Chernobyl

From dKosopedia

Categories: Soviet Union | Nuclear energy

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Unit Number 4 was destroyed in an explosion that began on the evening of April 26, 1986. The accident occurred during a test of emergency backup systems. A loss of cooling led to a runaway chain reaction, and overheated steam blew the top off of the reactor core. The initial explosion killed only one worker whose named was Valeriy Khodomchuk. Another 30 workers died of radiation poisoning in the weeks that followed. However most of the resulting deaths were caused over long term by diseases caused to radiation exposure.

The Chernobyl plant was located in Ukraine, only 40 km. from the city of Kiev, which was a part of the Soviet Union. Soviet leaders tried to coverup the accident at first. They remained silent for three days, until radiation monitors in Sweden began picking up high doses that had been blown downwind. Many thousands of people in Ukraine and Belarus were poisoned by radiation that caused higher levels of mortality from cancer. The area around the nuclear planet plant is still officially uninhabitable.

After nuclear accident, Belarus imposed moratorium on construction of its planned nuclear power plants that is still in place. On 11 June 2002 Lithuania agreed to close down the two reactor units like those at Chernobyl in Ignalia with the help of the European Union, by 2009

Reference

• Svetlana Alexievich. 1997, 2006. Voices From Chernoybl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster. Picador. ISBN 0312425848.
• Guillaume Grandazzi. "Commemorating the Chernobyl disaster: Remembering the future." Eurozine artikle

Related Article

• Nuclear power

External Sources

• IAEA on Chernobyl
• WHO on Chernobyl
• Chernobyl, beyond the numbers - DailyKos diary by Plutonium Page.
• Chernobyl Info
• http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-04-21-grandazzi-en.html