WRITTEN QUESTION E-1867/00

by Cristiana Muscardini (UEN) to the Commission

(9 June 2000)

Subject: Consequences of Chernobyl

The statistics provided by the Ukrainian Ministry of Health are horrifying: fourteen years after the Chernobyl disaster, three and a half million people are ill as a result of radioactive contamination, half of whom are children; the number of deaths among the workers who cleaned up the affected areas has risen to 52 000.

Given that 5 million people were exposed to radiation, of whom only 15 000 were evacuated:

1. Can the Commission forecast for how long the effects of contamination will continue to cause casualties among the population of the Ukraine?

2. Has the Commission received accurate information from the Ukrainian authorities?

3. Are any projects and initiatives under way to avert these tragic consequences and eliminate the risks connected with the continuing presence of the original power station?

4. Is the Commission addressing the issue of nuclear safety in the course of enlargement negotiations?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(31 July 2000)

The Commission, as well as the Member States and the rest of the international community, has since the beginning shown solidarity with the victims of the accident and a strong commitment to address the consequences of the worst nuclear accident to date.

According to the recent report of the United Nations scientific committee on the effects of atomic radiation (Unscear), issued in the beginning of June, there have been about 1 800 cases of thyroid cancer in children who were exposed at the time of the Chernobyl accident, and if the current trend continues there may be more cases to come. Furthermore, the scientific committee states that no evidence is available for a major public health impact attributable to radiation exposure at this moment. There is no evidence of increase in overall cancer incidence or mortality or in non-malignant disorders attributed to exposure to ionising radiation. Also the risk of leukaemia, a cancer with a short latency period and considered as the main concern immediately following the accident, does not seem to have increased. The great majority of the population is not likely to experience serious health consequences from radiation from the Chernobyl accident. It should be remembered, however, that around seven million people live in the contaminated area and that the morbidity rate in these territories is significantly higher than in non-contaminated areas, possibly also as a result of anxiety and stress. The Chernobyl accident has also had a huge economic impact following independence about 20 % of the national gross product of Ukraine was devoted to Chernobyl consequences.

In the aftermath of the accident, in 1992 the agreement between the Community and the Commonwealth of Independent States for international collaboration on the consequences of the Chernobyl accident was initiated to understand and master the effects of ionising radiation as regards health, environment and emergency preparedness. The budget for this was around 40 million. These research efforts were pursued under the Fourth framework programme of nuclear fission and INCO Copernicus ( 20 million). Several of the projects conducted within these programmes, mainly in the area of radiobiology and cancer epidemiology, are still running. Some of these projects are of direct benefit for the local population, for example the project on the treatment of accident victims which was extremely helpful for the highly exposed clean-up workers. The research projects on diagnosis of thyroid cancer in children and adults and the optimisation of its treatment were beneficial to a large part of the population of the three countries. Now a smaller number of projects are being supported in this field, mainly because many areas are in a consolidation phase.

In 1994, the Community took the initiative to propose an action plan to Ukraine to close the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and to offer in return increased co-operation in order to assist Ukraine in preparing and implementing such a decision. This action plan was taken up by the group of seven most industrialised countries (G7) and a memorandum of understanding on the closure of Chernobyl by the year 2000 was signed in December 1995 between the government of Ukraine, the G7 countries and the Commission. A very active co-operation programme was initiated in the areas of power sector reform, energy investments, nuclear safety and social aspects.

In total, the Community has granted around 240 million on Chernobyl and Chernobyl-related projects since the nuclear reactor exploded in 1986, divided in three main areas, namely development of the new shelter for the Unit 3, assessment and remediation of the health and environmental consequences of the disaster, and assistance for de-commissioning operations and development of power replacement capacity

In addition, the Commission announced during the latest pledging conference in Berlin on 5 July a new pledge of 100 million as contribution for the shelter fund. Individual Member States have also made large contributions to the Chernobyl shelter fund.

On 5 June, President Kuchma announced that the last operating unit of the Chernobyl power plant will be definitively shut down on 15 December 2000. This decision and the timing are in line with Ukraine's long-standing commitment to the G7. It is a significant breakthrough that will be widely welcomed by the international community as a whole.

In the context of enlargement the Commission has considered nuclear safety an extremely important issue in the enlargement negotiations with the candidate countries. The Commission issued in July 1997 the report Agenda 2000 for a stronger and wider union, which placed the issue of nuclear safety in the candidate countries of central and eastern Europe in a political perspective. In this document, it was clearly stated that the Union must protect the life and health of its present and future citizens. This implies that the applicants should cooperate fully in the efforts to bring their levels of nuclear safety up to international standards. This principle has guided all negotiations with the candidate countries. In this context, the Commission, in its annual country reports, dedicated to the progress in those countries, has included an evaluation of the nuclear safety.