STATEMENT

STATEMENT

by Vladimir TSALKO

Chairman of the Chernobyl Affairs Committee

at the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus

at the International Conference “Chernobyl Forum”

Vienna, 10-11 March, 2004

Mr. Chairman!

Ladies and gentlemen!

At the moment, the radiological situation of the affected areas of Belarus is predetermined by the long-lived radionuclides: Cs-137, Sr-90, and transuranium elements: Pu-238, 239, 240, 241, and Am-241.

As of January 2001, 44,000 square kilometres or 21% of the total area of Belarus was contaminated by Cs-137 exceeding the level of 37 kBq/m2.

The contamination with Sr-90 is rather sporadic. 21,000 square kilometres of the Gomel and Mogilev Regions constituting 10% of the Belarusian territory have been contaminated by this particular radionuclide at the level exceeding 5.5 kBq/m2.

About 4,000 square kilometres or 2% of Belarus are contaminated with Plutonium isotopes at the level exceeding 0.37 kBq/m2.

At the moment, as a result of the natural decay of Pu-241, there is a growing share of specific activity of Am-241, which is radiologically more dangerous.

The preliminary assessment of the Cs-137 contamination profile indicates that, with the exception of the 30 km zone around the Chernobyl NPP and some localised spots, the natural decay will eventually lead to levels lower than 37 kBq/m2 in about 300 years after the disaster.

Soils are the main source intaking radionuclides into the food chain. Currently, 70-90% of Cs-137, 40-60% of Sr-90 and up to 95% of transuranium elements still linger in the upper root-inhabited layer.

The share of mobile absorbable forms of Caesium in soils constitutes 10-15%, Strontium – 50-70%, Plutonium and Americium – 10-13%.

This implies a very real danger of radioactive contamination particularly through Sr-90 for crops, as well as forage grass, medicinal and wild plants.

Radioactive contamination of soils generates great agricultural problems for food production.

As of now, about 2,800 residential areas of Belarus are still located on the territories where the density of Cs-137 contamination exceeds 37 kBq/m2. More than 1.5 million people still live there.

The distribution profile of residential areas and their inhabitants over the officially legitimised zones of radioactive contamination indicates that for some people the average annual effective radiation dose might exceed 1 mSv. At the same time, we should not forget that even the relatively safe areas characterised by an average dose lower than 1 mSv, have got specific (critical) groups of people whose radiation dose could be much more than 1 mSv.

As a rule, these are families with many underage children, and senior citizens whose diet is primarily made up of the yield of their kitchen gardens and forest food.

The contribution of forest ecosystems into the radiation doses of people, environmental situation and other relevant social or economic aspects remains to be one of the most challenging problem of the Chernobyl tragedy.

This is caused first of all by the vastness of contaminated forest ecosystems. Over 20% of Belarusian forests have levels of contamination higher than 37 kBq/m2.

Secondly, at the early stage of the disaster, it was impossible to correctly assess the contributing role of forests due to the lack of information about behavioural patterns of radionuclides in forest ecosystems. The subsequent research showed much lower efficiency of countermeasures in those systems compared to agricultural complex. This fact, along with the traditionally important role of forest food in the diet of Belarusians, put forest ecosystems among the main contributors to the public radiation dose.

The relative contribution of different foodstuffs to the internal exposure of inhabitants of forested areas: mushrooms – 62%, milk – 30%, potatoes – 3.2%, dairy products – 1.7%, wild berries – 1.4%, game – 1%, fish – 0.7%.

The post-Chernobyl forestry-related problems are not becoming less alarming with years:

the total area of radioactive contamination hardly shrinks at all: on the average, the soil contamination reduces at the rate of 2% a year, while the intensity of gamma radiation drops by 2-5%;
the Cs-137 contamination of wood has stabilised;
the radioactive contamination of wild plants and foodstuffs of the forest remains to be high, which invariably contributes to the internal irradiation of local workers and residents;
nearly 40% of collected mushrooms and berries are condemned as unfit for food.

However, recent forest practices proved that, regardless of the levels of contamination, it is wrong to suspend all forestry activities. That is why a special form of forestry based on the priorities of radiation safety for local workers and residents was developed for the territories contaminated by radionuclides. In order to ensure the required safety level, the maintenance personnel needs specialised technological and sanitary equipment, and personal protection outfits.

Special protective measures requiring considerable financial input are being carried out in order to reduce radiation doses acquired by forestry personnel and local population through consumption of contaminated products or living in high-radiation areas.

