published by WISE News Communique on April 5, 1991

Worldwide Contamination


Environmental monitoring since Chernobyl

Among those outside the Soviet Union hardest hit by the Chernobyl catastrophe were the Sami reindeer herders and landowners living in northern Scandinavia and Finland (as well as in the USSR itself). When the Sami, who depend on the reindeer for their livelihood (indeed, their whole culture is dependent upon these animals), brought reindeer in for slaughter the summer following the Chernobyl explosions, carcasses were registering such high values of radiation that the slaughterhouses were immediately closed. By the following October, radiation levels actually rose. Lichens, which provide food for the reindeer, have no roots and obtain all their nutrients from the air. Nor can they pass substances down into the soil. It will take nine years for lichens to shed half the load of cesium-2137 they received from the Chernobyl fallout. If the reindeer keep eating the lichen, their radioactive cesium levels should match those in the lichen - provided they don't accumulate the stuff in the meantime, which would raise their levels even higher. Thus the reindeer, like the lichen, would take nine years to shed half their load of radioactive cesium. A reindeer with 8000 becquerels per kilogram in the winter of 1986 would still have 1000 becquerels 36 years later. Time enough to totally destroy the Sami way of life.

The people of Poland, who (like the Sami and many others of those hardest hit by the catastrophe) have no atomic power stations of their own, nevertheless suffered heavily from the 1986 Chernobyl accident. Even now, depressing news reports such as one titled "RADIOACTIVE MUSHROOMS KILL SEVEN CHILDREN IN WARSAW" (The Daily Yomiuri, 22 Oct. 1990) periodically surface.

In the UK, heavy thunderstorms on 2 May 1986 were virtually the first to disturb the main cloud of radioactive contamination from Chernobyl after its six-day 4000 kilometer journey across Western Europe. Radioactive cesium rained down, contaminating farmland, particularly in upland areas such as Cumbria and South-west Scotland. Five years later, 63 farms in Scotland with about 116,000 sheep are still subject to government restrictions on the movement and slaughter of sheep. Even more disturbing is that deer with readings of up to 426 Bq/kg have been found in the Scottish Borders. Not only that, but the levels are continuing to increase, with no clear indication as to why. North Wales, too was hard-hit. Three years after the accident there were still 416 holdings with some 300,000 sheep subject to restrictions because of the cesium levels in grass. And even with the restrictions, a survey carried out by Friends of the Earth's Radiation Monitoring Unit suggested that contaminated lamb was reaching the market anyway.

Contours of radioactive caesium

In what was then West Germany, a study carried out by the Justus Liebig University in Glessen in 1988 showed a link between an increase in abnormal births among goats in the years 1985-1987. Researchers at the Environmental Institute of Munich (Umweltinstitut München) took a survey of the FRG four years after the accident and found that overall cesium contamination was 10-30 times higher than before Chernobyl. They also found contamination in people in the southern part of the country to be on a higher level (factor 1.7 to 2) than in northern Germany.

Even France was not spared, though to hear French authorities talk at time, they would have had you believe that the radioactive plume stopped at their border. "French territory, because of the remoteness, has remained totally free of deposition of radionuclides in consequence of the accident of the nuclear power plant of Chernobyl," declared the French Ministry of Agriculture on 6 May 1986. But recently, the CRII-Rad (Commission de Recherche d'Information Independente sur la Radioactivite), an independent monitoring group, discovered cesium contamination while measuring for plutonium emissions into the Rhone River from the Creys-Malville facility, also discovered cesium contamination there. Using their findings and weather reports from the time of the accident, the group was able to construct a map allowing them to trace schematically the parts of France most susceptible to contamination from Chernobyl. A more detailed map, elaborated from soil analyses is being prepared.

Monitoring groups


CRII-Rad, like many other independent monitoring groups, was founded in 1986 - after it became clear just how unwilling French authorities were to give information on ionizing radiation following the Chernobyl disaster. In the case of France, vital information about the accident was given out three months afterwards, long after measures to reduce the amount of radionuclides entering the food chain should have been taken.

Originally the two main goals of CRII-Rad were to carry out research on ionizing radiation and its impact on vegetation, soil, water, etc. (this includes using a laboratory for analysis), and making the results of its research accessible. Other activities include organizing courses and conferences and the publication of a bi-monthly magazine, "Le Cri du Rad". Contact address: CRII-Rad, BP 313, 26207 Montelimar, Cedex, France.

Other groups involved in environ-mental monitoring include:

Sources:

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