Chernobyl Disaster

This extract from htp://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf05.html gives some idea of the radiation effects. I have also included a few sentences on general radiation effect background

The March 1979 accident at Three Mile Island in the US caused some people near the plant to receive very minor doses of radiation, well under the internationally recommended level. Subsequent scientific studies found no evidence of any harm resulting from that exposure. In 1996, some 2,100 lawsuits claiming adverse health effects from the accident were dismissed for lack of evidence. Immediately after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, much larger doses were experienced. All of the 22 who received more than 6,000 mSv died. Seven of the 23 who received 4,000-6,000 mSv also died, as did one of the 158 receiving 1,000-4,000 mSv. The main casualties were among the firefighters, including those who rapidly put out the initial small fires on the roof of the building. Apart from the residents of nearby Pripyat, who were evacuated within two days, some 24,000 people living within 15 km of the plant received an average of 450 mSv before they were evacuated. In June 1989 a group of experts from the World Health Organisation agreed that an incremental long term dose of 350 mSv should be the criterion for relocating people affected by the 1986 Chernobyl accident. This was considered a "conservative value which ensured that the risk to health from this exposure was very small compared with other risks over a lifetime". (For comparison, background radiation averages about 100-200 mSv over a lifetime in most places.) Over 100,000 people were relocated away from Chernobyl. About 185,000 people received significant radiation exposure, above 20 mSv, between 1986 and 1989. These continue to be monitored. In 1995 the World Health Organisation linked nearly 700 cases of thyroid cancer among children and adolescents to the Chernobyl accident, including 10 which resulted in death. So far no increase in leukaemia is discernable, but this is expected to become evident in the next few years. There has been no increase attributable to Chernobyl in congenital abnorm-alities, adverse pregnancy outcomes or any other radiation-induced disease in the general population either in the contaminated areas or further afield. After the shelter was built over the destroyed reactor at Chernobyl, a team of about 15 engineers and scientists was set up to investigate the situation inside it. Over several years they repeatedly entered the ruin, accumulating doses of up to 15,000 mSv. Daily dose was mostly restricted to 50 mSv, though occasionally it was many times this. None of the men developed any symptoms of radiation sickness, but they must be considered to have a considerably increased cancer risk. Cancer Risks From Radiation Studies of populations exposed to radiation doses in excess of natural background have yielded information on the risk of cancer. The risk associated with large radiation doses is relatively well established. However, the risks associated with doses under about 200 mSv are less obvious because of the large underlying incidence of cancer caused by other factors. Risks for exposures under about 100 mSv are assumed rather than demonstrated. . Epidemiological studies continue on the survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, involving some 76,000 people exposed at levels ranging up to more than 5,000 mSv. These have shown that radiation is the likely cause of several hundred deaths from cancer, in addition to the normal incidence found in any population. From this data the ICRP and others estimate the fatal cancer risk as 5% per Sievert exposure for a population of all ages, so that one person in 20 exposed to it could be expected to develop a fatal cancer some years later. In western countries, about a quarter of people die from cancers, with smoking, dietary factors, genetic factors and strong sunlight being among the main causes. Radiation is a weak carcinogen, but undue exposure can certainly increase health risks. In 1990 the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) found no evidence of any increase in cancer mortality among people living near to 62 major nuclear facilities. The NCI study was the broadest of its kind ever conducted and supported similar studies conducted elsewhere in the US as well as in Canada and Europe.

See also University of Michigan Radiation & Health Physics home page and material and the Health Physics Society's Radiation factsheets and position & policy papers. ----

Sources:

World Nuclear Association, Radiation and Life.

KSU (Sweden) Bakgrund (1990, 91) The consequences of the Chernobyl Accident in the Soviet Union.

NRPB Radiation Protection Bulletin # 167, July 1995, pp 13-16.

Human error at any level of technology development or use is the biggest cause of major accidents with the technology, regardless of type of technology.

The population of Chernobyl - city - is 500.

Chernobyl started from an inherently unstable design, it's considered a breeder reactor, really good at making weapons grade plutonium but functionally unstable. The actual incident occurred during testing of the reactor to see how far it could be pushed.

