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Introduction
On the night of 26th April, 1986, the No. 4 reactor block of the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant exploded, blasting more than 50 tonnes of nuclear
fuel into the atmosphere and shattering forever the myth of safe nuclear
energy.
 At
the time of the accident, the Chernobyl nuclear power station consisted
of four operating 1,000 megawatt power reactors sited along the banks
of the Pripyat River, about sixty miles north of Kiev in the Ukraine.
A fifth reactor was under construction. Chernobyl, the world's worst
nuclear disaster, spread invisible radioactive fallout around the planet
and forced the evacuation of 135,000 people. A further 270,000 people
still live in areas placed under restrictions because of radiation.
The
Accident
The reactor explosion was caused by a mismanaged electrical engineering
experiment. With the reactor running at very low power and safety systems
bypassed, the plant operators accidentally overheated the reactor core.
A crippling steam explosion was followed by a more powerful nuclear
explosion, which blew the roof off the reactor building and spewed blazing
fuel and graphite across a wide area.1
About 50 tons
of nuclear fuel evaporated and were released by the explosion into the
atmosphere (total activity around 50 million curies). In addition, about
70 tons were ejected sideways from the periphery of the core. Some 50
tons of nuclear fuel and 800 tons of reactor graphite remained in the
reactor vault, where they formed a pit reminiscent of a volcanic crater
as the graphite still in the reactor burned up completely in the few
days after the explosion.
The
Response
 The
response from the Soviet government was panicked silence: it was another
48 hours before citizens of the nearby town of Pripyat were told they
had been showered with radiation, beginning the complete evacuation
of the town. It fell to a Swedish radiation monitoring station to alert
the international community.2
In the aftermath,
between 600,000 and 800,000 men were conscripted as Chernobyl 'liquidators'.
Rosalie Bertell writes:
"Some of these men lifted pieces
of radioactive metal with their bare hands. They had to fight more
than 300 fires created by the chunks of burning material spewed off
by the inferno. They buried trucks, fire engines, cars and all sorts
of personal belongings. They felled a forest and completely buried
it, removed topsoil, bulldozed houses and filled all available clay-lined
trenches with radioactive debris. The minimum conscription time was
180 days, but many stayed for a year. Some were threatened with severe
punishment to their families if they failed to stay and do their duty." 3
 After
the accident, a sarcophagus of concrete was constructed around the
reactor, to prevent further release of radioactivity. This sarcophagus
is in very bad condition, and it is feared, amongst other things,
that the roof could collapse. Tonnes
of melted fuel still lie inside the burned out reactor.
The
Effects
The effects of the accident are hard to comprehend. Today the 'liquidators'
are suffering the full effects of their exposure. A support organisation
estimated that by 1995, 13,000 of their members had died, 20% of them
by suicide. 70,000 were estimated to be permanently disabled. 3
Five million people, a
quarter of them children, live in the affected areas of Ukraine and
Byelorussia. One third of Byelorussia is contaminated, one fifth of
its arable land is 'dead.' The contamination fell heavily over Western
Europe, reaching as far away as Canada and the US. Of the 400,000
people most heavily irradiated, exposure to radiation from radioactive
iodine (131I) in their thyroid glands has led to spiralling
rates of thyroid cancer, particularly in children. In the Gomel region,
thyroid cancers in children are now 200 times more common than before
the accident.4 Some reports
suggest the rate is up to ten times higher even than this in some
areas.5
Researchers are warning that this is only the beginning.
How many people will Chernobyl
kill? Radiation researcher John Gofman:
"My estimate in 1986, based
upon releases of various non-iodine radionuclides, was 475,000 fatal
cancers plus about an equal number of additional non-fatal cases,
occurring over time both inside and outside the ex-Soviet Union"
6
Ten years later, having
studied the health data coming out of the affected areas, Dr. Gofman
was standing by his predictions. Chernobyl, it seems, will kill
or injure at least one million people.
It is unknown how many
people have already died because of Chernobyl. The
reasons for this are nearly as disturbing as the accident itself.
