Part 1 and part 2:
– (English Translation Part 1) Dörte Siedentopf on Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: “They Haven’t Learned Anything from Chernobyl” (EX-SKF, Jan. 7, 2012):
(H/T to the readers who did the translation and the summary of the original German article on TAZ. Thank you.)
What struck me about the article interviewing Dr. Dörte Siedentopf, other than the negative health effects on the residents, is the following:
- Damage from the nuclear accident will increase, not decrease, over time;
- Belarus got highly contaminated because the Soviet government induced artificial rain to fall on Belarus when the radioactive plume threatened Moscow;
- It took 10 years to resettle the residents, during which time they continued to live in the contaminated areas;
- When the Soviet system collapsed and the money ran out, Belarus declared the end of the accident, Chernobyl as something to be memorialized in a museum.
Well, Japan is well ahead of Belarus and Russia. They already want to memorialize the Fukushima accident by building a museum, “lest the memory of the accident fades away”. It doesn’t matter to them if their accident is still on-going.
The following is the German to English translation of the original article “Ärztin mit sozialer Verantwortung: Der heiße Stein” by Viola:
================================
The hot stone
Doctor Dörte Siedentopf organizes recreation stays since 20 years for Chernobyl children. She is bewildered about how to deal with Fukushima.
By Gabriele Goettle
Ghost town of Pripyat in the Ukraine: The residents were forever evacuated after the disaster.Dr. med. Dörte Siedentopf, born in 1942 in Oldenburg, school attendance and high school there, and from 1961 studied medicine in Würzburg, Berlin, Göttingen. 1966 examination, promotion 1968, 1967 marriage, two children, from 1970 in Hesse Dietzenbach own medical practice as a general practitioner and psychotherapy in a group practice. Retired since 2003.
She is (since its foundation in 1981) a member of the IPPNW (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, doctors in social responsibility). She initiated the installation of “stumbling blocks” in Dietzenbach and founded in the early 90s, the “Circle of Friends Kostjukovitschi e. V. Dietzenbach” that besdides other activities, sends relief shipments to Belarus twice a year, with medical equipment, clothing, bicycles, sewing machines, computers, etc.
Since 20 years, recovery stays in Germany are organized for children of Chernobyl. Hospitable Dietzenbacher families accomodate White Russian children every summer. The Circle of Friends now has many members and many friends in Kostjukovitschi. A number of active helpers for the Circle of friends takes care of everything, even to the collection of monetary and material donations. Since 2009, the 23 Anniversary of Chernobyl, there exists a town twinning. Dr. Siedentopf is married to a physician, both children have studied medicine. Her father was a country doctor, her mother a housewife and a teacher.
Dr. Siedentopf welcomes us into her small rooftop apartment in early December in Berlin Pankow in proximity of a park. Over tea and biscuits, she tells us about her relief activities and experiences.
“The worst thing is that the organizers have nothing learned from Chernobyl. I’m speechless over the handling of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, which is still larger than that of Chernobyl. About the fact that the government’s did not increase the evacuation zone accordingly, and women and children have not brought immediately to the south of the country to safety, one can only feel helpless rage. Instead, the population is systematically lied to, they are not at all or misinformed about the real dangers. This is completely irresponsible. What’s coming up now to the Japanese – diseases and problems- it’s unimagenable. And politics and nuclear industry really put up with everything! Worldwide!