Annually the government allocates $50-60 thousand to cover additional forestry costs related to radiation safety measures, which hardly covers a half of what is really needed.

It is worth mentioning that sometimes the forestry countermeasures aimed at reduction of Cs-137 in the end-product are infeasible due to either technical or economic reasons.

At the moment, Belarus conducts various types of agricultural activities on 1.2 million hectares lands contaminated by Cs-137 at the level exceeding 37 kBq/m2. The real challenge, however, is to cultivate lands where Cs-137 contamination density ranging from 185 to 1,480 kBq/m2 (336,900 hectares) is aggravated by simultaneous Sr-90 contamination of 11-111 kBq/m2 (189,000 hectares). There is little likelihood that in the foreseeable future agricultural soils will self-decontaminate through the vertical migration process. Over the past seventeen years since the disaster, only 4% of the total Cs-137 fall-out and 11% of Sr-90 have migrated to the plough-pan, meaning that the major portion of radionuclides remained in the root-inhabited layer. That is why radiation doses still mainly depend on the agricultural protective measures.

The main efficiency criterion for protective measures is the reduction of radionuclides transferred from soils to the food chain, which should eventually result in products with radionuclide content within or considerably below the permission level. Over the post-Chernobyl period, the implemented protective activities have secured a ten-twelvefold reduction of Cs-137 content in agricultural produce. The currently used decontamination measures have showed real quality.

Over the past five years, the production of milk with exceeding content of Cs-137 has decreased in the public sector by 5.5 times, in the private sector – by 1.7 times, cattle rejections by meat factories are now two times rarer than they used to be. The public sector, however, still produces much of forage crop with exceeding content of Cs-137. Forage crops tend to be contaminated on the soil with Cs-137 density exceeding 555 kBq/m2. Forage grass growing on infertile, inundated, or peaty soils can be contaminated even with lower Cs-137 density.

The greatest portion of contaminated milk though is produced and consumed by private farms. In 2003, the identified number of disadvantaged villages producing milk with exceeding content of radioactive Caesium in the Gomel Region equalled 145, in the Mogilev Region – 29, in the Brest Region – 36. Although the number of residential areas producing contaminated milk is gradually decreasing, Belarus still has a total of 212 such villages.

Belarus continues to carry out required activities in order to secure the production of clean foodstuffs, industrial materials, and other agricultural produce. The activities include: providing contaminated farms with fertilisers and herbicides, lime pre-treatment of soils, radiological examination of farmlands, radiological control of agricultural produce, creation of cultural pastures for private cattle, introduction of nitrogenous fertilisers into the communal pastures, electric fences to upgrade pasturage technologies, reorientation programmes for farms and enterprises of the Gomel and Mogilev Regions, new dosimetry equipment for continuous monitoring over cattle. In 2003, the above activities received financing in the amount of $30 million.The comprehensive radiological, social and economic rehabilitation of the affected territories is the greatest challenge for the mitigation of consequences of the Chernobyl NPP accident. The ultimate goal of rehabilitation – real economic revival and sustainable development – is achievable only through new and improved national approaches and international assistance.

The problems faced by the Chernobyl-affected areas are very complicated and persistent, but life goes on, and the problem of comprehensive radiological, social and economic rehabilitation at this stage of mitigation of consequences of the disaster is becoming ever so important. The main goal of rehabilitation – real economic revival and sustainable development – is achievable through new approaches and scientific solutions. The task is not only to cultivate “clean” products in contaminated areas, but also secure a competitive and profitable production infrastructure. Farms and affected districts need to come out of the red, enhance their productions, and develop in a sustainable way. To that end, all the innovations and reorientation programmes must rely on a serious scientific research on rehabilitation and adaptation mechanisms in order to re-establish normal social and living conditions for the residents of affected areas and relocated population. Moreover, the current critical economic situation calls for the most optimum methods that can facilitate the achievement of the set goals. I am talking about the maximum use of local resources and rational investments to address priority problems – the ones that affect public health for instance.

