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Scientists use Chernobyl disaster as hope for new technology

By Melissa Eddy, Associated Press, 4/26/2001 20:11

UNITED NATIONS (AP) Fifteen years after the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, scientists and are using the site to develop new technologies to prevent the leakage of radioactive dust and particles.

Artur Korneyev, deputy head of the Chernobyl project, said a special material called EKOR developed to coat the sarcophagus in a destroyed reactor could in the future be used to prevent hazardous waste leakage worldwide.

''EKOR offers a solution to the myriad of problems associated with nuclear waste handling, disposal and storage,'' Korneyev said Thursday, the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.

The April 26, 1986, explosion and fire sent a radioactive cloud over much of Europe and contaminated large areas of then-Soviet Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. Continued leakage of radioactive waste from the Chernobyl reactor is linked to many of the health problems.

EKOR, developed by scientists at the EuroAsian Physical Society and tested at Kurchatov Research Institute in Moscow, has so far proven effective in stopping leakage.

Since last March, when the crumbling sarcophagus at Chernobyl was coated, the material which thickens after application and hermetically seals in waste for up to 400 years has been the most successful protectant so far, according to Korneyev.

Korneyev was among Chernobyl experts who gathered Thursday at the United Nations to commemorate the anniversary of the disaster.

In a symbolic gesture earlier Thursday, Kenzo Oshima the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs who himself is a survivor of Hiroshima rang the peace bell in memory of the Chernobyl victims. The bell was a gift to the United Nations from Japan.

''This accident at Chernobyl is much more than the worst technological disaster in the history of nuclear power generation, it is also a grave and continuing humanitarian tragedy,'' he said.

-- Anonymous, April 27, 2001