The Truth About Chernobyl

September 5, 2007

Battle of Chernobyl

The accident that occurred at Chernobyl on 26th April 1986 was the

most disastrous reactor malfunction in the history of nuclear power..

Introduction

Chernobyl, Ukraine (51°16N, 30°13' E), a small city on the Pripiat

River in the former U.S.S.R., is site of the worst nuclear accident in

history that occurred on April 26, 1986. The accident was the the

second major single exposure to radiation of a substantial population,

the first being the radiation from the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and

Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945. The accident had significant and wide-

ranging health impacts that continue to be monitored and assessed. The

accident also produced a significant international response whose

effectiveness is the subject of debate. The Chernobyl accident also

generated significant debate about the safety of nuclear power plants.

The Accident

The fourth nuclear reactor of V.I. Lenin Nuclear Power Plant, located

about twenty-five kilometers (km) upstream of the city, was scheduled

to be shut down for routine maintenance. On April 25, 1986, prior to

the shutdown, the reactor crew at Chernobyl-4 began preparing for a

test to determine how long turbines could spin and continue to supply

power following loss of the primary electrical power supply. Similar

tests had already been carried out at Chernobyl and other plants,

despite the fact that these reactors were known to be very unstable at

low power settings.

A series of operator actions, including the disabling of automatic

shutdown mechanisms, preceded the attempted test early on 26 April. As

flow of coolant water diminished, power output increased. When the

operator moved to shut down the reactor from its unstable condition

arising from previous errors, a peculiarity of the design caused a

dramatic power surge.

The sudden increase in temperature caused part of the fuel core to

rupture; fuel particles reacted with the water creating a steam

explosion that destroyed the reactor core. A second explosion threw

out fragments of burning fuel and graphite from the core and allowed

air to rush in, causing the graphite moderator to burst into flames.

There is some dispute among experts about the character of this second

explosion. The graphite burned for nine days, causing the main release

of radioactivity into the environment. A total of 12-14 EBq (1018

becquerels) of radioactivity was released, half of it being

biologically-inert noble gases.

Some 5,000 tonnes of boron, dolomite, sand, clay, and lead were

dropped on to the burning core by helicopter in an effort to

extinguish the blaze and limit the release of radioactive particles.

The cloud from the burning reactor spread numerous types of

radioactive materials, especially iodine and cesium radionuclides,

over much of Europe. Radioactive iodine-131 (131I), most significant

in contributing to thyroid doses, has a short half-life (8 days) and

largely disintegrated in the first few weeks of the accident.

Radioactive cesium-137 (137C), which contributes to both external and

internal doses, has a much longer half-life (30 years) and is still

measurable in soils and some foods in many parts of Europe. The

greatest deposits of radionuclides occurred over large areas of the

Soviet Union surrounding the reactor in what are now the countries of

Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine.

An estimated 350 000 emergency and recovery operation workers,

including army, power plant staff, local police and fire services,

were initially involved in containing and cleaning up the accident in

1986–1987. Among them, about 240 000 recovery operation workers took

part in major mitigation activities at the reactor and within the 30-

km zone surrounding the reactor. Later, the number of registered

“liquidators” rose to 600,000, although only a small fraction of these

were exposed to high levels of radiation.

More than five million people live in areas of Belarus, Russia and

Ukraine that are classified as "contaminated" with radionuclides due

to the Chernobyl accident. Amongst them, about 400,000 people lived in

more contaminated areas classified by Soviet authorities as areas of

strict radiation control. Of this population, 116,000 people were

evacuated in the spring and summer of 1986 from the area surrounding

the Chernobyl power plant (designated the “Exclusion Zone”) to non-

contaminated areas. Another 220,000 people were relocated in

subsequent years.

Immediate Impacts

Fifty tons of radioactive dust were dispersed over 140,000 square

miles of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia, and 4.9 million people were

estimated to have been exposed to radiation.

