Walker.
Energy; hastened Tassues three hundred and seven!!
more radiation stones than These statements trom the men in charge of energy programme are almost on a par with Reagan's famous 'most pollution comes from trees for complacent wilful disregard for the facts.
USSK The immediate impact of Chernobyl on the USSR is deadly. Two people killed outright, one hundred rushed to emergency treatment in Moscow, six more already dead, eighteen in a serious condition. estimated that ten to one hundred people will die in the next few weeks, with hetween one thousand and ten thousand extra cancer cases in the next ten years. Beyond the USSR, Swedscientists estimate an exac cances Western Europe over the next 40 vears.
These initial figures are also underestimate. levels or radioactivity me- based on ine asurea in sweden hundreds of miles from Chernobyl. They assume immediate evacuation of the arca around ine plant. Il Is now clear that the 30,000 people or c nernobyi losel were not moved out until a week after the explosion. Over 50,000 people have had to be moved from the immediate of plant. ·250,000 kids: have into radiation free production would require the removal of the top tour inches of soil. Land up to kilometers away will be dangerous for a year.
Prices An immediate knock on effect has been a sharp prices stock markets as Ukranian supplies are put doubr. Although most of the radioactive material released has been lodine 131, which desperses relatively quickly, Caesium has a half life of 30 years and binds with bitumen and other building materials.
The impact of the disaster has continued to spread outside the Soviet Poland registered 500 times normal levels of radiation million were fed lodine tablets to try to avert thyroid cancer. Levels In Britain and France, radiation levels normal were registered. Otto Huber, of the Swiss radioactivity monitoring Commission surprise at such high levels trom just one accident such a long way away Yevgeny Velikov, writing in last Friday's Pravda stated: 'we are facing problems no one has seen before.' The phrase 'no one expected it' should go down as the nuclear industry's ebitanh Chernobyl. Accidents. like. this simply no "supposed to famous remark, 'We nearly lost Detroit' Between 1969 and 1979 there no less than 169 accidents that could have led to melt Ine Water Reactor (PWR) stations in the USA. ed smit.
designer said last WECK that he expected accidents Chernobyl LaKE place every five years. Fire In Britain, there have been nuclear 'incidents' that we know Windscale/Sellafield alone since 1950. The 1957 Windscale reactor fire led to 30 deaths amongst 260 extra cancer cases.
reason whatever to believe 'British' nuclear technology is any safer than 'Russian'. Peter Walker tried reassure everyone that even it there was an explosion fire at British all DuCItal Dowci Ulalll, would be well because they are all surrounded by a big concrete box. But even at that level he forgot the Magnox reactors don't have containment vessels. Threat The Hartlepool reactor, for instance, has no containment vessel des pite the stated view of the stanations spectorate that vulnerable to ture trom the nearby Petro chemical plant.
The Nuclear Installation Inspectorate estimates density Brian would density Britain would ine soviet union. Despite protestations Walker. openess LOTTE anu suggestions that we should take day Sellafield, how long would It take for a major disaster to melt through the concrete foundations of thẹ industry's secrecy? What stage would a disaster have reach before fear for public safety outweighed the combination of confidence in their ability to fear for the future OT their industry, that must coexist in every nuclear technicians head? Just imagine a Chernobyl at Hartlepool, the reactors near Bristol. How quickly would it be possible to evacuate the populations of those cities? What would the human economic costs be?
All this look at what is known, so far, of the effects of catastrophic the nuclear industry. The day lo day biems of this 'safe, clean from of energy', as Peter Walker puts it, are no more On January this year, the Sellafield reprocessing plant dumped alf a ton of uranium in the Irish Sea. The inability Io sarev disoose ot waste is well known. • The effect on Nuclear Power workers health is becoming known for instance, the British Medical Journal revealed last year that UK Atomic Energy Authority employees have a death rate from prostrate cancer tha "5 eight times *the national THERE are 350 nuclear power plants countries:
France: 47 plants built, 65 per cent of electricity supplied nuclear Commitment to power. nuclear power such that at the high point of Chernobyl radioactivity across France no higures were being released to the public.
USSR: Up to Chernobyl, the current five year plan envisaged doubling nu• power capacity.
USA: No nuclear power built since the stallulls Three Mile Island acci-. dent in 1978. Wall Street is said to be sceptical of the economics of large Denmark/Portugal: No Capacily plans to develop any. Sweden: Plans to phase out all nuclear power over 25 years. Positive World Atomic Power Reactors on order bi not yet operat research into alternative energy sources.
Holland: Following the Swedish example result of Chernobyl.
Britain: 37 nuclear plants. Government plans to build one or two new as Sizewell inquiry has reported. Government is very anxious not to allow Sir Frank Layfield, who is drafting the report. to take Chernobyl into account
4 Socialist Action 16 May 1986
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Effect ist simply