Chornobyl

On April 26, 1986, a test of emergency equipment went awry at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant in northern Ukraine, and a series of explosions led to a nuclear core meltdown in reactor #4. The roof was blown off the reactor and large amounts of uranium fuel and other radioactive material was released into the environment. 2 people were killed immediately by the explosions and 1 person died presumably of a heart attack. A fire burned for 10 days.

On the day of the accident, the winds were blowing in a northwesterly direction, thus carrying the initial contamination away from Kyiv. Instead, the radiation cloud went across Belarus, Russia and into the Scandinavian countries, who were the first to publicly announce that something had happened although they didn’t know exactly what until 3 days later when Soviet authorities began to release a few details. The natural wind cycle carried the radiation across Europe and back around across Turkey and the Black Sea. Thus, some parts of Crimea (southern Ukraine) actually ended up more contaminated than areas much closer to Chornobyl. And although we think of Chornobyl as a Ukrainian problem, in actuality, parts of Belarus were much more severely affected. Check the map – Chornobyl is almost within walking distance of the Belarus border.

Over 200,000 workers (known as “liquidators”) from the police, fire services, and the Army were initially involved in containing and cleaning up the accident in 1986 and 1987. Ultimately, as many as 600,000 people were involved in the clean-up and became registered as liquidators, although many so listed received only low doses of radiation. However, the Soviet authorities kept poor records of all the people involved in the clean-up and the actual number of “liquidators” is not known.

Scientists consider the Chornobyl accident the worst nuclear catastrophe in history. We were told that no comparison can be made with Hiroshima and Nagasaki because those were controlled explosions. In human terms, the attack on Japan was exponentially worse, but from the cold perspective of science, the lose of control in the Chornobyl reactor that led to the unexpected and uncontrolled explosion was far more catastrophic.

80% of the radiation a person could receive from the Chornobyl accident would have been received in the first 10 years following the accident. In other words, scientists can determine how much radiation a person living in the affected region can expect to receive in the course of a normal 70-year life. Someone born in April 1986 would receive 80% of that radiation in the first 10 years of his/her life, and the remaining 20% is received in gradually decreasing increments over the next 60 years. A person born today, nearly 20 years after the accident, can expect to receive over the course of his/her lifespan a dosage of radiation slightly higher than what anyone on the planet gets.

Radiation exists both naturally and artificially in all parts of the world, and each and every human being is exposed to nominal levels of radiation throughout his/her life. Flying in an airplane exposes you to the same amount of radiation as a couple X-Rays, for example.

Soon after the accident in April 1986, four zones were identified as Chornobyl-affected areas with varying degrees of affectedness. Zone 1 is the power plant itself and a 30-kilometer radius around it, known as the Exclusion Zone. No one is supposed to live there and you need special permission to enter into this zone even today. Zone 2 was Mandatory Evacuation, and all persons residing in this area had to leave their homes, gardens, animals, and the vast majority of their personal belongings behind; they took with them only their most vital documents and perhaps a few personal items. They were provided with new apartments in different places throughout Ukraine. Zone 3 was Voluntary Evacuation, and anyone who chose to relocate was also provided with a new apartment in another town. Zone 4 was “Radiological Monitoring”, from which no one was evacuated but in which the radiation level is supposed to be checked two times a year.

The first evacuees were the 45,000 residents of the town of Pripyat about 3 kilometers from the plant, who were the plant workers and their families. They were evacuated 3 days after the accident; the entire town was evacuated in 3 hours. Residents were told to take only their most essential items – mainly important documents – everything else was left behind. A new town was constructed outside the exclusion zone, and most of Pripyat’s former residents were re-located there. Ultimately, about 116,000 people were evacuated to less contaminated areas in the months following the accident.

Much as it can be raining on one side of town and not the other, or even on one side of the street and not the other, the radiation cloud created by the Chornobyl accident spread in such as way as to contaminate one village or piece of land, but not another just a few kilometers or even just a few meters away. The 4 Chornobyl Zones are not in any way like a circular “bull’s eye” target of contamination, evenly decreasing in danger as you move out from the reactor. Quite the contrary, in fact. One village may be in Zone 4, and just down the road, farther from the Exclusion Zone, a village is in Zone 2.

