Key Issues
Chernobyl Accident and Its Consequences
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Exposures, Evacuations
Soviet scientists reported that the Chernobyl 4 reactor contained about 190 metric tons of uranium dioxide fuel and fission products. Estimates are that 13 percent to 30 percent of this escaped into the atmosphere.
Contamination from the accident did not spread evenly across the surrounding countryside but scattered irregularly, depending on weather conditions. Reports from Soviet and western scientists indicate that Belarus received about 60 percent of the contamination that fell on the former Soviet Union. A large area in the Russian Federation south of Bryansk also was contaminated, as were parts of northwestern Ukraine.
Short-Term Impact
Workers involved in the recovery and cleanup after the accident received high doses of radiation. In most cases, these workers were not equipped with individual dosimeters to measure the amount of radiation received. Further, dosimetric procedures varied, so experts could only estimate their doses.
According to Soviet estimates, between 300,000 and 600,000 people participated in the cleanup of the 30-kilometer evacuation zone around the reactor, but many did not enter the zone until two years after the accident.
Soviet officials estimated that 211,000 workers participated in cleanup activities in the first year after the accident and received an average dose of 16.5 rem.
Some children in contaminated areas received high thyroid doses because of an intake of radioiodine, a relatively short-lived isotope, from contaminated local milk. Several studies have found that the incidence of thyroid cancer among children under the age of 15 in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine has risen sharply.
The childhood thyroid cancers that have appeared are treatable, if detected early, with surgery followed by iodine 131 therapy for any metastases and then thyroid hormone replacement.
Long-Term Impact
Immediately following the accident, the main health concern involved radioiodine, which has a half-life of eight days. For the longer term, there is concern about contamination of the soil with cesium-137, which has a half-life of about 30 years.
Soviet authorities started evacuating people from the area around Chernobyl within 36 hours of the accident. By May 1986, about a month later, authorities had relocated all those living within a 30-kilometer (18-mile) radius of the plant—about 116,000 people.
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Exposures, Evacuations
Soviet scientists reported that the Chernobyl 4 reactor contained about 190 metric tons of uranium dioxide fuel and fission products. Estimates are that 13 percent to 30 percent of this escaped into the atmosphere.
Contamination from the accident did not spread evenly across the surrounding countryside but scattered irregularly, depending on weather conditions. Reports from Soviet and western scientists indicate that Belarus received about 60 percent of the contamination that fell on the former Soviet Union. A large area in the Russian Federation south of Bryansk also was contaminated, as were parts of northwestern Ukraine.
Short-Term Impact
Workers involved in the recovery and cleanup after the accident received high doses of radiation. In most cases, these workers were not equipped with individual dosimeters to measure the amount of radiation received. Further, dosimetric procedures varied, so experts could only estimate their doses.
According to Soviet estimates, between 300,000 and 600,000 people participated in the cleanup of the 30-kilometer evacuation zone around the reactor, but many did not enter the zone until two years after the accident.
Soviet officials estimated that 211,000 workers participated in cleanup activities in the first year after the accident and received an average dose of 16.5 rem.
Some children in contaminated areas received high thyroid doses because of an intake of radioiodine, a relatively short-lived isotope, from contaminated local milk. Several studies have found that the incidence of thyroid cancer among children under the age of 15 in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine has risen sharply.
The childhood thyroid cancers that have appeared are treatable, if detected early, with surgery followed by iodine 131 therapy for any metastases and then thyroid hormone replacement.
Long-Term Impact
Immediately following the accident, the main health concern involved radioiodine, which has a half-life of eight days. For the longer term, there is concern about contamination of the soil with cesium-137, which has a half-life of about 30 years.
Soviet authorities started evacuating people from the area around Chernobyl within 36 hours of the accident. By May 1986, about a month later, authorities had relocated all those living within a 30-kilometer (18-mile) radius of the plant—about 116,000 people.
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