After 25 years, Chernobyl still relevant

Tragedy offers perspective on clean energy

By Lorrie Mayzlin
Agora reporter

THE AGORA

Features

August 25 2011

The push for clean energy in the United States has never been greater than in the last few years. Our dependence on foreign countries for energy supplies and volatile price fluctuations have caused American citizens to consider other alternatives. 2011 is an important year in clean energy because it marks both the year that the Fukushima nuclear power plant melted down and the 25th anniversary of the worst nuclear plant disaster in the world, at Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union. This issue is relevant for MCCC students and faculty for several reasons. Aside from students cash-strapped budgets, MCCC has a new nuclear technology program, and it has a student who survived the Chernobyl disaster. There are 361 square miles in Belarus and Ukraine that have been designated as an exclusion zone around the Chernobyl site. They are mostly off-limits to visitors, but especially for residential purposes. The ground will remain contaminated for at least the next three generations. Although the red forest no longer glows red, undeniable signs of the long-lasting devastation still are there. In 1986, shortly after the Chernobyl reactor melted down, a temporary sarcophagus was placed over the exposed reactor to contain the nuclear fallout. Today, the reactor is still melting, the sarcophagus is cracked, and radiation is leaking. The government of the Ukraine does not have the $840 million required to build a new containment unit. Buried in Mitino Cemetery in Moscow, Russia, are 14 liquidators, who were the first responders (firefighters and operators). They were exposed only briefly to the immense radiation and were all dead within one month. William Lorenz of Belleville, who is the father of this articles author, worked at the United States Embassy in Moscow, Russia, during the mid-1990s. There is a cemetery in Moscow, which your mother and I used to pass on our way to and from our job in the United States Embassy, Lorenz said. When we entered this cemetery, you could see that there was a special section with decorative blocks surrounding about 20 graves, and there was a plaque written in both English and Russian which said that the graves were of the first helicopter pilots who dropped the cement to cover the hole created by the explosion. Pictures of the villages and cities that surrounded Chernobyl are grim and ghostly schoolbooks scattered in classrooms, apartment homes with furniture and clothing where people once lived, and finally, Mother Nature taking back the areas that man covered with concrete. When Fukushima melted down earlier this year after an earthquake and subsequent tsunami, the Japanese government tried to downplay the numbers of casualties and severity of the damage, thus putting hundreds of thousands of people (including our own military service members) in harms way. It took several months before Japanese government officials admitted their power plants had indeed gone through a full meltdown, and the grounds, food supplies and water supplies had been contaminated with radioactive fallout. Much like Chernobyl, the Japanese government simply told nearby citizens to stay indoors and do not open your windows. The stark difference between Chernobyl and Fukushima is that Fukushima was caused by a natural disaster; Chernobyl was caused by human error. The Chernobyl Forum (made up of eight U.N. agencies) put the death count as just a few thousand, while the Chernobyl Union, a non-government body, put the death toll at over 730,000 so far and Greenpeace estimates that there will be an additional 93,000 cancer deaths. One of the biggest problems from nuclear fallout is thyroid diseases and cancer. Many of the adults who died after the explosion were never acknowledged as casualties by the government. Another cost of Chernobyl is the care needed by the many children orphaned in the Ukraine and Belarus, without families to call their own and left there because of how their bodies developed after their exposure to radiation and other nuclear fallout. Some of them are living out the rest of their lives in state-run mental institutions; others moved with their families to other parts of the world. The cost to house them, clothe them, medicate them, feed them, and to educate them is in the millions of dollars annually.

The Funfair at Pripyat, the city closest to Chernobyl, was set to open on May 1, 1986, four days after the reactor meltdown. It never opened and remains abandoned.

