The nuclear legacy

Date: 13/04/06

One night in April 1986, staff at a nuclear power plant in Ukraine were told to carry out some power supply checks on the building.

They turned on the turbines and switched off several of the safety systems. A subsequent explosion blew the thousand-tonne roof into the air.

Twenty years later the number of people killed by the Chernobyl disaster remains unclear. Official estimates from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last year put the number of deaths so far at 56: comprising 47 power plant workers and nine children who developed cancer.

The IAEA calculates that up to 4,000 more people could eventually die from cancer caused by the radiation. But the estimate is dismissed as industry propaganda by some observers, who say the death toll could eventually run into hundreds of thousands.

Greenpeace, the conservation group, will next week (18 April) open an exhibition at the European Parliament highlighting the long-term effects of the Chernobyl disaster.

Photographs by Dutch photographer Robert Knoth show children born since the explosion with disabilities including brain tumours and mental illness.

The photos are from a new book on nuclear disasters by Knoth and journalist Antoinette de Jong, published by Greenpeace and UNICEF, the children's fund.

Greenpeace says Chernobyl is only one of several nuclear disasters whose effects are still being felt in the former Soviet Union and beyond. They say the exhibition deserves to be seen by everyone, including those who think nuclear power can solve Europe's future energy needs.

Other events timed to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the disaster include the launch of a new report on "the malignant legacy of Chernobyl" by the European Green party.

The report also points out that several EU countries are still affected by the nuclear explosion. The production, consumption and transport of foods such as game and wild mushrooms from areas in countries including Germany, Poland and the UK remain restricted because of fears over Chernobyl fallout.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Nuclear Energy Agency has also published a Chernobyl report, showing how people in affected areas have been helped to live with radiation since 1986.

Article marks the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl.