The Chornobyl disaster of April 26, 1986, had devastating consequences for millions of people following the explosion and fire at the nuclear power plant’s reactor No. 4.
Now, 30 years later, the effects are debated, but still severe.
They range from the continued economic burden of the disaster on Ukraine, to premature deaths and other health problems attributed to long-term exposure to radiation.
The following are just some of the Chornobyl disaster’s aftermath that will be felt in Ukraine for decades and even centures to come:
• To prevent further contamination from the 200 tons of uranium estimated to remain in the destroyed reactor core, 40 nations are helping Ukraine to build a massive containment structure over the ruined reactor. The steel structure, 110 meters high and weighing 25,000 tons, cost $2.4 billion to construct. Once in place in 2017, it will last at least 100 years. The structure will cover the concrete “sarcophagus” that was initially built over the remains of the reactor, but that is decaying rapidly. Fears are high of a massive radiation release if a new structure is not built. (Source: Agence France-Press)
• Between 5 and 7 percent of Ukraine’s $30 billion state budget each year is spent on Chornobyl benefits and programs. Ukrainian experts estimate the economic damage to their country from the disaster at $201 billion through 2015. (Source: United Nations)
• Average effective radiation doses to those persons most affected by the Chornobyl accident were assessed to be about 120 mSv (sievert) for 530,000 recovery operation workers, 30 mSv for 115,000 evacuated persons and 9 mSv during the first two decades after the accident to those who continued to reside in contaminated areas. (For comparison, the typical dose from a single computed tomography scan is 9 mSv). (Source: United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation)
• Since the disaster, between 12,000 and 83,000 children have been born with congenital deformations in the areas surrounding Chornobyl, and around 30,000 to 207,000 genetically damaged children worldwide. Only 10 percent of the overall expected damage can be seen in the first generation. (Source: UNSCEAR)
A view on April 8 of the abandoned city of Prypyat, three kilometers from the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. The new steel covering, which cost $2.4 billion, is expected to contain radiation from 200 tons of uranium at the reactor core for the next century. (AFP)
• A controversial UN report published in 2005 estimated that “up to 4,000” could eventually die in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus due to the release of radioactivity from Chornobyl. A year later, the Greenpeace environmental protection group estimated the number of deaths already caused by radiation poisoning at a staggering 100,000. (Source: AFP)
• Over 63,000 square miles of land have been affected by the Chornobyl disaster. Much land should no longer be used for agriculture. However, 4.5 million children and adults are still living on contaminated land, growing food on contaminated land, and as a consequence the food they are eating is also contaminated. Rural areas have been severely devastated. (Source: www.friendsofchernobylcenters.org)
• Wildlife has rebounded in the Chornobyl exclusion zone, with moose, deer, beaver, owls, brown bears, lynx, and wolves much more common than before. All of these species have increased in numbers due to the lack of competition and suppression (via hunting and trapping, etc.) from the now-absent human population. Scientists are divided over the severity of the effects of the radioactive environment on the animals, noting that while the worst effects, such as mutations and birth defects, came mainly in the initial weeks after the disaster, the effects of long-term exposure to high levels of radiation are much harder to predict. (Source: National Geographic)
• The main radioactive contaminants released in the Chornobyl explosion were iodine-131, caesium-137, strontium-90, and plutonium-241. The half-life (the time it takes for half of a sample of the substance to undergo radioactive decay) of these isotopes are 14 to 30 years. However, they decay to other isotopes, some of which have a half-life of hundreds of years. One of the decay products of plutonium-241 is bismuth-209, the longest-lived natural alpha-particle radiation emitter, which has a half-life of over 20 billion billion years, or more than a billion times the current estimated age of the universe. (Source: Greenfacts, Wikipedia).
