Chernobyl Disaster Shinthujah Arulanantham Sheffy Bhayee Gurnish Hothi Thadsha Prabha.

Chernobyl DisasterShinthujah ArulananthamSheffy BhayeeGurnish HothiThadsha Prabha

Introduction• Nuclear accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power

Plant that occurred on April 26, 1986 at 1:23 am in Ukraine near the town of Pripyat during an unauthorized systems test

• The explosion left radioactive dust into the atmosphere of back then known as the Soviet Union.

• A disaster is when its effects include people’s injuries.

• The disaster is the most significant unintentional release of radiation into the environment to date.

• The explosion was sort of inevitable but the actions/mistakes people made beforehand made the disaster worse than it would have been

Reactor 4

What about the animals?• Scientists documented genetic mutations in rodents and

birds following the Chernobyl accident • But scientists disagree over whether or not these

changes reflect permanent or serious ecological damage• Problem: Could the ecological benefit of removing

humans from the Chernobyl area, outweigh any radiation detriments?

• These consequences are consider to be harmful depending on the level of protection given to the diverse

components of the environment (individual, population, species, ecosystem)

Overall it depends on the moral standing of these components

Questions not answered• Why aren’t the animals and plants given

respect? • The animals and plants had a home and a life,

which was destroyed by a disaster. But, why don’t they get a say? They are things too.

• The problem is that if humans had been the ones (not saying they weren’t), who lost everything, it would be a huge crisis on the many of lives lost. But, lives have been lost; lives of small innocent creatures. They also have the right to live a life, like we, humans, do.

How powerful???? Damage Cause After math

estimated that the radiation from disaster was 100 times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Thirty-one of the people died shortly after the explosion

thousands more will die from the long-term effects of radiation

operators of plant ran a test on an electric control system of one of the reactors

accident occurred because safety systems had been switched off, and the reactor was being operated under improper, unstable conditions

a situation which allowed uncontrollable power surge to occur

operators of plant ran a test on an electric control system of one of the reactors

Led to series of explosions and fires

Damaged reactor building

which then caused the release of massive amounts of radioactive materials over a ten-day period

Questions not answered•Why was the safety systems turned off? •Did the operators know it was tuned off? •Who is really behind this mistake? The

government? The operators? The media? •It is moral wrong to have had this mistake

happen. If this mistake had not occurred than many lives would have been survived.

•The country wound not being living in terror like it is today.

Why not everyone?

Social insurance (pension) as of 2000

Average person

Poverty Person disabled by Chernobyl accidence

Person not disabled, but suffered through Chernobyl accidence

$20/month $27/month Ranges from $54/month to $90/month depending on degree of disability

$20/month

Questions not answered• Why is there different amounts of money (pension)

for people? • Hasn’t everyone in the area suffered one way or

another? • Isn’t everyone humans? Aren’t we all equal? • Maybe, some people have suffered more than

others during the accidence. But, the accidence did happen in 1986. A lot has changed since then; new technology developed. There is a new way of living. Therefore, should there still be a significant difference in amounts of money from the average person to the people who have been disabled by Chernobyl accidence?

Economic•The Chernobyl accident has imposed huge

costs on countries like Soviet Union, Belarus, Russian Federation and Ukraine, for both the accident and the measures taken to deal with the consequences. But there were economic losses in other countries, due to the spread of radiation outside the borders of Soviet Union. The cost of the accident was estimated to be hundreds of billions of dollars, over two decades.

The costs due to the nuclear accident included:

• Direct Damage’s caused by the Chernobyl nuclear accident, resulted in high and various expenditures, such as :▫ The actions taken to seal off the reactor, and the treating of

affected areas and the exclusion zone.▫ The construction of new homes and the resettlement of

people, which included the cost of transportation.▫ Citizens who were affected were provided with health care

and social protection▫ Research was conducted for:

production of food environment Health

▫ The radiation monitoring of the environment▫ Disposing of radioactive waste

The costs due to the nuclear accident included:

• Indirect Costs due to the nuclear accident:▫Restrictions in the use of agricultural land and

forests▫Closure of industrial and agricultural facilities

• Opportunity costs that had occurred due to the nuclear accident:▫ Increase in energy costs due to the closure of

the plant▫Cancelation of the Belarus’s nuclear power

program

The impact of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster resulted in a burden placed on the national budget.•Government spending due to the nuclear

disaster, were:•Ukraine: 5-7 percent is still devoted today

for the Chernobyl related programs and benefits.

