Environmental Justice and Nuclear Accidents: The Case of Chernobyl Disaster

Yıl 2021, Cilt: 8 Sayı: 3, 369 - 375, 05.09.2021

Emrah Akyüz

https://doi.org/10.30897/ijegeo.868987

Öz

Nuclear energy is one of the most important components of the world electricity supply in today's world. It provides approximately 21% of electricity in OECD countries. However, there has been a growing social and academic debate over the use of nuclear energy because the fact that there have been serious incidents and accidents at nuclear power stations indicates that the security risk associated with NPPs is not low. Particularly major nuclear accidents, Fukushima and Chernobyl, can cause the release of radiation into the environment. However, environmental contamination is not shared equally among people which triggers environmental injustice issues. There has been no comprehensive research that investigates nuclear accidents from the perspective of environmental justice theory so far. The main purpose of this study is to argue whether or not nuclear accidents cause environmental injustice. The results show that the major nuclear accident, the Chernobyl, has caused distributive and intergenerational environmental injustice.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Environmental Justice, Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Accidents, Chernobyl

Kaynakça

• Adamantiades, A., & Kessides, I. (2009). Nuclear Power for Sustainable Development: Current Status and Future Prospects. Energy Policy, 37(12), 5149-5166.
• Akyüz, E. (2020). Çevre ve İnsan Hakları: Türkiye Üzerine Bir Araştırma. Çanakkale: Paradigma Akademi Yayınları.
• Akyüz, E. (2020). Nuclear Power and Human Rights in Japan: The Fallout of Fukushima. London: Lexington Books.
• Arcioni, E., & Mitchell, G. (2005). Environmental Justice in Australia: When the RATS Became IRATE. Environmental Politics, 14(3), 363-379.
• Barnett, L. (2007). Psychosocial Effects of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster. Medicine, Conflict and Survival, 23(1), 46-57.
• Batavia, C., & Nelson, M. P. (2017). For Goodness Sake! What is Intrinsic Value and Why Should We Care? Biological Conservation, 209, 366-376.
• Baxter, B. (2005). A Theory of Ecological Justice. Oxon: Routledge.
• Beckerman, Wilfred and Pasek, Joanna (2001). Justice, Posterity and the Environment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Beierle, T. C., & Cayford, J. (2002). Democracy in Practice: Public Participation in Environmental Decisions. Washington: Resources for the Future.
• Bell, K. (2011). Environmental Justice in Cuba. Critical Social Policy, 31(2), 241-265.
• Blakemore, Erin (2019). The Chernobyl disaster: What happened, and the long-term impacts. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/topics/reference/chernobyl-disaster/#:~:text=More%20than%2030%20years%20on,power%20after%20World%20War%20II.
• Cardis, E., & Hatch, M. (2011). The Chernobyl Accident—An Epidemiological Perspective. Clinical Oncology, 23(4), 251-260.
• Christodouleas, J. P., Forrest, R. D., Ainsley, C. G., Tochner, Z., Hahn, S. M., & Glatstein, E. (2011). Short-term and Long-term Health Risks of Nuclear-Power-Plant Accidents. New England Journal of Medicine, 364(24), 2334-2341.
• Clark, N., Chhotray, V., & Few, R. (2013). Global Justice and Disasters. The Geographical Journal, 179(2), 105-113.
• Davodi-Far, M. (2009). Environmental Sustainability and Distributive Justice: Are the Two Compatible? WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 1, 120-231.
• Do, X. B. (2019). Fukushima Nuclear Disaster displacement: How far people moved and determinants of evacuation destinations. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 33, 235-252.
• Drozd, V. M., Saenko, V. A., Brenner, A. V., Drozdovitch, V., Pashkevich, V. I., Kudelsky, A. V., ... & Reiners, C. (2015). Major Factors Affecting Incidence of Childhood Thyroid Cancer in Belarus After the Chernobyl Accident: Do Nitrates in Drinking Water Play a Role? PLoS One, 10(9), e0137226.
• EUROPA (1998). Convention on Access To Information, Public Participation In Decision-Making And Access To Justice In Environmental Matters. https://unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/env/pp/documents/cep43e.pdf
• Fan, M. F. (2006). Environmental Justice and Nuclear Waste Conflicts in Taiwan. Environmental Politics, 15(03), 417-434.
• Ho, S. S., & Kristiansen, S. (2019). Environmental Debates over Nuclear Energy: Media, Communication, and the Public. Environmental Communication, 13(4), 431-439.
• Hoffman, S. M. (2001). Negotiating Eternity: Energy Policy, Environmental Justice, and the Politics of Nuclear Waste. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 21(6), 456-472.
• Hofrichter, R. (ed.) (1993). Toxic Struggles: The Theory and Practice of Environmental Justice. Philadelphia: New Society.
• Huang, G. C. L., Gray, T., & Bell, D. (2013). Environmental Justice of Nuclear Waste Policy in Taiwan: Taipower, Government, and Local Community. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 15(6), 1555-1571.
