as
possible to 2006 when the next Unscear Scientific Annex on Chernobyl effects is
to be issued).
“We will have seven or eight
identifiable groups, and that multiplied by different types of cancer. We will
have a table for every different cancer. We will be looking at all cancers
combined, as an overall measure; all solid cancers; all leukemias; (and)
thyroid cancer in those exposed at, say, under 20 and over 20 years of age at
the time of exposure. We may also look at some others of interest such as
female breast cancer and lung cancer. In all we expect to have 100-plus
different tables of information,” he said. —Gamini
Seneviratne, Vienna
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