Ten years after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine on 26 April 1986, hundreds of scientists, activists and the Permanent People's Tribunal are demanding that the reactor be shut down immediately and an alternative energy strategy drawn up for eastern Europe based on renewable energy sources.

The Tribunal condemned the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) "for trying to promote nuclear energy through falsehood, intimidation and unethical use of money" and "for their attempts to suppress all forms of alternative renewable and sustainable sources of energy".

Official health information indicates that at least nine million people were directly affected by the explosion, but the IAEA claims that it caused the deaths of only 32 people.

Campaigners also oppose Belorussian plans to lower the maximum allowable limits for contamination of land and food and to promote resettlement and agricultural development of land north of Chernobyl. This land is so radioactive that scientists believe it should not be inhabited fir at least several centuries.

At a demonstration in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, held to demand that Chernobyl and other nuclear power plants in the republic be shut down, anti-nuclear protesters were attacked by the police; 19 of them were arrested and held for several days. Said Vladimir Sliviak of the Socio- Ecological Union, "The authorities tried to break our plans for 26 April Chernobyl 10-anniversary day, but they can't kill the worldwide the anti-nuke movement as they can't kill the memory of Chernobyl".

CONTACT:

"Ten lessons from Chernobyl ", conclusions of conference organized by "No More Chernobyl!", campaign. Heinrich-Boll-Stiftung, Bruckenstrasse 5-11, 50667 Koln, GERMANY. E-mail <press@lessons.kiev.na>;

Permanent People's Tribunal, session on "Chernobyl: Environmental Health and Human Rights Implications", Via Dogana Vecchia 5, 1-00100 Rome, ITALY. Fax: +39-6-68-7777-4; x-USSR

Antinuclear Campaign, SEU'CCI, P.O. Box 211, 121019 Moscow, RUSSIA. E-mail: <ecodefense@glas.apc.org>.

The building of new nuclear power plants in the West has ground to a halt in recent years (except in France), partly as a result of the Chernobyl accident. The nuclear industry is therefore attempting to export its technologies to Eastern Europe and to Asia, supported by loans from international banks and government credit agencies.

In 1978, the Czechoslovak government decided to build for Soviet reactors near the village of Mochovce. Construction started in 1984 but stopped in 1989. Slovakia has since tried to obtain Western finance and technology to finish the plant.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and several West European companies (Electricite de France; Bayernwerke AG, PreuSen Elektra) considered involvement on condition that the unsafe reactors were phased out and that the plant conformed to international nuclear standards. They decided not to participate because they did not believe these conditions would be met.

On 16 April 1996, contracts were signed between the Slovak government and EUCOM, a consortium comprising the French company, Framatome, and the German company, Siemens, to install safety equipment on the Soviet reactors but not to US or European Union standards.

Director of Siemens, Heinrich von Pierer, has said that Mochovce is the "reference project" for 60 similar reactors in Eastern Europe. Siemens and its subsidiaries were involved in building most of the nuclear power plants in Western Germany where construction has stopped since Chernobyl. The Slovak group, For Mother Earth, is calling for a boycott of Siemens products until it pulls out of Mochovce.

WRITE: Requesting that Siemens cease its participation in the Mochovce nuclear power plant in Slovakia, to: Dr. Heinrich von Pierer, Siemens, Vittelsbacherpl. 2, 80333 Munchen, GERMANY. E-mail: <roland.huegel@mchw.siemens.de> Fax: +49-89-234-4242.

CONTACT: For Mother Earth, Slovakia. E-mail: <samatkuzem@spes.sanet.sk.

Copyright © 1996. The Light Party.