Int'l conference on Chernobyl opens in Berlin

BERLIN, April 7 (Itar-Tass) -- Participants in an international
conference on the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
disaster that opened in Berlin on Wednesday, April 6, discussed the impact
of radiation on human health.
The three-day forum organised by the German Society for Radiation
Protection (GfS) brought together representatives from Germany, Russia,
Japan, Ukraine, Belarus, Britain, and Switzerland. Medics, scientists and
technical specialists who helped the Chernobyl victims are attending the
conference.
The conference was planned long before the accident at Japan's
Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant.
GfS President Sebastian Pflugbeil said the situation at Fukushima-1
differed from that at Chernobyl where an explosion had occurred followed
by an immediate release of radiation. In Japan, things are happening
gradually but the level of radioactivity at the six Japanese reactors is
higher than that at Chernobyl.
Another difference is that radiation after the Chernobyl explosion was
detected at an altitude of 11-15 kilometres, which explains such a wide
spread of radioactive fallouts in the Northern Hemisphere that affected
more some of the regions far from the nuclear power plant than those near
it.
Pflugbeil expressed regret that Japan's information policy in
connection with the nuclear accident does not differ from that of the
Soviet authorities during the Chernobyl disaster.
Correspondent Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexei
Yablokov agreed with him.
He mentioned an agreement between the World Health Organisation and
the International Atomic Energy Agency, under which the former "cannot
speak negatively of nuclear energy".
Pflugbeil spoke critically of the fact that more than two million
euros have been earmarked for the construction of a new casing for the
exploded reactor at Chernobyl while no funding has been made available for
medical help to the population.
On 26 April it will be 25 years since the Chernobyl disaster. The
Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster occurred on April 26, 1986. An
explosion in one of the reactors led to radioactive contamination of an
area within 50 kilometres.