20 YEARS SINCE CHERNOBYL
Ukrainians hope to return life to region
By NATASHA LISOVA
Associated Press
CHERNOBYL, Ukraine — The concrete-and-steel sarcophagus hastily built to entomb reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear plant is crumbling and dotted with holes. Birds have found their way inside, and radiation has escaped.
The $1.1 billion project to replace the sarcophagus remains on the drawing board, 20 years after the explosion and fire that spewed radiation across much of Europe. A storage shelter for used fuel from Chernobyl's other reactors also has yet to be built.
But international experts say radiation levels are decreasing a hundredfold in some areas around the shuttered plant. And the United Nations says it is time to transform the population from victims into survivors.
Arriving by helicopter at the shuttered Chernobyl nuclear power plant Wednesday for commemorations of the catastrophe's 20th anniversary, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said his government supports change.
"Chernobyl must not be a mourning place, it must become a place of hope," Yushchenko said after laying two red carnations beneath a monument to the victims in the explosion.
Yushchenko has called for studies to determine how the land could be used, and has floated the possibility of everything from tourism to a storage site for used nuclear fuel to a nature preserve. The area, largely bereft of humans, has become a wildlife preserve of sorts with the reappearance of species that hadn't been seen for decades.
"I see nothing wrong if in Kiev there will emerge a couple of tour excursion companies," the president told state television in an interview. "To see Chernobyl villages with their open windows, unlocked doors and overgrown gardens are also lessons, and some people can be more impressed by that than the destroyed reactor."
Thirty-one people died within the first two months from illnesses caused by radioactivity, but there is heated debate over the toll that will be taken over the years.
A report from the U.N. health agency estimated last week that about 9,300 people will die from cancers caused by Chernobyl's radiation. Some groups, such as Greenpeace, insist the toll could be 10 times higher.
Some 5 million people live in areas where radioactive particles fell in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, and a U.N. report last year found that many suffer from a deep sense of gloom about the future.
The shattered reactor, which spewed out radioactivity for 10 days, contaminated 77,220 square miles and forced the Soviet government to permanently evacuate more than 300,000 people.
"The environment does cleanse itself," said Igor Linge, a Russian atomic energy expert at a conference in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. "But there are some areas, of course, that will remain contaminated for hundreds of years, maybe even thousands. It is a geological process and happens on a geological time scale."
Chernobyl's emotional wounds remain raw.
There is intense disagreement over the health, environmental and social tolls two decades after one of the plant's reactors exploded during a test on April 26, 1986, sending radioactive clouds over the western Soviet Union and northern Europe.
Bringing red carnations and flickering candles to Chernobyl memorials around the country, Ukrainians repeated a common mantra: It can't be allowed to happen again.
"Let God not make our grandsons relive this," Valentyna Mashina, 55, said at a memorial in Chernobyl, a town 11 miles from the plant where 4,000 people still live — but for no more than two weeks at a time, to work in the most highly contaminated zone.
Critics contend the damage from Chernobyl is being played down to restore faith in atomic energy at a time when the world is hunting for alternatives to oil.
But Yushchenko urged that nuclear energy not be feared.
The Ukrainian leader has expressed interest in nuclear energy as a way to reduce his country's dependence on its former master, Russia, for natural gas supplies. The priority, he told state television, has to be prolonging the 15 reactors that Ukraine already has.
"It sounds paradoxical, but nuclear energy is the world's safest," Yushchenko said. He added, however, that it was too early to talk about new reactors in Ukraine.
Anna Golubovska-Onisimova, head of the Ukrainian environmental group MAMA-86, said at an environmental conference held to coincide with the anniversary that environmentalists would aggressively fight plans for new reactors.
"Ukraine doesn't need nuclear reactors. Hasn't Chernobyl taught us anything?" she asked.
Environmentalists say Ukraine should focus instead on energy-saving technologies.
They argue the country's vast farm lands should be used to produce biofuels — something Yushchenko suggested could be done on land around Chernobyl. Ukraine could also use its wind resources, particularly in the Crimea, to harness natural energy, environmentalists say.
———
Associated Press writers Anna Melnichuk and Mara D. Bellaby contributed to this report.
