Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster

Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster Where and When? April 26,1986 – Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant,Ukraine

Former Soviet Union81 miles North of Kiev 12 miles South of Belarusian border

What Went Wrong?Shutdown preparation for planned maintenance of reactor number four

Operators , in violation of norms, disabled the auto-shutdown mechanisms on April 25 - UNSCEAR report

At 1.23 on April 26, when extremely hot nuclear fuel rods were lowered into cooling water, an immense amount of steam was created, which — because of the reactors’ design flaws — created more reactivity in the nuclear core of reactor number 4. A resultant power surge caused an immense explosion that detached the 1,000-ton plate covering the reactor core, releasing radiation into the atmosphere and cutting off the flow of coolant into the reactor.

THE BLASTlater, a second explosion of even greater power than the first blew the reactor building apart and spewed burning graphite and other parts of the reactor core around the plant, starting a number of intense fires around the damaged reactor and reactor number 3, which was still operating at the time of the explosions.

The explosion and fire spewed an equivalent of at least 20 Hiroshima bombs’ worth of radiation, mostly within about 25 miles of the reactor building

Two significant types of radionuclides were released into the atmosphere

• Iodine-131 8 Day Half Life

• Caesium-137 30 Year Half Life

SCALE Large Quantities of Radioactive Substances Were Released For 10 Days Constantly

•The radioactive cloud dispersed around entire Northern Hemisphere

• Deposited large quantities of radioactive substances over parts of former Soviet Union, most notably Ukraine, Belarus and Russian Federation

• Contaminated Land, Water and Biota • Caused large-scale social and Economic Disruptions

Human Impact of Chernobyl • Two workers died in the immediate aftermath • Out of 134 plant staff and rescue workers, exposed to large-scale radiation, 47 died in coming months. Several hundred thousand involved in recovery ops were exposed to radiation.

• Svetlana Alexievich• Belarusian journalist/ Nobel Laureate• Voices from Chernobyl

At the time of disaster, experts predicted 40 thousand extra cancer deaths due to radiation spewed across erstwhile Soviet Union

• It is hard to confirm the actual number

• However cases of Thyroid cancer in children skyrocketed • 7000 cases were recorded in Ukraine, Belarus & Russia by 2005

Nila Bandarenko from Zhytomir has her third operation on her thyroid gland. After her second operation microscopic particles of the cancer got into her blood vessels and the cancer started growing there. Bandarenko also has kidney cancer – Greenpeace; 2006

Environmental Ramifications

Radiation released by the was carried directly over what is now called the Red Forest. Radioactive particles settled on trees, killing approximately 400 hectares of pine forest. The Red Forest is now one of the most contaminated terrestrial habitats on earth.

The Red Forest

• Formerly known as Wormwood Forest (10 sq. KM)

• Now within the nuclear exclusion zone of Chernobyl

Water Contamination

• Parts of Red Forest were bulldozed and buried causing the radiation to seep into groundwater

• Consequently, other water sources were also contaminated

Effects on Flora

• Initial damage to the “Red Forest”

• Stunted growth has been observed in the pine trees

Few wild animals lived in the region in 1986 because their habitats had been destroyed for Soviet dairy farms and pine plantations. But, surprisingly, large mammals started appearing almost immediately after the evacuations, and animal populations soon saw a rise (Mycio; 2013)

“world’s biggest radioactive wasteland could become Europe’s largest wildlife sanctuary” -Mary Mycio

Elks Eagles

Deer Wild Boars

• Reactor No. 4 is now secured under a giant steel-concrete sarcophagus

• It is expected to remain radioactive for 1000 years

• The remaining three reactors continued to operate even after the fallout

• In 1991, reactor No. 1 suffered a major fire and was subsequently shut-down

• In November 1996, Reactor No. 1 was shut down, followed by Reactor No. 3 in 2000

• More than 300,000 people were evacuated

• 50,000 from the surrounding town of Pripyat