Turning the pages back... April 21, 1996 (04/23/06)

THE 20th ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHORNOBYL NUCLEAR DISASTER

Turning the pages back...

April 21, 1996

The Ukrainian Weekly's special issue marking the 10th anniversary of the Chornobyl accident featured an article about Chornobyl's impact, as examined by a Yale and Columbia University conference held on April 8-9. Among the conference's presentations were reports on the accident's effects on public health and the environment, its social and political impact, and potential alternative energy sources for Ukraine.

The conference was opened with presentations at Columbia by Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, Yurii Shcherbak, and at Yale by the country's ambassador to the United Nations, Anatolii Zlenko. Ambassador Shcherbak, a physician, underscored that Chornobyl is notable because it brought significant social, medical and psychological consequences, involved large numbers of the population and did long-term damage to the environment. The Chornobyl accident is extraordinary also because, "even after 10 years, it still requires the close attention of the international community," as it is not an internal affair of Ukraine. Mr. Zlenko's message: "Chornobyl is not in the past. Chornobyl lives with us today, and it will be with us in the future."

Findings presented by one of the speakers, Dr. Alexander Sich, who was affiliated with the Nuclear Safety Account of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, were based on his 18 months of experience in the zone beginning in October of 1991. Commenting on the Soviets' report of the "success" of their intervention in the area at an August 1986 conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Dr. Sich said, "There was no human intervention that caused the accident to stop; it stopped by itself." The IAEA accepted the Soviet version of the "truth," Dr. Sich pointed out, even though evidence pointed to the contrary.

Speaking on the topic of the social and political impact of Chornobyl, Alexander Burakovsky, a human rights activist and author of "Period of Half Life," said that "the explosion at Chornobyl uncovered the shortcomings of the Soviet system and awakened the sleeping. It led to the appearance of parties that later worked for the independence of Ukraine."

Crusading journalist Alla Yaroshinska of Moscow, who in 1992 uncovered secret protocols of the Kremlin that proved the Soviet leadership knew much more about the severity of the Chornobyl accident than it admitted, spoke about the Kremlin's "global deception" related to the Chornobyl accident.

Dr. Wladimir Wertelecki, chairman of genetics at the University of South Alabama Medical School, underscored that Chornobyl is "not just an ecological disaster," adding that "nothing in the food chain has escaped Chornobyl" and that the accident "destabilizes all species, including our own."

Dr. David Marples of the University of Alberta, who had just returned from Miensk, noted the hopelessness of the Belarusian people, characterized by widespread radiophobia. This is compounded by the fact that Belarus received 65 percent of all the radioactive fallout from Chornobyl, where low-level radiation has weakened immune systems to the point that a form of "Chornobyl AIDS" is prevalent today, Dr. Marples said.

The issue of energy futures was discussed not only in relation to Ukraine, but from a global perspective. One suggestion came from E. Steven Potts, president of Professional Services International Inc., who described how Ukraine could better use its energy resources through renovation of existing thermal and hydroelectric plants. He said "the future of Ukraine has to be along multiple paths for energy," but was "skeptical that Ukraine can get rid of its reliance on nuclear power, oil and gas in the near term."

Among the many other speakers was Alexander Kuzma, director of development for the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund, who gave some background on the organization that today is known as the Children of Chornobyl Relief and Development Fund. CCRF, he said, "took on the challenge posed by Volodymyr Yavorivsky [a deputy in teh Verkhovna Rada], who sounded the alarm. We are proud of our achievements, but haunted by the immensity of the Chornobyl disaster," which "will be a challenge for many years to come."

Source: "Yale/Columbia conference examines latest information on Chornobyl's impact" by Roma Hadzewycz, The Ukrainian Weekly, April 21, 1996, Vol. LXIV, No. 16.

| Home Page |