Confinement Structure for Stabilizing Chernobyl Reactor Almost Ready, Says Chef de Cabinet as General Assembly Marks Disaster’s Thirtieth Anniversary
Speakers took stock today of lessons learned in nuclear safety and the state of recovery of the Chernobyl power plant, as the General Assembly marked the thirtieth anniversary of the deadly accident.
History’s worst nuclear power accident had led to a new awareness of safety issues and major improvements in the regulation of nuclear plants around the world, said Edmund Mulet, Chef de Cabinet in the Executive Office of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. A new safe confinement structure, financed by Governments and international institutions, would be completed soon and should make the reactor complex stable and environmentally safe for the next 100 years.
“The tragedy of Chernobyl will always be linked to nuclear safety,” said Mr. Mulet. Since 1986, the United Nations had helped to address the needs of people in the areas surrounding Chernobyl through emergency and humanitarian assistance, as well as support for recovery and socioeconomic development. Knowledge gained from the tragedy was helping other people and communities worldwide protect themselves and recover from trauma, including during Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear emergency of 2011, the Chef de Cabinet noted, pointing to the growing risk of natural events combining with chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear crises.
He said that during the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul next month, the Secretary-General would ask leaders to consider multidisciplinary strategies for prevention, preparedness and response. Looking ahead, he said efforts for Chernobyl’s long-term recovery must be linked to the Sustainable Development Goals.
Mogens Lykketoft (Denmark), President of the General Assembly, echoed those concerns, noting that, 30 years after the plant released huge quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere over large swathes of Belarus, Russian Federation and Ukraine — devastating the region’s mostly rural economy and uprooting more than 300,000 people — affected areas were still struggling to overcome poverty, exclusion and stigma. “Moving forward, we must continue to demonstrate international solidarity so that those most affected by this accident will be able to recover to the fullest,” he stressed.
Acknowledging efforts by the Governments of Belarus, Russian Federation and Ukraine to protect the affected populations from the effects of radiation, mitigate the consequences and build a better future for their communities, he said the General Assembly and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) were also playing an important role in coordinating Chernobyl-related activities over the past decade.
Noting that 2016 was the final year of the Decade of Recovery and Sustainable Development for Chernobyl-affected regions, he said it would feature a series of activities, including a high-level conference in Minsk that began on Monday, and a photo exhibition titled “Chernobyl, tragedy, lessons, hope”, currently on display in the Secretariat building at New York Headquarters. Those events would be followed by a report from the Secretary-General and action during the Assembly’s seventieth session.
Adi Roche, founder of Chernobyl Children International, said she remained haunted by the stories of people she had met through her work. Describing Chernobyl and now Fukushima as bleak and dark sins against the beauty and wonder of the Earth, she said they were also sins against ordinary, decent people. The impact of the single shocking nuclear accident at Chernobyl could never be undone, she said, adding that its radioactive footprint was embedded in the world forever. Countless millions of people continued to suffer the effects of its deadly legacy, and although the accident was only 30 years old, its consequences would last until infinity.
Volodymyr Yelchenko (Ukraine) said that, before Chernobyl, humanity had not known a technological catastrophe of such scope, or the complexity of its long-term humanitarian, environmental, health, social and economic consequences. For 30 years, Ukraine had made every effort to improve the well-being of affected communities and revive the afflicted area’s economic potential. An important benchmark had been met in 2016, with the completion of the United Nations Action Plan on Chernobyl and the Decade of Recovery and Sustainable Development of Chernobyl-affected regions, he noted. Still, there was a clear need for continuous efforts to keep post-Chernobyl recovery high on the inter-agency and international agendas.
Sergey B. Kononuchenko (Russian Federation) noted that, in the initial period following the accident, hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens had worked tirelessly to prevent further contamination of the affected area. Today, the Russian Federation was working to mitigate the effects of Chernobyl, including by monitoring background radiation levels, providing medical care and other efforts related to agriculture and forests. Humanity had learned lessons from Chernobyl, and Fukushima had caused the world to evaluate them further, he said. While more cautious about the use of nuclear energy, the world continued to recognize it as unique in terms of efficiency and limited environmental impact.
Richard Nduhuura (Uganda), speaking for the Group of African States, joined the rest of the international community in standing in solemn remembrance of the tragedy of Chernobyl. The African Group stood in solidarity with the affected countries and applauded their efforts to build resilience through national strategies to mitigate the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe.
Gholamali Khoshroo (Iran), speaking on behalf of the Asia-Pacific Regional Group, said the anniversary provided an occasion to recall the achievements of the last 30 years in dealing with Chernobyl’s harmful and costly legacy. Important efforts were under way to mitigate the accident’s consequences and rebuild the affected areas by promoting socioeconomic development and stressing the importance of continuing international support for those efforts.
Andru Dapkiunas (Belarus), speaking for the Group of Eastern European States, described the accident as one of the biggest man-made disasters ever to affect the region. It had also given rise to one of the most remarkable examples of comprehensive global cooperation and changed the way in which countries viewed nuclear power by improving safety and security and creating a more cautious approach to technological progress. The disaster had resulted in the allocation of huge domestic and international resources for development, health care, environmental protection and agriculture in the affected regions, he said, adding that the global community had also gained unique knowledge and mastered best practices and experience in preventing, reacting and resolving the long-term consequences of man-made disasters.
Martin García Moritán (Argentina), speaking on behalf of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States, said Chernobyl had reminded the world that mutual trust was the bedrock of international security. The response to the disaster had confirmed the potential of multilateralism, although one might question why it had taken a tragedy of such proportions to develop a fully rational and predictable mechanism for preventative international cooperation.
Christopher Grima (Malta), speaking for the Group of Western European and Other States, said that, while most people remembered the immediate aftermath of the disaster, many were not aware of its impact on people, particularly children, in the affected region and beyond. Chernobyl had cast a long shadow over new generations and daily lives, and the world should remain committed to ensuring the success of efforts to restore the site, improve the environmental situation and alleviate the disaster’s social and medical consequences.
Ana Silvia Rodríguez Abascal (Cuba) said her country had been among the first to respond to the request for international assistance, and in early 1990, Cuban experts had visited Ukraine to determine what help was needed. Later that year, the first 139 affected children had arrived in Cuba for medical treatment —the start of a wide-scale health-care programme to provide affected children with free and comprehensive care. To date, more than 25,000 affected people from various countries, including more than 21,000 children from Ukraine, had received medical treatment in Cuba, she said, adding that the assistance programme had also led to the collection of important data on internal contamination in children, which had been shared with partners throughout the international community.
Sarah Mendelson (United States) recalled the valour of first responders who had rushed to the scene, noting also that international organizations had played an invaluable role in the post-Chernobyl recovery, providing evaluations, assessments and recommendations, in addition to coordinating humanitarian and research initiatives.
At the outset of the meeting, the General Assembly decided to include an item titled “cooperation between the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration” on the agenda of its seventieth session, under the heading on organizational, administrative and other matters.
The General Assembly will reconvene at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 27 April, when it is expected to consider integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields.