European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 26, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse , wends to build two More reactors on the silo the stricken no 4 reactor Howo Vor has Boon encased in a Concrete Box 200 foot High securely isolated entombed Lor centuries in reinforced Concrete pravda said instruments Monitor the nuclear decay that will continue inside indefinitely workers at the cleanup silo and the operating reactors Are transferred out once heir exposure to radiation exceeds certain limits the area around the reactor has been decontaminated topsoil is being stripped from the abandoned town of Prip Yat and Large areas Are being i paved Over it is unlikely anyone will live there or years perhaps decades there Are areas where forests Are dying. It will be useless or generations said a Western specialist. Or. Robert Gale the american radiation expert who rushed to Moscow to help treat victims was stunned when he was finally allowed to visit the site in february. It s one thing to talk about these things he said after returning to the United states. It s another to drive through a 1.000-Square-Kilomeler area that s completely devoid o information about the zone remains limited a . Of nuclear regulatory commission delegation saw it in March but was not told much about the current state of affairs. Vladimir Gubarev pravda s science editor visited in chernobyl in january. There was White Snow the Sun was shining brightly and the whole Village was covered with Snow he recalled. But there was t a single path through the Village and there was t a single Chimney in january Hans Blix director general of the n International atomic Energy Agency said several soviet medical area checking the radiation level of evacuee from the chernobyl area Latt May. Villages in nearby byelorussian had been decontaminated and 24 ukrainian settlements would be reoccupied by 1988. But he conceded it would be years before life returned to the 7-mile 11-km zone nearest the reactor. There Are continuing questions about the death toll. Blix claimed no victims remain hospitalized but Gale later said five people were still in the Hospital and voiced uncertainty about their Fate. Authorities have announced no additional fatalities since aug 21. When the death toll reached 31 a figure that draws sceptical reactions from Western exports. One said the toll must to much higher sine the soviets say 444 workers were at the site when the Accident happened and must have Boon exposed to dangerously High Levels of radiation an oven More serious question is still unanswered can a nation plunging ahead with a major nuclear program Avert another catastrophe Standard have been upgraded at other plants and All Graphite reactors like the one at chernobyl were shut Down for design changes after the Accident. But containment vessels used to trap escaping radiation considered vital safety features in the West Are still not being added to soviet plants. And doubts about soviet safety equipment spurred Finland to buy Western devices to install on its soviet made reactor. Petros Yants has blamed the disaster at chernobyl on six unbelievable mistakes violations of safely rules made in succession by workers who even turned off emergency pumps and the automatic shutdown system. The soviets say that should never happen again. The Kremlin last summer ordered retraining for All nuclear Power Plant workers. But three weeks before the anniversary pravda said Only one nuclear training Center has been established in the country and the official parly newspaper accused soviet bureaucrats of ignoring the orders to upgrade staff. Many observers say the problems in the soviet Union s nuclear program go deeper than just one dangerous reactor or a careless saturday morning shift. They be Learned from chernobyl but they re still Gung to on nuclear said one Western Diplomat. An Accident involving loss of life is still i s i a Wither Fri tiers chernobyl Plant in the soviet Ukraine was a disaster without frontiers. The Blaze spewed radioactive particles Over half the european continent spreading South to Italy West to Germany and North to Scandinavia the Arctic Circle and the British Isles. Rain carried the particles to Earth so the Wetter regions were the hardest hit. Mountain areas of Norway Sweden Scotland England and Wales Are still among the most affected by contamination. One radioactive element in the particles was iodine-131, which loses half its radiation in eight Days. But the other primary contaminant was cesium-137, which has a half life of 30 years. That period has barely begun. Caesium-137 caused a Peculiar environmental problem in the Lapland areas of Norway and Sweden. Throughout the Lapland Arctic slow growing Lichen a Plant that has no