Fifteen Years Have Passed Since The Chernobyl Accident

Sharply 15 years ago, on April 26, 1986, an accident with a partial destruction of the reactor's active zone and the ejection of fragments of fission outside the zone occurred at the fourth power-generating unit of the Nuclear Power Plant in Chernobyl (a town near the Ukrainian capital of Kiev). The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is the first that was built in Ukraine. In September 1977, the first power-generating unit was put into operation, and in December 1983 - the fourth, the last, one. As a result of the accident in 1986, nineteen Russian regions with a territory of nearly 60,000 square kilometres and a population of 2.6 million people turned into a radiation contaminated zone. The total economic losses, caused by the Chernobyl accident, amount to 130 billion dollars. About 600,000 people from all republics of the former Soviet Union, approximately 300,000 of them were inhabitants of Russia proper, took part in liquidating the consequences of the accident. The number of the Chernobyl invalids amounts to 45,000. The leukosis cases occur twice as often among those who took part in liquidating the consequences of the Chernobyl accident, the struma maligna cases - five times as often, psychic cases - also five times as often, and the death risk has grown one and a half times among this category of people. Beginning with 1991, the number of the invalids among those who liquidated the consequences of the accident has grown by nearly ten times. At the present time the number of inhabited areas in Russia where the people have Chernobyl privileges amounts to 6,535 with a population of 2.23 million. Twenty-three percent of the Byelorussian territory has been contaminated; two thirds of the radionuclides have fallen on it, every fifth person has been affected in the republic. According to the data of the Ukrainian Emergencies Ministry, there are about 3.5 million people in the country who suffered from the consequences of the disaster. Beginning with 1986 more than 300,000 people died of the radiation disease. Over 300,000 hectares of arable lands and forests cannot be used now. At the present time Byelorussia annually spends 20 percent of its budget on liquidating the consequences of the accident, and Ukraine - 10 percent of its budget. As a result of the accident three thirds of the European territory has been contaminated by radioactive caesium. There are about twenty areas in Europe in which the level of caesium-137 contamination amounts to one curie per square kilometre. Russia accounts for 30 percent of the caesium ejected during the accident, Byelorussia - for 23 percent, Ukraine - for 18 percent, Finland - for 4.8 percent, Sweden - for 4.6 percent, Norway - for 3 percent, Austria - for 2.4 percent and Germany - for 1.8 percent. The fourth power-generating unit, which was destroyed during the accident, is now hidden under the sarcophagus which preserves about 180 tons of weakly enriched uranium-235, 70,000 tons of radioactive metal, concrete and glassy mass, 35 tons of radioactive dust with total radioactivity of more than two million curies. In the autumn of 1993 the second power-generating unit was stopped after a fire. In December 1995, Ukraine, the Group of Seven Countries and the European Union signed a Memorandum on Mutual Relations under which Ukraine committed itself to close the Nuclear Power Plant in Chernobyl not later than the year 2000, while the Western countries and the USA committed themselves to finance these works and help Ukraine compensate for its losses in power capacities. On the night of November 30 - December 1, 1996, the first power-generating unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant was stopped. On December 15, 2000, the third power-generating unit was stopped. It will be fully put out of operation in 2008 when all the fuel will be taken out of the reactor. Until fuel remains even in the damped reactor the Plant poses a nuclear danger, and the demands to it are the same as to an operating one. The process of putting the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant out of operation can last, according to different estimates, from 30 to 100 years. Independent experts believe that the cost of the conservation of the Plant, including the social protection of its personnel, will amount to 1.5 billion dollars. Anther 1.5 billion dollars will be needed to build two power-generating units at the Rovno and Khmelnitsky Nuclear Power Plants which will be put into operation to replace the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. In December 2000, the Board of Directors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development granted a credit of 215 million dollars for completing the construction of two nuclear power plants in Rovno and Khmelnitsky (both in Ukraine). Earlier, the Bank granted a credit of 100 million dollars for purchasing fuel for thermal electric stations. About 800 million dollars (768 million Euros) are required for the construction of a stronger and more reliable sarcophagus. The considerable part of this sum has already been collected by the G-7 countries and the European Union. It is planned that the work for re-building the sarcophagus into a safe system will be finished in 2007. The new sarcophagus will be 90 metres high and will weigh 100,000 tons. It is designed to operate in the course of 100 years. -O- (kos/ter) 26/04/01 14:57