Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Congressional Hearings Transcript

EFFECTS OF THE ACCIDENT AT THE
CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR POWERPLANT
WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 1992
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Environment and Pubuc Works,
Subcommittee on Nuclear Regulation,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:41 a.m. in room
406, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Bob Graham [chairman
of the subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Senators Graham and Lieberman.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BOB GRAHAM, U.S. SENATOR
FROM THE STATE OF FLORIDA
Senator Graham. Good morning. The Subcommittee on Nuclear
Regulation will come to order.
Today the subcommittee will examine the effects on public
health and environment of the accident that occurred at the Chernobyl
nuclear plant in April of 1986, We will also use this as an
opportunity to examine what needs to be done with the aftereffects
of Chernobyl and what should be United States international
policy relative to Soviet-designed nuclear plants in the former
Soviet Union and other parts of the world.
The explosion of the reactor at Chernobyl led to the largest
single-source release of radiation into the atmosphere that has ever
been recorded. The accident released approximately 50 times niore
radioactivity than was released by the atomic bombs at Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. The radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl accident
has affected millions of people.
According to the official statistics of the former Soviet Union, at
least 31 fire fighters and plant operators died within days of the
accident from high radiation exposure. There is
considerable evidence
that the actual death toll from acute immediate exposure
was much higher. Hundreds of thousands of persons who lived
within 30 kilometers of the accident were evacuated from their
homes. They never were able to return. Over 600,000 army soldiers
and miners were brought in from all over the former Soviet Union
to stabilize the damaged reactor in the days and months following
the accident. Many of these liquidators received doses comparable
to the doses received by the survivors of the bomb blast at Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. Some may have received much more.
Several million people continue to live in areas that received significant
radioactive fallout from the accident. For several years in
(1)