"You don't need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows"
- Bob Dylan
Subterranean
Homesick Blues
1965
This week I decided to translate an
important report about a statement made by Michèle
Rivasi, member of the European Parliament, representing South
East France for Europe Écologie. In 1986, following the Chernobyl
disaster, she founded the Commission
for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity (CRIIRAD). On July 25th,
2013 her website at the European Parliament published her comments on the
reaction of the French government toward new
research on the effect of Chernobyl fallout on Corsica. Ever since the disaster in 1986, the French government has denied that winds blew dangerous levels of fallout over parts of France, in particular Corsica.
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Chernobyl: in the French nuclear paradise, Marisol Touraine
and the government remain in their radioactive cloud
Version originale: Tchernobyl: au paradis du nucléaire français, Marisol Touraine et le gouvernement restent
sur leur nuage radioactif
At
the meeting of the [French] National Assembly, the Minister of Health, Marisol
Touraine, judged a recent Italian study on Chernobyl fallout as inconclusive. The
study found that in Corsica, since the passage of radioactive fallout from
Chernobyl in 1986, there has been a steep increase in thyroid disease,
including cancer. The next day, The Institute for Radiological Protection and
Nuclear Security (IRSN) followed suit by judging that the assumptions and
methodology of the study appeared to be approximate and badly described.
Thus
the denial continues 27 years after the Chernobyl catastrophe, a situation
judged to be irresponsible by the European deputy Michele Rivasi, founder of
CRIIRAD (Commission de recherche et
d’information indépendante sur la radioactivité) who has, since its
inception, supported this study based on 14,000 archived medical files, in particular 5,000
of which concern patients who were consulted before and after the
accident at the Ukrainian power plant on April 26, 1986.
[Comments by Michèle Rivasi:]
What
stuns me is the speed and ease with which the IRSN had rejected the study
conducted by such a credible and competent scientific team supported by European
initiative. The data used are sufficient and credible. The real problem is that
the IRSN has always refused to recognize the danger of exposure to low doses of
radiation, insisting stubbornly – as it has just done – that this study
does not conform with the existing knowledge on the effects of exposure to
ionizing radiation. To recognize the dangers of low doses would be to cast
doubt on the standards of radioprotection, and doing so would also definitively
condemn nuclear energy for health
reasons.
Actually,
at the European Parliament, we are debating the future direction of
radioprotection. I am involved in this unprecedented opportunity to review the
norms in order to improve them. I tell you frankly, from a cynical point of
view, we keep the present norms in order to avoid liability for damages in case
of a nuclear accident. This is the only way to avoid a complete economic
collapse following a major nuclear catastrophe. Such an attitude illustrates
that an accident is expected, something which is unacceptable for everyone.
This
analysis of the IRSN contradicts the official studies of the [French] Institut national de veille sanitaire
(Institute for Health Surveillance) (INVS), which show that the incidence of
thyroid cancers in Corsica is among the highest in France, and Corsica was the
region most affected by radioactive fallout from Chernobyl.
The
Chernobyl syndrome seems to touch successive governments, entangled in a
nuclear dependence which they do not know how to escape. With this study,
the Left [the present Socialist Party government] finally had an opportunity to
recognize the grave lies of the 5th Republic, so I am extremely
disappointed that this was not done.
For
many years the victims of Chernobyl have waited for official recognition of the
ailments that affect them. I can only be outraged by the irresponsibility that
arose from the preference to protect the interests of the nuclear industry. In
the end, the initial lie requires its repetition in order to avoid damage to
the credibility of the state on questions of nuclear safety. The only way to
get out of such a vicious circle is to get out of nuclear energy.
__________
The article above is
an English translation of an essay
by Michèle Rivasi, member
of the European Parliament
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