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CHORNOBYL* SARCOPHAGUS and CLIMATE CHANGE: A NUCLEAR SOLUTION
Presented to the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP 15) Copenhagen

The Problem:
Chornobyl’s sarcophagus, also known as “the Shelter”, covering unit 4 of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant poses an environmental threat which grows as the global climate warms.В  The remains of the power plant continue to degrade from structural instability and the entry of water. The uncertain nature of the wreckage within the Shelter combined with high radiation fields immediately surrounding it, make the remediation a very challenging task. A decision-based approach known as the Shelter Implementation Plan (SIP) has been adopted as a way of resolving the many difficulties. Inside the Shelter, there remains about 96% of the irradiated nuclear fuel inventory of the reactor before the accident.

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Ukraine is quite young country which became independent just seven years ago. It is very important to create a law environment for sustainable development for my country. I am a student of the third year of Legal Advice Bureau at Lviv State University and believe that my education can be of value not only for me, but also for my country – Ukraine.

In a recent article on the work of Dr. Cham Dallas, an environmental toxicologist from the University of Georgia, he states that after investigating the genetic effects of very high levels of exposure to environmental radioactivity for the past 10 years, he finds no genetic damage in the Chernobyl animal population. He further States that he finds this very disconcerting and fears long-term genetic changes in the form of a mutation time bomb.

Notwithstanding the recent questions as to the degree of potential health damage from Chernobyl’s legacy, WIT’S discussions with the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund (Ukrainian spelling) indicate that the impact on children’s health has been severe. In some areas, thyroid cancer increases 80-fold, birth defects have doubled and many children have been stricken with immune deficiencies known as “nuclear AIDS”. The two nations most effected by Chernobyl, Belarus and Ukraine, report tens of thousands of premature deaths and a significant decline in tlie population growth.

The current speculations regarding the lack of genetic defects or deformities in the local human and animal populations bring into focus the need for further study of this phenomenon. Following the Chernobyl explosion, the greater contamination covered several regions of Ukraine and Belarus where the population received many times the recommended lifetime dose of radiation. Everyone who lived 160 km south and downwind of the explosion received 7 rems of exposure in the first three days, whereas 5 rems per year is allowed by US nuclear power workers. The findings that the most radioactively contaminated living organisms are thriving – cattish, carp, and other fish species examined near chernobyl show levels of radioactive contamination three to five times higher, and rodents show levels that are 10 times higher than in the US. – indicate the importance of further extensive research for the benefit of humanity.

SOURCE: Science Spectra. “In Hot Pursuit”, Issue 15, 1999