Ukraine's ambassador to United States points to tragic lessons of the disaster

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - Yuri Shcherbak, Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, says the Chornobyl tragedy will remain with the world for centuries to come, and the world community should learn from Ukraine's experience.

The 10th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at the Chornobyl nuclear power station is not only an occasion to remind the world about Ukraine's sufferings and needs, he noted. "It's an opportunity to adequately analyze some of the conclusions and effects on the whole world from the Chornobyl tragedy."

Dr. Shcherbak, who founded Ukraine's Green movement, wrote a book about the Chornobyl accident and was minister of environmental protection prior to his diplomatic appointments, discussed the ramifications of the nuclear accident during an interview for The Ukrainian Weekly after his return from a conference at Columbia University, one of many U.S. events marking the Chornobyl accident's 10th anniversary.

Unlike other past world tragedies, Chornobyl is still with us; it remains current not only for those who suffered, but for all mankind, Dr. Shcherbak said.

In addition to the growing medical problems resulting from Chornobyl, Ukraine still has to deal with the problem of radioactive contamination of the area's water supply, the 700 kilograms of plutonium - equal to 70 Hiroshima-size bombs - and 2.3 tons of enriched uranium still in the reactor, the clean-up of the numerous radioactive dumps, the building of a new sarcophagus as well as the closure of the entire power plant.

"The way the anniversary is being marked in the United States is indicative of the close attention Americans are paying to what is going on in Ukraine," the ambassador said. "Today, we can analyze these problems more deeply and from a global perspective, and our exposition of these problems makes them more understandable to the American public and officials."

Dr. Shcherbak said the most interesting part of the Columbia University conference for him was a roundtable discussion at which representatives and consultants of the U.S. departments of state and energy, among others, discussed how Ukraine should go about solving its energy problem. This shows that what was considered a local problem has become, because of its relationship to Chornobyl, a problem of global concern, he said.

"This is not an anniversary of a finished event," he said. "Unfortunately, this was a working anniversary, because Chornobyl will be with us for hundreds of years. What is important is that the people and politicians understand - and American politicians, as I see it, are very close to understanding all of our problems, thanks to their own interests and efforts as well as to our unceasing work in explaining these problems."

Dr. Shcherbak also praised the recent documentary aired on CNN as being very effective in explaining the problems of Chornobyl .

The G-7 nations have pledged more than $3 billion in assistance to Ukraine to help it close the rest of the Chornobyl nuclear plant by the year 2000. But, as Dr. Shcherbak pointed out, only some $400 million of that total are grants; the rest are credits. "It's easy to accept credits, but harder to repay them," he said.

Is Russia, or the Commonwealth of Independent States doing anything to help Ukraine? Chornobyl was, after all, a Soviet power plant.

"Absolutely nothing - no assistance is being given or offered," the ambassador replied. "Everything remains according to the 'zero-option' agreement signed by former Prime Minister [Vitaliy] Masol: everything on Ukraine's territory is Ukraine's problem and headache, and everything in Russia is Russia's problem."

Writing in the April issue of Scientific American, Dr. Shcherbak said the blame for Chornobyl falls on the designers and operators as well as on the Soviet totalitarian leadership and system, which emphasized cost shortcuts and secrecy.

Asked why Ukraine and the world should feel safer today, Dr. Shcherbak said he's a realist in these matters and does not expect perfection, but he stressed that "the independence of Ukraine, to a large extent, serves to guarantee against the repetition of this type of an accident."

"Even though one cannot discount the possibility of bad or wrong-headed decisions - independence, after all, does not automatically endow a country with wisdom and make it a utopia - but we are convinced that an independent Ukraine would, at least, not make the catastrophic decision about placing the Chornobyl nuclear power station at such an irresponsibly dangerous location, at the confluence of the Prypiat and Dnipro rivers, and so close to Kyiv."

"The government would not allow the use of questionable technology, and there would be more transparency in the decision-making," he added. "If we were to decide to build a nuclear reactor today, it would include 10 times more studies, the opinions of many specialists and Western safety standards - it would follow a process similar to those in Western democracies."

Over the past 10 years, Dr. Shcherbak has dealt with Chornobyl as a father and grandfather, a physician, writer, leader of the Ukrainian Green movement, minister of environmental protection and as a diplomat, serving as ambassador to Israel and now the United States. He admits that his approach to Chornobyl has changed over the years, but he stresses that he has always tempered his emotions with a measure of realism.

His initial reaction to the accident in 1986 was one of wanting to learn more about it as well as of revulsion against those responsible for building that power station without concern for its location and its power. And they planned to build four more reactors on that cite, he said, giving it a total of eight reactors and making Chornobyl the world's largest nuclear power plant.

"We protested. We felt that we were abused, that Ukraine was abused, and that the people were made to suffer from this irresponsible action. We protested against the building of new stations and called for the shutdown of existing stations," he recalled.

"I was aware that wider energy problems were involved, but we truly did not have any information about how much energy Ukraine consumed, it's cost-for oil and gas, that is. It was then still under the Soviet Union, and none of us gave any thought as to how all this would work if the Soviet Union were to break up into independent countries," Dr. Shcherbak explained.

Today, he said, "when all of these problems have come together, as a diplomat and former Cabinet minister, I look at them in a broader scope."

Ukraine is undergoing an energy crisis, and even today, five years after independence, there are no accurate figures on how much energy Ukraine really needs, he said. Ukraine has to modernize its industry, which uses three to four times the energy used in the West, and there is a crying need for energy conservation.

Since Chornobyl's reactors provide 7 percent of Ukraine's electricity, simply shutting it down would have grave consequences, he said. There are future alternatives - for one, Ukraine could build thermal plants. In the meantime, however, Dr. Shcherbak said, he would freeze the number of nuclear power stations and improve their safety standards, and institute strict energy conservation measures.

"And that is how I approach this problem today - in, I think, a more balanced and realistic way," Dr. Shcherbak said. "Our approach then was wholly proper and justified, and we certainly have nothing to be ashamed of for our effort. We awakened public opinion; we forced the system - the Communist regime - to reveal the truth about what happened; we informed the world community.

"My approach today is different, but, one can say it includes the old approach, tempered, however, with a more balanced approach from the point of view of nation-building and development."

How does the Ukrainian ambassador see Chornobyl anniversaries being observed in the future?

In another 10 to 20 years, Ukraine and the world will understand even better all of the consequences of the Chornobyl accident, he said.

"We will know what can and cannot be done in the case of such an accident." And in the coming years, he feels, Chornobyl may well take another turn, though not necessarily a bad turn.

"God forbid that something like Chornobyl should happen again, but if it does, the Chornobyl experience can serve as an example, a model of how to deal with such a catastrophe," he said.

"Chornobyl will always be there also as a reminder for people about their sins and shortcomings, and the great sin of Chornobyl was that this diabolical energy was created, first of all, for war," Dr. Shcherbak said. "It is the offspring of the nuclear bomb."

"In the 21st century, this energy can bring us some very unpleasant surprises, and we should be ready for them. If the world community learns from Chornobyl, by forming safety and rapid reaction units, specialized scientific research groups, then it will be ready to meet these challenges.

"But if the world ignores the lessons of Chornobyl," he added, "then someone will have to relive the tragedy again."

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, April 28, 1996, No. 17, Vol. LXIV

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