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Where is Chernobyl?
-In Northern Ukraine -10 miles away from Belarus -80 miles North of Kiev
What happened?
Saturday, April 26, 1986:
The exploded reactor Igor Kostin (taken 12 hours after the catastrophe)
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.
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.
http://www.ki4u.com/potassium-iodide.htm
http://www.metoffice.com/environment/serv4.html
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
* 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.
Medical Impact
Effects of Radiation
Chernobyl AIDS--the term doctors are using to describe illnesses associated with the damage done to the immune system.
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.
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
Lives ruined
Suicide and depression Even healthy people were traumatized
* 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."
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.