16 Temmuz 2019 Salı

Dark turizmin karanlık tarafı: Çernobil

Apartmana girerken iki gencin sohbeti kulağıma çalınıyor:“Daha Çernobil’e başlamadım, izleyeceğim nasip kısmet olursa…”
Dünya çapında izlenme rekorları kıran Çernobil dizisinin, kitle iletişim teknolojilerinin de etkisiyle nükleer karşıtlarının başaramadığı kadar Çernobil üzerine konuşmayı teşvik ettiği; her kültürden, yaştan, siyasi görüşten insana ulaştığı aşikar. Nükleer karşıtlarının başaramadığı kadar diyorum çünkü dizinin senaristi ve yapımcısı Craig Mazin verdiği röportajlarda kendisinin nükleer karşıtı olmadığını, bilakis nükleeri desteklediğini ifade etmişti. Mazin’in bu beyanlarına istinaden ben de meseleyi bir nükleer yanlısının neden böyle bir dizinin yapımcılığına soyunmuş olabileceğini tartıştığım ve dizinin zamanlamasına  dikkat çektiğim şu yazıyı kaleme almıştım. Derken 10 Temmuz’da Çernobil dizisinde konu edilen Çernobil’in “resmen” turistik bölge olduğunu okuduk gazetelerde. Büyük tesadüftü doğrusu, ama Ukrayna Hükümeti de Çernobil’in gizeminin, albenisinin artmasından yararlanmayacak değildi ya! Yoksa tersi mi geçerli ? Dizi ile Çernobil seyahatinin reklamının yapılması amaçlanmış olabilir mi?

Çernobil’in “resmen” turizm bölgesi olduğunun ilan edildiği 10 Temmuz günü medyaya pek yansımayan bir şey daha oldu: Çernobil Nükleer Santrali‘nde patlayan 4. reaktörün üzerini kaplaması için 2016 yılında European Bank tarafından yürütülen proje kapsamında inşaatına başlanmış olan çelik lahit tamamlandı ve anahtarlar Ukrayna yetkililerine teslim edildi. 36 bin ton ağırlığında, 108 metre yüksekliğinde ve 257 metre genişliğinde olup neredeyse kubbesinin büyüklüğüyle dünyaca meşhur  Berlin Katedrali ile yarışacak dev çelik lahit, 45 bağışçı ülke ve kurum tarafından finanse edilmişti. Büyük kısmı Fransız mühendislik şirketi tarafından gerçekleştirilen inşaatın 2,6 milyar USD maliyetine ek olarak 900 milyon USD de proje yürütücüsü European Bank tarafından karşılanmıştı.  Proje taraflarının da kabul ettiği üzere yalnızca 100 yıllığına radyoaktiviteyi dışarı sızdırmaması umulabilecek çelik lahitin maliyetini üstlenenler, Çernobil’in turizme açılmasını memnuniyetle karşılamış olmalılar…
Dizinin Çernobil’in turizm metası olması yönünde ilgiyi arttırmış olabileceği meselesine dönecek olursak, yaygın kanıya göre reklamın iyisi kötüsü olmaz diyemeyiz elbette! Dizi her ne kadar subliminal mesajlarla faturayı bugün devamlılığı olmayan bir devlet sistemine ve “eski”teknolojiye çıkarıyorsa da onca insanı, canlıyı yaşamdan acılar çektirene çektire koparan, cansız çevreyi dahi öldürücü kılan, normalin milyonlarca katı dozdaki radyoaktiviteydi. O radyoaktivitenin açığa çıkması halinde canlı ve cansız çevrenin aynı akıbete uğramasına neden olacak şekilde risk teşkil ettiği muhakkak! Fakat bunu kim biliyor, kaçımız bu şekilde düşünüyor? Çernobil’i hayatında duymamış, ilk defa diziyle öğrenen, yeni teknolojiyle hatta bilgisayar oyunlarıyla büyüyen gençler sadece Türkiye’de değil dünya çapında “baba akım” medyada yer alan taraflı bilgilerin karanlığında nükleer gerçekleri ne kadar anlamış olabilirler?
Ürün pazarlama stratejisi çerçevesinde mal ve hizmetlere dair bilgilendirme, ikna etme ve hatırlatma fonksiyonlarını işleterek belli bir lokasyonun tanıtılmasını amaçlayan reklamlar tüketiciye ulaşmada kuşkusuz çok önemli bir araçtır. Bu açıdan dizi sayesinde duymayanın kalmadığı ve resmen turizm bölgesi ilan edilen Çernobil’e halihazırda yapılmakta olan turlara bir göz atalım. Çernobil’e ziyaretler; İngilizce’de “dark” turizm, Türkçe’de de hüzün turizmi ya da kara turizm olarak adlandırılıyor.  Akademik araştırmalara göre Türkiye’de Madımak Oteli, Sinop Cezaevi, Çanakkale Şehitliği‘ne yapılan turlar dark turizm  kapsamına giriyor. Dünya genelinde gittikçe popülerleşen bu turizm türü kapsamında Auschwitz‘in başı çektiği en popüler yedi destinasyondan üçünün, nükleer felaketlerin yaşandığı yerler olan Çernobil, Hiroşima ve ABD’nin İkinci Dünya Savaşı sonrasında nükleer testler yapması nedeniyle yoğun radyoaktiviteye maruz bırakıldıkları için yerlilerinin tahliye edilmesiyle insansızlaştırılmış olan Bikini Adası olduğu görülüyor . Ancak bu noktada yeni bir soru kaçınılmaz: İnsanlık tarihinde acılara tanıklık etmiş mekanlara yapılan turların kapsamına, yine acılar çekilmiş olduğu için Çernobil’in ve diğer radyoaktif olarak kirli bulunan bölgelerin dahil edilmesi ne kadar doğru? Bu yazı özelinde sorarsak Çernobil ne kadar güvenli? Zira 26 Nisan 1986 tarihinde patlamış olan 4. reaktörün üzerine bugün çelik lahit yapılmış olsa da, patlamayla birlikte ABD’nin Hiroşima ve Nagasaki’ye atmış olduğu atom bombalarının yaydığı radyasyonun 200 katı atmosfere yayıldığı için turistik addedilen yerlerin hala tehlike barındırdığı rahatlıkla öngörülebilir. Bir nükleer reaktörün içinde oluşan reaksiyonun yarılanma ömrü * birbirinden farklı ve etkisi yüzlerce , binlerce hatta on binlerce yıl devam eden 1500 çeşit radyoizotop bulundurduğu ve tesisten plutonyum elde edildiği nasıl göz ardı edilir?



Ülkemizde Yeni İnsan Yayınevi tarafından yayımlanan Nükleer Enerji Çözüm Değil kitabının da yazarı Dr. Helen Caldicott’a göre de Çernobil nükleer felaketi bitmiş değil. Dr Caldicott’un 4 Temmuz tarihli makalesinde yer verdiği Rus biyolog ve önceden Rusya Cumhurbaşkanının danışmanlığını yapmış olan Dr Alexey Yablokov, Beyaz Rusya’da biyolog ve ekolojist olarak çalışan Alexey Nesterenko ve fizikçi, Beyaz Rusya nükleer Enerji danışmanı Vassili Nesterenko‘nun 2009 yılında birlikte yürüttükleri “Çernobil : Felaketin Çevre ve İnsanlar İçin Sonuçları” adlı araştırmaya göre  milyonlarca insanı radyasyona maruz bırakan Çernobil kaynaklı mağduriyetler devam ediyor. Bunun temel nedeni, etkisi on binlerce yıl sürecek izotopların çevreye yayılması neticesinde Avrupa topraklarının %40’ının radyoaktif olarak kirlenmiş olması. Nitekim Çernobil Araştırması’nın ortaya koyduğu önemli bir tespit; Çernobil Nükleer Felaketi öncesinde Beyaz Rusya‘daki çocukların %90’ının sağlıklıyken bugün yalnızca %20’sinin sağlıklı olduğu ve radyoaktif bölgede bugün 1 milyon çocuğun yaşadığı yönünde. Öte yandan Dr. Caldicott makalesinde Rusya, Ukrayna, Avrupa, İngiltere ile birlikte Türkiye‘nin adını da zikrediyor ve açıkça Çernobil kaynaklı bir çok kurbanın olduğuna ve bu durumun hareket halindeki radyoizotoplarla radyoaktif toprakta yetiştirilen ürünlerin besin zincirine girmesi nedeniyle gelecekte de devam edeceğine dikkat çekiyor. Nitekim 2016 yılında bağımsız bilim insanları tarafından yürütülen bir başka Çernobil araştırmasınınortaya koyduğu gerçek de gelecek 50 yıl içinde 40 bin yeni kanser vakasının olacağını öngörmekte.

