TT: The Chernobyl nuclear disaster that took place in April 1986 has been regarded as the world's worst nuclear power accident. While Taiwan has seen heated debates over the construction of a new nuclear power plant, what do you think Taiwan can learn from the Ukrainian experience in handling the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster?
Kravchuk: You are not the only nation in the world that debates this problem. For example, Germany also experienced the same domestic fight. And as you know, last December we closed a nuclear power station because we received requests and demands both internally and from other European nations. From the financial point of view, we definitely lost a lot. My conclusion is that if nuclear reactors are not safe, we can't allow the building of new nuclear reactors. They have to be 100 percent safe.
Two million children in the Ukraine were affected by the Chernobyl disaster. We lost hundreds of thousands of hectares of the richest land in the world. We have problems with water purity. We have problems with [contaminated] land and air. These are environmental problems we faced. For many years to come, we will be unable to predict the consequences for our health and the health of our neighboring countries. But we can say for sure that the number of cancer patients has increased drastically.
Only one nation in the world understands the Ukraine, which is Japan [following the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by nuclear weapons]. Nuclear power is a relatively cheap source of power.
But [developing nuclear power] has unpredictable consequences. Certainly, scientists have come up with a new generation reactors, but what we need is an absolute guarantee that they will be totally safe.
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