28 August 2008
Scientist urges public to defend Radiation Safety Institute against government pressure
The public should defend the Radiation Safety Institute (Belrad) against government pressure, Ivan Nikitchanka, a corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences, told BelaPAN.
He described the recent decease of Belrad Director Vasil Nestsyarenka as a great loss for Belarus.
"Despite all rules that were accepted in the Soviet times, he worked not in general, but for the people," Dr. Nikitchanka said. "Immediately after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident, he provided the country's leadership with trustworthy information about the radiation danger that Belarus was facing."
According to Dr. Nikitchanka, despite government persecution, Dr. Nestsyarenka began developing devices for measuring the levels of radiation to which the environment and people were exposed. The decision to establish Belrad followed his dismissal as director of the Nuclear Power Engineering Institute of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Nikitchanka said.
Belrad, which was developing devices and medicines for removing radionuclides from the human body, had to move three times to new rented offices, until it was finally decided to construct a building for the Institute in the village of Navinki near Minsk, Dr. Nikitchanka said.
"The Institute has been under heavy government pressure for more than a year, as information about radiation levels in Belarus is more secret now than it was in the Soviet times," he noted. "Even the health and emergency management ministries aren't in the know."
Monitoring carried out by Belrad and medical workers in a number of areas has found a clear correlation between the levels of radioactive contamination and the state of public health, Dr. Nikitchanka said. Last year the government prohibited Belrad from using a device for measuring body doses and closed Belarus' only manufacturing facility for pectin medications that help the body get rid of radionuclides, he added.
A petition in defense of Belrad by eight prominent Belarusian researchers to Deputy Prime Minister Alyaksandr Kasinets so far has remained unanswered, Dr. Nikitchanka noted.
He pointed out that Belarusian scientists would do everything possible to help Belrad continue and develop its activities.
http://brestonline.com/en/news/news2803.html