Within a few days or weeks, the accident had caused the deaths of 30

plant employees and firemen (including 28 deaths that were due to

radiation exposure), brought about the evacuation of about 116,000

people from areas surrounding the reactor during 1986, and the

relocation, after 1986, of about 220,000 people from what are now

Belarus, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine. Extensive areas of those

nations were contaminated, and trace deposition of released

radionuclides was measurable in all countries of the northern

hemisphere. Stratospheric interhemispheric transfer may also have led

to some environmental contamination in the southern hemisphere.

In addition, about 240,000 workers called “liquidators” were called

upon in 1986 and 1987 to take part in major mitigation activities at

the reactor and within the 30-km zone surrounding the reactor;

residual mitigation activities continued until 1990. All together,

about 600,000 persons were employed as “liquidators.”

Short-term and Long-term Consequences

It took three days for the people living in the area surrounding the

power station to be evacuated. 161,000 people had to abandon their

homes.

Food was immediately screened for radiation. Uncontaminated food

needed to be imported, and agricultural production methods were

rapidly modified.

At the time of the accident, 273,000 people were living in the

immediate vicinity of the power plant. Some towns in the area, such as

Zaborye in the Russian district of Bryansk, displayed caesium-137

contamination levels of up to 4 million Becquerel per square metre.

Immediately following the explosion and the ensuing fire fighting and

rescue efforts, 203 people were admitted to hospital. 31 of these

died. The UN later announced that 56 people had died from exposure to

radiation caused by the explosion and related incidents.

The fatalities primarily included fire fighters and rescue workers;

the people who fought to contain the blaze. It seems that neither

they, nor the many other helpers, had been made aware of the acute

danger of the radiation they were being exposed to. Most of these

people were deployed in the area right next to the ruptured reactor

without any protective gear; many were ordered to the site by the

army, others were attracted by financial and other rewards. 210,000 so-

called liquidators (approx. half of these were soldiers) plus another

400-600,000 helpers were later involved in the extensive clean-up of

the accident.

The public was not informed of the radiation levels measured during

the recovery work; the figures that were published were falsified.

The radioactive materials released, particularly the nuclides

iodine-131 and caesium-137, formed aerosols that deeply infiltrated

the atmosphere. A cloud of radioactivity moved to the northwest,

initially heading towards Scandinavia. The wind changed when the cloud

was above the Baltic Sea, and headed southwest in a semi-circular

motion, crossing the regions of Poland, Saxony, the Czech Republic and

southern Germany. The wind then changed back to a north-westerly

direction and blew the cloud towards the North Sea, over the

Netherlands.

On its journey, the radioactive cloud moved through several areas of

rain. The radioactive material was washed out of the air, and much

like the fallout of a nuclear explosion, it covered and permeated the

soil beneath.

Many crops were directly contaminated; cows’ and goats’ milk were

polluted indirectly through the food chain, as were fish and game

(such as reindeer in Finland and elk in Sweden). The radioactive

contamination of food, therefore, was spread far beyond northern

Ukraine. The public became alarmed and intense debates over the

effects of radiation contamination in food followed. In some areas,

such as Bavaria, excessive traces of radiation can still be found in

mushrooms today.

In heavily polluted areas, whey had to be extracted from locally

produced milk and withdrawn from sale. The whey was put in storage,

and entire convoys transporting the contaminated powder were shuffled

from one location to the next as nobody could properly dispose of the

spoilt product. The problem was discussed in the media and by the

authorities for years, but no action was taken. Finally, the whey

powder was incinerated – a course of action that not only cost

millions but also provoked wide-spread protest.

Radioactive particles are easily bound and form residue very quickly.

This meant that standing waters, such as reservoirs, were contaminated

in the short term. At some points, local authorities even closed down

communal playgrounds.

Around 10,300 square km surrounding the accident site, the level of

caesium-137 was in excess of 555,000 Becquerel per square metre (15

Curie per square kilometre). Unnaturally high radiation was also

measured in regions further a field; 7,900 square km in Russia, 4,700

square km in Ukraine and 16,000 square km in Belarus displayed

radiation levels exceeding 185,000 Becquerel per square metre (5 Curie

per square kilometre).

Belarus fared the worst, collecting 70 percent of the fallout. In many

areas, up to 22 percent of the soil was contaminated with caesium-137.