• i Batlle, J. V., Aoyama, M., Bradshaw, C., Brown, J., Buesseler, K. O., Casacuberta, N., ... & Nishikawa, J. (2018). Marine Radioecology after the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Accident: Are We Better Positioned to Understand the Impact of Radionuclides in Marine Ecosystems? Science of the Total Environment, 618, 80-92.
• Kaswan, A. (1997). Environmental Justice: Bridging the Gap Between Environmental Laws and Justice. American University Law Review, 47(2), 221-301.
• Kaswan, A. (2003). Distributive justice and the environment. North Carolina Law Review, 81(3), 1031-1148.
• Kinly III, D. (2006). Chernobyl's legacy: Health, environmental and socio-economic impacts and recommendations to the Governments of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine. https://inis.iaea.org/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/36/093/36093263.pdf?r=1
• Komissarova, O., & Paramonova, T. (2019). Land Use in Agricultural Landscapes with Chernozems Contaminated After Chernobyl Accident: Can We be Confident in Radioecological Safety Of Plant Foodstuff? International Soil and Water Conservation Research, 7(2), 158-166.
• Kortetmäki, T. (2016). Is Broad the New Deep in Environmental Ethics?: A Comparison of Broad Ecological Justice and Deep Ecology. Ethics & the Environment, 21(1), 89-108.
• Kyne, D., & Bolin, B. (2016). Emerging Environmental Justice Issues in Nuclear Power and Radioactive Contamination. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 13(7), 700.
• Lawrence, R. L., Daniels, S. E., & Stankey, G. H. (1997). Procedural Justice and Public Involvement in Natural Resource Decision Making. Society & Natural Resources, 10:6, 577-589
• Mann, C. L., Gillezeau, C. N., Massazza, A., Lyons, D. J., Tanaka, K., Yonekura, K., ... & Katz, C. L. (2018). Fukushima triple disaster and the road to recovery: A qualitative exploration of resilience in internally displaced residents. Psychiatric Quarterly, 89(2), 383-397.
• Millner, F. (2011). Access to environmental justice. Deakin Law Review, 16(1), 189-207.
• Pedersen, O. W. (2010). Environmental Principles and Environmental Justice. Environmental Law Review, 12(1), 26-49.
• Petryna, A. (2013). Life Exposed: Biological Citizens After Chernobyl. New Jersey, Princeton University Press.
• Pilat, J. F. (1982). Democracy or discontent? Ecologists in the European Electoral Arena. Government and Opposition, 17(2), 222-233.
• Saenko, V., Ivanov, V., Tsyb, A., Bogdanova, T., Tronko, M., Demidchik, Y., & Yamashita, S. (2011). The Chernobyl Accident and Its Consequences. Clinical Oncology, 23(4), 234-243.
• Schlosberg, D. (2009). Defining Environmental Justice: Theories, Movements, and Nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Schwartz, J. A. (2006). International nuclear third-party liability law: The response to Chernobyl. International nuclear law in the Post-Chernobyl period. https://www.oecd-nea.org/law/chernobyl/SCHWARTZ.pdf
• Shibata, Y., Yamashita, S., Masyakin, V. B., Panasyuk, G. D., & Nagataki, S. (2001). 15 Years After Chernobyl: New Evidence of Thyroid Cancer. The Lancet, 358(9297), 1965-1966.
• Smith, J. T., & Beresford, N. A. (2005). Chernobyl: Catastrophe and Consequences. New York: Springer.
• Steinhauser, G., Brandl, A., & Johnson, T. E. (2014). Comparison of the Chernobyl and Fukushima Nuclear Accidents: A Review of the Environmental Impacts. Science of the Total Environment, 470, 800-817.
• Stevis, D. (2000). Whose Ecological Justice? Strategies: Journal of Theory, Culture & Politics, 13(1), 63-76.
• Strelau, L., & Köckler, H. (2016). “It's Optional, not Mandatory”: Environmental Justice in Local Environmental Agencies in Germany. Local Environment, 21(10), 1215-1229.
• Taira, W., Nohara, C., Hiyama, A., & Otaki, J. M. (2014). Fukushima’s Biological Impacts: The Case of the Pale Grass Blue Butterfly. Journal of Heredity, 105(5), 710-722.
• UN (1992, August 12). Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/generalassembly/docs/globalcompact/A_CONF.151_26_Vol.I_Declaration.pdf
• Walker, G. P., & Bulkeley, H. (2006). Geographies of Environmental Justice. Geoforum, 37(5), 655-659.
• Weston, B. H. (2012). The Theoretical Foundations of Intergenerational Ecological Justice: An Overview. Human Rights Quarterly, 34(1), 251-266.
• Wissenburg, M. (2006). Global and Ecological Justice: Prioritising Conflicting Demands. Environmental Values, 15(4), 425-439.
• Wissenburg, Marcel. 1998. Green Liberalism: The Free and the Green Society. London: Routledge
• World Health Organization (2005). Chernobyl: the true scale of the accident. https://www.who.int/news/item/05-09-2005-chernobyl-the-true-scale-of-the-accident
• Yablokov, A. V., Nesterenko, V. B., Nesterenko, A. V., & Sherman-Nevinger, J. D. (Eds.). (2010). Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment. Boston: John Wiley & Sons.
• Yang, T. (2001). Environmental Regulation, Tort Law and Environmental Justice: What Could Have Been. Washburn Law Journal, 41, 607-628.