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USSR CHERNOBYL
1321
Round the World From
our
Correspondents
USSR CHERNOBYL
AT 1.23am on April 26 a major nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl power station in the Ukraine. At first few details were made public but by April 30 most of Europe was on the alert and extensive health precautions had been instituted in several countries. International offers of assistance were declined by the Soviets who maintained that they were capable of coping with the situation. However, on May 1 the Soviet government requested the immediate assistance of Dr Robert P. Gale, an expert on bone marrow transplantation and chairman of the advisory committee of the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry. Bone marrow failure is a major cause of death after accidental exposure to radiation, and this failure can sometimes be corrected by transplantation of bone marrow cells from a healthy donor. This approach is used to treat haematological disorders such as aplastic anaemia and leukaemia, and about 3500 bone marrow transplants are done each year worldwide. Gale arrived in Moscow on May 2 but did not reveal his activities until May 15 in a Moscow press conference. He indicated that 299 individuals had been exposed to substantial doses of radiation and all had been transferred to a special facility in Moscow. 35 people were very severely affected and 19 of them had been given transplants. At that time 26 of the 35 were still alive. By the end of that week 13 deaths associated with the accident had been recorded, 2 from injuries at the reactor site and 11 in Moscow. Gale indicated that there would probably be more deaths, and the latest total is 25, including at least 11who had received bone marrow transplants. 89 of those admitted to hospital have now been discharged. The medical management of acutely exposed individuals was complicated by several factors, including difficulties in accurately estimating radiation dose, non-homogeneous radiation, the effects of internal as well as external radiation, and damage to other tissues (eg, skin, gut, and liver). Gale indicated that in some instances people had inhaled and ingested radionuclides, resulting in extensive injury to lungs, liver, and colon. Radioactivity detected in these organs was up to 30-fold above cosmic levels even 2 weeks after exposure (150
mrem/h). back to Moscow on May 25. He is trying to negotiate an international agreement for the careful long-term follow-up of these individuals. A US team is prepared to remain in the Soviet Union for as long as needed. Apparently, Gale and the Soviets have agreed to a long-term collective effort with publication of all details. It was encouraging to note how promptly and willingly the international medical community is able to respond to an international call for help. Scientists, physicians, and institutions from fifteen nations helped Gale in his interactions with the Soviets. As Gale indicated at his press conference, "a nuclear reactor accident is not a national but an international concern. Science knows no international boundaries. I and my colleagues are willing to go anywhere and do anything which may result in the saving of even a single life". Gale and Dr Armand Hammer, a Los Angeles industrialist who arranged Gale’s visit, met with the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, and US Secretary of State, George Shultz. Gale said: "I hope that the nuclear reactor accident at Chernobyl, however tragic, may serve as to indicate our limited capacity to respond to thermonuclear war. Perhaps this will move us closer Gale
’
went
peace". May 29, during the IPPNW meeting Academician Evgueni Chazov and Academician
to
in Cologne, Leonid Ilyin gave further details of the medical aftermath of the Chernobyl
ON
disaster.
Of 299 people with radiation injuries and burns 129 had been flown from the Ukraine to Professor Guskova’s clinic in Moscow on the morning of the accident, and the other 170 were evacuated on April 27. Care for these patients has proved demanding-for example, five blood centres in Moscow provided red blood cells and platelets to meet transfusion requirements and the staff :patient ratio is 3:1. In deciding which among the plant workers, engineers, and firemen at Chernobyl most urgently needed medical attention, the physicians used as criteria the timing of vomiting, body temperature, gastrointestinal symptoms, and the condition of the skin. The evacuation of the population living within 30 km of the stricken reactor began 36 hours after the incident, in part as a result of "local authorities underestimating somewhat the dangers of radioactivity". The evacuation itself, in 1100 buses, took only 3 hours to complete. 5000 physicians and nurses were sent to do medical checks on the 100 000 evacuees and no case of radiation sickness or other radiation effects was found. 18% of ’evacuees were examined in clinics or hospitals. All will be monitored in a study of possible long-term consequences of the accident. Meanwhile the sealing-off of the reactor at Chernobyl continues. Radioactivity, though detected in northern Europe and elsewhere at the end of April, had fallen at Chernobyl itself to half its peak by the morning of April 26. The radiation affecting those fighting the fire was predominantly gamma with some beta but no neutrons. Those now working at the site are not being exposed to more than 25 tern (an acceptable level in an emergency in the Soviet Union). The city of Kiev, 138 km away, was never in danger, though there was an increase in gamma radiation there for two days, up to 8 rem/h.
United States NUCLEAR POWER’S FUTURE OVER the years, opinion polls have revealed a kind of dull public acceptance of the nation’s nuclear reactor programme. The scare over the partial meltdown of a reactor at Three Mile Island in 1979 undermined some of this support; but the mood remained more one of uncertainty than outright opposition. Since the accident at the Chernobyl plant in the Ukraine, this uncertainty has given way to opposition. A CBS News poll showed 55% believed that a similar accident is likely in the United States and in an ABC News poll 68% opposed the construction of more nuclear plants in the United States.
That is unwelcome
news
for the utilities and their allies in
Washington (from President Reagan down) who are unabashed proponents of nuclear power. With ninety-eight reactors already in operation, the US leads the world in completed civil reactors
and
twenty-six
more
are
in
various
stages
of
completion, some in large metropolitan areas such as Philadelphia, Cleveland, Phoenix, and New York. Emergency plans to evacuate the large numbers of people living near these plants, in the event of an accident, have not convinced people. Before Chernobyl the proposal was to move populations within a 16 km radius. The Soviets evacuated residents from within 30 km of Chernobyl-a precedent that could alter American practice. Some existing plants are also the subject of fears from environmental groups. The twin Indian Point reactors at Buchanan, north of New York City are within 80 km of 1’7 million people. According to Ellen Weiss, counsel for the Union of Concerned Scientists, an organisation often critical of nuclear power, the government would never have allowed the Indian Point reactors to be built where they are if current safety standards had been in operation. The same, she said, is true of the Shoreham plant on Long Island, the Zion plant at Chicago, and Limerick plant at Philadelphia. For years now, the utilities have been countering this criticism with a public relations effort to demonstrate that nuclear power is safe. Here they have enjoyed the support of nuclear scientists who banded together as Scientists and Engineers for Secure Energy (SE2). Members include Hans A.
Round the World From
our
Correspondents
USSR CHERNOBYL
AT 1.23am on April 26 a major nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl power station in the Ukraine. At first few details were made public but by April 30 most of Europe was on the alert and extensive health precautions had been instituted in several countries. International offers of assistance were declined by the Soviets who maintained that they were capable of coping with the situation. However, on May 1 the Soviet government requested the immediate assistance of Dr Robert P. Gale, an expert on bone marrow transplantation and chairman of the advisory committee of the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry. Bone marrow failure is a major cause of death after accidental exposure to radiation, and this failure can sometimes be corrected by transplantation of bone marrow cells from a healthy donor. This approach is used to treat haematological disorders such as aplastic anaemia and leukaemia, and about 3500 bone marrow transplants are done each year worldwide. Gale arrived in Moscow on May 2 but did not reveal his activities until May 15 in a Moscow press conference. He indicated that 299 individuals had been exposed to substantial doses of radiation and all had been transferred to a special facility in Moscow. 35 people were very severely affected and 19 of them had been given transplants. At that time 26 of the 35 were still alive. By the end of that week 13 deaths associated with the accident had been recorded, 2 from injuries at the reactor site and 11 in Moscow. Gale indicated that there would probably be more deaths, and the latest total is 25, including at least 11who had received bone marrow transplants. 89 of those admitted to hospital have now been discharged. The medical management of acutely exposed individuals was complicated by several factors, including difficulties in accurately estimating radiation dose, non-homogeneous radiation, the effects of internal as well as external radiation, and damage to other tissues (eg, skin, gut, and liver). Gale indicated that in some instances people had inhaled and ingested radionuclides, resulting in extensive injury to lungs, liver, and colon. Radioactivity detected in these organs was up to 30-fold above cosmic levels even 2 weeks after exposure (150
mrem/h). back to Moscow on May 25. He is trying to negotiate an international agreement for the careful long-term follow-up of these individuals. A US team is prepared to remain in the Soviet Union for as long as needed. Apparently, Gale and the Soviets have agreed to a long-term collective effort with publication of all details. It was encouraging to note how promptly and willingly the international medical community is able to respond to an international call for help. Scientists, physicians, and institutions from fifteen nations helped Gale in his interactions with the Soviets. As Gale indicated at his press conference, "a nuclear reactor accident is not a national but an international concern. Science knows no international boundaries. I and my colleagues are willing to go anywhere and do anything which may result in the saving of even a single life". Gale and Dr Armand Hammer, a Los Angeles industrialist who arranged Gale’s visit, met with the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, and US Secretary of State, George Shultz. Gale said: "I hope that the nuclear reactor accident at Chernobyl, however tragic, may serve as to indicate our limited capacity to respond to thermonuclear war. Perhaps this will move us closer Gale
’
went
peace". May 29, during the IPPNW meeting Academician Evgueni Chazov and Academician
to
in Cologne, Leonid Ilyin gave further details of the medical aftermath of the Chernobyl
ON
disaster.
