Chernobyl nuclear

Ten years passed since the biggest radioactive catastrophe in the history of humanity happened at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The Russian State medical dosimetric Register was founded after this catastrophe At present in the Register they keep a medical and radiation-dosimetric information about 435.276 persons. 

Public opposition to commercial nuclear power plants began with the misperception that the plants could explode like nuclear weapons. The nuclear industi-y made progress in dispelling this misperception, but suffered major setbacks when an accident occurred at the Three-Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania and at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the USSR. 

Chemical reaction A process in which one or more substances, called reactants, are converted to product(s), 67. See also Reaction, nonmetals, 575q, 555-558 Chernobyl nuclear accident, 525-526 Chiral center Carbon atom bonded to four different groups, 600 Chiral drugs, 601 Chloride ores, 535-536 Chlorinated water, 556 Chlorine... 

Half-lives span a very wide range (Table 17.5). Consider strontium-90, for which the half-life is 28 a. This nuclide is present in nuclear fallout, the fine dust that settles from clouds of airborne particles after the explosion of a nuclear bomb, and may also be present in the accidental release of radioactive materials into the air. Because it is chemically very similar to calcium, strontium may accompany that element through the environment and become incorporated into bones once there, it continues to emit radiation for many years. About 10 half-lives (for strontium-90, 280 a) must pass before the activity of a sample has fallen to 1/1000 of its initial value. Iodine-131, which was released in the accidental fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, has a half-life of only 8.05 d, but it accumulates in the thyroid gland. Several cases of thyroid cancer have been linked to iodine-131 exposure from the accident. Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24 ka (24000 years). Consequently, very long term storage facilities are required for plutonium waste, and land contaminated with plutonium cannot be inhabited again for thousands of years without expensive remediation efforts. 

Barium-140 (tl/2 = 12.8 d) released in the fire at the Chernobyl nuclear plant has been found in some agricultural products in the region. The biological half-life of barium-140 in the human body is 65 d. What is the effective half-life (see Exercise 17.55) of barium-140 ... 

Aerial views of three nuclear power plants, (a) The Chernobyl nuclear power plant, site of a major nuclear accident in 1986. (b) The Three Mile Island power plant, site of a minor nuclear accident in 1979. (c) A plant in France, which has operated nuclear power plants safely for nearly 30 years. 

The nuclear explosions that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed 100,000 to 200,000 people instantaneously. Probably an equal number died later, victims of the radiation released in those explosions. Millions of people were exposed to the radioactivity released by the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The full health effects of that accident may never be known, but 31 people died of radiation sickness within a few weeks of the accident, and more than 2000 people have developed thyroid cancer through exposure to radioactive iodine released in the accident. Even low levels of radiation can cause health problems. For this reason, workers in facilities that use radioisotopes monitor their exposure to radiation continually, and they must be rotated to other duties if their total exposure exceeds prescribed levels. 

Matsunaga T, Ueno T, Amano H, et al. 1998. Characteristics of Chernobyl-derived radionuclides in particulate form in surface waters in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. J Contain Hydrol 35 101-113. 

Radiation is one of the most important known environmental stimuli of cancer development. This environmental factor becomes especially dangerous for humans living in the areas affected by irradiation from nuclear accidents. Earlier we found that the administration of a mixture of vitamin E and a-lipoic acid to children living in the area of Chernobyl nuclear accident significantly and synergistically suppressed leukocyte oxygen radical overproduction [211]. Thus a-lipoic acid and a-lipoic acid + vitamin E supplements may be of interest as antioxidant preventive agents for the treatment of radiation-induced cancer development. 

Radionuclide concentrations in biotic and abiotic materials from various geographic locales before or after the Chernobyl nuclear accident on April 26, 1986... 

Military weapons tests conducted at the Pacific Proving Grounds in the 1940s and 1950s resulted in greatly elevated local concentrations of radionuclides, and an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former Soviet Union in 1986 resulted in comparatively low concentrations of radionuclides dispersed over a wide geographical area. Both cases are briefly reviewed. 

Locales Before or After the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident on April 26,1986 (All concentrations are in Bq/kg fresh weight [FW],or dry weight [DW], unless noted otherwise.)... 

Baker, R.J., M.J. Hamilton, R.A. Van Den Bussche, L.E. Wiggins, D.W. Sugg, M.H. Smith, M.D. Lomakin, S.P. Gaschak, E.G. Bundova, G.A. Rudenskaya, and R.K. Chesser. 1996. Small mammals from the most radioactive sites near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Jour. Mammal. 77 155-170. 

Eisler, R. 1995. Ecological and toxicological aspects of the partial meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear plant reactor. Pages 549-564 in D.J. Hoffman, B.A. Rattner, G.A. Burton, Jr., and A.J. Cairns, Jr. (eds.). Handbook of Ecotoxicology. Lewis Publ., Boca Raton, FL. 

Makeyeva, A.P., N.G. Yemel yanova, N.V. Belova, and I.N. Ryabov. 1995. Radiobiological analysis of silver carp, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, from the cooling pond of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant since the time of the accident. 2. Development of the reproductive system in the first generation of offspring. Jour. Ichthyol. 35 40-64. 

Environmentally hazardous projects are those where the risk of accidents is very high, which can result in a major and sometimes even catastrophic chemical pollution of the environment. Frequently, these disasters take casualties among the plant personnel, as well as among the nearby settlements population, which were the cases with the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster in Ukraine, or with the pesticide plant accident in Bhopal, India. 

Exposure of hot particle contaminated soil (sampled 15 km north of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant) to film X, Y and Z of a Differential Autoradiographic Imaging Sandwich. The original film size is 85 x 10 x 10 mm, exposure time was 14 days. Area (a) shows irradiation from a 90Sr dominated hot particle whereas irradiation in area (b) is caused by a 137Cs dominated hot particle. 

A kind of shelter was built around the Chernobyl nuclear block after it exploded. It was okay for some time, but then huge cracks developed. It still spews radiation, which comes through all the cracks. On certain days you can feel it. Anyone can tell you when there was another spew of radiation, because you feel dizzy or you get a headache. One of my students had family who lived near Chernobyl, and... 

Mamikhin S.V., Tikhomirov F.A., and Scheglov A.I., 1997. Dynamics of Cs-137 in the forests of the 30-rm zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Sci. Total Environ., 193 169-177. 

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