|
 |
 |
UNITED NATIONS — Each year diplomats dutifully gather to recite platitudes and then make pledges of assistance at the annual Chernobyl Commemoration. Certainly fifteen years after the tragedy in Soviet Ukraine which witnessed explosions and a nuclear meltdown, the grief for the victims, the glowing guilt of the system which allowed it, and the lingering humanitarian fallout from the accident have not diminished.
Chernobyl represented the worst technological disaster of the 20th century; moreover it enshrined the arrogance and stupidity of the Soviet System, in other words the popuous worship of science, the politically smug socialist assuredness that nothing can go wrong, and the classic cover-up all represented the old regime so well.
The lingering results of the environmental accident--the contamination of land and water, the refugees from the exclusion zone, the long term health effects on the regional population, and the possibility of renewed radiation leakage from the concrete shell on the reactor are ongoing tragedies.
I don't for a moment diminish the genuine bravery of the firemen and soldiers who single-mindedly fought the hideous hydra headed disaster--the meltdown and the radiation spill. I feel for the victims of the countries, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, again the innocents--which I sadly say are part of the Russian's tragic history.
The explosions at the #4 reactor and the ensuing meltdown was the grist of science fiction but in fact sad reality; an accident which took 30 lives instantly and causing 6,000 subsequent deaths. Seven million people--three million of them children have been affected in various ways — some symptoms still not apparent but widely expected to emerge.
UN Secretary Gearal Kofi Annan stressed, "The legacy of Chernobyl will be with us for generations to come...we must do far more to help those who live with the invisible, yet very real consequences, of the disaster. At lest three million children need treatment."
Treatment and screening for thyroid cancer are among the key medical challenges. Ukraine's rudimentary health services cannot cope with the burden and the world community has essentially forgotten.
Though the plant was finally closed in December 2000, plans are moving apace to construct a new reinforced concrete "sarcophagas" which will safely seal and entomb the reactor.
And the world moves on. Ukraine is now independent of Moscow but sadly the Kiev government is saddled with endemic corruption and shadowed by Russia. The recent dismissal of Viktor Yushchenko, the reform-minded and Western orientated Premier illustrates an erosion of democracy and does not add to the reservoir of goodwill with the USA and European Union. Economic malaise may bring yet further political instability, which in turn thwarts any meaningful Western initiatives to help Ukraine, Chernobyl's primary victim.
Furthermore, what of other Soviet designed RBMK-graphite reactors? While Chernobyl has been closed due to European Union pressure and financial incentives, the huge Soviet era Ignalina power station in Lithuania remains an operating (and happily so far safe) version of Chernobyl. The Europeans have pressed the Lithuanians to close the plant in exchange for economic incentives and admission to the European Union.
Significantly nuclear power in the West is produced by totally different designs than the accident prone Soviet RBMK system.
The Financial Times states, "Chernobyl shattered whatever confidence western public opinion had in the safety and reliability of the Soviet nuclear power plants....even the late Soviet regime under Mikhail Gorbachev recognized the inherent flaws of the RBMK design by halting construction of the third block at Ignalina in the immediate wake of the Chernobyl disaster." As the European Union pushes for Ignalina's shutdown, they should then provide the Lithuanian government with a practical and safety driven alternative to replace its power supply.
The horsemen of the Apocalypse are often part of Chernobyl's drama. The political gnostics ruling the Soviet Union worshipped science and technology; the Space program, nuclear plants, and a huge military industrial complex formed the iconography of the officially godless USSR. Chernobyl in many ways ironically provided the death knell for the closing years of the Soviet Union. The system was consumed by its own coverups.
John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.