During the year of 1986 the Chernobyl nuclear power plant that the 4th reactor melted down and formed a radioactive cloud spreading deadly radiation throught the northern Ukrainian and some parts of Russia and it all happened in Chernobyl,Ukraine. The cloud sickened and killed over 3,000 citizens and deformed many more. There are many birth defects in that area today due to the high levels of radiation. The huge population of 50,000 in Pripyat was reduced to an abandoned city. There was a flawed reactor design had also caused a steam explosion and fires releasing about 5% of the radio reactor core into the atmosphere.

Reading Dean Ing's book "Pulling Through", including the appendix, well before such an event would help a lot.

nuclear waste went everywhere and little wittle babies died :'(

In response to the Chernobyl disaster in April 1986, Soviet authorities initially attempted to downplay the severity of the incident, but they eventually mobilized a massive emergency response. Emergency workers, including firefighters and soldiers, were dispatched to contain the fire and manage the radioactive fallout, despite facing significant health risks. The surrounding area was evacuated, and a 30-kilometer exclusion zone was established to protect residents from radiation exposure. Internationally, the disaster prompted increased scrutiny of nuclear safety protocols and led to significant changes in global nuclear policies.

The Chernobyl disaster took place in 1986.

Because the world's worst nuclear reactor accident happened there. The reactor involved (a Soviet designed RBMK graphite moderated reactor) had many serious safety related design flaws, had been built in a rush to meet schedule deadlines without first having completed all safety related testing, and was undergoing a poorly planned and not properly reviewed test under the control of people with no knowledge of nuclear reactor principles (the man in charge of the test was only trained in hydroelectric dam principles).

This was a setting for disaster and disaster was what they got. Skipping over the details: the reactor became unstable and impossible to control during the test, it experienced a sudden power surge, a steam explosion resulted which blasted the roof off the reactor building (no containment building existed in RBMKs), with hot graphite exposed to air the graphite ignited, the smoke from the graphite fire carried radioactive debris from the damaged core across Europe and eventually around the world. Hundreds of firefighters died of radiation poisoning from the exposure they got in trying to extinguish the burning graphite and other fires nearby that had been started by chunks of burning graphite thrown from the reactor in the blast.

The surrounding land is slowly reverting to nature and has become a wildlife preserve, protected from human intrusion by the radioactivity.

The most affected towns were Chernobyl and Prypiat.

The area where the city of Chernobyl is, is highly radioactive after the nuclear disaster at the nearby power plant in 1986. A few people still live in the city, but the power plant is abandoned as is the nearby city Pripyat.

The explosion at the plant had happened before the Soviet Government were aware of it. They were criticised afterwards for not going public for several days, but it is doubtful if this made any real difference to the course of events. Resources were made available to back up local efforts-like helicopters to drop sealing material onto the pilecap.

it spread all around the world, even in US and Canada, that is the reason we have the problem with Autism

The above is not quite true. The main fall-out spread in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. However there were detections of low fall-out at a nuclear plant in Sweden, over 1,000 km away! The City located neat to the Chernobyl site, which I believe was called Pripyat or something similar was evacuated, and abandoned. People left many belongings as at the time they believed they were being evacuated only as a temporary measure.

Radiation levels have dropped considerably at the abandoned City now.

The United States were not affected in any way by the radiation spread.

In the USSR people felt betrayed, which was one thing that contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union 5 years later.

This question refers to the meltdown of the Chernobyl reactor in 1986 near Pripyat, Ukraine, in the then Soviet Union. Chernobyl quickly became a transnational and international tragedy as it effected millions within and outside the Soviet Union. It was specifically global as radioactive materials were detected virtually throughout the globe traceable to the Chernobyl reactor, As of September 2014, neighboring countries such as Belarus continue to suffer from radiation exposure from the tragedy,

No, nothing happened like melting of people in Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident.

The reactor(s) at Chernobyl are fission reactors, and fission of fuel and fission products following the fire and the overheating of the core melted it down.

The Chernobyl Power Complex refers to the nuclear power plant that used to be in Chernobyl, Ukraine. It operated with four nuclear reactors to supply power to the region.

1986, the same year as the Challenger Space Shuttle explosion.