•Belarus: spending amount gradually decreased over the years, as it spent 22.3% of the national budget in 1991 to 6.1% in 2003. The total cost of the disaster from 1991 - 2003 was more the 13 billion dollars.

Economics (Present Impact)

•At present, the government continues to pay large sums in the form of social benefits for as many as seven million recipients, within the 3 countries.

•With very limited resources the government has the task of reshuffling Chernobyl programs to provide more assistance, by helping those most at risk in terms of health and people living in poverty.

The Agricultural Sector• The agricultural sector is the area of economy which

was hit the most by the effects of the accident. • This is because large areas of agricultural lands

were removed from service, as well as the production of timber was stopped in many forests.

• On top of all this farmers were unable to sell their products, as consumers were worried that the products were contaminated. “Clean food” was still possible to produce in many areas due to remediation efforts.

• Although it was too expensive to produce, it was also very hard to sell, as consumers were very keen about buying products from contaminated areas.

The region’s economy also had to suffer from the economic turmoil’s in the 1990’s, on top of the Chernobyl accident.

• The economic turmoil’s in the 1990’s resulted in:▫ The disruption of trade▫ Introduction to market mechanisms▫ Recession ▫ Russia’s rouble crisis in 1998

• The situation in the affected areas due to the economic turmoil is extremely brutal, it resulted in:▫ Low wages ▫ High unemployment▫ Less private investments▫ Very little businesses

Due to the fact that many skilled and educated workers moved from the area

Conclusions to Economic

•Therefore in order to solve the economic crisis of the Chernobyl accident, the government must encourage the starting of new businesses, and the creation of new jobs, while dealing with issues due to the radioactive contamination.

Political• The policies government’s adopted to help the people who were

affected, by the nuclear accident:

• The government allowed a very low entrance for the level of radioactive contamination, which was considered acceptable for populated areas.

• Cautious zoning principles were created for which determined, where they were allowed to live and where they were allowed to purse farming

• Massive investment program was set up for the constructions of new buildings and to produce clean food.

Due to huge levels of expenditures, funding has fallen over time, therefore leaving a lot of projects half way done.

The policies government’s adopted to help the people who were affected, by the nuclear accident:•The soviet government had also created a

huge compensation payment for the affected people.

•Number of people claiming Chernobyl –related benefits grew over time, as people thought it was the best and easiest way to make money.

Environmental

Radioactive Contamination of Land and water masses The Chernobyl accident contaminated 125, 000 sq. miles of

land in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine Total release of radioactive substances was about 14 EBq5,

with the noble gases contributing to about 50% of the total release.

Radioactive fall-out from the atmosphere is stored within soils, contaminating it

The deposition, however was varied depending on the areas where the air masses passed. Most of the strontium and plutonium radioisotopes were deposited within 100 km of the destroyed reactor due to larger particle sizes.

Radionuclides deposited most heavily on open surfaces in urban areas (i.e. lawns, parks, streets )

Moved to sewage systems contamination In agricultural areas, Caesium-137 contamination

in the soil leads to further problems to plants, animals and humans.

High levels of contamination of forest foods such as berries and mushrooms due to forest ecosystem contamination.

Aquatic ecosystem contamination: levels of radioactive material in surface

• water systems in areas close to the reactor site and in many other parts of Europe.

The initial levels were due primarily to direct deposition of radionuclides on the surface of rivers and lakes.

Bed sediments are an important long term sink for radioactivity.

Radioactive contamination on plants and animals Plants and animals living in the 30 km exclusion zone received

the highest level of radiation Many trees suffered severe damage to their reproductive tissues After the phase of direct deposit, uptake of radionuclides

through plant roots from the soil became increasingly important Bioaccumulation of radioactive ceasium in the aquatic food chain

led to high long-term concentrations in fish. Bioaccumulation is also the reason for other animal contaminations.

In the exclusion zone, increased mortality of coniferous plants, soil invertebrates and mammals can be seen along with reproductive losses in plants and animals

High up the food chain, the more contaminated. Genetic mutations: 14 yrs after the disaster, scientists from the

Friedrich Miescher Institute planted wheat on a field beside the reactor. After 10 months (one generation) the plants showed a mutation rate of 6.63 per mile.

Severity of the contamination

Here is a map showing the limits on the consumption of mushrooms in Belarus after Chernobyl (1996).

Yellow- Unlimited Pink- Limited Red- Prohibited

From this you will notice that even after 10 years, contamination in areas of Belarus can be seen. The severity of the contaminations of wildlife due to Chernobyl.

