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Compensation for the Effects of Nuclear Radiation from Accidents and Tests

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Compensation for the Effects of Nuclear Radiation from Accidents and Tests ODUMUNC 2018 Issue Brief Fourth Committee: Special Political Compensation for the Effects of Nuclear Radiation From Accidents and Tests by: Shannon Schubert Old Dominion University Model United Nations Society Introduction On 11 March 2011, three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Okuma, Japan, experienced nuclear core meltdowns after their emergency generators were disabled. The incident was a result of a catastrophic tsunami and earthquake. This disaster has was the most significant nuclear incident since the Soviet Union’s nuclear reactor at Chernobyl (now in Ukraine) went out of control in 1986. One of the Fukushima nuclear reactors explodes on 11 March 2011 Unlike the accident in Ukraine, there have not The world got its first understanding of the risks been any deaths or cases of radiation poisoning following the dropping of atomic bombs by the from Fukushima. That has not stopped scientists U.S. Army Air Force on Hiroshima and and the general public from fearing long-term Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945. effects, should contaminated materials find their Approximately 70,000 people died in each way out of the containment area. attack from prompt blast, heat and fire effects. An equal number died from later radiation Because of the potential overarching damage, poisoning. nuclear accidents and their impact are a major issue within the Fourth Committee in the The nuclear attacks of 1945 marking the end of General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), World War II gave rise to the notion that nuclear also known as Special Political and warfare would be catastrophic and must be Decolonization (SPECPOL) Committee. prohibited completely. Negotiations among the countries with and without nuclear capabilities Background yielded the creation in 1955 of the United Nations Scientific Committee of the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR). Nuclear radiation affects the Earth from natural sources, but those tend to be harmless, low level A further sense of the risks came on 1954, when and uncontroversial. Artificial sources, of the a nuclear test by the United States in the Pacific other hand, are can be prevented, and when they Ocean, Castle Bravo, yielded three times the are not, can be catastrophic. destructive energy expected. Fishermen 200 miles away were hit with lethal radiation. ODUMUNC 2018 Issue Brief Compensation for the Effects of Nuclear Radiation From Accidents and Tests and Fukushima incidents were equally disastrous; the Chernobyl reactor achieved criticality, while none of the Fukushima reactors went critical. On the other hand the high rating indicates the potential for similar effects if Fukushima had gone critical. The famous American nuclear disaster at Three Mile Island in 1979 destroyed a nuclear plant, showing the risks, but resulted in only a small released of nuclear radiation. The social and psychological disruption caused by the Chernobyl incident effected economic systems throughout the effected regions in UNSCEAR was conceived to "assess and report Ukraine, the Russian Federation, and Belarus. levels and effects of exposure to ionized Radioactive materials contaminated all three radiation," one year following the Lucky Dragon 1 countries and radionuclides, which are elements incident. Working hand-in-hand with the that exude radiation, were "measurable in all United Nations Environment Programme countries of the northern hemisphere."2 (UNEP), the committee has published 25 major works, some of which is examined later in this Since nuclear power rose to the forefront of the issue brief, and meets annually. In addition to scientific world, the importance of containing criticality and radiological incidents surrounding this new power source and nuclear weapons development and testing, handling potential "fall outs" has balanced the scores of nuclear accidents have occurred within nuclear community. However, the subjective nuclear reactors. character of the measuring scale is a point of contention. Nuclear accidents are measured using the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Observed effects of irradiation are less Scale (INES). The ratings are sometimes subjective than the INES. The Hiroshima and subjective to the international authorities, but in Nagasaki attacks, the Castle Bravo/Lucky general, they range from zero to seven. A zero Dragon incident, Chernobyl and Fukushima rating means that there is nothing more than a provide objective measurements of the effects of deviation from normal radiation levels in the radiation. atmosphere, while seven indicates a major accident and a serious hazard. Unlike the scales used to measure natural events, such as tornadoes and hurricanes, "man-made" disasters are more subjective to interpretation. So far, only two events have been labeled as category seven events: the Chernobyl incident and the Fukushima meltdown. This does not suggest the Chernobyl 1 “About Us,” United Nations Scientific Committee 2 “The Chernobyl Accident,” United Nations on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, accessed Sep 8, Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic 2017. Radiation. 