Greetings All —

On this the 39th anniversary of the nuclear power disaster in Chornobyl, Ukraine, we share this message and attached statement from a Belarusian colleague.

As the Illinois legislature and others around the U.S. continue to be mesmerized by the beckoning calls of the nuclear sirens, continue to ignore the inherent hazards of nuclear power, and refuse to remediate the already-caused damage and exposure effects, this message serves as a warning.  As the saying goes, history may not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme sometimes.  With 11 operating reactors and over 11,000 tons of high-level radioactive wastes within its borders, probability is not on Illinois’ side.

Be well, for a non-nuclear future,

–Dave Kraft, Director, NEIS–

———- Forwarded message ———
From: Tanya Novikova
Date: Sat, Apr 26, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Subject: Re: [decomm_wkg] 39 years since Chernobyl radioactive disaster, the nexus with uranium mining

Here is the Statement by the Belarusian non-profits in exile on Chernobyl Day

On Sat, Apr 26, 2025 at 12:14 PM Tanya Novikova <novikova@gmail.com>

Dear Friends,

Today is a dark day in modern history. Exactly 39 years ago, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster struck communities across vast parts of the European continent. It did not stop there, though. Chernobyl’s radioactive iodine-131 circled the globe and was even detected in Antarctica.

Human technological civilization — proud of its spaceships, scientific advancements, and unprecedented international cooperation — turned out to be helpless in the face of a radiation catastrophe. Humanity proved capable of producing artificial radionuclides that remain toxic for hundreds, thousands, and even millions of years, but powerless to contain them once they are released from a reactor during an accident. Nor can it fully protect people from the harm that “peaceful atoms” inflict across generations.

The consequences of Chernobyl continue to persist. Large territories in Russia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, and even Sweden remain contaminated and will do so for many decades. For Belarus and Ukraine, the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone will remain dangerous virtually forever on a human timescale.

In Ukraine and Belarus, the health effects of the disaster still impact the third generation of residents. This is evidenced by both official statistics — such as a multiple-fold increase in thyroid cancer among children reported by the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Belarus — and independent research from Yuri Bandazhevsky’s group (Belarus-Ukraine), among others.

However, the world has not fully learned the lessons of Chernobyl. Many countries today continue to promote nuclear energy as a “new,” “green,” and “climate-friendly” solution — claims that are far from reality. A number of countries, including the United States, not only extend the service life of morally and physically obsolete nuclear power plants, but also plan to restart reactors that had already been shut down, even while relaxing safety control procedures.

Nevertheless, the course of history shows that the global energy industry is increasingly shifting toward a different path — namely, toward renewable, affordable, and truly sustainable energy technologies.

On this day, we must not only honor the victims of Chernobyl but also raise our voices in defense of renewable energy. It is up to us today to ensure that there is never another Chernobyl!

I invite you to read a statement from non-profit organizations of Belarus in exile issued on the 39th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, along with a leaflet containing key facts from the full nuclear fuel cycle. It demonstrates that nuclear energy begins with genocide and environmental disasters — and ends with even greater catastrophe.

Thank you for sharing, discussing, and supporting!

Yours,

Tatyana Novikova

antinuclear activist,

MS in Sustainability

 

Statement on the 39th Anniversary of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster

On April 26, we mark 39 years since the largest man-made disaster of the 20th century
— the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. This tragedy cast a dark shadow
over Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, and many other European countries.

Belarus became the country with the most contaminated territory (23%) and, as a result,
the gravest long-term consequences. For our country, Chernobyl is not just a
technological disaster — it is a national wound: poisoned land, water, and air; the
nation’s compromised health; sick children — all of this has become part of Belarusian
reality. This catastrophe will remain with us for hundreds of thousands of years — until
all toxic radionuclides decay.

On this dark day, Belarusians around the world hold mourning marches known as the
“Chernobyl Way” to honor the memory of the disaster’s victims. For many years, civil
society in Minsk carried this event forward, defying the constraints of a totalitarian
regime.

