People

TO NEVER
FORGET
by Diego Manca

Chernobyl in the blood

"... Chernobyl
is in my blood,
in all ways.
Kiryla Kryvanos,
high school student
Provincea of Klicau, Ukraine
The nuclear reactor of Chernobyl, exploded on April 26th 1986 causing about 50 tons of nuclear fuel to evaporate in the atmosphere, which were, in other words, pulverized into particles of uranium dioxide, high activity radionucleidi and other radioactive isotopes of more or less the same life duration. The total radioactivity of the dropout was about 200 volts higher than the contamination at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (We should remember that the bomb at Hiroshima freed 4,5 tons of radioactive substances into the atmosphere, compared to the 50 tons from the explosion at Chernobyl). The contaminated areas of Ukraine and Belorussia cover about 61.780 square miles, equivalent to the whole of England, Wales and Northern Ireland put together. Millions of people still live here, though another hundred thousand have been evacuated or have emigrated to other states in the ex Soviet Union. Many of them would like to return to their own homes: the Ukrainians, like many farming societies, have the earth in their blood.

The radioactive zone

Many of them now have something far more terrible running through their veins. It has been found that there is an enormous increase in thyroidal cancer and leukaemia among the children exposed to the radiation and the situation appears to be getting worse because many of the children who were exposed to radiation at a very young age; only started showing signs of its devastating effects several years later.

Diego Manca, writer and poet, has published a book of haiku poems, (a form of Japanese poetry) in two languages, Italian and Japanese entitled "Haiku"; on sale at the Franco Maria Ricci and Seeber bookshops in Florence and "Magnolia e Rosa" a story written for the Italian League for the Protection of Birds (L.I.P.U) and dedicated to his daughter Rosa- Rosa for her first birthday. He has been working for some time on a story called "Cuore d'Europa" on the environmental disaster at Chernobyl of which we include an extract here.

FAN-Florence ART News
by
Silvia Messeri & Sandro Pintus