MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Tatyana Sinitsyna.) Construction workers rebuilding the protective shell over the Chernobyl nuclear reactor destroyed by an explosion 19 years ago have been complaining of increasing instances of internal radiation.
And although there is no direct threat to health, the committee concerned with contractor safety is worried. Doctors think radioactive substances getting into people's bodies with water, food or through the respiratory organs are responsible.
Tens of thousands of clean-up workers suffered health problems or even died when they hastily erected the envelope in 1986. It was touch and go, and they had to work by trial and error. Shelter-1, as it is officially called, is a giant structure 25 stories tall.
"Within it is 185 tons of nuclear fuel with a total activity of 17 million curies," said Dr. Alexander Borovoi, head of the Kurchatov Institute task group in Chernobyl. "The explosion has scattered part of the fuel [3-5%] around the plant. Over 30% of the cesium it contained was evaporated and carried by air currents thousands of kilometers away. Given that cesium has a half-life of 30 years, and plutonium 24,000 years, it can be said that the Chernobyl radiation-inflicted wound will take an indefinite time to heal and will remain a constant threat to humans."
Borovoi says that the building is unfortunately not strong enough structurally. Much of the work was done remotely, hence the defects. For example, cracks could not be helped. On rainy days the water gets inside the shelter, dissolves radioactive substances, and takes them into the groundwater. The total crack area is today estimated at several hundred square meters. This means that people may breathe in plutonium dust that filters out. Besides, the shell rests on old structures damaged by a powerful explosion and a fire. So the odds of a cave-in cannot be ruled out.
The world community has stepped in to remedy the situation and to budget the construction of Shelter-2. One billion dollars was allocated for the project to minimize the harmful effects of Chernobyl, and the process is now under way. The plans provide for building a ferro-concrete facility to encase the reactor once more, and in a more reliable fashion. In the meantime, the old envelope is being fortified and sealed.
At the request of Ukraine, the Kurchatov Institute did a good deal of work to draw up instructions on behavior, particularly among construction workers, in cases of exposure to radiation risk. They wrote instructions how to suppress radioactive dust, what solutions to use for decontamination, and how to weld or drill. Unfortunately, specialists complain, these recommendations are not followed to the letter, which, they think, explains the contamination with radionuclids.
"Chernobyl's chastening experience is, unluckily, at a discount in the world," said Yevgeny Velikhov, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and president of the Kurchatov Institute. "We in Russia have a powerful Emergencies Ministry, like the U.S. Homeland Security Department. But staff working there are familiar with man-made radiation explosions only in theory, and if this theory is applied in practice, chaos and confusion may ensue."
Russia, Velikhov said with conviction, could contribute a good deal in drafting a serious international program to scrupulously sum up the hands-on experience of Chernobyl.