In a nuclear catastrophe, as in war, truth is the first casualty.
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"The
Chernobyl accident dismayed the promoters of nuclear power in
virtually every country on the globe. After the accident, there
has been a continuous effort, by governmental and private arms
of the nuclear enterprise, to put the best face on the consequences
of the accident. One way to "improve" the consequences of the
accident would be, of course, to reduce estimates of the public's
radiation exposure from it."
Chernobyl:
A Crossroad in the Radiation Health Sciences by John Gofman
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"The
accident destroyed the Chornobyl #4 reactor and killed 31 people,
including 28 from radiation exposure. A further 209 on site were
treated for acute radiation poisoning and among these, 145 cases
were confirmed (all of whom recovered). Nobody off-site suffered
from acute radiation effects."
UIC - Chornobyl
and Soviet Reactors Nuclear Issues Briefing Paper 22 December
1999
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Hiding
the Damage
The Australian UIC website is standing firm with the official line
promoted by the IAEA: Chernobyl killed 31 people. Another 10 subsequently
died from thyroid cancer. Total death toll: 41 people. "Nobody off-site
suffered from acute radiation effects." 7
The industry has closed
ranks on the Chernobyl disaster, sponsoring its own teams to visit
the area and smothering independent research. One of the few independent
experts on low-level radiation, John Gofman, wrote in 1991:
"As descriptions of health problems
from Chernobyl were reaching the press, governments around the world
were assembling and sponsoring international teams of experts to issue
their own statements about Chernobyl's health consequences. Where
do the various types of radiation experts for such teams come from?
With only the rarest exceptions, they are experts who meet the approval
of the nuclear communities within their respective governments. Indeed,
there are extremely few radiation experts in existence anywhere who
do not meet the approval of their governments, because governments
worldwide are not only the chief sponsors of nuclear power, but also
the chief sponsors of radiation research inside government and outside
(universities, foundations, medical centers). Due to lack of independent
funding, independent expertise on the health effects of radiation
is extremely scarce everywhere."8
With so much at stake,
the WHO, IAEA, ICRP and other high-level bodies have been quick to
blame the carnage surrounding Chernobyl on anything but radiation.
Stress took a lot of the blame, according to Lynn R. Anspaugh: "There's
no doubt that the people in that contaminated area think
they're sick,".8 (my italics)
The deception has been nearly seamless. Were it not for the horrific
evidence on the ground, Chernobyl might have been swept under the
carpet.
As it is, the nuclear mafia
seem only to have convinced themselves that the accident was small
scale: for the rest of us, Chernobyl stands as 'the greatest technological
catastrophe in human history'.
References
1.
"CHERNOBYL - UNIQUE SAFETY VALVE FOR A REACTOR NUCLEAR EXPLOSION?"
By Dr Don Arnott and Commander Robert Green RN (Ret'd)
2.
"Nuclear Madness"" by Helen Caldicott WW Norton & Co, 1994
3.
"Victims of the Nuclear Age" by Dr. Rosalie Bertell in 'The Ecologist",
November 1999
4.
"Terrifying outlook for Chernobyl's babies" Rob Edwards, New Scientist
2 December 1995
5.
"Thyroid cancer takes its toll on Chernobyl's children" Jeremy
Webb, New Scientist
6.
"Chernobyl's 10th: Cancer and Nuclear-Age Peace" By John W. Gofman,
M.D., Ph.D.
7.
UIC - Chornobyl and Soviet Reactors Nuclear Issues Briefing Paper
22 December 1999
8.
"HOLOCAUST" versus "NOTHING HAPPENED" : Tales from a Distant Place
. . . with a Problem Very Close to All of Us by John W. Gofman, M.D.,
Ph.D., Fall 1991
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"And
from that moment on -- it was approximately one year after the catastrophe
of Chernobyl, we began to call the whole organization a good united
international atomic mafia which we all have to fight, of course,
because they can very quickly and easily murder us."
Vladimir
Chernousenko Physicist, scientific co-ordinator of the clean-up
in Chernobyl.
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