By 2065, Chernobyl will have caused about 16,000 cases of thyroid cancer, and some 25,000 cases of other cancers
On April 26, 1986, a flawed reactor design and inadequately trained personnel resulted in the world’s most nuclear accident. What came next was dangerous exposure, a grueling clean up, and a ticking time bomb.
What happened at the nuclear power station in the former USSR was a detrimental explosion. When the 1000-tonne sealing cap on the reactor building was blown off and temperatures rose past 2000 degrees Celsius, fuel rods melted. Then graphite covering the reactor ignited, and as it burned for 9 days, huge quantities of radiation were released into the environment. In fact, the accident releases more radiation than the dropping of the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.
The attempted clean up proved to be a long, grueling, and often unsuccessful process. Firefighters poured cooling water into the reactor, which created problems that would later need to be solved; for nine days, 30 military helicopters flew over the burning reactor and dropped sand and lead to try and smother the fire and absorb the radiation- but it made the situation worse as heat rose beneath the dumped materials. Thousands of people sacrificed their lives and health in vain attempts to contain the disaster. These men were termed liquidators. 130 men of the plants fire service and operating crew were exposed to doses of radiation equivalent to 650 years worth of a radiation worker’s annual limit. In the final phase of firefighting, the reactor core was finally cooled with nitrogen. On May 6th the fire and radioactive emissions were under control, and 31 workers died shortly afterwards. Between 600,000 and 800,000 men were involved in the clean up at Chernobyl, and of these men, 300,000 received radiation doses 500 times the limit for the public over one year. According to government agencies in the three former soviet states affected, about 25,000 “liquidators” had died by 2006. And today, the ones who survive are still suffering from the damage to their health.
Following the explosion, a huge concrete “sarcophagus” was made, covering the damaged reactor. By November 1986 the sarcophagus was completed, but designed for a lifetime of only 20 to 30 years in mind. The structure has a huge lack of stability: it was hastily constructed, there’s corrosion of supporting beams; and water is leaking through holes in the roof, becoming contaminated, then seeping through the floor of the reactor to the soil below. And it’s for these reasons that scientists predict the next nuclear catastrophe in the scale of Chernobyl will be in Chernobyl itself, due to the fragile state of its sarcophagus.
And in other news, the Chernobyl incident caused around 350,000 people to evacuate their homes in the “Nuclear Exclusion Zone”, a 19-mile dead zone around the plant. And to add to the long term effects brought by Chernobyl, physicians in the region have reported a sharp rise in birth defects since the explosion in 1986. A 2010 study by the American Academy of Pediatrics found a correlation between a radioactive element, strontium-90, and dramatically high rates of certain birth defects.
Although it’s hard to prove just how many may have died from the radiation exposure of Chernobyl, some notably environmental groups put the death toll well into six figures. However, according to University of Oxford’s Wade Allison, the only deaths to be firmly establishes are 28 victims of acute radiation syndrome, and 15 cases of fatal child thyroid cancer. Although there’s still a lot of controversy surrounding the numbers, a 2006 study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (in Lyon, France) predicted that by 2065, Chernobyl will have caused about 16,000 cases of thyroid cancer, and some 25,000 cases of other cancers. The study also concluded that by 2006, Chernobyl had likely caused 1,000 cases of thyroid cancer and 4,000 cases of other cancers in Europe.
In an incident like this, it’s extremely important for us to remember the causes and dramatic, long lasting effects. Its in situations like these that we need to consider other energy sources, or measures to prevent such mass disastrous contamination. It’s up to us to face the energy crisis we’ve created, and produce results for a clean and survivable system of life.