In German regions where the radioactive cloud had been passed through

rain, peak caesium-137 levels of up to 100,000 Becquerel per square

metre were measured.

Sickness and Death

In the immediate vicinity and surrounding regions of Chernobyl,

radiation levels of 1,000 millisievert were measured in the thyroid of

some parts of the population and of 100 millisievert in others.

Several patients displayed significantly higher levels.

The containment measures undertaken could not prevent there being an

average annual radiation level of 5 millisievert in many local

villages, even years after the accident. This means that some parts of

the population received very high doses of radiation in a very short

period of time; higher than the amounts normally accumulated over an

entire lifetime.

Worldwide, the average annual level of radiation an adult accumulates

from natural radiation is 2.4 millisievert.

According to a report issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency

(IAEA), 56 people died as a direct result of the explosion of the

Chernobyl reactor. The approximately 4,000 people who have died in the

region from radiation-related cancer since can be regarded as long-

term fatalities.

This figure is supported by medical examinations of the hundreds of

thousands of people who were directly and indirectly involved in

containing the nuclear accident. Independent organisations such as

Greenpeace claim that significantly higher numbers of people were

involved in the recovery work than has been stated in official

sources. There are reports that up to 860,000 people were brought into

the disaster area.

Approximately 4,000 people have been identified as suffering from

thyroid cancer. In the vast majority of these cases, however, the

cancer will not be fatal. Other reported diseases could not be

directly attributed to radiation, or they could not be adequately

categorised.

According to the official 2002 Ukrainian statistics and subsequent

projections based on them, 15,000 to 50,000 people are estimated to

have died. The suicide rate is also claimed to have risen drastically.

In Ukrainian, the word “chornobyl” means “mugwort” (Artemisia

vulgaris), and is synonymous with the term “polyn zvychajnyj” (common

polyn). The term “wormwood” belongs to the same genus of plants and in

Ukrainian translates to “polyn hirkyj” (bitter polyn or Artemisia

absinthium).

Although many dispute this connection some Ukrainians have come to

view the reactor meltdown of Chernobyl, which in Ukrainian is

“Chornobyl”, as a confirmation of Revelations 8, 10-11: “And the third

angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it

were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon

the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood:

and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of

the waters, because they were made bitter.”

Chernobyl Today

Chernobyl was a very old town, first mentioned in official records in

1193. In 1362, it became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In

1569, it was given to the Polish realm, but not until after the second

partition of Poland in 1793 did it fall to the Russian Tsar. In 1918,

Chernobyl became part of the Soviet Union and was declared a city in

1941. Since the end of the Soviet Union, Chernobyl has been located

within the national boundaries of Ukraine.

The town is located in the north of Ukraine, 15 km from the border

with Belarus. It is in the region of Kiev, close to where the Pripyat

River flows into the Kiev reservoir of the Dnepr.

The inhabitants of Chernobyl traditionally made a living from shipping

on the Dnepr River, iron smelting, minor agriculture and the

production of arts and crafts. The nuclear power station, located on

the edge of the Pripyat River 20 km out of town, was built between

1971 and 1977 and was Ukraine’s first nuclear power plant. The first

reactor became operational in 1977, generating a power output of 1

gigawatt. By 1983, the plant had been expanded to include four reactor

units, generating a total of 4 gigawatts. Two further reactor units

were planned for construction.

Before the accident, the area that is now a ghost town was home to

18,000 inhabitants. In the first four days of May 1986, 161,000 people

from within a 30 km radius of the ruptured reactor were evacuated. In

the following years, another 210,000 people were relocated. The

exclusion zone was extended to an area of 4,300 square km. Due to

their adverse economic situation, approx. 1,000 people from the

surrounding areas returned to the exclusion zone, which still has

unnaturally high radiation levels.

Almost immediately following the clean-up of the plant, the three

reactor units that were still functional resumed operation. In 1991,

reactor unit 2 was closed down following a fire in the turbine hall.

At the end of 1997, unit 1 was shut off, and on 15th December 2000,

unit 3 was also closed down, permanently ending operation of the power

station.

