Twenty Years Hence

The world today mourns the Chernobyl disaster twenty years hence. Regarded as the worst accident in the history of nuclear power, the disaster released over four hundred times more radiation than the atomic bomb of Hiroshima. World (corporate) organisations remain at loggerheads with environmental organisations over the death toll and those silently suffering still, 9000 or 93,000.

Located in the town of Pripyat, Ukraine, the unit 4 reactor of the Chernobyl power plant—known as Chernobyl-4—suffered a catastrophic steam explosion at 1:23 a.m. local time, that resulted in a fire, a series of additional explosions and a nuclear meltdown (see the picture above of the Chernobyl reactor room blown open). The cause of this catastrophy has been ascribed to the power plant operators who, in turn complained that they were never informed that the reactor was dangerous in some conditions. Another lobby blames the flaws in the reactor design especially that of the control rods. So who is to be believed?

Needless to say that the scale of the tragedy was compounded by both the unpreparedness of local administrators and the lack of proper equipment. So what are the leaders REALLY doing today? I assume its going to be the same old rhetoric that we in India especially have so got used to.

Come December 3 each year and Bhopal comes into the limelight, only to be whisked away into oblivion soon after. I still remember the cruel joke played out on none other that the BBC in 2004 when a man claiming to be the representative of Dow Chemical Company (which bought Union Carbide in 2001) said that the company had agreed to clean up the site and compensate those harmed in the incident. Even though the man turned out to be a member of the activist prankster group 'The Yes Men' seeking to highlight the role that Dow could play. Nonetheless, for an unsuspecting spectator like me, it was downright cruel. I still remember how happy I was to hear the freak.


The chemical accident was caused by the introduction of water into a MIC (methyl isocyanate) holding tank due to slip-bind water isolation plates being excluded from an adjacent tank's maintenance procedure. The resulting reaction generated a major increase in the heat of the liquid inside the tank (to over 200°C). The MIC then gave off a large volume of toxic gas, forcing the emergency release of pressure.


Soon after, Union Carbide cited a non- peer-reviewed investigation that concluded that a single employee secretly and deliberately introduced a large amount of water into the MIC tank by removing a meter and connecting a water hose directly to the tank through the metering port. Carbide claims such a large amount of water could not have found its way into the tank by accident and (can you believe this) that the safety systems were not designed to deal with intentional sabotage. Till date Dow Chemicals has publicly stated several times that the Union Carbide settlement payments have already fulfilled Dow's financial responsibility for the disaster.


Here's appealing the comity of nations to come together to not just pay lip service to these reminders (read momentous days) but make concrete efforts to help the bereaved and those suffering ever so silently still.

P.S - I was aghast at not finding any news item even close to Eurasia in my beloved Hindu on the 26th with the only respite provided by this newsletter from the Council on Foreign Relations. But my favourite newsi (that's what I call my newspaper) redeemed itself on the 27th with two lovely articles, key points of which are listed below:

• The Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine was the worst contaminated territory in Russia.
• Medical specialists predict that radiation-caused diseases in the contaminated regions will peak in another five years.
• Russian veterinary sources said more than 50 per cent of food production in Bryansk region is contaminated.
• "An accident has occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant. One of the reactors has been 'damaged'." These were some of the statements made by the Soviet authority when confronted with evidence by Sweden. And this came more than 30 hours after the accident had occurred.