Chernobyl radiation disaster

E.B. Burlakova and V.I. Naidich, The Effects of Low Dose Radiation New Aspects of Radiobiological Research Prompted by the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, VSP International Science Publishers, 2005. 

A much more serious nuclear accident occurred at Chernobyl in the USSR on April 26, 1986, when one of the Chernobyl units experienced a full-core meltdown. The Chernobyl accident has been called the worse disaster of the industrial age. An area comprising more than 60,000 square miles in the Ukraine and Belarus was contaminated, and more than 160,000 people were evacuated. However, wind and water have spread the contamination, and many radiation-related illnesses, birth defects, and miscarriages have been attributed to the Chernobyl disaster. 

On April 26, 1986, one of four nuclear reactors exploded more at the Chernobyl power station in Ukraine, a country that used to be a part of the old Soviet Union. The explosion burned for nine days, proving to be the worst nuclear accident in history. The disaster released at least 100 times more radiation than the atom bombs dropped in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Much of the fallout fell close to Chernobyl,... 

The worse nuclear power plant disaster on record occurred when the Chernobyl reactor in the Ukraine had a hot gas explosion. If this occurred in a Western nuclear power plant, the explosion would have been contained because Western plants are required to have a containment building. This a solid dome of steel reinforced concrete that contains the reactor. The Chernobyl plant did not have this containment feature, so the explosion blew through the roof of the reactor building allowing radiation and reactor core parts to escape into the air. 

Havenaar JM, van den Brink W, van den Bout J, et al Mental health problems in the Gomel region (Belarus) an analysis of risk factors in an area affected by the Chernobyl disaster. Psychol Med 26 845-855,1996 Kolominsky Y, Igumnov S, Drozdovitch V The psychological development of children from Belarus exposed in the prenatal period to radiation from the Chernobyl atomic power plant. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 40 299-305, 1999 Koscheyev VS, Martens VK, Kosenkov AA, et al Psychological status of Chernobyl nuclear power plant operators after the nuclear disaster. J Trauma Stress 6 561-568, 1993... 

Weisceth L Reactions in Norway to fallout from the Chernobyl disaster, in Radiation and Cancer Risk. Edited by Brustad T, Langmark F, Reitan JB. New York, Hemisphere Publishing, 1990, pp 149-155... 

Radioactive contamination is the uncontrolled distribution of radioactive material in an environment. The hazards of ionizing radiation were first studied in detail after the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The worst nuclear accident in history was the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in 1986. 

Estimates of the total radiation released from the Chernobyl disaster vary but it may have been as great as... 

A considerable fraction of the atmospheric radiocesium release (about 85 x lO Bq) from the Chernobyl accident in April 1986 was deposited in Europe (NEA Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health, 1995). During the first days after the Chernobyl disaster, the meteorological situation in Central Europe with local showers after a period of dryness caused an inhomogenous deposition of radionuclides on a macroscale (landscape) level (SSK, 1987). Schimmack et al. (1997)... 

Important data on the efficiency of oral AC in heavy metal removal have been obtained after the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident on April 26 1986. During the first 7 days after the accident significant amounts of radionuclides were released from the nuclear reactor to the environment, which required extensive measures and man-power to prevent further spretiding of the radioactive contamination and clean-up of the contaminated territories [49,50]. The military personnel who worked in the Chemolyl exclusion zone, known as liquidators because they liquidated the consequences of this disaster, were exposed to elevated levels of radioactivity. Although these levels could not cause the radiation sickness disease, they were sufficiently high to affect health of liquidators particularly if the radionuclides became incorporated in the body... 

Estimates of the total radiation released from the Chernobyl disaster vary but it may have been as great as 178 MCi 1 Ci is roughly equal to the activity of 1 g of radium. Thirty-one people died on the night of the explosion from radiation or burns, and there were 200 known casualties from radiation sickness. In the longer term, Chernobyl has left the world with a number of long-lived radioisotopes distributed in the atmosphere. The main health risks come from 53I (t = 8.02 days), 55CS = 2.06yr) and... 

The results of the released radiation are widespread and extensive. More than 170,000 people had to permanently abandon their homes. Large areas of farmland and forest are so contaminated that they may remain unusable for 100 years after the accident. More than 4300 workers who participated in cleanup at the reactor have died and cancer rates have risen among those exposed to radiation from the disaster. The Ukrainian government has spent the equivalent of billions of dollars on Chernobyl-related projects and continues to monitor the health of those in the region. 

Fukashima Daiichi, Japan (2011)—earthquake-induced tsunami created accident and caused nuclear meltdown and radioactive release, worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, no deaths from radiation but over 100,000 people permanently evacuated... 

EPR also has been used by archaeologists for the dating of teeth. Radiation damage over long periods of time creates free radicals in tooth enamel, which can then be examined by EPR and, after proper calibration, dated. Alternatively, material extracted from the teeth of people during dental procedures can be used to quantify their cumulative exposure to ionizing radiation. People exposed to radiation from the Chernobyl disaster have been examined by this method. 

Data on iodine nutrition and neonatal thyroid function in Europe confirm the continuing presence of severe iodine deficiency. This affects neonatal thyroid function and hence represents a threat to early brain development. These data have raised great concern about iodine deficiency, which is also heightened by awareness of the hazard of nuclear radiation with carcinogenic effects following the Chernobyl disaster in the former Soviet Union (Table 1). 

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