The totalitarian USSR enabled the conditions that made the Chernobyl catastrophe
possible. The dictatorship of Lukashenka continues to exacerbate its consequences by:

• silencing facts and downplaying risks,
• putting contaminated land back into economic use,
• depriving Chernobyl victims and affected people of social benefits,
• repressing scientists, activists, and organizations speaking the truth about
Chernobyl, many of whom have been imprisoned or are currently behind bars,
• promoting dangerous Russian nuclear technologies in Belarus, at the doorstep of
neighboring countries: both nuclear weapons and the Astravets NPP, which had
been erected with violations of European safety standards and national
legislation, in a non-transparent and undemocratic way,
• discussing the construction of a second NPP while the first is underutilized for
half of its operational time and the energy system has no need for its electricity.
Nuclear disasters do not occur only in authoritarian countries — democracies are not
immune either. We learned this from the example of Fukushima. Moreover, even
democratic nations can exhibit authoritarian tendencies, as we have seen in the past
decade.

Democratic countries with nuclear plants may become targets of nuclear terrorism and
military aggression, as demonstrated by Russia’s attacks on Ukraine and on Chernobyl
and Zaporizhzhya NPP in 2022 and 2025.

At the same time, the international democratic community and the IAEA have proven
incapable of effectively addressing the problems of nuclear blackmail, military attacks
on nuclear facilities, or dealing with the consequences of nuclear disasters.
Sadly, the lessons of Chernobyl remain unlearned. Countries are not abandoning
nuclear energy — instead, they present it as climate-friendly and conditionally “green,”
using calculations that ignore technological realities and associated risks, as well as the
full nuclear fuel cycle. The issue of spent nuclear fuel, which remains toxic for up to a
million years (according to the IAEA), remains unresolved.

The world’s fleet of operating nuclear power plants is aging. Yet instead of transitioning
to cheaper, more accessible energy generation technologies — including renewables —
many countries are extending the life of existing plants and attempting to restart shut-
down reactors, creating significant safety risks.

Nuclear materials continue to spread globally, and the threat of nuclear conflict is
growing.

On this day, we address the authorities of Belarus with the following demands:
• Immediately shut down and decommission the Astravets NPP, which is unsafe
and unnecessary.
• Return Belarus to its nuclear-free and neutral status.
• Remove Chernobyl-contaminated areas from economic use.
• Restore social support for people affected by the consequences of the Chernobyl
disaster.
• Resume scientific research on the consequences of the Chernobyl accident and
reestablish cooperation with the global scientific community for this purpose.
• Release environmental activists and all other political prisoners, including
participants in the anti-nuclear movement.
• Support Belarus’ transition to a sustainable energy system based primarily on
renewable and decentralized sources.
We call on the international community to:
• Consider the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus as a violation of the
principles of collective security.
• Strip nuclear energy from green agendas (such as ESG frameworks and climate
finance mechanisms).
• Prioritize conventional deterrence means and strategies over nuclear weapons.
• Ban the trade of uranium and nuclear technologies with aggressor states (such
as the Russian Federation).
• Prevent the militarization of nuclear facilities by strengthening international legal
frameworks and undertaking coordinated action within the global community.
• Honor the memory of the victims of the Chernobyl disaster and continue
supporting liquidators and those affected.
• Express solidarity with the people of Ukraine, who faced nuclear threats during
acts of military aggression.

We also appeal to the member states of the IAEA with a proposal to reconsider the
organization’s core priorities and put human safety above profits and the ambitions of
individual states. We call on the IAEA to take the risks associated with nuclear
technology use and proliferation seriously. To that end, we urge the IAEA to revise its
guarantees, protocols, and mechanisms in such a way that the organization, which is
promoting a so-called “nuclear renaissance,” bears legal and financial responsibility for
the consequences of nuclear accidents and nuclear terrorism.

The resolution was adopted by NGO Ecohome, Green Network, Belarusian National
Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, Dapamoga, Solidarity
Movement “Together,” Narodnaya Hramada, the United Civic Party, Our House, and the
RE:Belarus Association of Belarusian Political Prisoners, Association of Belarusian
Political Prisoners “Da Voli,” and supported by the United Transitional Cabinet of
Belarus, the Office of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.