ENVIRONMENT: Chernobyl, Ten Years On, Still Causing Concern

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Senthil Ratnasabapathy

VIENNA, Apr 10 1996 (IPS) - It is ten years since the Chernobyl accident, but its ecological, health and socio-economic consequences are still affecting millions and, worse still, they might continue to plague the world for generations to come.

An international conference in Vienna is currently reviewing the studies of the consequences, but the estimated 700 delegates are not united on their conclusions, particularly regarding Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, which bore the brunt of the nuclear accident.

According to conference co-organisers the World Health Organisation (WHO), a recent increase of thyroid cancer, notably among children in Belarus, is clearly linked to the radiation release from Chernobyl.

Some reports indicate that due to its long incubation periods, the worst is yet to come — when the incidence of thyroid cancer will peak between years 2005-10.

Similarly, while noting the lack of evidence of increased blood disorders such as leukaemia as a result of the Apr. 26, 1986 disaster, the WHO has called for long term studies. Blood disorders usually emerge after a ten year period, as was observed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The 1986 explosion at Chernobyl tore off part of the roof of the reactor and spewed hundreds of kilogrammes of radioactive material high into the air. The accident measured a maximum seven on the seven point International Nuclear Information System scale of nuclear accidents.

A 1991 report issued by a commission appointed by the former Soviet Union investigating its causes found that while design failures, such as faults in the design of the reactor core, the failure of the reactor staff to follow safety rules — where in place — also contributed to the accident.

The environmental and radiological impact occurred in two stages. First was the immediate aftermath of the accident where extremely high doses of radioactive material, up to 1,000 times normal levels, were deposited on the environment. The second phase was long term exposure to low levels of radiation.

According to the environmental NGO Greenpeace some 160,000 square kilometres of land was affected by radiation contamination. An estimated nine million people also were directly or indirectly affected by the accident.

Close to half a million people living in what was considered to the most affected areas were evacuated, but the number of people died since then is disputed.

In the run up to the Vienna meeting the Ukrainian government claimed 125,000 people have died so far as a result of the catastrophe. However, this has not been confirmed by any independent sources.

Among the dead are between 6,000 and 7,000 of the ‘liquidators’ — who were involved in evacuation and clean up operations — but here again it is unclear whether their deaths, actually caused by accidents, suicides, heart and other diseases were directly caused by the Chernobyl accident.

Although plant is geographically in Ukraine, its closeness to the Belarus border left that country worst affected. According to Ivan Kenik, Belarussian minister for Emergencies and Population Protection from Chernobyl, seventy percent of the radiation material fell on his country’s territory.

The radioactive material contaminated 22 percent of its farmland and 30 percent of its forests, says Kenik. He estimates the cost for the agricultural sector due to loss of productive lands to be more than 25 billion dollars between 1986 and the year 2015.

In Ukraine about 40,000 square kilometres have been affected by radiation and another 57,000 square kilometres in Russia.

The Vienna conference is organised by the WHO, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Union’s executive Commission.

Currently more than five million people, one million of them children, still live in areas with radiation doses higher than the normal levels as result of the 1986 blast.

Besides contaminated lands and the environment, one aspect that is certain to remind the world of Chernobyl for generations to come is long term health. Aside from children born with some kind of deformity children may develop cancers in later life.

According to WHO figures presented at the Vienna meeting, while only 21 children were treated for thyroid cancer in Belarus between 1966-85, it increased 15 times to 329 between 1986 and 1994. The year 1994 alone saw 84 new cases of thyroid cancer. Treatment involves removing the thyroid and a lifetime dependence of drugs.

Although the operators of the 15 Chernobyl-style RBMK reactors in Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine have since improved safety standards, there has been a call for the closure of these reactors since they still fall short of the high standards in the West.

At an experts meeting held last week in Vienna, participants from Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine and a host of western nations agreed that besides improvements in the core design and shutdown mechanisms, the RBMK type reactors have also to be further strengthened against floods and fire hazards.

There have been a series of talks between western countries and Ukraine on the closure of the Chernobyl plant, which is still operating, but no concrete result has been achieved so far.

Speaking at the Vienna meeting Tuesday, Ukrainian prime minister Yevgeni Marchuk reiterated his country’s willingness to close down the plant by the turn of the century, but not without “real, concrete financial assistance by the world community”.

This issue is expected to be settled during a meeting of ministers from the Group of Seven (G-7) richest nations in Moscow next week. However there has been improvements in safety standards.

Months after the accident, two conventions — one concerning emergency assistance in case of a nuclear accident and another on information on such an accident — came into force.

A general convention on the safety of civilian nuclear power plants has been adopted and Hans Blix, director general of the IAEA told the Vienna meeting he expects the convention to come into force “soon”.