In the night between the 25th and the 26th of April 1986 the forth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power station exploded. From that day Belarus, Ukraine and Russia were affected by a disaster with terrible consequences. The explosion was caused by human mistakes in a nuclear power station which lacked the necessary containment structures in the event of accidents. Subsequent explosions ripped open the metal slab sealing the reactor’s upper part and consequently iron, reinforced concrete, gas, graphite and radioactive substances were expelled from the power station.
Most of the nuclear fuel tapped to the lower part of the reactor. Right after the accident 30 military helicopters tried in vain to suppress the fire and to absorb the radiation. The fire, which was suppressed on the 6th of May, provoked a radioactivity leak 200 times greater than the one caused by the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs.
Even though the radioactive fallout also affected areas far away from Chernobyl, 70% of the radioactivity stroke Belarus and its government was therefore forced to give up the economic exploitation of 6000 square km of land. The people who lived within a 30 km ray from the reactor were forced to abandon their houses, 76 villages were evacuated in just 10 days.
The operations to lessen the impact of the explosion and to evacuate the people were delayed not only because of management shortcomings, but also because the USSR government decided to censure the news, even in the areas at higher risk. The figures on those people who were sent to shovel the highly radioactive material without protection or only with dust masks are uncertain: the most realistic assessment speaks about 10.000 casualties and 400.000 suffering from different pathologies.
In the aftermath of the accident the scientific community made many proposals to isolate the reactor: it was chosen to build a huge and extremely heavy protection sarcophagus to cover the ruins. Consequently the weight of the structure increased thereby worsening its safety: although the sarcophagus was designed to last 30 years, today many cracks allow radioactive dust, water and gases to escape and the destructive potentials of the material sealed in unit 4 could disrupt Ukraine and other European countries. In 1994 a committee of experts was established with the aim of planning a new containment structure, whereas three years later the G7 countries and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRS) adopted the Shelter Implementation Plan. The new protection structure aims at safely entombing the radioactive substances for at least a century. It will be ready in 2010 and it has been estimated that it will cost more than one billion dollars.
The most serious consequences of the Chernobyl tragedy were felt in Belarus which was and is undergoing a social, political and economic crisis with increasing inflation and prices and government difficulties to guarantee the maintenance of the social protection and health care system.
An additional problem is unemployment which is connected with the closing of many industries and contaminated agricultural land where is impossible to grow crops.
Moreover this clearly difficult situation provokes social problems: the number of abandoned children is growing, alcoholism is spreading and suicides, poisoning, nervous system’s pathologies and emotional disorders are becoming more common.
The living conditions of the people living in the contaminated areas of Russia and Ukraine are equally dramatic or even worse: thyroid cancer is four times more common than before and 10 million people are living in highly contaminated areas, therefore eating contaminated vegetables and cattle.
The health care system is undergoing a crisis and most of the population, especially rural, is excluded from the prevention network and medical supervision. The most affected ones are children, especially those who don’t go to school and thus are not included in the checking process of the education system.
Since the situation of the contaminated areas is becoming more and more difficult year after year, all the people who could left but all those who couldn’t afford it are still living there and feeling the consequences of the radioactive cloud. Paradoxically many families are coming back to the evacuated areas where, according to scientific standards, is not possible to live. Lack of jobs and the high prices of houses in towns are causing a mass migration towards the abandoned villages.
Not only are the poor coming back, but also people coming from the Caucasian Republics, where the economic, social and political situation is even more dramatic, especially for Chechnya which is raged by war.
Currently statistics and figures on the health consequences of Chernobyl are not clear cut: radiation diseases of the local people were never calculated systematically while clouds and wind carried fission residues to other places. There are not official figures on the casualties directly connected with the Chernobyl accident: off the record it has been estimated that there were at least 30.000 deaths, whereas other sources from the affected countries give an account of 150.000 casualties.
Eating radioactive products lowered immune defences and it increased the number of diseases (of the respiratory, digestive and cardiac system) especially among young people. The hospital system though is not able to face the local needs: in Belarus the hospitals of the bigger cities receive medicines and equipment from the State and sometimes from humanitarian aid, whereas the hospitals of the most contaminated areas are going through a even more complicated situation in which humanitarian aid associations are the only source of medicines.
What is the current use of nuclear power in the world? According to the figures of the International Agency for Atomic Energy, there are 445 nuclear power stations working. Despite the high number of accidents which took place since the 50s in old and new generation’s nuclear stations, nuclear energy is often considered a convenient solution to abide by the Kyoto Protocol. On the contrary, taking everything into account, it becomes clear that it is not a convenient solution; extracting uranium, building nuclear power stations, their dismanteling and stocking radioactive waste is extremely expensive. Moreover nuclear accidents and the military use of nuclear energy also have a cost in human lives.
The fight of Legambiente versus nuclear energy focuses on the development of alternative energy sources on one hand and cooperation and solidarity on the other. Our aim is conveying a wider message of respect towards the environment but also towards the people and the cooperation among them.
In 1994 Legambiente began the Chernobyl project which consists of a hosting campaign for children coming from the contaminated areas of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. During an international camp with Russian and Belarusian volunteers, Legambiente became aware of the living standards of these areas and as a consequence decided to start the above-mentioned project which still allows about 1500 children to come to Italy each summer. Our association tries to help children who never left their villages and who live in the areas where it is more difficult to receive aid. Since 1994 over 20.000 children were hosted thanks to the work of public bodies, groups and local communities which all over Italy prepare social events, parties and healthy food for the children. According to a survey of Enea, after staying in a non-contaminated place and eating healthy food, children lose from 30 to 50 % of the absorbed caesium and are therefore less likely to contract diseases connected with the accident.
The Chernobyl project does not only have a therapeutic significance but it is also an instrument to increase the awareness of the public on the damage caused by the use of nuclear power.
Thanks to the project, Legambiente started to cooperate with local Authorities, schools and hospitals: new cooperation programs were established with the aim of involving children and adults who live in areas at risk ( the Swan Project and the First Aid Point for the supply of medicines and basic medical equipment).
Legambiente is therefore clearly committed in the campaign against nuclear power through cooperation. Our aim is preventing other nuclear disasters, like the Chernobyl one, from taking place again anywhere in the world.

LEGAMBIENTE
International Dpt.
Maurizio Gubbiotti - m.gubbiotti@mail.legambiente.com
Angelo Gentili - gentili@festambiente.it

LEGAMBIENTE SOLIDARIETA’
TELEPHONE:+39/0564/48771
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www.solidarietalegambiente.org - solidarieta@festambiente.it

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