Hopefully, the world remembers that the year 2021 marks the 35th anniversary of the Chernobyl tragedy and the 10th anniversary of the Fukushima accident at the same time.
From the UN Secretary-General’s message 2021: “Today we mark the thirty fifth anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on 26 April 1986 – one of the most serious nuclear accidents in history.
Hundreds of thousands of people were affected by radiation. Some 350,000 people were forced to leave their homes in severely contaminated areas, with a deeply traumatic and lasting impact on their lives. Their suffering must not be forgotten.
This anniversary is an occasion to recognize the recovery efforts led by the Governments of Belarus, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine, and the work of scientists who sifted through the evidence to provide important analysis that has informed emergency planning and reduced risks.
Since 1986, the United Nations has helped to address the needs of people in the areas surrounding Chernobyl, first through emergency and humanitarian aid, and then by supporting recovery and social and economic development, through our United Nations country teams working with civil society, international partners and donors.
Our joint efforts have enjoyed some success. The number of small- and medium-sized businesses operating in areas directly affected by the disaster has risen from 2,000 in 2002 to 37,000 today. Thousands of local residents, community leaders and doctors have been trained on health risks and promoting healthy lifestyles.
The Chernobyl disaster was contained by governments working with academics, civil society and others, for the common good. It holds important lessons for today’s efforts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Disaster know no borders. But together, we can work to prevent and contain them, support all those in need, and build a strong recovery.” (António Guterres)
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress asks all Canadians to pause on April 26, 2021 in remembrance of the thousands of victims of this terrible tragedy. This anniversary reminds us of the need for eternal vigilance to ensure the safe use of nuclear power, the importance of democratic oversight and accountability, and the need to protect our environment.
A few international publications and events are interesting to review. FOX News Network published a story “Chernobyl 35 years later”. Ukrainian authorities unsealed KGB documents, shedding new light on the disaster. According to KGB documents unsealed by the Ukrainian authorities, the USSR had known safety issues at the plant for some time before the accident. “The 35th anniversary of the Chernobyl tragedy is a reminder of how state-sponsored disinformation, as propagated by the totalitarian Soviet regime, led to the greatest man-made disaster in human history,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Inverse published a review of two studies that provide new insight into the effects of ionizing radiation, “35 years after Chernobyl’s meltdown, the fallout of radiation continues.”
In one study, researchers based in the United States and Ukraine looked at genetic mutations in the children of people who had been exposed to radiation; in the other, scientists evaluated the genomic profile of cancerous tumors removed from people exposed to the blast’s radiation.
The scientists are looking again at the fallout from the explosion today is not out of morbid curiosity. Instead, these studies are a bid to understand better how genetic material may be changed by radiation — and how exposure manifests in the genetics of future generations, too. With ongoing threats to staff and residents around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and 440 active nuclear reactors worldwide, it’s crucial to understand the long-term and generational effects of ionizing radiation.
As the world commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster in 2011, the University of Tokyo and the University of British Columbia organized two-part online panel discussions on lessons (un)learned from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011.
Taken together, both disasters have important consequences for how we understand nuclear emergencies and how to protect ourselves from them.