By NATASHA LISOVA
Associated Press
CHERNOBYL, Ukraine — The concrete-and-steel sarcophagus hastily built to entomb reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear plant is crumbling and dotted with holes. Birds have found their way inside, and radiation has escaped.
The $1.1 billion project to replace the sarcophagus remains on the drawing board, 20 years after the explosion and fire that spewed radiation across much of Europe. A storage shelter for used fuel from Chernobyl's other reactors also has yet to be built.
But international experts say radiation levels are decreasing a hundredfold in some areas around the shuttered plant. And the United Nations says it is time to transform the population from victims into survivors.
Arriving by helicopter at the shuttered Chernobyl nuclear power plant Wednesday for commemorations of the catastrophe's 20th anniversary, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said his government supports change.
"Chernobyl must not be a mourning place, it must become a place of hope," Yushchenko said after laying two red carnations beneath a monument to the victims in the explosion.
Yushchenko has called for studies to determine how the land could be used, and has floated the possibility of everything from tourism to a storage site for used nuclear fuel to a nature preserve. The area, largely bereft of humans, has become a wildlife preserve of sorts with the reappearance of species that hadn't been seen for decades.
"I see nothing wrong if in Kiev there will emerge a couple of tour excursion companies," the president told state television in an interview. "To see Chernobyl villages with their open windows, unlocked doors and overgrown gardens are also lessons, and some people can be more impressed by that than the destroyed reactor."
Thirty-one people died within the first two months from illnesses caused by radioactivity, but there is heated debate over the toll that will be taken over the years.
A report from the U.N. health agency estimated last week that about 9,300 people will die from cancers caused by Chernobyl's radiation. Some groups, such as Greenpeace, insist the toll could be 10 times higher.
Some 5 million people live in areas where radioactive particles fell in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, and a U.N. report last year found that many suffer from a deep sense of gloom about the future.
The shattered reactor, which spewed out radioactivity for 10 days, contaminated 77,220 square miles and forced the Soviet government to permanently evacuate more than 300,000 people.
"The environment does cleanse itself," said Igor Linge, a Russian atomic energy expert at a conference in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. "But there are some areas, of course, that will remain contaminated for hundreds of years, maybe even thousands. It is a geological process and happens on a geological time scale."
Chernobyl's emotional wounds remain raw.
There is intense disagreement over the health, environmental and social tolls two decades after one of the plant's reactors exploded during a test on April 26, 1986, sending radioactive clouds over the western Soviet Union and northern Europe.
Bringing red carnations and flickering candles to Chernobyl memorials around the country, Ukrainians repeated a common mantra: It can't be allowed to happen again.
"Let God not make our grandsons relive this," Valentyna Mashina, 55, said at a memorial in Chernobyl, a town 11 miles from the plant where 4,000 people still live — but for no more than two weeks at a time, to work in the most highly contaminated zone.
Critics contend the damage from Chernobyl is being played down to restore faith in atomic energy at a time when the world is hunting for alternatives to oil.
But Yushchenko urged that nuclear energy not be feared.
The Ukrainian leader has expressed interest in nuclear energy as a way to reduce his country's dependence on its former master, Russia, for natural gas supplies. The priority, he told state television, has to be prolonging the 15 reactors that Ukraine already has.
"It sounds paradoxical, but nuclear energy is the world's safest," Yushchenko said. He added, however, that it was too early to talk about new reactors in Ukraine.
Anna Golubovska-Onisimova, head of the Ukrainian environmental group MAMA-86, said at an environmental conference held to coincide with the anniversary that environmentalists would aggressively fight plans for new reactors.
"Ukraine doesn't need nuclear reactors. Hasn't Chernobyl taught us anything?" she asked.
Environmentalists say Ukraine should focus instead on energy-saving technologies.
They argue the country's vast farm lands should be used to produce biofuels — something Yushchenko suggested could be done on land around Chernobyl. Ukraine could also use its wind resources, particularly in the Crimea, to harness natural energy, environmentalists say.
———
Associated Press writers Anna Melnichuk and Mara D. Bellaby contributed to this report.
Mandarin Version:
http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2006-04/27/content_4481483.htm
