To date, about 6,000 thyroid cancer cases have been detected among these children. Many children and adolescents in the area in 1986 drank milk contaminated with radioactive iodine, which delivered substantial doses to their thyroid glands. 124-25) Today the available evidence does not strongly connect the accident to radiation-induced increases of leukemia or solid cancer, other than thyroid cancer. The majority of the five million residents living in contaminated areas, however, received very small radiation doses comparable to natural background levels (0.1 rem per year). Agencies such as the World Health Organization have been concerned about radiation exposure to people evacuated from these areas. The Chernobyl accident contaminated wide areas of Belarus, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine inhabited by millions of residents. Government agencies continue to monitor cleanup and recovery workers’ health. Chernobyl cleanup activities eventually required about 600,000 workers, although only a small fraction of these workers were exposed to elevated levels of radiation. Another 200,000 cleanup workers in 19 received doses of between 1 and 100 rem (The average annual radiation dose for a U.S. Two workers died within hours of the reactor explosion from non-radiological causes. Another 106 workers received high enough doses to cause acute radiation sickness. The Chernobyl accident’s severe radiation effects killed 28 of the site’s 600 workers in the first four months after the event. The Soviet (and later on, Russian) government evacuated about 115,000 people from the most heavily contaminated areas in 1986, and another 220,000 people in subsequent years (Source: UNSCEAR 2008, pg. The Soviet nuclear power authorities presented their initial accident report to an International Atomic Energy Agency meeting in Vienna, Austria, in August 1986.Īfter the accident, officials closed off the area within 30 kilometers (18 miles) of the plant, except for persons with official business at the plant and those people evaluating and dealing with the consequences of the accident and operating the undamaged reactors. Chernobyl’s three other reactors were subsequently restarted but all eventually shut down for good, with the last reactor closing in December 2000. The Soviet government also cut down and buried about a square mile of pine forest near the plant to reduce radioactive contamination at and near the site. A few weeks after the accident, the crews completely covered the damaged unit in a temporary concrete structure, called the “sarcophagus,” to limit further release of radioactive material. The sand was to stop the fire and additional releases of radioactive material the boron was to prevent additional nuclear reactions.
The accident and the fire that followed released massive amounts of radioactive material into the environment.Įmergency crews responding to the accident used helicopters to pour sand and boron on the reactor debris. On April 26, 1986, a sudden surge of power during a reactor systems test destroyed Unit 4 of the nuclear power station at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in the former Soviet Union. Backgrounder on Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident
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