![]() ![]() Up to 30 percent of Chernobyl’s 190 metric tons of uranium was now in the atmosphere, and the Soviet Union eventually evacuated 335,000 people, establishing a 19-mile-wide “exclusion zone” around the reactor.Īt least 28 people initially died as a result of the accident, while more than 100 were injured. Soon, the world realized that it was witnessing a historic event. Despite the death of two people in the explosions, the hospitalization of workers and firefighters, and the danger from fallout and fire, no one in the surrounding areas-including the nearby city of Pripyat, which was built in the 1970s to house workers at the plant-was evacuated until about 36 hours after the disaster began. ![]() Finally, the nuclear core itself was exposed, spewing radioactive material into the atmosphere.įirefighters attempted to put out a series of blazes at the plant, and eventually helicopters dumped sand and other materials in an attempt to squelch the fires and contain the contamination. Despite attempts to shut down the reactor entirely, another power surge caused a chain reaction of explosions inside. During the test, however, workers violated safety protocols and power surged inside the plant. Lenin Nuclear Power Station’s fourth reactor, and workers planned to use the downtime to test whether the reactor could still be cooled if the plant lost power. On April 25, 1986, routine maintenance was scheduled at V.I. However, other scientists pointed out that wildlife levels at Chernobyl are lower than those at other protected regions in Europe, indicating that the radiation is still affecting the area.Please be respectful of copyright. "This doesn't mean radiation is good for wildlife, just that the effects of human habitation - including hunting, farming and forestry - are a lot worse," Jim Smith, the study's observation team coordinator and a professor of environmental science at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, said in a statement. Wolves are doing especially well, with a population that is seven times the size of wolf populations in neighboring reserves, the study researchers found. The numbers of moose, roe deer, red deer and wild boar living in the exclusion zone are similar to population numbers in nearby uncontaminated nature reserves, a 2015 study found. The Chernobyl area was evacuated following the explosion once humans left, wildlife moved in. ![]() If there had been a containment building at Chernobyl, according to Muller's book, "the accident may very well have caused virtually no deaths." This shell, which is usually dome-shaped and made of steel-reinforced concrete, is designed to confine fission products that may be released into the atmosphere during an accident, according to the U.S. There was no containment buildingĬhernobyl didn't have an important safety measure in place: a containment building.Ī containment structure is a gas-tight shell that surrounds a nuclear reactor. People hit with 300 rem have a good chance of dying unless they get immediate treatment, like a blood transfusion, Muller wrote. (This nausea is caused, in part, by the body feverishly working to fix the damage caused by the radiation, so it cuts back on other activities, such as digestion, Muller wrote.) Patients who received chemotherapy sometimes experience this type of sickness, leading to side-effects such as hair loss and feeling nauseated and listless. At 200 rem, a person can develop radiation poisoning. There are about 10 trillion gamma rays in every 1 rem of radiation, Muller wrote.Ī person who gets a whole-body dose of 100 rem probably won't notice, as our systems can repair most of this damage without making a person sick. Gamma rays - a penetrating kind of radiation that is released from nuclear weapons, dirty bombs and reactor explosions - is like an extremely energetic X-ray. These firefighters were exposed to over 1 quadrillion gammas each. The firefighters who rushed in to stop the flames were exposed to high levels of radiation, and dozens died from radiation poisoning, Muller wrote. The Chernobyl explosion not only released a lot of radiation it also started a fire at the power plant. A vehicle graveyard in Chernobyl (Image credit: Shutterstock) 3. ![]()
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