Guy Debord, Gösteri Toplumu’nda gerçek dünyanın basit imajlara dönüştüğü yerde, basit imajların da hipnotik bir davranışın etkili motivasyonları haline geldiğinden bahseder. İzleme rekorları kıran dizinin üstüne Çernobil’in “resmen” turizm bölgesi ilan edilmesinin sosyal medya ortamındaki paylaşımlarla birbirini etkileyerek oraya bir turist akınını başlatacağını söylemeye gerek yok. Kimi turizm acentalarının kişi başı 4 bin dolarlara varan fiyatlara sattığı turlar, 2020’ye kadar dolmuş durumda. Çernobil bölgesinin “resmen” turizme açıldığının duyurulması tur sayısıyla birlikte şüphesiz acenteler arası rekabeti  arttıracak. Artan rekabetin karşısında hizmet sunmaya çalışan acenteler tüketicilerini cezbetmek için daha tehlikeli ve girilemeyen yerleri tur kapsamına alıp hizmet çeşitlendirmeye soyunarak işi çılgınlığa vururken bir taraftan da maliyetlerden kaçınacak. Özetle Çernobil’in “resmen” turizme açılmasıyla bugüne kadar görece temkinli yapılan küçük ve aralıklı turların yerini  kitle turizmine bırakması halinde bildiğimiz kapitalizmin imkanlarının “güvenlik” ve “temkinli olmak” manasına gelen ne varsa içini boşaltacağını öngörmek güç değil.
*Yarılanma ömrü : bir radyonuklidin(radyoizotopun) ömrünün azalması için geçmesi gereken sürenin yarısıdır. Örneğin sezyum radyonuklidin (izotopunun) yarı zamanı 30 yıldır. Yarısının yarısı şeklinde devam edecek olan azalmaya göre etkisi en az 300 yılı bulacaktır. Plutonyumun yarılanma ömrü 24 bin yıldır .
(Yeşil Gazete)

13 Temmuz 2019 Cumartesi

The heartbeat of democracy heard in Turkey: reflections of an anti-nuclear activist

A democratic government requires the legislative-executive-judicial powers to function as an independent and free mechanism. Societies can express themselves and protect their rights within the framework of laws and jurisdictions to the extent that they have the conditions of democratic governance. Such a system prevents the ruling minority from having absolute sovereignty over the majority, but an opposite situation entails the elimination of the legal order and the limitation of rights and freedoms in order to legitimize the power of the minority. Plato says that societies are governed in the way that they deserve. In other words, if the majority can not achieve unity and integrity, they may be stuck in the management of minorities.


