Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

U. Oklahoma students honor nuclear disaster
By Kathleen Mckinney
Oklahoma Daily (U. Oklahoma)
04/27/2006

(U-WIRE) NORMAN, Okla. — Twenty years ago Wednesday, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant caught fire, sending a plume of radioactive dust drifting on the winds northwest from Ukraine across the nations of Eastern and Western Europe. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the disaster, the Russian Speaking Student Association passed out information to University of Oklahoma students on Wednesday.

This was the first and worst nuclear disaster of the 20th century, said Erin Chambers, OU graduate and staff member for the dean of engineering's office.

Chernobyl had to shut down for maintenance and decided to run an experiment, said Roman Voronov, RUSSA founder and president and chemical engineering graduate student.

"It clearly went wrong," Voronov said. "There are safety guidelines plant operators are supposed to follow, and the operators disobeyed them."

The immediate aftermath and subsequent fallout of the disaster affected thousands and left a permanent scar on the environment of the surrounding region.

"We were there to raise awareness that it did happen," said Aliya Urazimanova, RUSSA activities director and energy management junior. "I was amazed that people didn't know it happened. The people who stopped to talk to us were like, 'Wow, it was a big thing.'"

Some OU freshmen were born after 1986, and they either don't remember or don't know about it, Chambers said.

The main focus of the event was to make students aware of Chernobyl's status, Voronov said.

Currently a sarcophagus covers the reactor and below it is 200 tons of radioactive material, Voronov said. The sarcophagus, a large dome made of cement and metal, was built 20 years ago and is now falling apart, Voronov said.

"Members of [RUSSA] are concerned that the sarcophagus is on the verge of collapsing," Chambers said. "If it does, there will be a huge cloud of radioactive dust released."

To build a new dome, the Ukrainian government will need 650 million euros, Urazimanova said. The country has asked the European Union for aid.

Urazimanova said she has friends who still fear the effects of the disaster.

"There is a whole corner of the country where no one is allowed to be," Chambers said.

She also said visitors to the site will find the area around Chernobyl as it was 20 years ago.

"The roads are the same because no one drives on them," Chambers said. "In houses, there are pictures and toys and calendars. It's exactly the same."

The best-case scenario is that the area will remain uninhabitable for 300 years and at worst 900, Chambers said.

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