Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Congressional Hearings Transcript

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Not only Ukraine, but the whole world faces the problems of the Chomobyl disaster.
That is why help could be provided by the UNo and its subdivisions, and all the
international community to the benefit of all mankind.
The following problems deserve special attention:
• boosting public information campaign about the dangerous effects of radiation;
• training the medical personnel in handling new diagnostic and monitoring
equipment;
• low-level irradiation studies;
• training the social workers in rehabilitation of the affected;
• development of new decontamination equipment for agricultural areas;
• purchase of different equipment and materials (especially medical);
• encouragement of joint ventures producing baby-food and high quality equipment
for the disabled;
• development of new concepts in housing and housing construction, building materials
manufacture, planning and management.
Naturally, we cannot name all the problems, because every day the list of them
becomes longer. So the "Appeal of the Supreme Rada and the Council of Ministers
of the Ukrainian SSr to foreign parliaments, governments, peoples, international organizations
and movements on the 5th anniversary of the accident at the Chomobyl
NPP" is very actual now: "Today, once more we appeal to mind, honor and conscience
of all progressive people on the Earth, we hope that our appeal will be apprehended
with understanding, that international solidarity in the liquidation of
the consequences of the Chomobyl catastrophe will continue and strengthen. WE all
will use our knowledge, wisdom and goodwill in joint and concrete actions to the
benefit of present and future generations, for the sake of life on the Earth".
We will recur again and again to the date of 26th of April 1986. And so will do
our grandchildren and greatgrandchildren, their children and their grandchildren.
Chomobyl not only divided the lives of many people into "before" and "after". It
marked the beginning of the new times.
And we must gdways fall back on Chomobyl experience. One of the main lessons
of this tragedy is: we have to think twice before making any political, economic or
technological decisions, and we must be ready for the worst in order not to turn the
bread-basket into a radioactive waste-basket.
We simply must think whether it is really necessary to coerce the nature, to fight
it? Is it not better to live in harmony with it according to its eternal laws.
We are all one people. And we have common tragedies. We express our heartfelt
gratitude to the world community for the concern in our disaster. The Ukrainian
people will always remember the helping hand of every man and every nation,
purity and nobility of their thoughts, their charity in the times of our terrible ordeals.
Don't bid us—Ukrainians—farewell.
We are still alive.
Statement of Friends of the Earth
RUSSIAN roulette: NUCLEAR POWER REACTORS IN EASTERN EUROPE AND THE FORMER
SOVIET UNION
I. INTRODUCTION AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The question of what to do with the dozens of aging, dangerous and understaffed
nuclear power reactors in Eastern Europe and the republics of the former Soviet
Union constitutes a major public policy dilemma. These extraordinarily risky facilities
urgently need to be closed down. They pose imminent threats to public health
and the environment, both locally and globally.
This Report has been prepared to address this dilemma. It is being released by
Friends of the Earth-International (FOEI) for use by the G-7 countries, the countries
in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, as well as by the World Bank,
International Monetary Fund, Bank for European Reconstruction and Development,
and the international Atomic Energy Agency. All of these agencies have looked at
the issues, but they are not proposing the urgent actions necessary to responsibly
protect the public. Their proposed solutions involve short-term investments in training
and longer-term investments in the reactors themselves, possibly including
building containment shells around some reactors. This is a short-sighted approach,
which will neither protect the public nor be cost-effective.
The question of what to do with these nuclear reactors is an Important hem on
the agenda of the G-7 Economic Summit, which takes place In Munich, Germany