MCCC student was 12 when he survived Chernobyl

By Lorrie Mayzlin
Agora reporter

ally know the severity of the situation. I heard from my case each in hand, my mom, dad, and myself were in friends that radiation makes living things explode in a taxicab on the way to the airport. The entire process growth, but I didnt realize that the bushes in front of took about 4-5 months and included a trip to Moscow our apartment building will turn into large trees. for a visit in the U.S., Austrian and Italian embassies. I guess when I came back and couldnt see the play- Austria and Italy were transfer points that we had to ground behind those trees, I knew that it was more go through. severe than what we were told. Q. How much did it cost to move to the U.S.? Q. What were your fears? Dreams? Worries? I cant possibly begin to imagine the amount of monMy biggest fear was not being able to come back to ey my parents had to gather to make this move hapKiev again. Although we were told that everyone will pen. A lot of it was, of course, visa and paperwork fees. be back in September, I was afraid that this was going The bulk of it, however, was under the table money that had to be paid to various government agents that to take longer. Being 13 at the time, I really did not fully under- were processing the paperwork to get it moving along through the channels. I would think now that some stand the severity of amount was paid to the the situation. I didnt local KGB and militia know about the mediagents to prevent them cal repercussions or from harassing our family. long-term effects. Back then, if you wanted My friend in Kiev to leave the motherland had his dads radioacyou were considered a tivity meter. He used traitor and the lowest eleto take it out on the ment of society and were playground and show constantly persecuted by it off to everyone. It the authorities in a variety would make a fast of ways. clicking sound when Q. What was that day radioactive levels Michael Mayzlins visa photo in 1987 like? were high. That May it was clicking like crazy. That scared me a bit, because It was actually unusually sunny, warm, and I reI knew something was wrong, but I was also fascinated member the sky being very clear. April 26 was a Satby it because I thought to myself that I am here while urday, so we were in school only until noon (school something big is happening. I was telling my newly in the Soviet Union was 6 days a week). I came back found friends in Moldova about the clicking. from school and went outside to be with my friends. Q. When did your grandparents die; were they Usually we would sit around and talk for a while, tell each other anecdotes, see who can tell the funniest one. exposed to the fallout? That day though, I remember someone said that his Only my maternal grandma; on my moms side. mother is packing up their rugs and valuables, which Grandma passed away in 1989. My mom has thyroid was unusual because expensive rugs were usually hung problems (which is associated with nuclear fallout and on walls and served as a room decoration. radiation exposure), and my grandma died of cancer. Another one of my friends said that he heard someQ. When did your family apply to thing was happening in Chernobyl but it was probably leave the country? nothing. In those days the first thing on your mind in The first time, we applied to leave this kind of a situation was if we were in a nuclear war in 1979, but were denied because my with the United States. mother worked in a factory at the time Q. Do you remember if you celebrated May Day? that was making airplane parts and Everyone celebrated May Day. That was one of the knew some information that the government didnt want to get out of the biggest, most grandeur holidays of the year. Whats interesting about May 1, 1986, is that very country. few people in these parades knew about the severity Sometime in the early spring of 1987, my dad came back from work. of what happened just four days before in Chernobyl. He opened the daily mail, and ex- Ironically, everyone was out in the streets celebrating claimed: Were going to America! Communism and the government, pretty much trapped We never had to apply a second time, below the cloud of radioactive air. My parents and I, too, went to the parade, came home the government approved our exit visa based on the application from 1979, and had a big family dinner, and then went right out at thanks probably in part to President dusk to watch the fireworks that celebrated our great Reagan and President Gorbachev com- communist country. ing to a deal that allowed more Russian (Anyone interested in reading more about my life in the old Soviet Union can visit my blog at: Pripyat, a ghost city that was abandoned after the Chernobyl catastro- immigrants to the United States. In the fall of that same year, one suit- http://musicalwristwatch.wordpress.com/.) phe, has grown to a forest.

MCCCs Chernobyl survivor is a healthy (thankfully) 38-year old Deans List student, and my husband, Michael Mayzlin. I would imagine that he is the only Chernobyl survivor in all of southeast Michigan. Over the span of our 13-year marriage, I have listened to his thoughts, fears, dreams and memories of Chernobyl, which is about 60 miles north of his former home in Kiev. Generally, Michael is a shy and quiet person, who is not one to make too many waves wherever he goes. This being the 25th anniversary of the tragedy, its a good time to tell his story. Q. How old were you when Chernobyl occurred? I was 12 years old in April 1986, just before my 13th birthday. Q. What did you hear from the government? Absolutely nothing on the day of the accident. I think the first official announcement came May 1 in a 30-second blurb during the nightly newscast. The announcer read a short prepared statement about a small accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and said everything was under control. Q. How was it determined when youd evacuate? The school year always ended at the end of May. One day, about two weeks before the end of school, local government officials in Kiev made verbal announcements in schools and various work places that the school year would end early and everyone under the age of 18 is to evacuate the city of Kiev within the next couple of weeks due to health hazards associated with the accident at Chernobyl. Q. Who determined where youd go? Families were given a choice to take their kids out of Kiev. Those who did not have anywhere to go, would be taken in bus loads to summer camps. Luckily, we had relatives living in Chisinau, Moldova, deep in the south of the Soviet Union on the border with Romania. I was actually excited to go because it was like taking a summer trip to another country. Some of my friends simply left the city for their summer dachas in the countryside. Q. What if people had no money? Money was needed only for a train ticket and personal expenses if you were not on a government bus going to a summer camp. Actually, not too many people had too much money anyway back in those days. Q. How did you get there? I traveled by train with one of my parents, my mom, I think. My parents bought a ticket (which was not very expensive in those days) for the Kiev-Chisinau train. Took about 12 hours to get there. I loved taking the train because all long-travel trains had several rooms that would carry four passengers each. I would lie on the top bunk, look out of the window, and enjoy the countryside. Q. How did you know it was safe to come back? During the initial mass-evacuation, we were told that all kids who evacuate would be coming back for the first day of school on Sept. 1. Whether it was safe or not is a different story. No one really knew if it was safe. Most people didnt re-

Very few people in these (May Day) parades knew about the severity of what happened just four days before in Chernobyl. Ironically, everyone was out in the streets celebrating Communism Michael Mayzlin and the government, pretty much trapped below the cloud of radioactive air.

After the Chernobyl explosion, the people of Pripyat flocked to a railway bridge just outside the city to get a good view of the reactor. Initially, they had been told that radiation levels were minimal and that they were safe. They found out later that the radiation levels here were very near lethal.
Photo by Ben Vivo

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2012 Michigan Community College Press Association Judging Form

Place of award: First Place Second Place Third Place Honorable Mention Category: In depth reporting Headline/title of entry: After 25 years, Chernobyl still relevant Contestants name: Lorrie Mayzlin College name: Monroe County Community College Judges comments: Your husband has an interesting story. You asked him some good questions, but focused less on the facts of his experience and more on what it means to him 25 years later. Also, while its good that you acknowledged the relationship at the beginning of the piece, I think writing about friends and family members requires special justification or, at least, an approach that differentiates itself from straight news or a straightforward interview. The piece on clean energy has good information, and its not a bad thing to try your hand at those sorts of stories as a student journalist. But it doesnt strike me as the sort of story that most local newspapers would ask one of their reporters to write, largely because it doesnt speak specifically to a local audience.