What is the main idea of the rehabilitation approaches suggested by Belarusian experts? We believe that the radiological rehabilitation of agriculture (which had been affected the most by the Chernobyl NPP accident, and which at the time was in general recession) is closely interconnected with all the aspects of rehabilitation including the economic dimension. Rehabilitation of affected areas should not be restricted to sporadic activities in some villages and their population. A more integrated approach is needed here, which would take into account the natural resource capacity of territories, their physical, geographical, edaphic, ecological and radiological properties in context of the whole agroindustrial complex. Such territorially individual approach requires a continuous general assessment of the economic and radiological situation for each district along with the scientifically based prognosis of any future changes. These characteristics determine the strategy of rehabilitation activities for each individual district, where success criteria are represented by economic indicators of each specific farm (e.g. profit per 1 hectare of a ploughland, cost-effectiveness of various types of products, and the integrated rate of return), as well as relevant radiological characteristics (aggregate annual individual and collective doses, radionuclide content in agricultural produce). On the other hand, the extent of rehabilitation activities is specified for each residential area individually depending on the level of radioactive contamination of the territory and agricultural produce, and the severity of annual radiation doses received by the local population. Thus, we can customise the needed countermeasures for each village individually, and carry out their targeted financing.

Technologically the development of a rehabilitation plan for an affected area involves: examination of the human and social living conditions at the three levels (village – farm – region); GIS-based development of specialised data bases; development of targeted packages of interrelated intervention measures and their prioritisation with the assistance of experts and optimisation procedures according to the criteria of feasibility and cost-efficiency; integrated simulation modelling of possible industrial and social development of a district; optimisation of tactical implementation methods for countermeasures complementary to the modelling process.

The ongoing reformation of the village is accompanied by the activities aimed at minimisation of radionuclide transfer beyond the boundaries of affected areas, and reduction of human radiation doses caused by the production and consumption of contaminated foodstuffs. The problem of clean agricultural production still remains the top priority among other radiological safety tasks. In this respect we have made good progress. The problems of radiological quality of milk, forage and grain, however, continue to bother mainly the farms with highly contaminated fields, or the territories characterised by unusually rapid transfer of radionuclides along the food chain. It is there where Chernobyl problems come treading on each other’s heels – deficit of human resources, poor equipment, and, as a result, low economic indicators. The best results can be achieved here through professional reorientation of local farms to radiologically clean productions, co-operative farming, and in-house processing of cultivated agricultural produce. Those farms that experience problems with milk quality are recommended switching to meat-cattle breeding or pig farming that are less demanding in terms of radionuclide content in forage or human resources, which is very important for villages abandoned by the great portion of their labour force. The farms having problems with contaminated forage are advised cultivating maize because it tends to absorb less radioactive Caesium. The places, where it is impossible to produce clean grain for food, can instead practice seed farming for potato, grain, permanent grasses. Professional reorientation has a great cost-efficiency capacity as well.

In 2004, reorientation programmes received financing in the amount of nearly $4.5 million.

The efficiency of rehabilitation programmes largely depends on the public perception of the ongoing activities. That is why we set great store by raising awareness of ordinary people and decision-makers about the Chernobyl problems. We arrange various seminars and disseminate information materials either in printed or electronic forms.

We hope that the new International Chernobyl Research Information Network (ICRIN) will disseminate true and objective information about the disaster.

While implementing national rehabilitation programmes, we welcome any assistance of international organisations. We highly appreciate the progress accomplished within the technical co-operation with the IAEA.

A lot has been achieved through attraction of financial and intellectual resources of the IAEA used to address the problems of public radiological safety and the efficiency of “clean” productions in contaminated areas.

Over the past few years, the IAEA has helped to create a veterinary lab and a radiological laboratory whose technical capacity makes it possible to identify Sr-90 in milk and dairy products.

An important contribution was the establishment of a rapeseed oil production premised on the enterprise “Pripyat” of the Mozyr District.

The special enterprise “Polessye” has adopted a complex of modern decontamination technologies based on the IAEA-provided equipment which ensures greater working efficiency and personal safety.

The flour mill construction in the town of Khoyniki is drawing to an end. Its main purpose is to stimulate optimisation of protective measures used for grain production.

An agreement has been reached with the IAEA about its facilitative contribution to the application of modern wood-processing technologies on the territories adjacent to the Radiological Reserve in order to use the reserve’s resources.

It is likely that the currently developed project of reconstruction of a distillery in Strelichevo Village of the Khoyniki District will be supported in order to make it fit for production of high-quality spirits. This initiative shall maximise the efficiency of the Sr-90-contaminated raw materials used in the district, and minimise the losses caused by the different prices for forage and food grain.

As you well see, Belarus has developed and currently practices new approaches to the integrated rehabilitation of contaminated territories. But we are still at the very beginning of a thorny path that can be successfully trodden only in the single collaborative effort of the world community.