Social impacts 2 Chernobyl plant workers died the night of the accident Acute radiation syndrome (ARS) was diagnosed in 237

people on-site and in the clean-up. Later 134 people were confirmed.

Starting from land and water contamination, the contamination spread up the food chain to humans.

Residents in Belarus were found to get Thyroid cancer due to the inhalation of contaminated air and through the consumption of contaminated food (esp. milk also in meat and vegetables).

The graph on the next slide shows the cases of thyroid cancer per year in the residents in Belarus under 15 years of age.

Graph

As you can see, cases of thyroid cancer has increased over the years.

Today for those living in Belarus, contamination through the food they consume is more common. This is because many of them can not afford to buy food that is not contaminated as most of the food is harvested and grown by themselves.

This accident does not affect those that live in Belarus. Civilians living in the Arctic and Sub-Artic areas of Europe led to high levels of Ceasium-137 in reindeer meat due to the lichen-reindeer pathway. Therefore, this affected people in Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden.

In some “closed” lakes with no outflowing streams in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine both water and fish will remain contaminated with Ceasium-137 for decades to come.

Summary of contamination for humans

Further social impacts The main source of income before the accident was

agriculture. However, a total of 784 320 hectares of agriculture land was removed from service and timber production was halted for a total of 694 200 hectares of forest.

This effected the economy and deepen poverty and unemployment.

Since the accident, more than 330 000 people have been relocated away from the affected areas.

116 000 of them were evacuated immediately however a larger number were resettled only after several years.

Even though some were given the choice to be relocated to any place of their liking, many faced psychological effects. It was a very traumatic experience.

Opinion polls suggest that those who remain in the villages cope better than those who have been resettled.

Internationalism / Aim 10• The disaster definitely had it’s very harmful implications to everyone,

but this also shows how important it is to cooperate among each other to tackle the issue

• At the time of the explosion, within 37 minutes, the town of Pripyat had started evacuation, definitely it could have been earlier had the scientists and emergency department had informed everyone earlier

• To speed up the evacuation, the residents were told to bring only what was necessary

• The best lesson a disaster teaches us is the importance of everyone to stick together and take quick informed decisions and to compromise.

• This disaster is known as the worst in nuclear history and we also learn a lot of safety precautions one must take when operating such equipment. The importance of safety procedures and importance of communication.

• The government leaders and scientist got together fairly quick to decide on how to reduce the radiation exposure ASAP and they came up with a very effective way to disintegrate the effects.

• The idea was good but the implementation took a long time and risked numerous people’s lives in the process of the cleanup and building sarcophagus.

• They were behind schedule by two months and also the government was becoming restless as no more electricity would lead to a great fall of the country.

• The government chose to restart the other reactors to provide electricity to others before reactor 4 was finished destroying. This posed a risk for many people again and the government’s decision was not so informed as it could have led to dangerous impacts.

• The Chernobyl Shelter fund was also established to finance the shelter implementation plan (transform the site to ecologically safe)

• The United Nations developed the Chernobyl Recovery and Development Programme to recover affected areas

• The international project on health effects of the Chernobyl accident was designed to discover the main cause of health problems due to radiation.

• Many professionals including firefighters, sailors, police officers worked very hard to recue people following the disaster, limit additional damage, and help people get back to their normal lives

• Behind the scenes engineers, architects, legislators, scientists, and other citizens working to design new buildings, make new rules on how and where to build buildings and enforce those laws so that fewer people will have to risk their lives in such disasters

• In addition to these professionals, the disaster would have enacted more entrepreneurs and technologists to create more effective equipment.

• The best thing the world can learn from history is how not to repeat it again.

At Present• Chernobyl plant is shut down• Reactor 4 buried under tons of sand and concrete

(“sarcophagus”)• The village is deserted, the once thriving city of

Pripyat is a ghost town; and around plant for more than 30 miles in every direction is uninhabited

• Farmland is unused, nothing growing there is safe for humans

• Water is not safe to drink• Scientists believe land and water will remain

unsafe for centuries• Much of the blame on Soviet scientists and

government leaders who refused to admit the disaster even occurred until days later.

In 2011 (this year), Ukraine plans to open up the sealed zone around the Chernobyl reactor to tourists who wish to learn more about the tragedy that occurred in 1986

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Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Agricultural University of Norway, 1342 Aas, Norway Received 31 December 2000; received in revised form 21 January 2002; accepted 29 April 2002.

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