Chernobyl: November 2007 Archives

Over the past several days, I have seen many bloggers writing about the recent UN resolution regarding Chernobyl aid. Many people are apparently confused by the announcement that the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) emphasis on Chernobyl assistance efforts will shift from emergency and disaster relief to rehabilitation and sustainable development.

People are taking this to mean that radiation levels have returned to near normal levels and the area is again safe for habitation. This is a huge and grossly incorrect assumption. What these people do not understand is that the UN concentrates its Chernobyl aid efforts on several oblasts (provinces) and districts surrounding the Chernobyl area, but does not include the Chernobyl District itself.

The United Nations General Assembly has promoted a new resolution shifting the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) emphasis on Chernobyl assistance efforts from emergency and disaster relief to rehabilitation and sustainable development.

Cihan Sultanoglu, UNDP's Deputy Assistant Administrator and Deputy Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, said, “UNDP is trying to change the legacy of Chernobyl from one of despair and hopelessness to one of hope and prosperity and health.... 20 years of treating the residents of those regions as victims has created a culture of apathy.”

The State Office of the Public Prosecutor of Ukraine has concluded that radiation from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is still reaching the Dnipr River. The Dnipr supplies water to many Ukrainian cities including the capital, Kyiv.

Tatyana Kornyakova, assistant to the public prosecutor, made the remarks after a study determined that radiation, particularly from the Pripyat River, is still migrating into the Dnipr. The sources of river contamination includes places throughout the Chernobyl Zone where radioactive waste and contaminated equipment are buried. Many of these areas are periodically exposed to flooding, exacerbating the situation. Also found during the study were two open trenches containing radioactive waste, located at the partially-buried village Buriakovka.

The report also discussed the absence of fencing around portions of the Chernobyl Zone, which has made it easy for people to remove contaminated equipment from the area. Outside the Zone, these materials are sold as scrap.

The Ministry of Emergency Measures and the Ministry of Internal Affairs have been requested to correct these problems. Kornyakova said the current state of affairs represents a threat to the country.

On November 12, 2007, the city court in Slavutych, Ukraine reinstated Igor Gramotkin as the general director of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station.

The court found that Ukraine’s Ministry of Emergency Measures fired Gramotkin illegally on October 8, after a television report revealed that a news crew was able to sneak a fake explosive device through Exclusion Zone checkpoints, and close to the Chernobyl plant.

Gramotkin will receive wages retroactive to the firing, and the Ministry of Emergency Measures will also have to compensate him for all legal fees.