The
Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster
Health impacts of the
Chernobyl disaster
In 1987, a year after the Chernobyl accident, the US Health
Physics Society met in Columbia, Maryland. Health physicists
are scientists who are responsible for radiological
protection at nuclear power plants, nuclear weapons plants,
and hospitals. They are called on in cases of nuclear
accidents. Professionals in the US and health officials in
the USSR tried to minimize the perception of the public
health effects of the catastrophe. By Kate Brown,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, November 2023
Chernobyl is heating up again, and scientists aren't sure
why The UN estimated that about 50 people died
during the original meltdown in 1986. It later estimated
that as many as 4000 people died as a result of exposure to
fallout. Now, neutron levels in the plant have doubled in
the last four years, which could lead to increasing rates of
chain reaction. By Ryan Whitwam, ExtremeTech, May 13,
2021
Chernobyl Children International
700,000 people, known as liquidators, risked their lives and
exposed themselves to dangerous levels of radiation to
contain the situation. At least 40,000 of them have died and a further 70,000
are disabled. Twenty percent of these deaths were suicides.
The contamination of the land remains the biggest health
threat as cesium-137 finds its way via the food chain into
the human body. Professor Yuri Bandashevsky, MD, PhD in
Nuclear Medicine at the Ivankova Hospital in Ukraine, states that there should be no cesium in the body
or should there be no question of temporary or acceptable
levels.
Because
of the unprecedented scale of the accident, even scientists
and subject experts can’t predict what the future holds for
those who live in the shadow of Chernobyl.
More than one million children continue to live in the
contaminated zones. By Chernobyl Children International, March
2021
Stalking Chernobyl Where a dose of adrenalin matters
more than a dose of radiation. Chernobyl tourism has become
a big business. Unscrupulous promoters claim that "radiation
kills only those who are afraid of it." The one-hour film
can be seen
here and
here. By Linda Pentz Gunter, Beyond Nuclear
International, April 19, 2020
The women who told Chernobyl's story Exposing the
official lies about the danger. By Linda Walker, Beyond
Nuclear International, April 19, 2020
Chernobyl radiation proves
harmful to vital forest mammal
A team of scientists who studied a key forest mammal, the
bank vole, living within 50 km of the Chernobyl nuclear
power plant, have concluded that the animal’s reproductive
success and abundance is impaired by chronic exposure to
even “low” levels of radiation in the area, and that no dose
is too low to cause these effects. Beyond Nuclear
International, July 7, 2019
Five myths about Chernobyl By Kate Brown, The
Washington Post, July 5, 2019
Myth 1: It only resulted in a few fatalities and
casualties
Myth 2: The accident had only regional consequences
Myth 3: Nature is thriving in the zone around Chernobyl
Myth 4: Chernobyl was the worst nuclear accident ever
Myth 5: Chernobyl shows that the Soviet Union was inept.
The Chernobyl disaster What happened, and the
long-term impacts. National Geographic, May 17, 2019
Chernobyl
children in a Havana hospital
Un Traductor (A
Translator),
released this year, tells the true story of a Cuban
professor of Russian literature who, in 1989, abruptly finds
his lessons canceled and a note on the university door
directing him to the local hospital in Havana. There, he is
told he must serve as a translator. But for whom? “The
patients from Chernobyl” replies an emotionless senior
nurse. He finds himself serving as interpreter at night on a
children’s ward filled with victims from the 1986 Chernobyl
nuclear disaster in Ukraine. Beyond Nuclear
International, April 14, 2019
Manual for Survival, a Chernobyl Guide for the Future
This new book explores the full range of ways radiation has
affected residents throughout the region, while explaining
how Soviet politics helped limit knowledge of the incident.
By Kate Brown, March 2019
Ukrainian villages still suffering legacy of Chernobyl more
than 30 years on Milk in parts of Ukraine has
radioactivity levels up to five times the country's official
safe limit, new research shows. Science Daily, June
8, 2018
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, 31 years ago,
dispersed large amounts of radionuclides into the
surrounding environment and far beyond. The research of Dr.
Timothy Mousseau and his team, whose presentation you can watch
here, found that animals and microbes living in these
contaminated areas are failing to thrive. Organic matter in
forests around Chernobyl are taking years or even decades
longer than normal to decay. There are reduced population
sizes and genetic abnormalities among birds, bees,
butterflies, grasshoppers, dragonflies, spiders, and mammals
in highly radioactive parts of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
Birds are showing an increase in sterility, albinism and
cataracts, with abnormal sperm in barn swallows up to 10
times higher for Chernobyl birds as compared to sperm from
males living in control areas. These findings help dismiss
the notion that similar abnormalities and birth defects
reported in human populations exposed to Chernobyl fallout
were due to "poverty and stress," factors that clearly
cannot affect wildlife. The work also supports evidence
found in human populations that impacts still occur in
generations born long after the disaster. April 26, 2017
Wild boars remain too radioactive to eat, 32 years after
Chernobyl The boars are contaminated due to fallout.
They eat mushrooms and truffles, which absorb cesium-137 from
the atmosphere. Beyond Nuclear, April 29, 2018
The impacts of the 1986 nuclear disaster on people and the
environment Of 800,000 people brought in to manage and
contain the disaster, 13,000 had died by 1992. Estimates rose to
100,000 by 2006. Beyond Nuclear, April 22, 2018
Seeds exposed to Chernobyl
radiation weigh less, grow poorly
Seeds
from Chernobyl sites with higher radiation levels weighed
significantly less. Likewise, germination rates were negatively
impacted. Furthermore, the study indicated there was no
threshold for radioactivity's impact - and the higher the dose,
the greater the effect.
International Journal of
Plant Sciences, July 17, 2017
Ionizing Radiation from Chernobyl and the Fraction of Viable
Pollen Viability of pollen is reduced in
contaminated areas of Chernobyl. International Journal of
Plant Sciences, October 5, 2016
Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and
Nature This is a collection of papers translated
from the Russian. Written by leading authorities from
Eastern Europe, the volume outlines the history of health
and environmental consequences of the Chernobyl disaster.
Never before has there been a comprehensive presentation of
all the available information concerning the effects of the
low dose radioactive contaminants emitted from the Chernobyl
nuclear plant. Official discussions from various UN agencies
have largely downplayed or ignored many of the findings
reported in Eastern European scientific literature and
consequently have erred. December 2009
Union of Concerned Scientists summary
