Opinion

Bitter consequences of Artemisia Vulgaris*

Chornobyl, 30 years after

The night from April 25 to 26 of 1986 will always be an ominous reminder of the world`s biggest technogenic disaster in the history of a mankind. That was when the 4^th reactor of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, situated less than 100 km from Kyiv, went out of control which led to the meltdown of nuclear fuel and emission of huge mass of radioactive particles into the air.

Despite the attempts of the Soviet leadership to hide the facts from its people and scale down consequences of the disaster, partially due to international democratic media and radioactive fall-out in various parts of Europe, including Finland, the massive cover-up of the situation could not be kept anymore. Ukrainian people faced the worst man made tragedy of its kind with 2293 settlements being instantly polluted by radioactive fall-out. Thousands of inhabitants were forced out of their dwellings creating a 30 km wide restriction zone encircling nuclear power plant. In addition to hundreds of emergency workers who lost their lives during the first days due to exposure to extreme radiation levels, thousands of liquidators began constructing a temporary shelter over the destroyed reactor in order to minimize distribution of radioactive dust in surrounding areas.

I remember that day, as a teenager, very well. April 26 was Monday, and when we came to school there were rumors among us already. We felt that something terrible had happened: some kids’ parents heard something, some of us saw or hear unusual movement of busses and special construction vehicles coming north.

That Monday, when my parents and I came home, we listened Voice of America and Radio Freedom on our portable long frequencies receiver made in Latvia VEF-202 – the only window to the West for us at that time. What we heard made us even more nervous and terrified. But the authorities kept silence. They were afraid, among other thing, to spoil the 1^st of May Parade…  

Meanwhile, my school became half-empty: all parents who could afford to send their children farther from Kyiv had done that. And those boys, including me, who left, went on with “normal” life: school and football game until late in the evening at a nearby improvised game field.

I remember the grass growing really fast and long that spring as well as mosquitos. There was also a metal test on the lips – even though I was told that one couldn’t detect radiation with human senses. Once, when I came home after a football game in May, my uncle brought a dosimeter with him – a tool I saw for the first time in my life. It was supposed to detect excessive radiation not only on its small screen but also by producing a buzz. O, gush, you should hear that buzz when he approached the dosimeter to my sneakers…

It is understandable that Chornobyl catastrophe disrupted life and industrial activities in many regions, caused significant losses to agriculture and industry, affected forestry and water management. But, most importantly, it cost thousands of lives and had adverse health effects on the millions of ordinary people living in the contaminated areas. On the other hand, disaster produced opportunities for international research on the consequences of exposure to radiation, environmental aspects of arable land re-cultivation and return into industrial use. Chornobyl catastrophe, as well as the latest nuclear disaster at Fukushima, accentuated necessity of strengthening international cooperation in the area of nuclear industrial safety.  

Fulfilling its obligations under the Memorandum signed in 1995 with the IAEA, European Commission and the G-7 countries, Ukraine carried out full decommissioning of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 2000. Since then the works are underway to build a new safer confinement over the destroyed reactor and temporary built sarcophagus as well as construction of an interim spent nuclear fuel facility. Ukraine hopes that shortfall in financing will be addressed and settled during the donor conference to be held in the framework of the events commemorating 30^th anniversary since the Chornobyl catastrophe.

Chornobyl will continue to be a grim reminder of a cost of human error and subsequent technology fault. It is more of an acute problem for Ukraine especially these days when we face Russian aggression in occupied Crimea where Russia restores Soviet Army nuclear facilities and on the East of Ukraine where pro-Russian guerillas flooded thousands of coal mines threatening to provoke a real environmental disaster…

What Chornobyl have shown us is that we live in a global village where we can solve all the challenges only together. I do hope that it’ll work also for settling the situation in my family’s native Donbas and in Crimea. Otherwise, we will be subjected to bitter consequences not only for Ukraine but for broader European region as it was the case with Chornobyl.

  

Andrii Olefirov

Ambassador of Ukraine to Finland

   

* Artemisia vulgaris (mugwort or common wormwood) is one of several species in the genus Artemisia commonly known as mugwort. This species is also commonly known in Ukraine as “Chornobyl”. It’s also known for its bitter taste tea.