24 April 2006 - Vienna, Austria
— We have returned a large radioactive reminder
of the Chernobyl disaster to the UN body pushing
nuclear power. Radioactive soil was placed in
the lobby of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) that has been trying to hide the consequences
of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
To confront the IAEA with the realities of nuclear
power we placed a 250kg concrete container containing
two 1kg radioactive samples into the lobby of
the UN agency building in Vienna. To ensure public
safety, the soil samples delivered to the IAEA
were placed in a container with concrete and lead
shielding.
But where the samples were collected
there are no such safeguards for anyone. The radioactive
soil was taken from locations between 40km and
50km from the Chernobyl reactor - in areas well
outside the exclusion zone in which people have
free access. In the random soil sample there was
a small but highly radioactive grain of spent
fuel, which was ejected from the reactor by the
explosion. This is highly dangerous if inhaled
or ingested or when it comes into prolonged contact
with the body.
In the same area from where
the soil samples were taken, people harvest wood,
mushrooms and berries from the forests, unwittingly
exposing themselves to serious radiation risk.
The samples are 10-25 times more radioactive than
the limits set by the European Commission for
defining a substance as radioactive waste.
Our research at the location
of the disaster in the Ukraine shows there is
serious radioactive contamination in places where
people still live.
IAEA nuclear whitewash
Part of IAEA's mandate is to
promote nuclear power. Promoting an industry that
is dirty, dangerous and expensive is a hard job,
especially in the year marking the 20th anniversary
of Chernobyl. To try and down play the effects
of the disaster they published a report with the
World Health Organisation (WHO) in September 2005
claiming only 4000 people would die from the disaster.
It is now clear that the IAEA
report was deliberately misleading. We recently
published a report by 52 scientists whose research
predicts approximately 270,000 cancers and 93,000
fatal cancer cases caused by Chernobyl. The report
also concludes that on the basis of demographic
data, during the last 15 years, 60,000 people
have additionally died in Russia because of the
Chernobyl accident, and estimates of the total
death toll for the Ukraine and Belarus could reach
another 140,000.
Even staff from the WHO now
admit the report was intended as a political tool
to deflect criticism from nuclear power:
Zhanat Carr, a radiation scientist
with the WHO in Geneva, says the 5000 deaths were
omitted because the report was a 'political communication
tool'. "Scientifically, it may not be the
best approach," she admitted to New Scientist.
She also accepts that the WHO estimates did not
include predicted cancers outside Ukraine, Belarus
and Russia.
What figures and statistics
never tell is the pain and suffering inflicted
on individuals by the nuclear industry every day
since the first nuclear bomb was exploded in 1945.
Nuclear technology has always
been inherently dangerous. Today, thankfully,
it is also unnecessary. Our energy needs can be
met with safe and efficient renewable energy technologies.
So, why are so many politicians peddling nuclear
power at the very time we need it least, when
we have safe and sustainable sources available
to power the world?
Is it the role of a UN agency,
funded by your taxes, to advance the profits of
the nuclear industry? Do we not have the right
to expect the IAEA to focus only on the values
and principles of the UN - peace, security, and
human rights - and not on private industry's profits?
