Reports of an alarming rise in radioactivity due to the war in Ukraine could result in a second Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the head of an Irish aid organisation has said.
The United Nations is commemorating the 36th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster today amid fears that recent military activity and heightened tensions in the area could trigger a repeat of the nuclear accident that occurred in 1986.
The Chernobyl accident occurred as the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel. The resulting steam explosion and fires released at least 5 per cent of the radioactive reactor core into the environment, with the deposition of radioactive materials in many parts of Europe. Estimates of the number of people who died vary. Many contracted radiation sickness. There have been thousands of deaths due to radiation-induced cancers and illnesses in the years since the disaster.
Adi Roche, voluntary chief executive of Chernobyl Children Ireland, said the recent Russian occupation of the site of the Chernobyl disaster represented a “change in modern warfare” and had led to the world “being held to ransom”.
She told The Times: “Who’s to say that the madness will not return to that most fragile of places? Or, if a stray shell were to hit that sarcophagus that was built to try and protect the world from any more emissions of radioactivity, you could be looking at, potentially, a massive catastrophe.”
Roche said she was concerned the Russian military may seek to take over the area again. She said a “strengthening” of the Hague Conventions and the declaration of the Chernobyl region as a “no war zone” was required to safeguard the area.
Roche also called for the evacuation of all those living in the region. “They really need to almost tear up that rulebook and start again,” she said.
What we are calling for is a definite ‘no war zone’ and if they are in breach of that, maximum penalties would have to be enforced. If we don’t do it now, who knows what other areas of the world are looking at what the invader is actually getting away with?”
Roche warned that the consequences of damage as a result of Russian shelling to the delicate infrastructure of Chernobyl — which holds large amounts of radioactive material — would have far-reaching impacts.
“I don’t want to use frightening words like armageddon, but you’re talking about a wipeout, not just of Ukraine, but you’re talking about all of mainland Europe and possibly contamination of the rest of the world,” she said.
Roche added that the commemoration was an opportunity to emphasise the relevance of the Chernobyl nuclear facility and radioactive exclusion zone to the international community.
She said: “Chernobyl is not something from the past; Chernobyl ‘was for ever’, Chernobyl ‘is for ever’; the impact of that single shocking nuclear accident can never be undone; its radioactive footprint is embedded in our world for ever and millions of people are still being affected by its deadly legacy. The recent military activity at Chernobyl is further proof that Chernobyl remains an unfolding disaster.”
Raisa Miknovitch Carolan, a survivor of the first Chernobyl disaster, was born with physical impairments that meant she could not walk or eat properly from an early age, and ended up in a home for abandoned babies in Minsk.
In 2002, Miknovitch was adopted by a family with the surname Carolan, whom she first met on a rest and recuperation trip at the family’s home in Trim, Co Meath, at the age of six.
Miknovitch, who has had more than 30 operations in her life, has since gone on to graduate twice from university and now holds a master’s degree in criminology.
Speaking before the remembrance day, she said: “As a victim of the first generation of those affected by Chernobyl, I am deeply worried for all the children of today that are now seriously threatened by the re-release of radiation in the Chernobyl region, and I plead with those in power to heed these dire warnings.”
Yury Bandazhevsky, a scientist whose work focuses on the aftermath of the first Chernobyl disaster, has recorded higher levels of radiation since the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February. “Any disturbance of radioactive material is lethal, as it re-releases radioactivity into the atmosphere,” he said.
Bandazhevsky also urged the international community to act to “save the victims of war in the Chernobyl region” as over 300,000 people are facing “a ‘double war’.”