FOR THE RECORD: Rep. Gilman's address at Columbia conference (04/28/96)

FOR THE RECORD: Rep. Gilman's address at Columbia conference

Remarks by Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman (R-N.Y.) at the conference marking the 10th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear accident at Columbia University on April 9.

I am pleased to be here today, and particularly pleased to be a member of the honorary organizing committee for this important conference.

It has been 10 years since the world's worst nuclear accident occurred at a place called Chornobyl in what was then known as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

So much has indeed changed - and changed for the better in that region - over the last 10 years. Ukraine is no longer a Soviet socialist republic. It and its neighbors are now independent states, working to build democracy and market-based economies where they have never before existed.

But, despite the many positive changes, one thing remains unchanged.

Despite the passage of 10 years, the reactor facility at Chornobyl, one of the world's most unsafe nuclear facilities, is still in operation - risking at every minute of every day the recurrence of the kind of deadly accident that happened in 1986.

We are compelled to ask how this could be.

Indeed, how could this be, when children in Ukraine now suffer a thyroid cancer rate 100 times normal - and the frequency of thyroid cancer among children in neighboring Belarus has also skyrocketed - all due to the radioactive fallout caused by the reactor explosion 10 years ago?

How could this be, when studies have shown us that leukemias among the general population of these countries have risen, particularly among those involved in the post-explosion clean-up effort?

How could this be, when the so-called "sarcophagus" of concrete that was built over the destroyed reactor No. 4 at Chornobyl has large cracks that allow radiation to leak out - and when this sarcophagus is deteriorating to the point that some fear its complete collapse?

How could this be, when the two reactors still operating at Chornobyl had at least 109 safety violations in 1994 alone?

And how could this be, when well over 5 million people in Ukraine and the neighboring country of Belarus now live on land contaminated by radioactive fallout from the 1986 explosion? When almost 250,000 people in those two countries have had to permanently evacuate their homes due to high levels of radiation? When radioactive contamination appears to be spreading into the local food chain and water supply in Ukraine and Belarus?

We would expect that the damage from the 1986 reactor explosion would have led to the closure of Chornobyl's remaining reactors by now. Instead, those reactors are still in operation, despite what experts consider to be their inherently unstable design.

Two facts seem to be the prime reasons for this odd state of affairs.

First, the newly independent country of Ukraine and its more than 50 million people are starving for energy, and are unable to pay for expensive imports of oil and gas.

In such a desperate situation, it has been easier for Ukrainians to turn away from the threat to their safety and health that these reactors present, focusing instead on the fact that the Chornobyl facility produces 5 percent of all of Ukraine's electricity.

The second reason for the failure to close down the Chornobyl facility after 10 years is the sheer cost of doing so. Estimates of the cost range to $5 billion or more.

The governments of Ukraine and Belarus simply cannot find the funds to do this at a time when their economies are in a tremendous depression. Ukrainian government spending for radiation monitoring, health care for radiation victims and so on is estimated to now consume between 5 and 10 percent of the national budget. In Belarus, some 20 percent of the national budget is already consumed by such costs.

And, despite such expenditures, their efforts are still inadequate to address the many problems involved in dealing with Chornobyl.

The outside world must find the means, as difficult as this may be, to help address this important problem.

I am pleased to see that in fact some significant progress has been made in organizing an aid package aimed specifically at closing the Chornobyl facility. As of March of this year, the G-7 group of industrialized countries and various international financial institutions have committed to provide $2.3 billion in grants and loans to help Ukraine close down Chornobyl. This is real progress when we consider that less than four years ago the G-7 had only begun to look at providing assistance to promote reactor safety in general throughout Eastern Europe.

I am pleased to note that the United States has already begun providing assistance to Ukraine and Belarus that has been helpful in setting the groundwork for closing Chornobyl and recovering from the damage inflicted by the 1986 explosion.

In Ukraine, American assistance is helping to increase the efficiency of power generation and use. Ukraine inherited a tremendously wasteful power distribution and pricing system from the former Soviet regime, and United States assistance is helping Ukraine to change that - and to offset the loss of energy production that closing Chornobyl will entail. The United States is also helping Ukraine to search for new sources of energy, to improve the safety of operations at all of Ukraine's 14 nuclear reactors, and to set up an international research center outside of Chornobyl.

The United States government and private American organizations - some of whom are represented at this conference - are providing vital medicines and medical equipment to help victims of the 1986 accident, and the National Cancer Institute is now conducting a major study in Ukraine of the health effects of the 1986 explosion.

In Belarus U.S. assistance has set up a "hospital partnership" focused on the treatment of thyroid cancer in children, and has helped set up a project to study the use of contaminated lands in growing rapeseed which might safely be converted into lubricants and sold for hard currency.

In Belarus, the United States government and private American organizations are also providing medicine and medical equipment to assist the victims of Chornobyl.

I am particularly pleased that one such charitable organization from my own Congressional District in New York - the Ramapo Children of Chornobyl Fund - has raised over $12 million worth of donated medicines and other goods to assist the children in Belarus affected by this radiation.

Ladies and Gentleman, I would like to close with a few thoughts about what might be done as we approach the 10th anniversary of the Chornobyl explosion this April 26.

First, the "Nuclear Safety Summit" of the G-7 to be held in Moscow this April 19 needs to revisit the issue of Chornobyl.

Russia, in particular, needs to do more to help, and I think that it has the means - through forgiveness of some or all of the energy debt Ukraine owes it - to help ensure that Chornobyl is closed in the very near future. It is, after all, very much in Russia's interest to have this happen.
Second, the country of Belarus, even more than Ukraine, suffers from a lack of resources to deal with the consequences of the Chornobyl explosion, particularly since much of its prime agricultural land has been contaminated. Belarus' leaders, therefore, need to recognize that meaningful economic reform is the only way that the economy can begin to grow and provide the long-term financial resources to help address its post-Chornobyl problems.
Third, any Ukrainian officials who may still believe that Chornobyl can be used as some kind of "bargaining chip" for greater aid from the G-7 countries should consider what Ukraine would face if - God forbid - the pillars holding up the concrete sarcophagus over the destroyed reactor were to collapse. How would Ukraine cope with the huge amounts of radiation that would be released? What would happen if the debris fell into the reactor that is now operated next to the sarcophagus? This is a time for solutions, not for bargaining!
Finally, we should look at the problems created by the Chornobyl explosion in the context of the problems caused by radiation contamination in other areas of the former Soviet Union. Should we overlook the suffering of children living near the former Soviet nuclear testing site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan? Can we ignore the effects of the wanton dumping of radioactive wastes in lands and waters throughout the region by the former Soviet Union?

Chornobyl is a specific threat that must be addressed, but radioactive contamination throughout the former Soviet Union is a real threat that is very likely to spread unless solutions are found soon.

In closing, let me say that democracy is ultimately the solution to the problems of Chornobyl and the problems of environmental devastation in the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Only totalitarian regimes and their callous bureaucracies - such as that of the former Soviet regime - can get away with the kinds of bad policies and malfeasance that led to the Chornobyl accident and that have caused such tremendous environmental damage throughout the states of the former Soviet Union.

The peoples of these countries deserve to know what is taking place in their own countries that will affect their lives and those of their children. They need to know when a threat like Chornobyl lies in their midst - and have the power to do something about it.

In that sense, democracy is the ultimate antidote that can prevent radiation contamination before it starts. And democracy is what the United States seeks for the peoples of these countries.

Thank you.

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