An International Conference in Vienna has summed up the scientific understanding of the major social, health, and environmental consequences attributed to the Chernobyl accident that occurred in Ukraine a decade ago. More than 800 scientists and government officials in fields of nuclear energy, radiation safety, and health care attended the meeting, which was jointly sponsored by the IAEA, European Commission (EC), and World Health Organization (WHO). Participants included high-level governmental representatives from the accident's three most heavily affected countries - Belarus, Russian Federation, and Ukraine - and delegates from more than 70 other States and intergovernmental organizations. The Conference carefully reviewed the many scientific, medical, environmental, social, and political issues involved in assessing Chernobyl's impact, in the context of major changes over the past decade in countries of the former Soviet Union.
"The Chernobyl reactor accident covers a dimension which goes far beyond the boundaries of nuclear safety and radiation protection," said Dr. Angela Merkel, Germany's Environment Minister and President of the Conference. "The actual effects of this disaster have social and economic aspects which are possibly far more significant than radiation exposure itself."
While the Conference (April 8-12) did not expect to reach scientific consensus on all issues involved, its Joint Secretariat did issue conclusions and recommendations that place the Chernobyl consequences into perspective and can serve as the factual basis for decision about future work and collaboration.
Highlights of the findings include those related to:
26 April 1986 and early release of radionuclides resulted in 30 deaths, including 28 deaths attributed to acute radiation sickness. These fatalities occurred among the 134 plant staff, firefighters, and emergency workers (liquidators) who initially responded to the accident and who suffered from severe radiation sickness that was treated in hospitals. Since then, over the past decade, whilst 14 additional patients have died, only some of these might be attributable to radiation exposure.
increase in reported cases of thyroid cancer in Belarus, Ukraine, and some parts of Russia, especially in young children, generally attributed to exposure to radioiodine during the early phases of the accident in 1986. Up to the end of 1995, a total of about 800 cases (including 400 in Belarus alone) have been reported in children who were under age 15 at the time of diagnosis. To date, three children have died from thyroid cancer. Over the next decades, there will most probably be an increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer among those who were children in 1986; the estimated number of cases is in the range of a few thousand but there is considerable uncertainty about this. The group at risk should be closely monitored throughout their lives, since treatment should be successful in most cases that are diagnosed early.
thyroid cancer, there has been no statistically significant deviation in the incidence rates of other cancers that can be attributed to radiation exposure due to the accident. Based on predictive models, it is estimated that the number of future deaths from leukaemia is of the order of 200 among the 3.7 million residents of the contaminated territories and 200 among the 200,000 liquidators who worked at Chernobyl in 1986-87. Leukaemia is an early indicator of radiation health impact. The fact that it has not been seen to date provides reassurance that early predictions are not severely in error. been seen in the exposed population that are not the result of radiation exposure. There are significant health disorders and symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, and various psychosomatic disorders attributable to mental stress among the population of the region. These are widespread and may well be the most important legacy of the accident. The psychological impact cannot be completely dissociated from that of the breakup of the Soviet Union, and any forecast should therefore take into account the economic, social, and political circumstances of the three countries. long-term impacts on populations or ecosystems have been observed. Effective countermeasures can be taken at specific sites to achieve significant reduction in the uptake of radiocaesium into food. In general, no food produced by the collective farm system exceeds established international radiation levels, although some foods produced by private farmers do, as well as mushrooms, game and other wild foods. the Chernobyl accident are well known and the safety levels of the 15 similar types of RBMK plants operating in Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine have been raised to practically prevent the same type of accident from occurring again. More RBMK safety improvements are required however, and further steps are needed to stabilize the sarcophagus built to confine the destroyed Chernobyl Unit 4. RBMK safety issues were examined at an international forum in early April in Vienna and were reported to the subsequent Chernobyl Conference.
The Conference featured a range of sessions at which experts reviewed the findings of work carried out to date, including the outcome of two major international conferences, one hosted in November 1995 by WHO and the other in March 1996 under EC auspices in Minsk. Opening addresses were made by IAEA Director General Hans Blix; WHO Director General Hiroshi Nakajima; H. Tent, Director General for Science, Research and Development of the EC; and M. Griffiths, Director of the United Nations Department for Humanitarian Affairs (UNDHA). The Conference further featured national statements by Alyaksandr Lukashenko, President of Belarus; A. Shoigu, Minister for Emergencies, Russia and Yevgeni Marchuk, Prime Minister of Ukraine; and seven keynote presentations by representatives of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR); Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations; Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development; and of organizations in Germany, Japan and the United States on the results of major bilateral post-Chernobyl assistance projects with Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
The technical symposium featured eight separate topical sessions on the range of social, health, and environmental subjects. Topics included clinically observed health effects; thyroid effects; longer term health efffects; other health-related effects,including psychological effects, stress and anxiety; consequences for the environment; the social, economic, institutional and political impart; nuclear safety remedial measures; and the consequences in perspective, a prognosis for the future. A panel discussion further explored the public's perception of the Chernobyl accident.
Proceedings of the Conference are being published by the IAEA. Highlights of the Conference are available through the IAEA's World Atom Internet Services at the address chernobyl.