The Chernobyl Accident

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The Chernobyl Accident
2
Where is Chernobyl?
-In Northern Ukraine -10 miles away from
Belarus -80 miles North of Kiev
3
What happened?
Saturday, April 26, 1986 -A nuclear reactor
exploded!!
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• 190 tons of highly radioactive uranium and
  graphite were expelled into the atmosphere
  through a radioactive fire that burned for 10
  days.
• Radioactive material was carried by the wind and
  rain into large areas of Belarus, Russia, and
  Ukraine. The result was an international
  ecological, medical, and economic calamity.

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Evacuation
-Following the accident hundreds of thousands of
people had to be evacuated and between 1990 and
1995 an additional 210,000 people were resettled.
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http//www.ki4u.com/potassium-iodide.htm
West and Northwest Winds carried radiation
http//www.metoffice.com/environment/serv4.html
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The Clean Up

• Liquidators
• These were firemen who helped put out the fires
  and helped clean up the radiation
• Most did not realize the dangers of radiation.
• Many later died from radiation, because they
  didnt wear protection.
• An estimated 8,000-20,000 to date have died (20
  from suicide)
• Robots
• United States supplied
• Specifically designed to enter reactor core and
  help build the sarcophagus

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Medical Impact

• Over 70 of the radiation fell on the people of
  Belarus. They have been exposed to radioactivity
  90 times greater than that released by the
  Hiroshima bomb the highest known exposure to
  radiation in the history of the atomic age.

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Medical Impact (cont.)

• Kofi Annan, Secretary General for the United
  Nations, said in 2001 that the legacy of
  Chernobyl will be with us, and our descendants,
  for generations to come. At least 3 million
  children require physical treatment, and not
  until 2016 will we know the full medical impact.

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Effects of Radiation
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The Chernobyl disaster on the health of their
people

• Children were much more affected by Chernobyl and
  the radiation, due to their weaker immune
  systems.
• 100 increase in the incidence of cancer and
  leukemia
• 250 increase in birth deformities
• 1,000 increase in suicide in the contaminated
  zones

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• Chernobyl AIDS--the term doctors are using to
  describe illnesses associated with the damage
  done to the immune system.

Chernobyl Heart Documentary
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Environmental Impact

• Almost 400,000 people environmental refugees
  have been forced to leave their homes as a result
  of the explosion.
• Over 2,000 towns and villages were bulldozed
  to the ground following the accident.

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Other problems

• Food Water
• MilkFarmers have to watch the radiation level in
  milk.
• FishCannot be eaten, as water absorbs radiation
  and fats concentrate it
• Radioactive Floods every spring
• Many animals are dying as well from the radiation
• Lives ruined
• Suicide and depression
• Even healthy people were traumatized

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• 25 of prime Belarussian farmland and forests
  will remain dangerously contaminated for the next
  25,000 years. The food and water supply is
  continually contaminated by rainfall and the
  movement of radioactive dust.
• 97 of the radioactive material from the
  Chernobyl plant remains inside the crumbling
  sarcophagus. According to a 2003 report by the
  Russian Atomic Energy Minister, Alexander
  Rumyantsev, "the concrete shell surrounding the
  Chernobyl nuclear reactor is in real danger of
  collapsing at any time."

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Living in the contaminated zone in Belarus today

• People must change their clothes twice a day, and
  may not walk in the woods for more than two hours
  a month.
• Radiation level charts are printed in the
  newspapers and dictate decisions such as whether
  children can be allowed out to play.
• People are told to wash food at least five times
  in clean water, but nobody is told where this
  clean water is to be found.
• Most people find it impossible to follow these
  nearly impossible instructions, so they simply
  give up trying.
• There are also housing shortages in Belarus and
  the rest of the ex-Soviet Union. This is a
  problem because people have a hard time moving
  out of the contaminated zone, since there are no
  other places to live.

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Chernobyl Today

• The plant has been shut down by Ukraine.
• (Dec. 2000)
• The cement sarcophagus build to contain spreading
  is falling apart, due to the quick emergency
  construction of it.
• The UN estimates that up to 9 million people have
  been affected directly or indirectly by the
  fallout.
• The full consequences will not be seen for at
  least another 50 years.