For Valentina Burakova – a 69 year old victim, the word Djinn has a special significance. She uses it often to describe what happened in Chernobyl on the 26th of April 1986. On being asked whether she holds any grudges against those responsible, she humbly replies, “That day, the Djinn got out of the bottle. Everything is fine until the Djinn escapes.” The Djinn she refers to is the radioactive dust that engulfed her life and left an everlasting mark.
Being a woman of science, Valentina, had a question before the Chernobyl accident, similar to those being asked in Jaitapur right now. At that time, it was not a difficult question for her to answer. The USSR was investing heavily in technology and the development of an indigenous reactor was a proud moment in her time. Hence the answer was obvious. Ask her that question now and she responds, “Maybe we were not ready for it then.”
Both Valentina and her husband worked at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Valentia worked at the chemical lab while her husband was a senior engineer at the radiation safety department. After the incident, Valentina’s husband was asked to stay back with many others who were tasked with the responsibility to put the Djinn back into the bottle.
But once the Djinn is out, it’s impossible to put it back in.
In India, these Djinns have escaped many times. Most of them have gone unnoticed. The accidents in India were nowhere near to what happened in Chernobyl and what is happening now in Japan. But things did happen on a smaller scale.
Like in November 2009, fifty five employees consumed radioactive material after tritiated water found its way into the drinking water cooler in Kaiga Generation Station in Karnataka. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) attributed this incident to ‘an insider’s mischief’. Or like in April 2010 Atomic Energy Regulatory Body (AERB) termed Mayapuri area in Delhi free from cobalt 60 contamination when it was clearly contaminated. It was only after Greenpeace highlighted the scale of contamination that AERB was forced to come and decontaminate the area.
The thing about the Djinns is that it’s a fairytale concept. In some cultures it represents the good, and in some it represents the bad. It’s a fairytale manifestation of a human emotion and imagination.
In a scientific world, Djinns have no meaning. For the people of Chernobyl, the Djinn did change their life forever.
What surprises me is that in the name of development, the keepers of science are the very people who are ignoring and shying away from answering the right questions. So then with whom should the people believe and trust their lives?
In the case of Jaitapur, the questions relating to radioactive waste management have not been answered. The fact that 90 earthquakes have occurred in 20 years around Jaitapur does not mean anything to them. So now who should the people of Jaitapur turn to, the government, the scientist or the Djinn?
For India, Chernobyl and Japan could be a lesson if we choose to learn from them. Maybe in India we don’t need bottles with Djinns inside. Maybe we need something else. Maybe we need to explore the other route of alternative energy which Germany, China and other countries have taken.
Image 1: Valentina Burakova with her husband. © Hozefa Merchant/Greenpeace
Image 2: Action at the nuclear power plant at Tihange on the 10th anniversary of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in the Ukraine. Belgium.
© Greenpeace / Lieve Blanckaert.