Chernobyl

On April 26, 1986, at 1.23 am, the atomic core of nuclear reactor number 4 at Chernobyl (Ukraine) has started - ironically, during a security test - the greatest catastrophe in the history of civilian use of nuclear energy . After an error handling have been two explosions, which shook the building and caused the erection of a column of radioactive smoke.

"A strange light dominating the area and above the plant, a cloud darkened the sky," says a witness, adding that "officers were lost, paralyzed". Com-nuclear contor ore burned for 10 days, spreading air radioelement million, equivalent to the intensity of at least 200 bombs of the type of Hiroshima. The heavy chemical elements, especially strontium and cerium, relapse in the nearby area, and mild, as iodine and cesium, have formed a cloud, carried by the wind, has contaminated three-quarters of Europe.

When the wind blows north-west and seriously polluted cloud Ukraine, Belarus and Russia is over the Scandinavian countries. Headed south and then west, contaminating through their rain-Central Europe and the Balkans, Italy, France, Great Britain and Ireland.

Moscow hidden truth

The first firefighters arrived on scene to stop the growth of fire in reactor No. 3 were exposed to irradiation enormous. Two members of intervention teams have died instantly, others 28 in the weeks that followed, all because of strong radiation.

Since its inception, Mos-cova tried to hide the catastrophe and then minimize it to save face Soviet technology. Sweden was the one who alerted the international community on April 28, announcing a sharp increase in the level of radiation on its territory.

Evacuation Pripiat city with 45,000 inhabitants, 3 km from the center, barely held on 27 April. Kiev and children marched with red flags in their hands for the traditional parade on May 1, while the winds carry the radioactive cloud over the Ukrainian capital. An order restricting the displacement or distributing iodine tablets should be avoided absorption of radioactive iodine, reducing the number of cancers.

Ukraine has agreed to close on December 15, 2000, the last functional reactor in Chernobyl, No. 3, in exchange for international aid by $ 2.3 billion.

Balance UN, challenged

Plant at Chernobyl, the flagship of Soviet industry, is in Ukraine, the border with Belarus, and if the authorities in Moscow would be silent for several days after explosion, nuclear accident fatalities and the effects would be been so great. At that time, expected number of victims was estimated at tens of thousands. But UN last balance sheet published in September 2005, indicate a smaller number of victims, estimating direct deaths in 4000 in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

"Complicity with nuclear lobby" ...

Balance is challenged and Greenpeace about a disinformation campaign "insulting the victims" and "complicity with the nuclear lobby". Greenpeace report, denied by WHO, was released 20 years before the anniversary of the Chernobyl explosion and shows that research done by various scientists found that about two billion people were affected by radiation after the explosion in 1986. It said that 100,000 people will die of cancer from the effects of the accident, especially in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, surpassing estimates IAEA forecasts for last year.

British votes

A study by British scientists called "Another report on Chernobyl" (TORCH), published in Kiev, provide total figures differ from those of the controversial UN report, evaluating between 30,000 and 60,000 total cancer deaths arise from nuclear catastrophe Chernobyl, which is over ten times. Cancer death toll will never be truly known, the report said British, but TORCH "counterbalance the statements made by the UN, who minimized the deadly consequences of nuclear accident and failed to make a substantial analysis of its effects in Europe and worldwide ".

MEPs are independent inquiry

The European Greens European Commission demanded an independent inquiry on the consequences of the Chernobyl accident, accusing the UN and IAEA that minimizes everything. In case the IAEA and the nuclear industry never ceases to systematically minimize the consequences of melting reactor in Ukraine, it is important for Brussels to present a comprehensive and realistic balance of consequences of the disaster of 1986, reveals European environmentalists.

They want to know the number of accident deaths directly affected both the three countries - Ukraine, Belarus and Russia - and in the EU, but also answers the "maximal radioactivity that European citizens affected by eating venison , fruit, mushrooms "and" restrictions applied to agriculture in the EU today. "