ON THE INTERNET: Chornobyl topics located at various information sites (04/28/96)

ON THE INTERNET: Chornobyl topics located at various information sites

by Andrij Wynnyckyj
Toronto Press Bureau

TORONTO - The GlasNet, an arm of the electronic (computer) network connecting Soviet academics and state employees, eventually became a principal pathway for information about the calamity of April 26, 1986, in Chornobyl to the outside world, seeping past the blackout that Mikhail Gorbachev's regime had tried to impose.

It is fitting therefore to provide a selection of material available on the Internet, and more particularly, the network of information sites (set up by institutions and individuals) known as the World Wide Web.

This is a subjectively compiled "best of" list of sites found using the Infoseek Guide, Excite and Magellan web searchers, intended as an initiate's guide rather than a comprehensive overview. (Editor's note: Some sites use the Russian-based transliteration "Chernobyl.")

General background

"Chernobyl, the Polyn Project," http://polyn.net.kiae.su/polyn/

This site is perhaps the best and most versatile of those on the web at the moment, providing background information, hook-ups to other sites, and other loci for information as technical as the seeker desires. (Thus could easily be included in the "in-depth" category below.)

In 1993, a threesome (Pavel Kharmtsov, Natalya Sergeeva and Olga Zimina) of researchers of the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy in Moscow came together to unify all available information and sources to form a database. The Kurchatov Institute (named after the Soviet physics pioneer) was founded as a separate branch of the Russian government in 1991, based on the USSR Academy of Science's Lab No. 2, and is independent of any other academic or political institution.
"CHERNOB: Chernobyl Trade and Environment Impacts," http://gurukl.ucc.american.edu

A site compiled by unnamed graduate students of the School of International Service at the American University for its wide-ranging Trade Environmental Database (TED). Chornobyl is taken as a "case" (alongside such issues of varied controversy and contention from energy sources to liqueur trade battles between France and Germany) and viewed concisely from various angle, ranging from industry and technology to geography and culture.

Not all of the information provided is of the best quality, but the organization of the material provides a helpful paradigm for further inquiry.

Information in depth

"Chernobyl - Ten Years On," http://www.uilondon.org/chernidx.html.

This site was prepared by the London-based Uranium Institute, which "promotes the use of nuclear energy to meet the world's growing energy demand," but it does provide a wealth of technical information and appears to be one of the best sources for the official Ukrainian line on Chornobyl. It also provides position papers prepared by World Health Organization officials quite inimical to nuclear power.
International Atomic Energy Agency, http://www/iaea.or.at/worldatom.

The United Nations' agency's site, which gives all the information all sides need to formulate their opinions - e.g., that the IAEA is a toothless body unwilling and unable to enforce standards; that it is all-powerful and a cynical enforcement arm of the global nuclear industry; that it is the best of possible worlds given the reality of civilian use of nuclear energy.

Provides a site pertaining to the April 8-12 conference devoted to the 10th anniversary of the explosion at the Chornobyl reactor No. 4, with participants, abstracts, etc.

Nukes pro and con

Given the nature of the event being commemorated, it seems appropriate to mention the "con" side first.

Nuclear Information and Resource Service, http://www.essential.org/nirsnet.

This is an electronic information and networking center for citizens and environmental organizations concerned about nuclear power, waste, radiation and matters concerning alternative energy sources. Also provides a pathway to its "No More Chernobyls" site, which aims to coordinate activism on this issue.
Natural Resources Defense Center, http://www.nrdc.org/nrdc.

A New York-based organization dedicated to describing "Soviet [sic] Nuclear Power, Alive and Ill." Provides background information on the Chornobyl accident and effects, catalogues the dangers of reactors still active throughout the former Soviet Union, and provides counsel on how to gain access to declassified U.S., former Soviet and Russian Federation documents on nuclear power. The site contains an ominous note suggesting that a recent edict issued by Russian President Boris Yeltsin might soon curb much of the access presently enjoyed.
"Nuclear energy is the most certain future source," http://www.formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/nuclear-faq.html.

The title, and the subtitle "One of the major requirements for sustaining human progress," speak for themselves. While the arguments tend to be positivistic to the point of absurdity, John McCarthy, who provides no other information about himself, marshalls an impressive array of facts to support his case.
Canadian Nuclear Association, http://www.cna.ca.cher.html.

The site, prepared by a non-governmental pro-nuclear body provides a typical example of the Western nuclear industry's inclination to downplay the seriousness and ongoing escalation of the Chornobyl disaster's consequences. Provides seven fact sheets with generally accurate, but highly contentious data.

Relief efforts

Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund, http://www.tryzub.com/ccrf

This leading New Jersey-based relief organization's web site is still under construction, and thus had relatively sketchy information about its considerable activities to date as The Weekly went to press, and little of the organization's vast store of documents, resource materials and contacts.

