Radioactivity spewed by the April 26, 1986 explosion of Chernobyl's fourth reactor contaminated most of Europe, where it sparked a debate on the problems and dangers of nuclear development.

For Ukrainians, however, the tragedy's consequences had more of a political resonance than an ecological one -- five years before the downfall of the Soviet Union, Chernobyl exposed the lies and irresponsibility of the Soviet authorities charged with dealing with the crisis.

But although cases of cancer of the thyroid multiplied tenfold since 1986, Ukraine's population, a quarter of which lives below poverty level, is more concerned about daily survival than "ecology which is an abstract notion," said Olga Honcharenko, expert in Kiev's international sociology institute (KMIS).

According to a poll by KMIS, environmental problems place only 12th on the population's list of priorities.

Ukraine still has 13 nuclear reactors in four power stations, which produce nearly 45 percent of the national energy output.

Meanwhile the government has met little resistance in its plans to soon complete the construction of two VVER nuclear reactors -- a Russian design whose safety has been questioned in the West -- and its plans to build a third thereafter.

The political party who could logically raise such concerns on a national level -- Ukraine's Green party -- has lost electoral trust because voters see it as having colluded with industrial bosses, analysts say.

With 30,000 officially registered members, the Greens are the largest ecology party in Ukraine. They won 5.43 percent of the vote during the 1998 legislative elections -- but four years later failed to even enter parliament, scraping a meager 1.3 percent.

While the Greens explain this setback by a poor electoral strategy, others see it as a well-deserved punishment for inaction and accuse the party of colluding with industrial bosses who own heavily-polluting factories.

The Greens' electoral list of 2002 in fact included Vasyl Khmelnitsky, who controls the important steel producer Zaporizhstal, and Olexander Koval, former chief of the iron alloy factory of Nikopol.

"They have discredited the Greens' ideology by selling places on their list," said Yuri Shzherbak, who had created the party in 1990 and headed it until 1992.

Vitaly Kononov, current leader of the Greens, dismisses such charges, saying that all party members "behaved properly and voted like the party asked them to."

The long-haired Kononov said that the party's current priorities were fighting against genetically-modified products and boosting the quality of drinking water -- nuclear energy did not figure on the list.

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