Tchernobyl: life after horror. Towards the reconquest of contaminated lands

This paper is a brief environmental and socio-economical statement of Bielorussia ten years after the Tchernobyl's Reactor 4 accident. The first part of the paper gives a brief overview of the radiological impact of the accident on land and inhabitants, of the government policy about people evacuation and relocation and of the economical impact of the accident on the agriculture. It summarizes also the financial and administrative advantages given to the people who participated to the emergency operations. The second part of the paper deals with the techniques used in Bielorussia for the exploitation of contaminated lands. Agriculture and farming have started again taking precautionary measures concerning the alimentation of pigs and cattle. About 20000 km2 of forests are contaminated and could be energetically valorized with the production of electric power or producer gas and partially used in paper industry. However the use of contaminated wood requires the filtering of radioactive aerosols and the processing of ashes for which Bielorussia has not been equipped yet. No satisfactory solution have been proposed so far for the forest litter which is the most contaminated part of the ecosystem. The management of the radioactive wastes generated by the catastrophe is another huge problem recalled in this paper. Most of these wastes were buried in about 800 trenches from which only 200 are known. The remaining could be recovered only with the help of geophysical techniques. (J.S.). 2 refs., 3 photos