Root system and absorbs nourishment from Rainwater and air soaked up cesium-137 like sponges. Lichen is the main food of Lapland s 900,000 Reindeer. By Christmas slaughtered Reindeer were 75 times As radioactive As official safety Levels permitted. The cesium-137 is still in the Lichen and will be for years. Because Reindeer Are practically the sole Means of livelihood for 70.000 Sami or lapps the entire centuries old Way of life of the Sami people is threatened. We could destroy a culture and a tradition of great importance said norwegian social affairs minister Tove strand Gerhardsen. There is Hope swedish agriculture minister Mats Hells Tram says most swedish Reindeer will be relatively radiation free by autumn because thousands have been moved to uncontaminated feeding grounds and others Ted clean Lodder. But scandinavian governments continue to compensate lapps for the tainted Reindeer they May not eat or sell for human consumption. Authorities Are still not sure what level of radioactivity to allow. On april 3. Sweden delayed a decision to multiply the permitted level from 300 Becquerel per kilo a Becquerel is a measure of radioactivity to 10,000 Becquerel. Norway increased its permitted level to 6,000 last year. Finland s level remains at 1,000 for most foods but double that for Reindeer meat. The wide Range is an indication of disagreement among scientists about How much radioactivity is swedish cancer experts for instance say that if even thing a person ate had a 300-Becquerel radiation level he would absorb less radiation in 12 months than he can get from natural background radiation. Others dispute this saying no radiation level is literally taking a cautious approach authorities in Many areas under the chernobyl Cloud banned the Sale of Leaf vegetables milk and other products. An official British report on March 24 said this saved about 50 lives. Crop restrictions now have been lifted throughout Europe although movements of livestock Are still banned in a few areas. But the Cost to governments in compensation has been heavy $56 million in Sweden $215 million in West Germany $2.4 million in Britain according to incomplete unofficial estimates. Other nations refused to accept imports from affected countries a move that Cost Poland and Hungary about $50 million each. Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia both suffered somewhat smaller losses. Jean Emery of cumbrian opposed to a radioactive environment an anti nuclear group in Britain said some British Farmers will never some have lost up to 6,000 pounds $9,000which to subsistence Farmers is an enormous sum Emery said. But beyond that Farmers can t sell their farms As readily they can t sell their sheep except for drastically diminished value and the ban area still covers a Quarter of Cumbria the second largest county in chernobyl s indirect costs were higher and they Are still mounting. Officials at one of Switzerland s live nuclear plants Are spending $350 million on new safety measures a move that has hiked electricity prices by 2.5 countries lost millions of dollars last year when american tourists stayed away because of chernobyl fears West Germany compensated a few travel agencies for cancelled Tours of the soviet Ukraine. Chernobyl s aftermath has spawned the Odd and unexpected. Swedish sportsmen shoot Moose by the hundreds then Bury them in fear of contamination. Reports in Poland said radiation killed millions of bees curtailing Honey production. Even today Egypt is gripped by rumours about chernobyl tainted imported foods it was a major Issue in april elections. One egyptian woman Given bread samples from a German oven at an International Trade fair heard her husband Hiss Don t eat that bread it s european plans for expanding the use of nuclear Power Are still recovering from the chernobyl Shock and some never will. More than 3.000 residents of Bialo Slok Poland s most contaminated province sent a petition to parliament a rare demonstration in a communist country demanding a halt to the country s Lisl nuclear Plant near Gdansk. Italy has scheduled a vote june 14 on the future of its fledgling nuclear Power Industry the vote May be postponed but with polls indicating 60 percent opposition to nuclear Power the Industry s future seems doubtful. In Holland prime minister Ruud Lubbers shelved nuclear expansion plans in the Wake of chernobyl a decision on resumption is not expected before next year. Finland put plans for a fifth reactor on the Back Burner and the nuclear industries in West Germany Austria and other countries arc embroiled in controversy. Only Britain has bucked the trend approving in March construction of a new nuclear Plant part of a planned $9 billion nuclear Power expansion. Pril 26,1987 the stars and stripes Page 15
