THE BALANCE SHEET OF CHERNOBYL

 

25. THE BALANCE SHEET OF CHERNOBYL

It did not occur to me what was the special about that day. But when the people around me were holding animated discussion only on that, my curiosity was naturally aroused. The topic of discussion was the accident at the atomic reactor at Chernobyl.

On April 26 we were at the biggest nuclear plant in Europe, CERN in Geneva. Most of them were renowned nuclear scientists. There were also a handul of non-scientists, including me.

The visit to CERN afforded a great opportunity for me to enhance my awareness of the subject, and I decided to make full use of it so as to dispel my ignorance. I could hear from the great nuclear scientists about the real extent of the havoc caused by the explosion in the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in the erstwhile Soviet Union.

It was on April 26, 1986 that one of the reactors of the Chernobyl Nuclear Station exploded, spewing extremely dangerous levels of radioactive material into the air. The accident occurred when the scientists were conducting an experiment to see how much power was needed to run Reactor No 4 in the event of a blackout.

The intensity of the accident could be gauged from the fact that radiation from the explosion of the Reactor No 4 at Chernobyl was a hundred times of the radiation caused by the atomic bomb at Hiroshima.

In the wake of the explosion over 600,000 people had to flee to other places, abandoning their houses and belongings. Thousands of children who were there on that cursed day had succumbed to thyroid cancer in the following years, causing a great deal of hardship and suffering for the people and economic losses of several thousand million dollars for the government and international organizations. What the victims of the tragedy lost forever was the vitality of their life.

Official claim was that the disaster could be contained and controlled. But the remnants of the Reactor No 4 continue to remain underground as a potential danger, posing the threat of yet another catastrophe in future.

It was said that the remnants of the reactor had been contained in a huge sarcophagus made of steel and concrete. But there were experts who were of the view that the hastily made coffin was not as strong it should be. Scientists were still trying to confine the reactor debris within another heavy security cover that could contain radiation. The structure proposed was like a coconut shell with its open end placed downwards.

What they were planning was to assemble the huge structure far away from the damaged reactor and then transport it to the site to sort of put a lid on the debris. Needless to say this was a high precision and risky procedure involving technical expertise of the highest order.

With completion of this task, the damaged reactor would go out of sight. But would it go out of the minds of the people?

How to forget that catastrophe? In the case of the 4,000 cancer affected people it would continue to be a fire spitting memory. After the accident, fire blazed in the reactor for ten days, spitting fatal doses of radiation into the atmosphere. Neighboring countries like Belarus and Russia, Ukraine and even several parts of Europe were covered with radioactive dust. Over 600,000 people who were involved in the rescue and rehabilitation work were subjected to radiation in big and small doses.

At present about five million people are still residing in radiation contaminated localities. The only consolation is that about 116,000 people living very close to the accident site could be evacuated speedily.

It is still not clear how the Chernobyl episode has affected the health of the people. Information is not available as to how many people have actually been affected directly or indirectly by the accident. On one side are people subjected to direct radiation from radio-active clouds and radio-active dust. Then there are people eating radio- active food or breathing contaminated air. There are also over 10,000 people still residing in areas where the level of radiation is much above permissible limits.

No one can say how many have died and how many are living dead because of the accident. The reason for that is that it is difficult to separate natural deaths and deaths due to small doses of radiation. The rough estimate is that several lakhs of people must have died in the accident.

Official centres insisting on accurate statistics, however, contend that the death toll was conservative. According to them apart from the 4,000 people who died in the wake of the explosion, 15 people who died of thyroid cancer and 28 rescue workers were the only victims of the tragedy.

Those who were either teenagers or youth at the time of the accident were parents now. No one could say whether their children had any genetic abnormalities. Generations of people who were guinea pigs of this radiation disaster were likely to become part of the smoke filled memories of Chernobyl.

It is pertinent here to point out some of the findings of the expert committee named Chernobyl Forum, constituted under the joint auspices of the United Nations, International Atomic Energy Agency and World Health Organization.

Committee Secretary Mikhail Balanov had said it was not possible to gauge the mental status of those who had survived the disaster. They could be described for practical purposes as the living dead.

Some were suffering from extreme , irrational fears. Some others totally ignored the threat of radiation, and were living as they please, prepared to face the consequences as and when they came. There was, in effect, a suicidal tinge in their disposition.

Opachichi is a village close to the exploded reactor. There live an old couple, Anna and Vasily Yevtushenko. Anna has turned 70 and Vasily 66. When the accident occurred the authorities evacuated all the people living in surrounding areas, including Anna and Vasily. They were rehabilitated at a place about a 160 km from Chernobyl. They remained there for two years. But the call of their native village and their old home, where they had spent decades, was too strong for them to resist. So, disregarding all objections they returned to Opachichi, to live a risky but contended life in their old home.

Occasionally health officials visit the village and take blood samples. A beaming Anna would say to all her visitors, ‘Everything normal. ’

Now about 400 grandpas and grandmas have returned to the fobidden land to live out the rest of their lives as they used to in the past. Side by side with that tentative re-entry of human habitation, there was a heavy growth of forest vegetation as well. Jackals and wild horses and snakes and other animals also abound in the forests.

Only one thing is absent in Chernobyl now. The vitality of youth. And their hopes and aspirations. The town of Pripyat near Chernobyl is now a ghost town.

A frightening silence envelopes the town. Also some smouldering heaps like the one in the remnants of the Reactor No 4.

It was estimated that about 200 tones of nuclear fuel still remained there. This was equivalent to the destructive power of dozens of atom bombs.

Though the iron pestle that was the curse of Yadava clan could be pulverized and thrown into the sea, a small piece that remained turned ultimately into the lethal arrow that took the life of Yadava chief, Lord Krishna. Similarly can we ignore the debris of the exploded reactor, which remain as an open balance sheet of Chernobyl pointing to the possibility of great catastrophes in the future?