On DiaNuke pages, you have read my articles about socio-economic aspects of nuclear power plant projects in my country. In these articles, I tried to explain to you how and under which conditions the nuclear power plant projects in my country have been made, and how civil society has responded to these projects which were intended to be established by the directive of governmental power. In doing so, one of my aims is to share the resistance practices and the other is to explain the reality of ongoing nuclear plans in my country in order to bring the attention of the global public. It is a fact that environmental movements have been on the rise since political powers and the companies cooperate to realize investment plans. Especially since 2000, the neoliberal agenda has abolished the laws impeding growth and put the projects into practice ruthlessly. For example, for the first time, international agreements were made to have nuclear power plants established in Turkey. But nuclear power plants emit radiation even in normal operation as well as they may cause a catastrophic crisis in case of an accident that is in turn affected by political decisions and non-transparent management. Nuclear power plants also require high security and have the potential to adversely affect wide geography in the event of a disaster. Due to reshaped law and constitution in an authoritarian regime just like in Turkey, governments conduct their all decisions and plans including nuclear plans despite the opposition of citizens.
Turkey has been ruled by the right-wing Islamic formation, the Justice and Development Party(AKP), since 2002. Recep Tayyip Erdogan who is the head of this party and the President of Turkey today was elected City Mayor in 1994 which means that the 2019 local elections saw the first loss of AKP and Erdogan within the last 25 years. For the first time in the country, the presidential system which was formed by the besieged law and parliamentary administration, obtained a result against the will of Mr Erdogan despite his coalition with the nationalist party (MHP) under the name of Republic Alliance by which the AKP has gained more power than ever and even the parliamentary system was changed to the presidential system. Ekrem Imamoglu was the rival of AKP candidate for 2019 local elections under the group of Nation Alliance, comprised of the center-left CHP (Republican People’s Party) and conservative nationalist Iyi Parti. The success of Imamoglu against the AKP has become an inspiring model for other electoral authoritarianism in the world. International media has generally reflected upon Imamoğlu’s victory through AKP chair & President Erdoğan’s crushing defeat.
According to official local elections which were held on 31 March 2019 after 4 years, Imamoglu received the right to be Mayor but it was not easy to have the understanding and acceptance of the ruling party AKP and President Erdoğan. Since Imamoglu had his own team and worked on counting votes persistently, he proved that he was elected by gaining more votes when compared with votes of the AKP. But maintaining that there is some fraud due to which they lost, the AKP suggested re-election and YSK (High Election Board) who normally should be independent of government announced that re-election for Istanbul would be held on 23 June. The re-election decision caused an extra loss of 40 billion USD due to preparations of a new election and resulted as a management gap for hundreds of, thousands of problems appeared in the city populated by of 16 million. Imamoglu conducted a successful election campaign with his team in Turkish political history, with an incredibly simple slogan: “I will become the mayor of the 16 million living in Istanbul.” He tirelessly stressed his inclusiveness and tried to reach out to all segments of the society regardless of their ethnicity, beliefs, social status, gender, and age. Although he won by a margin of only 13000 on 31 March 2019, this time around Imamoglu prevailed by 800000 votes in the election on 23 June 2019. Kurdish opposition and some courageous members of the long ineffective CHP who together ignited the fire of a viable opposition in Turkey were instrumental in Imamoğlu’s victory. In fact, Imamoglu’s victory would be an answer of the discontent of the low-middle class who have been fighting against economic crisis, inflation, unemployment, and many other socio-economic problems as well as journalists, academics and civils being under pressure of the AKP regime. Environmentalists were also in this group as their opposition against devastating projects have been ignored and were unhappy for a long time especially with dirty energy investments.
The first and the most progressing nuclear power plant project of Turkey, Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant Project raised concerns about transparency surrounding its development more than ever in April 2019 due to shocking news about cracks in the under-construction reactor. According to the information leaked by the Russian media, there were cracks in the Akkuyu construction for the second time! In July 2018, soon after the opening ceremony took place for the construction, and again in April, there were cracks found in the basement. The basement had to be broken and the concrete was reloaded. It was then found that the public was never informed about it till TAEK found the cracks again in May 2019. As far as we know, Akkuyu had to redo the design. One of the main problems is we still have not received any formal explanation from our government regarding those cracks. According to the scientists and geologists, the reason why cracks happened is supposed to be the ground which is totally inappropriatefor construction. While the parliamentarians made a parliamentary research proposal on the cracks in the construction of Akkuyu Nuclear power Plant, non-governmental organizations made a press statement and requested an explanation from the political power and institutions. In fact, experts and specialists have long been warning the government to cancel the nuclear power plant project due to seismic faultlines in the region. These cracks are not the ones to be ignored since a very strong faultline is located just 30 kilometers away. Additionally, there was supposed to be another faultline close to Cyprus which is just 90 kilometers away. Again according to geologists, there used to be big earthquakes of 9 magnitude even tsunamis every 10 thousand years in this region. It has been reminded to the government and the court which were opened against the project that scientists in Fukushima stated about the presence of new faultlines when new technology is used to detect. But all warnings and oppositions were refused directly at the court 2 years ago.
To finalize, I would like to emphasize that local elections which were confirmed to be won by Imamoglu meant something very precious like some fresh air you get after you are stuck in a closed space or a sign of being alive just like a heartbeat. But victory would not be possible unless all opponents of AKP agree on one target. For this reason, the results of the Istanbul elections show that it is important to perform a comprehensive political approach without excluding cultural, ethnic differences and not polarizing people. Since it has been said that Istanbul is a metropolis and whoever governs Istanbul will govern the whole country next, we believe it is time to raise hope for Turkey. We must strive harder for it. We deserve it!

DiaNuke

The Chernobyl Series , Why Now?

