Stichting Laka

Publicatie Laka-bibliotheek:
The republic of Belarus: 9 years after Chernobyl. Situation, problems action (1995)

Auteur	Ministry for Emergencies
Datum	1995
Classificatie	2.43.0.00/10 (WIT-RUSLAND)
Voorkant

Introduction

For almost ten years since the explosion of the Chernobyl power plant nuclear 
reactor on April 26, 1986 the Republic of Belarus has been exposed to the 
subsequent conditions of global radioactive contamination. That day split 
Belarusian history into two epochs - before and after Chernobyl.

According to its scale the Chernobyl accident is the biggest technogenious 
catastrophes that has ever occurred on this planet. Its radioactive cloud covered 
almost the whole northern hemisphere. It resulted in appearance of a hitherto 
unknown mass of refugees, i.e. ecological ones, whose numbers only equal 
those  produced by wars.

Such words as curie, becquerel, radionuclides, radiation dose, radioactive 
contamination of soil, radioisotope content in food and human organism, 
radiocaesium and radiostrontium, plutonium and many others which had 
previously been used only by a narrow circle of specialists began to be used 
by ordinary people.

The worst results of the catastrophe were to be found in Belarus. Scientists are still 
arguing as to the amount of radionuclides released into the environment by the 
explosion. Even the most conservative estimate suggests it is equal to the effect 
of the explosion of twenty nuclear bombs.

The scale of the accident demanded urgent countermeasures. At the initial stage 
of the post-accident period 24.7 thousand people were evacuated. Up to now 
130 thousand people from the contaminated areas have been resettled.

For the resettlement of such a number of people and for the organisation of life-
support systems in the radioactively contaminated regions new settlements and 
working places, enterprises and organisations re-specialisation, a network of schools, 
children’s pre-school institutions, health care establishments, gas pipelines, new 
electric lines, etc. are needed. This work is still far from completion and requires 
large investment.

Despite the fact that it is 9 years since the accident, its subsequent problems have 
not disappeared. Moreover, in some realms they have became even worse. This is 
bound up with a high collective dosage absorbed by the population, as well as with 
difficulties in the remote impact forecasting (especially against a background of our 
adverse ecological situation), and for other objective reasons.

The Republic could not withstand the aftermath of the catastrophe on its own: there 
was a lack of medical and diagnostic equipment for the screening and treatment of 
the population, also of dosimetry devices, the means for decontamination, the 
cleaning up and reprocessing of agricultural production, and raw materials, etc. It 
was not possible to provide the entire population with balanced nutrition, baby’s 
food and with the means of strengthening the human organism's ability to resist and 
adapt. The facilities for the rehabilitation of victims were extremely inadequate.

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