Due to rapid radioactivity decay, the radiation dose rates around the plant had already declined by a factor of 100 by the Autumn of 1986. The natural environment was already showing visible signs of recovery by 1989. Some plants pose no danger for human consumption today, but others are still unsafe. Mushrooms and blueberries are the most dangerous produce in the contaminated forests, as both have very shallow roots and thus absorb a lot of the contaminants (primarily caesium) in the soil.

Today the 4 Chornobyl Zones are as much, if not more, a political categorization as they are a contamination status. Each Zone brings its residents a set of social and economic benefits, first implemented by the Soviet government and later made permanent by the Ukrainian constitution. Furthermore, anyone identified as working on the clean-up at the plant is also guaranteed a certain set of rights and benefits by the government. People designated as “Chornobyl disabled” have free travel on public transportation and receive financial compensation, in addition to other benefits. Those registered as “liquidators” receive free vacations at a sanitorium (or health spa) as well as financial compensation and other benefits. Zone 3 residents have the right to retire 5 years earlier than normal, they receive an additional 13 days of vacation per year, and they pay slightly lower taxes. Zone 3 residents are also compensated with an extra 2 hrivna/month to help them buy “clean” food and they are paid 10 hrivna/month because they work in a contaminated zone. 12 hrivna is equivalent to about $2.15 USD, an amount of money with which you can buy a few loaves of bread or a couple kilos of potatoes. Children in Zones 3 and 4 receive one free meal a day at school. As for the extra vacation days, I am told that few people are actually able to take advantage of that benefit, as many live like my host family in Moldova, keeping their own large gardens and livestock as their primary food sources. Running your own farm, whether hundreds of acres or just a few, is not the kind of work you can leave for even a day, much less two or three weeks.

Some recent reports refer to the Exclusion Zone as a kind of “nature preserve” now. Wildlife is thriving in the human-free zone, and there is even a breed of wild horses flourishing in the area that is near extinction in other regions. Plants and animals are adapting, and Mother Nature is, as usual, proving to us her ability and power to survive.

Chornobyl Timeline (Reuters)
Aug. 1977: The Soviet Union launches Chornobyl’s reactor #1
May 1979: Chornobyl starts operating reactor #2
June 1981: Reactor #3 is put into operation
April 1984: Reactor #4 is started up
April 26, 1986: A test of emergency equipment went awry and a series of explosions led to a nuclear core meltdown in Chornobyl reactor #4. The resulting radioactive cloud of dust spread over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and other parts of Europe. The other 3 reactors are shut down. Soviet nuclear officials give no details of the accident.
Nov. 5, 1986: Reactor #2 is restarted
Nov. 1986: Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilian experts construct a cover, known as the sarcophagus, above the destroyed reactor.
End of 1986: Reactors #1 and #3 are restarted
Oct. 1991: Fire in reactor #2 forces station officials to shut it down
Nov. 1996: Lifespan of reactor #1 expires and it is shut down
April 2000: Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma says Chornobyl’s last operating reactor, #3, will be shut down by the end of the year
Dec. 15, 2000: Chornobyl shut down for good

Chornobyl Facts (Times)
– 30 people were immediately killed by the explosions.
– From 1986-87, 240,000 people took part in the clean-up operations at the plant and up to 30 km around. The clean-up continued until 1990 and eventually involved 600,000 people.
– 116,000 people were evacuated from the surrounding area in 1986; later a further 220,000 people were relocated in the former Soviet republics of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.
– Highest radiation doses were received by about 600 emergency and plant workers on site the night of the accident. An estimated 100 people died, but because of Soviet failure to keep records, the exact number is not known.

(“10 Years After Chernobyl – What do we really know?”, a booklet produced upon the results of the international conference, “One Decade After Chernobyl: Summing Up the Consequences of the Accident”, Vienna, Austria, 1996; sponsored by The European Commission (EU), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)).

For more information about Chornobyl, I recommend a few sites:
International Atomic Energy Agency Chernobyl FAQ
The Human Consequences of the Chernobyl Accident: A Strategy for Recovery, UN Report 2002
Ten Years after Chernobyl: what do we really know?, a booklet produced on the results of the international conference “One Decade After Chernobyl: Summing Up the Consequences of the Accident,” Vienna, Austria, 1996
Chornobyl Nuclear Disaster Zone Administration
Chornobyl.info