In 1995, Ukraine had requested $900 million from the G7 member states

to permanently shut down the Chernobyl plant. In 1997, Ukraine and the

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development agreed on a Chernobyl

Shelter Fund and matching Shelter Implementation Plan to finance the

building of a permanent containment enclosure, a so-called

sarcophagus. Only with this in place was it feasible to close down

units 1 and 3.

Since 1986, the ruptured reactor in unit 4 has been contained by a

temporary sarcophagus. This isolates the destroyed reactor with a

thick mantle of steel and concrete. The sarcophagus is designed to

contain the reactor’s heat and radiation, because on the inside, not

much has changed since the meltdown. Of the 190 tons of reactor core

mass, an estimated 180 tons are still there, in the form of dust and

ash, molten and hardened fuel elements and as washed-out liquids in

the reactor pit and foundation walls. As the existing sarcophagus is

not adequately protected from erosion, corrosion and earthquakes, a

more resilient sarcophagus has been planned to be built on top of the

old one. In preparation for the new sarcophagus, the roof of the

existing one had to be reinforced and the ventilation system improved.

Human exposure to radiation

Three population categories were exposed from the Chernobyl accident:

Emergency and recovery operation workers who worked at the

Chernobyl power plant and in the exclusion zone after the accident;

Inhabitants evacuated from contaminated areas; and

Inhabitants of contaminated areas who were not evacuated.

With the exception of the on-site reactor personnel and the emergency

workers who were present near the destroyed reactor during the time of

the accident and shortly afterwards, most of the recovery operation

workers and people living in the contaminated territories received

relatively low whole-body radiation doses, comparable to background

radiation levels accumulated over the 20 year period since the

accident.

The highest doses were received by emergency workers and on-site

personnel, in total about 1,000, during the first days of the

accident, ranging form 2 to 20 Gray (GY), which was fatal for some of

the workers. One Gy is a joule per kilogram (J/kg). The absorbed dose

in a human body of more than one gray may cause acute radiation

syndrome (ARS) as happened with some of the Chernobyl emergency

workers.

The doses received by recovery operation workers, who worked for short

periods during four years following the accident ranged up to more

than 500 millisieverts (mSv), with an average of about 100 mSv

according to the State Registries of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.

Effective doses to the persons evacuated from the Chernobyl accident

area in the spring and summer of 1986 were estimated to be of the

order of 33 mSv on average, with the highest dose of the order of

several hundred mSv.

For comparison, annual natural background doses of humans worldwide

average 2.4 mSv, with a typical range of 1–10 mSv. Lifetime doses due

to natural radiation would thus be about 100–700 mSv. Radiation doses

to humans may be characterized as low-level if they are comparable to

natural background radiation levels of a few mSv per year.

Ingestion of food contaminated with radioactive iodine did result in

significant doses to the thyroid of inhabitants of the contaminated

areas of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. The thyroid doses varied in a

wide range, according to age, level of ground contamination with 131I,

and milk consumption rate. Reported individual thyroid doses ranged up

to about 50 Gy, with average doses in contaminated areas being about

0.03 to few Gy, depending on the region where people lived and on

their age. The thyroid doses to residents of Pripyat city located in

the vicinity of the Chernobyl power plant, were substantially reduced

by timely distribution of stable iodine tablets. Drinking milk from

cows that ate contaminated grass immediately after the accident was

one of the main reasons for the high doses to the thyroid of children,

and why so many children subsequently developed thyroid cancer.

The general public has been exposed during the past twenty years after

the accident both from external sources (137Cs on soil, etc.) and via

intake of radionuclides (mainly, 137Cs) with foods, water and air. The

average effective doses for the general population of ‘contaminated’

areas accumulated in 1986–2005 were estimated to be between 10 and 30

mSv in various administrative regions of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.

In the areas of strict radiological control, the average dose was

around 50 mSv and more. Some residents received up to several hundred

mSv. It should be noted that the average doses received by residents

of the territories ‘contaminated’ by Chernobyl fallout are generally

lower than those received by people who live in some areas of high

natural background radiation in India, Iran, Brazil and China (100–200

mSv in 20 years).