2 ODUMUNC 2018 Issue Brief Compensation for the Effects of Nuclear Radiation From Accidents and Tests Chernobyl: In 1986 in Ukraine, then a Republic of the Soviet Union, an explosion at a nuclear reactor released radiation into the atmosphere. Radiation doses ranged from approximately two- and-a-half years to over twenty-five years worth of normal radiation at once.5 There were thirty- one direct deaths, and a sharp increase in leukemia, thyroid cancer, other cancers, heart disease, reproductive illness, and cataracts, not to mention over 300,000 evacuees in the coming years.6 Fukushima: In 2011 an earthquake off the coast of Japan triggered a tsunami that severely Efforts to stabilize the destroyed Chernobyl nuclear damaged the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant in Russia on 5 August 1986. Station. The cores remained stable, and Source: The Atlantic. radioactive iodine escaped the containment structures. While no one died from the radiation, Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Because the 1945 and while there was no detectable increase in atomic attacks on Japan happened more than cancers or other illnesses, the World Health seventy years ago, they present an opportunity to Organization noted other indirect effects that study the long-term effects of radiation on a were largely based on psychological stresses, large population. The attacks showed immediate, such as mass evacuation, which led to a few acute effects, such as severe burns, but also deaths (mainly among elderly who were long-term effects, such as genetic mutations, 7 relocated to less-than-sanitary housing). These stillbirths, a sharp increase in reported leukemia evacuations are also significant because entire cases within four years, and a sharp increase in families were uprooted from their communities other reported cancers within ten years.3 and their jobs.8 Lucky Dragon incident: When the US conducted the Castle Bravo nuclear tests in 1954, unforeseen weather patterns and unexpected explosive yields caused Japanese fishermen 85 miles away to experience extreme illness “with skin irritations, burns, nausea, loss of hair, and other radiation-linked afflictions.”4 5 In addition to these acute effects, one Alan Taylor, ‘The Chernobyl Disaster: 25 Years crewmember died. Ago’, The Atlantic, 23 March 2011. https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/03/the- chernobyl-disaster-25-years-ago/100033/ 6 “Health effects of the Chernobyl accident: an 3 “Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Long Term Health overview.” World Health Organization. Effects.” Columbia | K-1 Project: Center for Nuclear http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/chernobyl/bac Studies. kgrounder/en/ https://k1project.columbia.edu/news/hiroshima-and- 7 “FAQs: Fukushima Five Years On.” World Health nagasaki Organization. 4 Lawrence Wittner. “How Japan Learned About http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/a_e/fukushim ‘Nuclear Safety.’” The Huffington Post.. a/faqs-fukushima/en/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence- 8 For a discussion on the differences between wittner/how-japan-learned-about-n_b_837135.html Chernobyl and Fukushima, see this NPR article. 3 ODUMUNC 2018 Issue Brief Compensation for the Effects of Nuclear Radiation From Accidents and Tests on the significance of the issue. But they differ on how to deal with responsibility for its consequences. Rather than demanding action by specific states, so far the UN stresses standards that all can follow, as best interpreted themselves. This approach, criticized by some as lowest common denominator, or log-rolling politics, is illustrated in three landmark UN reports: • “Report of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic An aerial view of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 9 the site of the world's worst nuclear accident, is Radiation (1961)” approved studying of the shown in this May 1986 photo made a few days after radiological effects of nuclear weapons tests. the April 26 explosion in Chernobyl, Ukraine. Source: The Atlantic. • “Principles Relevant to the Use of Nuclear 10 Power Sources in Outer Space (1992)” expresses concern that future development The UN and Nuclear Radiation of nuclear power in outer space will have negative impacts on human health. For the 193 Member States of the UN< radiation issues raise problems of scope and • “Effects of atomic radiation (2016)”11 responsibility. emphasized the importance of future research into the effects of radiation on • Which kinds of nuclear
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