subject: Chernobyl Revisited [print this page] Chernobyl Revisited Chernobyl Revisited
While Japan is trying to cope with a nuclear threat, lots of people are revisiting to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Government authorities in Japan down play the amount of radiation in surrounding areas. However radiation has already contaminated nearby farms.
In the Ukraine, the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl had four working reactors when an accident took place on 26th April, just as the site in Japan has 4 reactors.
The accident in Chernobyl was generated from a combination of faulty action on the part of the operators and basic engineering deficiencies in the reactor. The safety systems had been turned off and the plant was operating under unstable conditions, which permitted an uncontrollable power surge.
A sequence of explosions severely destroyed the reactor building, followed by fires. With the total destruction of the reactor, huge quantities of radioactive materials were spewed out over a ten day period. This created a radioactive cloud with spread across most of Europe.
One thousand emergency workers, who were on the site in the first days of the accident, received the highest doses of radiation. Roughly 60,000 people have been involved in containment cleaning and recovery operations since the accident.
Around 15-30,000 people died in the aftermath. Thousands of workers, involved in the Chernobyl cleanup, have died from the after-effects, according to Union-Chernobyl-Ukraine. Over 2.5 million Ukrainians experienced health problems related to the Chernobyl blast, with 80,000 receiving a pension.
It took until December 2000 for the Chernobyl nuclear site to be permanently closed down. Over 5 million people still dwell in zones that are now considered to be contaminated'.
High levels of radiation still come from the damaged reactor. Scientists think it will take up to 900 years before the area around Chernobyl could once more be declared safe.
Radiation can be taken in through several different ways. Firstly there is radiation that comes from radioactive materials dumped on the ground. Then it can be breathed in through the air. Radiation can be deposited through rain from clouds that have been exposed to radioactive material and lastly people can become radiated from eating and drinking radioactive materials in food and water.