The vast majority of about five million people residing in

contaminated areas of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine currently receive

annual effective doses from the Chernobyl fallout of less than 1 mSv

in addition to the natural background doses. However, about 100,000

residents of the more contaminated areas still receive more than 1 mSv

annually from the Chernobyl fallout. Although future reduction of

exposure levels is expected to be rather slow, i.e. of about 3 to 5%

per year, the great majority of dose from the accident has already

been accumulated.

Health Effects

The accident had significant and wide-ranging health impacts that

continue to be monitored and assessed.

Acute Radiation Syndrome mortality

The number of deaths due to acute radiation syndrome (ARS) during the

first year following the accident is well documented. According to the

United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation

(UNSCEAR), ARS was diagnosed in 134 emergency workers. In many cases

the ARS was complicated by extensive beta radiation skin burns and

sepsis. Among these workers, 28 persons died in 1986 due to ARS. Two

more persons had died at Unit 4 from injuries unrelated to radiation,

and one additional death was thought to have been due to a coronary

thrombosis. Nineteen more have died in 1987–2004 of various causes;

however their deaths are not necessarily — and in some cases are

certainly not — directly attributable to radiation exposure. Among the

general population exposed to the Chernobyl radioactive fallout,

however, the radiation doses were relatively low, and ARS and

associated fatalities did not occur.

Other health effects

In 1990, four years after the Chernobyl accident, an increase in

thyroid cancer was found in children exposed to fallout from the

accident. Two years later, the first reports in the Western literature

of an increase in childhood thyroid cancer (CTC) in Belarus were

published. In 2000, about 2,000 cases of thyroid cancer had been

reported in those exposed as children in the former Soviet Socialist

Union, and in 2005, the number was estimated at 4,000; the latest

estimate for the year 2056 ranges from 3,400 to 72,000. The effects

are not limited by national borders; Poland has recorded cases in

spite of a rapid precautionary distribution of stable iodine. The

causative agent, 131I, was detected in many European countries with as

yet unknown effects. Interestingly, a significant increase in leukemia

has not been reliably reported in the three most affected countries.

This dramatic contrast between the two incidents is in part due to the

different types of radiation exposure, but both show that the effects

of massive exposures to radiation are immensely complex. In comparing

the health effects after Chernobyl with those after the atomic bombs,

it must be remembered that apart from workers in or close to the power

plant, the Chernobyl accident involved mainly exposure to radioactive

isotopes, and the atomic bombs primarily involved direct exposure to

gamma rays and neutrons. Because of the prominence given to thyroid

carcinoma after Chernobyl, less attention has been given to whole-body

exposure from the ingestion and inhalation of all isotopes, together

with the shine from the radioactive cloud and deposited radioactivity.

Consideration of the health effects of Chernobyl must take into

account both tissue-specific doses due to isotope concentration and

whole-body doses.

The most prominent tissue-specific dose is that to the thyroid,

largely from 131I, with a smaller contribution from short-lived

isotopes of iodine. For many in the 30-km zone (135,000), there were

relatively high absorbed doses to other organs as well as the thyroid

until evacuation, and for those living in the contaminated areas

around the 30-km zone (5 million), relatively high dose rate exposure

(days to weeks) was followed by prolonged (years) exposure to a low

dose rate. This exposure was a complex mixture of external radiation

and internal emitters. For others living farther from the accident, in

Western Europe, for example, their average exposure was equivalent to

an additional ≤ 50% of average annual natural background level of

radiation. About 600,000 liquidators assisted with the cleanup. Those

working at the site shortly after the accident (200,000) received

substantial doses. For all of these groups, estimates of numbers of

fatal cancers can be derived from the collective doses. However, such

estimates depend on the assumed risk coefficient, but of the order of

60,000 such fatalities in total can be estimated, based on the

collective dose estimated by the United Nations Scientific Committee

on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), less than half of which

would derive from the declared contaminated areas. A more recent

estimate of the numbers of fatal cancers based on a collective dose of

less than half the UNSCEAR estimate gives a central value of 16,000

(95% confidence interval, 7,000–38,000).

September 5, 2007

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