Center for Civil Society International ([email protected])
Sat, 27 Apr 1996 17:51:39 -0700 (PDT)
Upon the tenth anniversary of the Chornobyl explosion (April 26) Center
for Civil Society International would like to note the following important
resources, both electronic and print, related to that event.
* The Ukrainian Weekly (30 Montgomery St., Jersey City, NJ 07302)
published April 21 an excellent edition titled Chornobyl: The First
Decade. It includes reviews of the early press coverage of the incident,
assessments of its impact ten years later, an interview with Antony
Froggatt, Greenpeace International's representative for Europe and the
former Soviet Union, and an extensive report on a first-class conference
on Chornobyl held at Yale and Columbia universities April 8-9. An
interesting fact to emerge from the interview with Froggatt: Greenpeace
Ukraine has a staff of 14 in Kyiv and its 1995 budget was US$200,000!
A theme of numerous statements quoted in the The Ukrainian Weekly issue is
the continuing and growing problem, beyond the victims of the 1986
explosion, that Chornobyl and similar still-active reactors represent.
According to David Marples, a historian who has written three books on
Chornobyl, "the dangers presented by former Soviet nuclear power stations
today exceed those of one decade ago."
* The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency has a Committee On Radiation Protection
And Public Health. It produced an assessment in November 1995, "Chernobyl
Ten Years On: Radiological And Health Impact," which is rich in
information. It is available at the Web site:
http://www.nea.fr/html/rp/chernobyl/chernobyl.html
* Ditto for "Chernobyl--Ten Years On," a report prepared by The Uranium
Institute, based in London. During the Institute's 20th Annual Symposium
held in September 1995, a session was devoted to Chornobyl. Three papers
were delivered and abstracts of these papers, and more, are available at:
http://www.uilondon.org/chernidx.html. In addition to the abstracts are
documents which chronicle the events leading up to the accident and report
on the consequences, background information on RBMK reactors (the type of
reactor used at Chernobyl), and the use of nuclear power for electricity
generation in Ukraine. (It produces 37% of Ukraine's electricity, and as
much as 50% in winter.)
* A very interesting book, although it focuses on Russia and not Ukraine
or Belarus, the other nation heavily impacted by Chornobyl, is Russian
Environmentalism: Leading Figures, Fact, Opinions. (Moscow, 1993, 256
pp.) The author is Oleg Yanitsky, a sociologist, and the publishing house
is Mezhdunarodnyje Otnoshenija Publishing House (address: 107078 Moscow,
ul. Sadovaya-Spasskaya, 20. Also available from the Socio-Ecological
Union in Moscow). It contains a chapter on the history of associations and
civil society in pre-Soviet times . . . which reveals that the first
environmental association in the Russian Empire was formed in Ukraine in
1910 and was named the Khortitsky Association for the Protection of
Nature!
* Lastly, Will Zuzak has compiled an extensive (32K) survey of "Internet
Resources on Chornobyl." It is available by e-mail. Send a message
requesting it to: requesting it to: [email protected].
Among the points Zuzak makes is that Soviet authorities tried six men for
criminal negligence in July 1987. Three were acquitted and three were
sentenced to jail. The trial was held in secret and transcripts of the
proceedings have remained classified. Zuzak correctly points to the need
for making these documents public.
Holt Ruffin
Center for Civil Society International
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