The Legal Heritage of the Atom 155
the children of those affected, who have also suffered lifelong health damage.
Their claims are limited up to the age of 18. In contrast, the claims of subsequent generations of injured people are not limited to the Chernobyl Act. 73
In Russia, several court cases have taken place in which the question was
examined of whether radioactivity can change the genetic makeup of a person. Whole families were examined by geneticists of the Russian Academy
of Sciences and the scientists were able to clearly identify the genetic changes
that are associated with a high risk of malformation in future generations
of children. In the case of a severely damaged child, a Chelyabinsk court
even awarded the parents 5 million rubles in compensation at the expense
of the company “Mayak.” 74 There are general demands on the Russian state
to extend the circle of children to be compensated to children of the third
and subsequent generations. In addition, nationwide data on the number of
victims of radioactive radiation, illness and death statistics, shall be collected
and made public. 75
Unlike in Ukraine, there are hardly any monuments to the liquidators of
the Chelyabinsk accident in Russia today. In the city center of Chelyabinsk,
it is not the nuclear accident of 1957 or the radioactive contamination of
Techa River that is commemorated, but the head of the Soviet nuclear bomb
program, Igor Kurchatov, admired by the population as a national hero. In
Russia, the victims of radioactive radiation are not seen as victims of an inhuman Soviet system, but as individuals who have fallen into the “zone of influence of unfavorable factors,” according to the Russian text of the law. 76 This
can partly be explained by the still widespread view that individual victims
had to bear the consequences of the development of the nuclear shield that
effectively protected all Soviet citizens. Russia, however, is by no means an
isolated case. Also, in the USA, newborns, who were born within the sphere
of influence of the American nuclear test site in Nevada and suffered from
severe handicaps, were for a long time called “sacrifice babies.” 77 And even
victims of the US nuclear tests on the Marshall Islands have only been able to
obtain compensation payments from the American state since the 1980s with
the help of class action suits. 78
Kazakhstan, with regard to its nuclear test ground in Semipalatinsk, chose
a different way of legal classifications and also used different threshold values.
In Kazakhstan, radiation exposure is increased over an area of 350,000 square
kilometers (one-tenth of the country’s total area) with a population of over
one million. At the nuclear test site in the steppe region, less than 200 kilometers from the city of Semipalatinsk (now Semey), the Soviet Union detonated 456 nuclear bombs between 1949 and 1989 (extensive atmospheric and
underground nuclear testing). In addition, Kazakhstan has other sources of
increased radiation exposure, such as the smaller test sites in Azgir, Lira, and
Galit, where non-military nuclear tests were carried out, or the approximately
400,000 tons of radioactively contaminated overburden from uranium mining, which has accumulated in more than 100 places during the extraction of
uranium ore. 79 The “fast breeder” in Aktau (formerly Shevchenko), 80 which
the children of those affected, who have also suffered lifelong health damage.
Their claims are limited up to the age of 18. In contrast, the claims of subsequent generations of injured people are not limited to the Chernobyl Act. 73
In Russia, several court cases have taken place in which the question was
examined of whether radioactivity can change the genetic makeup of a person. Whole families were examined by geneticists of the Russian Academy
of Sciences and the scientists were able to clearly identify the genetic changes
that are associated with a high risk of malformation in future generations
of children. In the case of a severely damaged child, a Chelyabinsk court
even awarded the parents 5 million rubles in compensation at the expense
of the company “Mayak.” 74 There are general demands on the Russian state
to extend the circle of children to be compensated to children of the third
and subsequent generations. In addition, nationwide data on the number of
victims of radioactive radiation, illness and death statistics, shall be collected
and made public. 75
Unlike in Ukraine, there are hardly any monuments to the liquidators of
the Chelyabinsk accident in Russia today. In the city center of Chelyabinsk,
it is not the nuclear accident of 1957 or the radioactive contamination of
Techa River that is commemorated, but the head of the Soviet nuclear bomb
program, Igor Kurchatov, admired by the population as a national hero. In
Russia, the victims of radioactive radiation are not seen as victims of an inhuman Soviet system, but as individuals who have fallen into the “zone of influence of unfavorable factors,” according to the Russian text of the law. 76 This
can partly be explained by the still widespread view that individual victims
had to bear the consequences of the development of the nuclear shield that
effectively protected all Soviet citizens. Russia, however, is by no means an
isolated case. Also, in the USA, newborns, who were born within the sphere
of influence of the American nuclear test site in Nevada and suffered from
severe handicaps, were for a long time called “sacrifice babies.” 77 And even
victims of the US nuclear tests on the Marshall Islands have only been able to
obtain compensation payments from the American state since the 1980s with
the help of class action suits. 78
Kazakhstan, with regard to its nuclear test ground in Semipalatinsk, chose
a different way of legal classifications and also used different threshold values.
In Kazakhstan, radiation exposure is increased over an area of 350,000 square
kilometers (one-tenth of the country’s total area) with a population of over
one million. At the nuclear test site in the steppe region, less than 200 kilometers from the city of Semipalatinsk (now Semey), the Soviet Union detonated 456 nuclear bombs between 1949 and 1989 (extensive atmospheric and
underground nuclear testing). In addition, Kazakhstan has other sources of
increased radiation exposure, such as the smaller test sites in Azgir, Lira, and
Galit, where non-military nuclear tests were carried out, or the approximately
400,000 tons of radioactively contaminated overburden from uranium mining, which has accumulated in more than 100 places during the extraction of
uranium ore. 79 The “fast breeder” in Aktau (formerly Shevchenko), 80 which