Items currently on-line include: the latest generation of the CCRF's informative brochures, which provides a sketch of the impact of Chornobyl ("A Global Issue"), a breakdown of the CCRF's activities, aid provided to date, resource allocation and a rundown of children's needs in Ukraine; a description of a recent commemorative banquet held at Columbia University's Low Library on April 8, with texts of greetings sent by presidents Bill Clinton of the U.S. and Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine; six photographs of CCRF's relief efforts and staff.
Chernobyl: Information and Humanitarian Aid, http://faraday.cals.virginia/edu/~ana4a/chernobyl.html

This is a site set up by the Belarusian-born Alexander Artsyukhovich, lists over 20 international relief agencies based in North America and Europe, and also provides background on the late and unlamented (by this site compiler) USSR, with a hook-up to the site where documents from the Library of Congress Soviet Archives exhibit of 1992 are stored.

Mr. Artsyukhovich also maintains the Belarus Home Page, that hooks into the site of the recently formed Belarus International Sakharov Institute of Radioecology. His material is worth following around.

Special magazine/journal issues, articles on-line

Wired Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 3, March 1996, "After Technology" by Masha Gessen; http://www.hotwired.com/wired/4.03/chernobyl

A well-written and evocative article about the consequences of the disaster and life in the "zone," with a concise review of available data and sketches of post-Chornobyl life as seen through the eyes of the author, two Belarusian lab technicians in Homiel, a former teacher doing husbandry experiments in a contaminated forest, a state-supported vagabond, a refugee from Tajikistan, and some farmers finally free of collectivization.

"After the peaceful atom, there is a different kind of peace. History once again is short because tomorrow is out of reach," Ms. Gessen, writes. A Moscow-based journalist for Segodnia and Znamia whose articles have appeared in The New Republic, she can be reached at mgessen@glas.apc.org.
Index on Censorship, Vol. 25, No. 168, Jan-Feb (1) 1996 http://oneworld.org/index_oc/issue196/babel.html.

A collection of items from the excellent media/government monitoring English-based publication. Includes a report by Anthony Tucker (former science editor of The Guardian) "Chernobyl: Confusion and Deceit," which deals with ongoing international institutional paralysis and inaction; "Taming the Beast" by David Hearst (The Guardian's Moscow correspondent) on the persistent threat of Russia's nuclear arsenal with favorable mentions of Ukrainian, Kazakh and Belarusian moves to de-nuclearize; a brief memoir by Mikhail Byckau, Belarusian nuclear physicist and Chornobyl liquidator; and a collection of children's writings called "Chernobyl in my destiny."

The issue also includes a series of articles about Belarusian history, politics (President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's moves to suppress the press), Chornobyl's impact (allegations of "cloud seeding" to bring down irradiated rain short of Moscow), assembled by researcher/translator/journalist Vera Rich.
Note: Scientific American's April 1996 contains the first of a series of articles on Chornobyl and its consequences written by Ukraine's current ambassador to the U.S. and former minister of the environment, Dr. Yuri Shcherbak.

However, the magazine's web site can be accessed only by subscribers of America Online. For further inquiries write to SCAinquiry@aol.com.

Two other sites piqued this writer's interest but attempts to establish contact failed: European University of Chinese Medicine, http://www.direct.ca.sinobiology; and "How Cuba Cares for Chernobyl Victims," http://www.blackstar.com/stories/chernobyl/chernobyl10.html
The Ukrainian Weekly, Vol. 64, No. 16, April 21, 1996; http://www.tryzub.com/UFPWWW_Etc/Current/UkrWeekly/Chornobyl

This publication's special commemorative issue is on the Web almost in toto. There are 18 Chornobyl-related items to choose from, including The Weekly's original news reports about the disaster; a summary of events of the 10 Chornobyl years since April 26, 1986, compiled by Khristina Lew; commentaries from 1986 and 1996 by Dr. David R. Marples, University of Alberta historian and a world-recognized authority on the subject; a report on elderly returnees' life in the exclusion zone by current Kyiv correspondent Marta Kolomayets; an in-depth interview by Roman Woronowycz with Greenpeace's representative in Ukraine, Antony Froggatt; Mary Mycio's special report on the resurgence of wildlife in the zone abandoned by humans; addresses by Ambassador to the U.S. Yuri Shcherbak and Ambassador to the U.N. Anatoliy Zlenko; a report by Roma Hadzewycz on the recent conference on Chornobyl and its aftermath held at Yale and Columbia universities; and a news story by Yarema Bachynsky about the Columbia University dinner held to mark the10th anniversary; and more. The information appears on the Ukraine FAQ Plus site.

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