LEST we forget Chernobyl, April 26 is designated by the United Nations (UN) as International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day.
Not many young people know much about the catastrophic nuclear disaster that occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the now-abandoned town of Pripyat, Ukraine, on April 25 and 26, 1986.
The incident involved a core meltdown (a malfunction in a nuclear reactor in which the fuel overheats and melts the reactor core or shielding) that released radioactivity to its surroundings: Ukraine, Belarus, the Russian Federation, parts of Scandinavia and Europe.
The World Health Organisation estimates nearly 4,000 more fatalities in the next 20 to 30 years and thousands more contracting thyroid and other types of
cancer as a result of contamination by radioactive material spewed into the air, water and soil.
What triggered the Chernobyl explosion was not immediately known as the then Soviet Union was isolated from the rest of the world and its nuclear programme was shrouded in secrecy.
Only years later, when the Soviet Union sought international assistance to deal with the aftermath of the tragedy, did the
UN establish that a combination of a deliberate experiment, outdated, badly-designed reactors and human error caused the disaster.
All that enabled other nuclear power facilities to build in sufficient safeguards, or so they thought, until the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan on March 11, 2011.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s continued rejection of building a nuclear power plant in Malaysia and focus
on energy conservation and environmentally-friendly renewable energy are in the right direction.
Even the United States is unable to plan for every contingency, including safe and speedy disposal of nuclear waste, and regulate the nuclear industry to ensure the safety of the public.
For decades, it has been clear that renewable energy is needed to replace nuclear and fossil fuel energy sources.
The solution is to disavow both of these forms of energy and to move to a global energy plan based on renewable energy, such as solar cells, wind, geothermal, ocean thermal, currents and tides.
RUEBEN DUDLEY
Petaling Jaya, Selangor