Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Congressional Hearings Transcript

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Birth rate in Belarus has been dropping steadily and sharply after the
Chernobyl disaster. Abortions for fear of bearing a deformed or otherwise
handicapped child are on the rise. Coupled with economic hardships of the
transition period we are facing now what experts call "negative growth" of the
population. Simply put, with each passing year there is less and less Belarusians
of this Earth.
There is no proved scientific knowledge of what is going to happen in the
coming years to masses of people subjected to extremely long-term - I'd say lifeterm
- irradiation. The majority of experts expect a further substantial increase of
mahgnant tumors, as well as other diseases.
Another frightening truth is that we are going to live with Chernobyl
forever. The radioactive situation now is primarily determined by the presence of
the following radionuclides - caesium- 137 ( half- life of 30 years ), strontium-90 (
29 years ), plutonium-239 ( 24390 years ), plutonium-240 ( 6537 years ). To
dissipate, an element needs 10 half-Ufe periods. Simple multiplication gives you a
creeping feeUng of an adverse eternity.
Economic consequences
Health problems were not alone. Economic losses, need for new
expenditures and related problems are mind-bogghng.
Hundreds and hundreds of enterprises, both industrial and agricultural, had
to be closed down in the contaminated areas - along with hospitals, schools,
infrastructure. Twenty percent of arable land were taken out of economic use as a
result of the catastrophe.
According to the most modest estimates,
the economic damage incurred by
Belarus as an immediate result of the Chernobyl accident is equal to 32 annual
budgets of the Republic, i.e. 235 billion US dollars.
Now ten years later, the Government is compelled to spend, year in and
year out, up to 25% of its budget to try to cope with the aftermath of Chernobyl.
This is an additional and huge burden on the reform pace in Belarus. We cannot
abandon, and members of the US Congress, 1 hope, will agree with it, hundreds of
thousands of helpless people out there in the radioactive cold to face the beast of
Chernobyl on their own.
After the disintegration of the Soviet Union we were left alone with this
disaster. This nuclear power station was not built by us, it was not serviced by us
and we did not have any influence on the processes taking place in it. The state
which did it is gone. The consequences of the catastrophe coincided with the
economic crisis, with the destruction of the very fabric of former Ufe. That is why
we have to resolve a multitude of socio-economic problems, to construct a new
Belarusian state while doing everything at the same time in order to minimize to