Greenpeace Says Effects Of Chornobyl Grossly Underestimated

Greenpeace Says Effects Of Chornobyl Grossly Underestimated

PRAGUE, April 18, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Greenpeace says tens of thousands of people are likely to die from cancers caused by radiation from the Chornobyl explosion 20 years ago.

A UN report predicts some 4,000 additional cancer deaths because of Chornobyl. But in a new report, the international environmental watchdog says the health effects of the explosion may have been grossly underestimated.

Thomas Breuer, a nuclear expert with the international environmental group, said on April 18 that "the newest study, published this year by the Russian Academy of Sciences, arrives at a figure of 93,000 potential fatal victims as a result of the Chornobyl reactor disaster."

Greenpeace says many of the deaths could be caused by thyroid cancer, with most of the fatalities in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, the worst-affected countries.

Greenpeace says its report is based in part on research previously unpublished in the West. It emphasizes that it is impossible to know the final health impact of Chornobyl without further research.

The explosion at a reactor at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine on April 26, 1986 was the world's worst civilian nuclear accident. The UN says 56 deaths so far can be directly connected to Chornobyl.

Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Greenpeace Says Effects Of Chornobyl Grossly Underestimated