Of 299 people with radiation injuries and burns 129 had been flown from the Ukraine to Professor Guskova’s clinic in Moscow on the morning of the accident, and the other 170 were evacuated on April 27. Care for these patients has proved demanding-for example, five blood centres in Moscow provided red blood cells and platelets to meet transfusion requirements and the staff :patient ratio is 3:1. In deciding which among the plant workers, engineers, and firemen at Chernobyl most urgently needed medical attention, the physicians used as criteria the timing of vomiting, body temperature, gastrointestinal symptoms, and the condition of the skin. The evacuation of the population living within 30 km of the stricken reactor began 36 hours after the incident, in part as a result of "local authorities underestimating somewhat the dangers of radioactivity". The evacuation itself, in 1100 buses, took only 3 hours to complete. 5000 physicians and nurses were sent to do medical checks on the 100 000 evacuees and no case of radiation sickness or other radiation effects was found. 18% of ’evacuees were examined in clinics or hospitals. All will be monitored in a study of possible long-term consequences of the accident. Meanwhile the sealing-off of the reactor at Chernobyl continues. Radioactivity, though detected in northern Europe and elsewhere at the end of April, had fallen at Chernobyl itself to half its peak by the morning of April 26. The radiation affecting those fighting the fire was predominantly gamma with some beta but no neutrons. Those now working at the site are not being exposed to more than 25 tern (an acceptable level in an emergency in the Soviet Union). The city of Kiev, 138 km away, was never in danger, though there was an increase in gamma radiation there for two days, up to 8 rem/h.
United States NUCLEAR POWER’S FUTURE OVER the years, opinion polls have revealed a kind of dull public acceptance of the nation’s nuclear reactor programme. The scare over the partial meltdown of a reactor at Three Mile Island in 1979 undermined some of this support; but the mood remained more one of uncertainty than outright opposition. Since the accident at the Chernobyl plant in the Ukraine, this uncertainty has given way to opposition. A CBS News poll showed 55% believed that a similar accident is likely in the United States and in an ABC News poll 68% opposed the construction of more nuclear plants in the United States.
That is unwelcome
news
for the utilities and their allies in
Washington (from President Reagan down) who are unabashed proponents of nuclear power. With ninety-eight reactors already in operation, the US leads the world in completed civil reactors
and
twenty-six
more
are
in
various
stages
of
completion, some in large metropolitan areas such as Philadelphia, Cleveland, Phoenix, and New York. Emergency plans to evacuate the large numbers of people living near these plants, in the event of an accident, have not convinced people. Before Chernobyl the proposal was to move populations within a 16 km radius. The Soviets evacuated residents from within 30 km of Chernobyl-a precedent that could alter American practice. Some existing plants are also the subject of fears from environmental groups. The twin Indian Point reactors at Buchanan, north of New York City are within 80 km of 1’7 million people. According to Ellen Weiss, counsel for the Union of Concerned Scientists, an organisation often critical of nuclear power, the government would never have allowed the Indian Point reactors to be built where they are if current safety standards had been in operation. The same, she said, is true of the Shoreham plant on Long Island, the Zion plant at Chicago, and Limerick plant at Philadelphia. For years now, the utilities have been countering this criticism with a public relations effort to demonstrate that nuclear power is safe. Here they have enjoyed the support of nuclear scientists who banded together as Scientists and Engineers for Secure Energy (SE2). Members include Hans A.