M. Karpan: Nuclear energy is sick of Chernobyl

Nuclear energy is sick of Chernobyl.

Karpan Mykola. Physicist. Member of the Board of the State Committee of Ukraine on nuclear regulation..Tel. +38 (039) 493-7342 E-mail: n.karpan@gmail.com
Physicist, a specialist in the field of atomic energy. In 1986 he worked as a deputy chief engineer of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on Science and Nuclear Safety. April 26, 1986 was at the station from 8 am to 24 pm, providing activities for the localization of the accident. Author of "Chernobyl. Revenge of the peaceful atom" (2005), which is called the most honest book on the Chernobyl disaster by power engineering specialists and journalists.

Thesis of report.
Today, many countries claim new stage of nuclear energy development, which seems to them as a successful alternative to the thermal power stations against taking into account diminishing of the world's reserves of oil and gas. In 2006, the President of the United States announced a programme of construction of a new generation of nuclear power plants called "global partnership on nuclear energy". USA plans to build this plant together with Russia, France and Japan. Similar plans were developed by Ukraine too. At the same time, there is no clear answer to the question - whether the society believes in the safety of modern nuclear reactors and cleanness of the nuclear power? Incidents that happened at nuclear power plants during last years (i.e. - in the United States and Ukraine) state that there is no absolutely safe nuclear reactors.
The second dangerous problem is the accumulation of spent fuel and radioactive waste. At the moment none country in the world has started dumping these dangerous things in the "eternal" repositories. Because such repositories still do not exist. Everywhere they use temporary repositories that are not so safe as they're told of. Lack of really safe projects of reactors and deferred decisions of spent fuel and radioactive waste safe disposal – both this facts disturb the society and reduce the credibility of the IAEA.
So far Chernobyl problems are still not solved. Not even one Chernobyl international projects was finished until the very end.
Today many companies from USA and European countries participate in Chernobyl work, it was spent more than 500 million dollars, but they failed to minimize the danger of the sarcophagus and 10 million tons of radioactive waste in the zone of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. What is more dangerous, today there exists two thousand tons of irradiated nuclear fuel, with an activity of 1 billion curies. For them FRAMATOM built a dry storage, not suitable for exploitation, in 2005. Results of all this work by 21st anniversary of Chernobyl is unsuccessful and cautious. In a year or two of same effectiveness in the international Chernobyl projects, and the world atomic energy definitely will lose the trust of people.
I do not think that someone will be able to submit Chernobyl as an ordinary event. Its scope is enormous, it holds all the unresolved nuclear issues. It can not be neither forgotten, nor distracted from. With the power of its radioactive release Chernobyl showed that Earth is too small for hazards, which are brought by modern technology in many fields, especially in energy.
Today, it is understood by many, and it brings people together. Europe has already joined its efforts to overcome the consequences of Chernobyl. What remains is to make these efforts effective, and not only to clear the Chernobyl zone, but also the entire planet from spent fuel from peaceful nuclear power plants and radioactive waste with military background lying on its surface.