Although it is being criticized as the film trying to blame the USSR and the communist regime for Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, it is mostly seen as an attempt to provide public awareness of the dangers of nuclear power plants around the world. While the Chernobyl memory is getting old, the main purpose of such series might be to deconstruct the facts of Chernobyl nuclear disaster and nuclear industry.


In order to understand and to evaluate the reasons to produce Chernobyl series which has been widely seen in the world and to answer the questions asked to me, I watched the film and read almost all comments and critics in Turkey. In fact, my interest grew more as soon as I noticed that being far from the insight of failure of a government and nuclear power plant the main debate was focused on the opposition against criticism of the Soviet system (USSR). Perhaps this is the reason why this article can be considered as a critique of the critics about the film and will try to show another dimension of the issue. However, Craig Mazin, the writer, and producer of the film, emphasizes in his interviews that this production does not carry an anti-nuclear mission; the wrong reactor design and the privacy policy of Soviet Russia is highlighted as the reasons for the disaster ; and the film reminded me of the BBC documentary on Chernobyl which I watched many years ago are some other reasons for me to write this article.
No wonder, the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe has an important impact on the public awareness of the risks of nuclear power plants. It is a great loss that in the first 10 years after the disaster has started approximately 8 million people have become victims of cancer and some other diseases have been growing in Europe plus, it is not possible to carry out agriculture, forestry and fishing activities in radioactively polluted areas for hundreds of years. Moreover, a scientific research published in 2016 indicates that there will be 40 thousand new cancer cases due to Chernobyl for the next 50 years and it shows that Chernobyl will stay with us for tens or hundreds of years more. Since there has been no scientific study conducted by governmental offices in order to understand the effects of Chernobyl in Turkey, it is difficult to predict future cancer cases for my country. In fact, it is even difficult to understand where cancer cases are concentrated too. The only research on the health effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Turkey was produced by the Turkish Medical Association. It emphasized that there were also some difficulties even in determining where cancer cases occur due to people were not treated in which city or even region they have been living. On the other hand, it has been widely known that contaminated nuts and tea were distributed to citizens for free just like it was done in many other countries. At this point, I kindly invite you to think about why and how it is covered up all over the world.
Despite Soviet Russia government and the nuclear power plant are accused of spreading radiation to the atmosphere, governments and political authorities of other nations whoever did not protect their people from and let them exposed to the spread radiation from Chernobyl must be counted as responsible. In fact, the worldwide communities have seen how negative effects of nuclear power plants were hidden by the administration of the United States (USA) just after the USA dropped the atomic bomb. USA officials kept the records of Japanese people who were exposed to cancer and other diseases without even sharing the results with neither the local authorities nor with the patients themselves. This practice of the USA administration was also formalized in 1959 when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the world-wide top institution, signed an agreement with the World Health Organization (WHO), a non-governmental organization, to undertake to monitor of nuclear health records.
Unfortunately the Fukushima nuclear disaster, which occurred 25 years after the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, once more showed us how the effects of radioactivity on human health and the environment were covered up. This assertion is based in particular on the fact that people released from Fukushima are invited to live permanently in places 20 times higher than the annual radiation limit dose, where they are advised to return to rebuild their homes, or even to be forced to do so because their compensation has been discontinued. However, the fact that tens of millions of people were invited to watch the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, that ball games will be held in Fukushima, shows that the increases in cancer cases after Fukushima have been ignored by both the government in Japan and the world governments and companies that support the Olympic Games, and moreover.
Why now?
Declaring Soviet Russia as the sole perpetrator of the world’s largest nuclear disaster over the Chernobyl series by ignoring nuclear realities to the extent I have described above, shows that the image of the risks on nuclear power plants around the world is tried to be reshaped. It is understood that the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, which the nuclear counterparts used to draw attention to nuclear risks as the Chernobyl memory is getting old each year and can be introduced to the new generations as a product of Soviet Russia by linking them to a state system that does not exist today. Because even though we hear that there are exits from nuclear power plants in Europe after the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, nuclear power plants are introduced as carbonless technologies. We can see a similar effort by pronuclear groups and nuclear industry saying ” Greta go Nuclear! to Greta who called on the worldwide governments to overcome the climate crisis.

DiaNuke

[COP 28] Nükleer enerjinin COP kararına girmesinin arka planı

  Küresel ısınmanın önlenmesi için ilki 1995 yılında gerçekleştirilen  COP  toplantılarının 28’incisine fosil yakıtlardan çıkışa dair somut ...