Ukraine prepares to mark Chornobyl's 20th anniversary
by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau
KYIV - At 1:23:47 a.m. on April 26, 1986, the fourth reactor at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic exploded.
Radiation more than 18 times the amount of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb escaped into the earth's atmosphere, contaminating people and land throughout Europe and the Soviet Union.
The Chornobyl nuclear catastrophe is widely believed to have accelerated the demise of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and it forever altered views on nuclear energy.
An independent Ukraine this week began commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear catastrophe, the repercussions of which remain elusive to those trying to assess its damage to Ukraine, its neighbors and the rest of the world.
First Vice Prime Minister Stanislav Stashevsky told an international audience assembled at the Chornobyl Museum at Kyiv's Kontraktova Square that coping with Chornobyl's aftermath remains a heavy burden for Ukraine to bear, demanding further international cooperation.
"Humanity must be convinced that the sad, painful and tragic lesson of Chornobyl will never repeat itself," Mr. Stashevsky said on April 18.
"Ahead of this sad date, in the name of the Ukrainian government, I want to turn to the governments of the world, the world citizenry, our countrymen overseas, with the proposition of active cooperation in resolving problems and hope for a new understanding and cooperation."
Five million Soviet citizens suffered as a result of the Chornobyl catastrophe, either through harmful health effects or forced relocations, Mr. Stashevsky said.
Among those victims, 2,646,103 were Ukrainians, of which 105,251 were declared disabled as a result of the disaster.
More than 643,000 Ukrainian children suffered from the Chornobyl disaster in one form or another, Mr. Stashevsky said.
Almost 5,000 cities and villages were contaminated with radiation, of which 2,700 were situated in Ukraine.
About 164,000 Ukrainians were permanently resettled as a result of the catastrophe, Mr. Stashevsky said, including 15,000 families transferred from the zone and 14,000 families removed from other contaminated territories of Ukraine.
About 7,000 entire families are registered as disabled, he said.
"Chornobyl dealt a hard blow to the economic and social spheres of Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian Federation," Mr. Stashevsky said. "In just the first phase of cleaning the accident, these losses amounted to nearly $13 billion."
These expenses included industrial and agricultural costs, construction efforts, social programs and compensation payments.
For the past 14 years, Ukraine has independently covered the expenses related to cleaning up the disaster.
Between 1992 and 2005, Ukraine's Chornobyl expenses totaled $7 billion, Mr. Stashevsky said, and that will increase to an astronomical $170 billion burden by 2015.
"It's understood that this burden related to cleaning up the aftereffects of the Chornobyl catastrophe is too difficult for our economy, and that's why we so highly appreciate help from the international community, hope for it and expect it will be effective," Mr. Stashevsky said.
The Ukrainian government is having difficulty finding the funds to construct a cover for the reactor's ruins, he said.
About 180 tons, or 95 percent of the fuel in the reactor at the time of the accident, remains inside the temporary shelter erected after the 1986 accident, according to Ukrainian government estimates.
About four tons of radioactive dust remains inside the shelter.
This year's government budget has allocated $69 million for the construction of what is called the New Safe Confinement cover to replace the unsteady sarcophagus. Its total construction cost has been estimated at $768 million.
"Our hopes for financial support from international cooperation, unfortunately, haven't been fully realized," he said.
Three academic conferences will occur simultaneously in Kyiv in the days leading up to the April 26 commemoration.
The most heated debate and controversy will surround the Chornobyl catastrophe's health effects.
Greenpeace International on April 18 released a 138-page report in which it challenged the conclusions drawn by the September 2005 Chernobyl Forum Report that cited a mere 4,000 deaths as direct result of the disaster.
Basing its data on Belarus cancer statistics, Greenpeace's "The Chernobyl Catastrophe" report estimated 93,000 fatal cancers will result from the Chornobyl disaster, with 270,000 additional cancer cases.
Other studies range in their casualty estimates anywhere from 9,335 to 32,000 deaths, the report points out, indicating the lack of consensus in the scientific community.
It also reveals how little is known about the potential human death toll the Chornobyl disaster will eventually count for during the course of this century.
Controversy surrounds not only the potential fatalities related to the catastrophe, but even the current death toll.
To date, only 56 deaths can be directly attributed to the disaster, the Chernobyl Forum Report claims, including 47 victims of acute radiation syndrome and a mere nine thyroid cancer deaths.
Critics of the Chernobyl Forum believe its information is unreliable because one of its main authors, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is interested in promoting nuclear energy.
In fact, more than 200,000 have died from as a result of the disaster between 1990 and 2004, according to the Greenpeace report, which based its estimates on statistics provided by the Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian governments.
Mr. Stashevsky said he hopes that next week's conferences in Kyiv will help sort out the controversies.
At his April 18 press conference he said the Chernobyl Forum's estimates are not accurate.
"I am convinced the international academic conference, which will take place in Kyiv on April 24 and 25, will become a necessary step toward understanding the effects of the Chornobyl catastrophe, both for the benefit of the people and the development of international cooperation," Mr. Stashevsky said.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, April 23, 2006, No. 17, Vol. LXXIV
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