On April 25, 1986, the explosion of the Chernobyl Power Plant’s Reactor 4 created more than 70 tons of radioactive debris.
Now, 15 years later, the concrete shelter built to contain the debris (and allow the plant’s other reactors — since closed — to continue operating) is degrading, and radioactive contaminants are still dusting and leaching into the air, water and soil.
Beyond Cash Donations: How New Forms of Giving Are Transforming Not-for-Profit Accounting
Evolving Funding Landscape for Not-for-Profits Not-for-profit organizations are being asked to do more with less,…
Learn More
Previous attempts to contain the waste have been unsuccessful, but a test application of EKOR — developed by Virginia-based environmental technology company Eurotech Ltd. — at the site is preventing contaminates from seeping into the environment.
“After testing EKOR, we think this material may resolve the problems,” said Artur Korneev, deputy director of the Chernobyl Shelter Project.
Eurotech developed EKOR with scientists from Israel, Russia and other countries. Don Hahnfeldt, chief executive officer of Eurotech, said 40 percent of the company’s shareholder base is in New England.
Peter Gulko, chief scientific adviser of the Chernobyl Shelter Project, said the most crucial concerns for the Chernobyl site are the safety of the enclosing structure, radioactive dust in the atmosphere and contaminated ground waters.
“The structures of the Chernobyl shelter are not stable,” he said. “When collapse takes place, dust inevitably is cast into the atmosphere.”
The priority, he said, is to prevent the release of the plutonium-charged dust into the environment.
“There are not that many products on the market in the first place,” he said. “None of these products has lasted for more than a month or two. EKOR was applied to the most crucial fuel-containing mass and a year after, it is still there. It has kept its properties, doesn’t degrade, just as planned.”
EKOR (an acronym in Russian for “ecologically safe”), a white silicon polymer, can completely encapsulate or cocoon nuclear waste and is intended to prevent radioactive contaminants from dusting or seeping into the environment.
EKOR is non-flammable, with an extremely high resistance to radiation and can be manufactured as a fixative, sealant, grout or foam. The material can be applied on horizontal, vertical and overhead surfaces, water surfaces and under water.
Calling it “the single most important environmental event in our history,” Hahnfeldt reflected on the efforts of his company to develop a material to contain radioactive waste at the site of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
“Incidents like Chernobyl also provide the opportunity for the international community to work together to solve these seemingly impossible problems,” Hahnfeldt said at a recent (April 24) press conference held at the Providence Marriott.
The site, Gulko said, contains thousands of tons of debris that must be treated, he hopes, within the next several years. The use of EKOR at the Cher-nobyl site is currently undergoing an international review process.
Hasbro, Inc.’s Director of Charitable Trusts Karen Davis presented a donation of 1,000 toys to Alex Kuzma, executive director of the Children of Chornobyl(cq) Relief Fund, an organization that focuses on children still suffering from the tragedy.
“Because radiation tends to have an impact on unborn children and very young children, we’ve been concentrating on healing the children who are experiencing the cumulative effect of long-term exposure to low-level radiation,” said Kuzma.
Kuzma said there has been an 80-fold increase in cancers; 3.4 million of Ukraine’s 50 million people, including 1.26 million children, are considered affected by Chernobyl.
All the water reservoirs in the vicinity became radioactive after the accident. A 30 kilometer “dead zone” was established around the power plant where human habitation is forbidden, but 1.2 million people, from 1,800 villages, continue to live on lands still contaminated by low level radiation.
“We are working with a children’s population that is treatable,” Kuzma said. “We think it’s even more important to prevent further contamination.”
To commemorate the disaster’s 15th anniversary, after the press conference, Hahnfeldt and Korneev, among others, traveled to the United Nations to present a status report on Chernobyl, which was to include Korneev’s own first-hand account of the disaster and clean-up.
Gulko hopes the evaluations of EKOR are handled quickly.
“Sometimes you need to give up certain democratic processes, as in an emergency,” he said.
