Chernobyl Disaster: Autopsy In Korosten

Yes, I remember the face of some of other children I met in Korosten, one hundred kilometers west of Chernobyl. All of them dead. All of them victims of a tragedy that could have been avoided.

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In April 1986, technicians at the Chernobyl nuclear power-plan, located 80 miles north of Kiev, started an experiment that would spiral out of control into an explosion releasing a cloud of radioactivity into the atmosphere. It is, according to the United Nations, "the greatest environmental catastrophe in the history of humanity." In 2000, I spent a month traveling with representatives of various Ukrainian and international health organizations, recording my impressions for New Mass Media's chain of weekly alternative papers in New York and Connecticut. I learned that no matter where one goes in most of Ukraine, Belarus, and parts of southern Russia, one is surrounded by the residual radiation from the Chernobyl disaster. That radiation is in the background of everything and can be traced as the cause of everything from Ukraine’s energy shortage to the rootless hopelessness of much of its dislocated population; every economic, social, and especially health problem: the burden of increasing birth defects, mutation, and cancer. Over 9 million people have been affected directly or indirectly by the accident at Chernobyl and the full effects of this exposure will not be measurable for another 50 years. As the world marks the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, have the necessary lessons been learned? Russian nuclear officials are still taking the risk of importing nuclear waste from around the globe and domestic and international agencies argue about estimates of the damage. Much of my work was published in 2000 as a three-part series called "Culture of Cancer." But there is one story that still haunts me in 2006 – a story I still need to tell: the trip to Korosten to discover why Ukraine and Belarus, the two countries surrounding the Chernobyl station, are experiencing negative population growth. Why a scant 5 per cent of the children born in this area are considered healthy. A new generation is silently dying from the consequences of the nuclear disaster, as I was able to see myself. I witnessed the autopsy of one of the silent victims – a 2-day old girl. The place was Korosten, a small town in the province of Zhytomer, located about 150 kilometers southwest of Chernobyl, Ukraine. Here is the untold story.