Aantal slachtoffers Tsjernobyl nog steeds omstreden (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Days ahead of the 20th anniversary of Europe's worst nuclear disaster - Chernobyl - contradictory reports about the dangers of nuclear energy have sparked debate between pro and anti-nuclear groups.

A 2005 report by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency and World Health Organisation confirmed just 50 directly-linked deaths with a further 4,000 radiation-related mortalities.

Environmentalist NGO Greenpeace recently alleged the UN report deliberately played down the real numbers, however.

The new data, based on Belarus and Russian information, links 153,000 deaths to the accident while predicting that thousands more will still die of radiation-related cancer in future.

"In the past 20 years it has become clear that nuclear energy conceals danger," the study states.

"The ejecta from this one reactor exceeded the radioactive contamination caused by the nuclear weapons used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki by one hundred times."

Greenpeace calls for an urgent investigation into the data discrepancies.

40 percent of Europe affected

The Chernobyl accident occurred on April 26, 1986 in Pripyat, on what is today the Ukraine-Belarus border but was previously part of the Soviet union.

The plant's No. 4 reactor exploded while on a test run, releasing massive amount of radioactive materials into the atmosphere, reaching western Europe.

The western Balkans, Finland, Sweden, Bulgaria, Norway, Romania, Germany, Austria and Poland recorded high levels of radioactivity.

In total, some 40 percent of the European continent's surface was contaminated a European Parliament report debated earlier this week has concluded.

In many European countries, food safety restriction orders related to Chernobyl are still in force.

The UN study published data on the 2.3 percent of European soil that received the very highest levels of radioactivity (over 40.000 Becquerel per square metre) however.

The parliament's rapporteur, German green MEP Rebecca Harm, called the approach "remarkably selective reporting" but the UN energy agency has denied massaging figures.

Chernobyl still a risk

To mark the anniversary, the European Commission on Thursday (20 April) presented a summary of its investments in fighting the consequences of the disaster.

Brussels has so far allocated over €470 million to Chernobyl-related projects and is pledging another €240 million to help construct by 2012 a new sarcophagus, or shell, to help seal in the damaged reactor.

Leaks and cracks in the current shell could cause the structure to collapse, experts fear, creating a second catastrophe.