- Dear Friend of NIRS,
-
- I'm sitting today in our office in Rivne,
Ukraine, where we're working on the next steps to build upon last week's
remarkable Chornobyl+20: Remembrance for the Future conference in Kyiv,
Ukraine.
-
- I'm almost 200 miles west of Chornobyl,
yet just 30 miles to the north is one of Ukraine's four levels of contaminated
zones. In this zone, tens of thousands of people live and work and farm
and eat food grown on land that is killing them. More than four million
people in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia still live on land contaminated from
the Chornobyl accident of 20 years ago. Sadly, babies born today are still
dying from that accident-because they're drinking milk produced by cows
eating contaminated grass. Chornobyl truly is an accident without end.
-
- If your information came only from the
American media, or the nuclear power industry, you would probably think
Chornobyl really wasn't so bad. A disaster, yes, but a manageable one;
one the world can live with if necessary to produce needed electricity.
-
- Sitting here in Ukraine, with new studies
about the real consequences of Chornobyl stacked next to my desk, the reality
looks quite different.
-
- Last September, the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) and World Health Organization (WHO) released a report
on Chornobyl's consequences, which concluded that while the accident had
resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars in damages and permanent interdiction
of large areas of land, "only" about 4,000 cancer fatalities
were expected. Perhaps only the cynical nuclear power industry could consider
a disaster whose consequences are greater than Hurricane Katrina to be
good news, but the industry seized upon this study to argue that the world
should be building more nuclear reactors.
-
- But in the past few weeks, several new
studies have been released countering the IAEA's report. First came the
TORCH report, prepared for the Chornobyl+20 conference. It concluded that
30,000-60,000 cancer fatalities can be expected. A report prepared for
Greenpeace and endorsed by more than 50 scientists from the affected countries
projects 93,000 deaths, and perhaps as many as 200,000. Other studies project
even higher casualties.
-
- And these reports were big news across
Europe. Finally, even the World Health Organization (which by a 1950s-era
agreement is forced to accept IAEA statistics on nuclear-related health
effects) could no longer accept the IAEA's numbers, and on April 20 released
a document projecting a still-very-conservative 29,000 deaths (although
you had to read the fine print to find that number).
- In short, the IAEA has been largely discredited;
its September report found to be self-serving. The real consequences, and
thus lessons of Chornobyl, are much greater and more profound than the
IAEA and nuclear industries of the world want to admit.
-
- Across Ukraine, across Europe, this is
generally understood. But the U.S. media has by and large ignored the reality
of Chornobyl and its implications.
-
- That's easy to do in the U.S., it's much
harder to ignore here in Ukraine. In a couple of weeks, I'll be coming
home-I can leave and not worry about the ongoing consequences. The people
who live here cannot.
-
- And yet we all-in every country-ignore
the devastation of Chornobyl at our own peril. Because Chornobyl can happen
anywhere there is nuclear power and, unless its lessons are learned, it
will happen again.
-
- The studies I referred to, and more,
are available on our website at http://www.nirs.org/c20/c20us.htm, along
with the resolution from the conference and a lot more.
-
- In coming weeks, we'll be adding proceedings
from the conference and updating and expanding our sections on nuclear
power and climate change and on sustainable energy, so that you'll continue
to have access to the best and latest information on the issues important
to us all. And we'll be working to spread the truth about Chornobyl, and
nuclear issues generally, to the media across the U.S.
-
- You'll also be hearing from us about
the latest congressional activity on Yucca Mountain and reprocessing and
how your actions can make a difference in our energy future.
-
- That all takes resources, of course,
and I hope you'll take a moment now to help by donating to us at https://secure.campagne-online.com/registrant/donate.aspx?EventID=2927&LangPref=en-CA.
This is our secure online credit card processing system. You can also access
this site directly from the NIRS home page at http://www.nirs.org.
-
- As an added incentive, if you contribute
by June 30, your contribution will be matched, dollar-for-dollar, by a
matching grant set up as a tribute to NIRS' Radioactive Waste Project director
Diane D'Arrigo, who is celebrating her 20th
- year at NIRS.
-
- If you'd prefer to donate by check, please
send your contribution to NIRS, 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 340, Takoma
Park, MD 20912. Or you can contribute by credit card over the phone at
NIRS, 301-270-6477.
-
- However you choose to contribute, I hope
you will do so as generously as you can. We must ensure that there will
be no more Chornobyls-not in Ukraine, and not in the U.S.
-
- Thank you for your help and support.
-
- Michael Mariotte
- Executive Director
- Nuclear Information and Resource Service
- nirsnet@nirs.org
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