The potential for a worse disaster than Chernobyl, which could affect much of Europe, was "greater than ever", the director of the Chernobyl Children's Project said last night.
Ms Adi Roche was speaking at the UN in New York at the opening of a multicultural art exhibition, assembled to mark the 15th anniversary of the disaster.
The Cork-based Chernobyl Children's Project was asked by the UN to host the opening of the exhibition, Black Wind, White Land: Living With Chernobyl, which brings together the photography, paintings and digital imagery of 17 artists from Ireland, Sweden, Britain, Belarus and the US.
The disaster happened on April 26th, 1986, when an explosion occurred at the plant in the Ukraine.
That explosion sent 190 tonnes of uranium and graphite into the atmosphere, and radioactive fallout has affected nine million people in the Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Some three million of these are children.
The air and soil have been contaminated with radioactivity, making the former "bread basket" of the former Soviet Union a wasteland. According to a spokeswoman for the Chernobyl Children's Project, the sarcophagus - the mass of concrete which was hastily constructed after the disaster to encase the exploded reactor - was now "in danger of imminent collapse".
"The sarcophagus is porous and has been crumbling and leaking radiation on a daily basis," she said. The Chernobyl Children's Project has so far sent almost £19 million in aid to the affected regions around Chernobyl and has helped to bring 8,200 children to Ireland for medical and psychological attention.
Also attending last night's opening in New York was Minister of State Ms Liz O'Donnell. The Government's development aid programme, Ireland Aid, has contributed towards the cost of the exhibition, which was opened by the deputy secretary general of the UN, Ms Jennifer Fourchett.
Ms O'Donnell paid tribute to Ms Roche and the project volunteers, noting that Ireland had contributed more per capita to the relief of Chernobyl than any other nation in the world. More than 4,000 killed and 70,000 disabled: page 11.