WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1220/96 by Luisa TODINI to the Commission. The Chernobyl nuclear power station
Date: 1996-05-10
Institutions: European Parliament, TODINI
Subjects: environmental protection, nuclear accident, nuclear power station, protocol to an agreement, public health, radioactivity













EUR-Lex - 91996E1220 - EN






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91996E1220

WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1220/96 by Luisa TODINI to the Commission. The Chernobyl nuclear power station  


Official Journal C 305 , 15/10/1996 P. 0066 





WRITTEN QUESTION P-1220/96 by Luisa Todini (UPE) to the Commission (10 May 1996)Subject: The Chernobyl nuclear power stationFollowing Parliament's resolution on the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster (B4-0472/96), the fire at Chernobyl on 23 April 1996 and the incident which led to a leak of radioactive material during the night of Thursday, 25 April 1996, would the Commission state:1. What practical steps the EU intends to take with a view to limiting the damage to the population and the environment;2. What data and analyses are available with regard to the environmental damage caused and the impact on the health of those affected by the recent events;3. What data and analyses are available with regard to radioactive substances having been spread as far as several hundred kilometres from the site of the disaster owing to the fire and the wind.Answer given by Mrs Bjerregaard on behalf of the Commission (7 June 1996)1. No request for assistance has been received following any events in the period to which the question refers.In the context of radiation protection research action of the fourth framework programme, six collaborative projects were started this year and several more will be negotiated before the end of the year, including proposals submitted to the Copernicus programme. They deal with environmental restoration, emergency management and health consequences of the 1986 Chernobyl accident.Furthermore, the Commission has work in hand intended to implement the G7 memorandum of understanding which foresees the closure of the two operational Chernobyl reactors in the year 2000.2. The Commission has no information on a leakage of radioactivity on the night of 25-26 April 1996. However, on 24 April, during the replacement of filters associated with ventilation discharges from the sarcophagus housing the remains of the reactor destroyed by the 1986 accident, some contamination spread to four rooms. On the basis of the information available to the Community, there was no release to the environment and no significant exposure of personnel. This incident resulted from a failure to respect the prescribed filter changing procedures and was thus rated at Level-1, the lowest level on the International atomic energy agency international nuclear events scale.As regards the fires which started on 23 April 1996, these concerned parts of the 30 km exclusion zone around Chernobyl and did not threaten the power station site. It has been reported that, as might be expected, the smoke particles carried radioactive contamination. While no information has been obtained on the level of contamination, it is clear that the radioactivity involved would be only a minute fraction of that associated with the 1986 accident and would very likely have only a local influence.3. In this situation dispersion modelling would only be relevant to the area around the site and would require detailed local information. It is not to be expected that the contamination would be detectable in the Community and indeed no reports of such contamination have been received by the Commission.