LONDON, England -- THE charity flights arrive at London's Gatwick Airport twice a week. On board are sick, disadvantaged or dying children from areas affected by the Chernobyl disaster.
More than two decades after the world's worst nuclear accident, thousands of youngsters are still being brought to the UK each year.Born up to 15 years after the event, they spend a month recuperating with volunteer families from the Chernobyl Children Life Line.Experts argue in landmark studies that, apart from the small contaminated zone around ground zero, the region today is safe.But for charity founder Victor Mizzi, who personally greets almost every flight, there is no question that Chernobyl is an ongoing tragedy."The situation is just as bad now with cancer and leukemia as it was in 1986," claims Mizzi, who has brought more than 46,000 children from affected areas to Britain.The mass of support for Mizzi's charity, and others like it, says much about public perception of Chernobyl.All these years later the memory of the disaster has not dimmed, not even now as the world turns back to nuclear energy as part of efforts to tackle climate change.It was 23 years ago that an explosion ripped through reactor No.4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, when it was a member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.Operators had allowed power levels to drop as part of a safety experiment, disabling key mechanisms that would have shut the plant down if anything went wrong.The reactor became unstable and exploded, blowing the roof off the building.In other countries, a reinforced concrete shell around the reactor would have contained the blast.But in Chernobyl there was no such shell – just one of numerous design flaws identified in the aftermath of the incident.A toxic cloud spread across Europe, but deposited mostly in neighbouring Belarus, Ukraine and what is now the Russian Federation.The first the rest of the world knew about the danger was when radioactive fallout was detected in Sweden three days later.Soviet authorities refused to admit there had been an accident until Swedish diplomats warned that they were about to raise the alarm internationally.More than 340,000 people were evacuated from the surrounding area over the following years, never to return to their contaminated homes.Today, the area around Chernobyl remains a wasteland, with habitation banned in a 30km "zone of alienation".In the abandoned city of Prypiat, once bustling with a population of 50,000, decaying shells of buildings are all that is left.Purpose-built 2km from Chernobyl as a base for power-plant workers, the city was not evacuated until 36 hours after the explosion.Like a scene from an apocalyptic Hollywood movie, nature is now taking over in the city in the absence of human life.Birch trees randomly sprout up in cracks in the concrete. Wild boars roam the streets at night.Adventure-loving tourists are allowed brief visits to the city, and watch in fear as radiation meters crackle with activity.Photos from visitors show schoolbooks open mid-way on classroom desks. Clothes are in tatters on washing lines. Dolls and other toys lie on the ground, covered in dust.Given the magnitude of what occurred at Chernobyl, consensus might have been expected by now on the effects of the disaster.But division remains on how many people suffered, and whether there is a continuing danger to those living in contaminated areas today.To try to end the uncertainty, an international team of more than 100 scientists convened under the banner of the Chernobyl Forum in the lead-up to the explosion's 20th anniversary in 2006.The experts – from seven United Nations organisations, including the World Health Organisation – concluded that 4000 people could eventually die of radiation exposure relating to the Chernobyl accident.However, while catastrophic, the figure was much less than previously predicted and came in for heavy criticism.Greenpeace, for one, has estimated more than 90,000 people will die from cancer and that other illnesses will send the toll soaring into the hundreds of thousands.The Chernobyl Forum report found that as of mid-2005, only 50 deaths could be attributed to the accident.Most at risk were the 200,000 emergency and recovery workers and reactor staff heavily exposed to radiation on the first day, the report said.The report went on to play down the risk to the five million people currently living in contaminated areas of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.Numerous other studies provide a contrasting view, finding a dramatic increase in a range of cancers, birth defects and general ill-health.As the debate continues about the extent of the health impact on the region, nuclear energy suddenly finds itself gaining popularity again.New nuclear power plants are being planned across the world as governments search for ways to dramatically reduce carbon emissions and ensure energy security.Italy closed its last two nuclear power plants in 1986 as a direct result of Chernobyl.Now there are plans to construct at least four new plants to end the country's reliance on imported oil and gas, with the first to be operational by 2020.Sweden banned construction of new nuclear power plants after a 1979 meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in the United States.In February this year, it announced new plants would be built to replace the ageing set that currently provide half of the country's electricity.In Finland, contractors are working feverishly on the first new nuclear reactor ordered in Western Europe since Chernobyl, although it is several years behind schedule and billions over budget.In Britain, the Government this month released a list of 11 sites where new nuclear power stations could be built after a dramatic recent U-turn on opposition to the energy source.Australia's only nuclear reactor, at Lucas Heights, is used for research purposes rather than power generation.Opponents such as Greenpeace maintain that nuclear power plants, at $10 billion each, are expensive, and that there is no effective solution for dealing with the waste produced.The tide though, is most definitely going the other way, with one recent news report identifying proposals for 400 new plants across the world to add to the 440 currently operating."We recognise Chernobyl was a tragedy and it should never happen again," Tris Denton, from the UK's Nuclear Industry Association, told The Sunday Mail last week."The reassurances that we can give are that modern reactors have multilayered safety systems in place to prevent such events happening again. The technology is far more advanced."Australia is one of the world's major suppliers of uranium, alongside Canada, a key selling point of nuclear power as governments look to ensure energy supplies are not cut off.It's also a key argument from pro-nuclear groups for why it is only a matter of time before Australia goes down the nuclear path.Meanwhile, charity worker Mizzi's work goes on.Surprisingly, he is not among the nuclear energy opponents."What is the alternative? Global warming? There are very little alternatives at the moment," he said."Probably, if controlled properly, it shouldn't be a danger. In the ex-Soviet Union they were short of money and there weren't controls. It should be a warning."
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