Chernobyl anniversary

Chernobyl - 21 years on

Thursday 26 April 2007, marks the 21st anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident. This short briefing attempts to answer some of the most often asked questions about the disaster and its legacy.

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Where is Chernobyl?
Chernobyl power station is situated in present day Ukraine, near the border with Belarus. Four km away from the reactor site lies the town of Pripyat which was built especially for workers at the plant. At the time of the accident, 45,000 people lived there. Chernobyl lies 120km north of the Ukranian capital, Kiev.

What happened?
The accident began in reactor 4 at Chernobyl on the night of the 25 April 1986. A routine test was being undertaken to see if the turbines could produce sufficient energy to keep the coolant pumps running in the event of a loss of power, until the emergency diesel generator was activated. However, to allow this to go ahead uninterrupted, the safety systems were deliberately switched off.

There was a sudden and unexpected power surge and the reactor's emergency shutdown failed. The reactor went out of control and there was a violent explosion. The 1000-tonne sealing cap on the reactor was blown off.

At temperatures in excess of 2000¡C, the fuel rods melted and the graphite covering the reactor ignited. In the ensuing inferno, the radioactive fission products released during the core meltdown were sucked up into the atmosphere. The explosion released 100 times more radiation than the atom bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

What was the immediate aftermath?
In an attempt to smother the fire 5000 tonnes of lead and stone were dropped by helicopter. In the final phase of firefighting, the core of the reactor was cooled with nitrogen but it took until the 6 May for the fire and radioactive emissions to be brought under control.

36 hours after the accident, the 45,000 inhabitants of the nearby Pripyat, were evacuated in buses. Within 10 days of the accident, 130,000 people living in a 30 km radius of the site had been evacuated.

Ukraine, Belarus and Russia bore the brunt of the radiation at the time but due to variable weather conditions in the days following the accident, radiation spread over large parts of Scandinavia, central Europe and the UK. Due to meat contamination levels over safety limits, almost 9000 UK farms had restrictions placed on the movement and sale of sheep.

Within seven months, a concrete sarcophagus had been constructed around the reactor to absorb the remaining radiation and contain the remaining fuel. As the concrete is now starting to crumble there are now plans to construct a new and longer lasting shelter.

What is the death toll and effect on health?
Over 20 years on, the total health impacts are still difficult to assess directly. Something that is not disputed, is that 31 on-site workers died in the first few days following the accident. [1]

It is also widely agreed that radiation in the main affected areas has resulted in increased incidences of both breast and thyroid cancer, leukaemia and problems with pregnancy. Many of those forced to evacuate the contaminated zones have suffered mental health problems.

In September 2005 a joint report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that up to 4,000 people could eventually die as a result of radiation exposure from the Chernobyl plant. [2] However, these figures have been challenged by other scientists for being far too conservative.

In April 2006, in a report for the Green group in the European Parliament, Ian Fairlie and David Sumner, two independent radiation scientists from the UK, said that the death toll from cancers caused by Chernobyl will in fact lie somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000. [3]

The two scientists accused the IAEA/WHO report of ignoring its own prediction of an extra 5000 cancer deaths in the less contaminated parts of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, and of failing to take account of many thousands more deaths in other countries, where more than half of Chernobyl's fallout ended up. In an interview with New Scientist Zhanat Carr, a radiation scientist with the WHO in Geneva, conceded the 5000 deaths were omitted because the report was a "political communication tool" and that "scientifically, it may not be the best approach". [4]

The view, that the IAEA/WHO report is far too conservative, is further supported by a study published in 2006. This time radiation specialists from the WHO's own International Agency for Research on Cancer (IACR) in Lyon, estimated the number of excess cancers attributable to Chernobyl amongst 570 million Europeans. Their study indicates that about 16,000 cases of thyroid cancer and 25,000 cases of other cancers may be expected due to radiation from the accident and that about 16,000 deaths from these cancers may occur. [5]

Finally, in another report Greenpeace estimated that the full consequences of the Chernobyl disaster could top a quarter of a million cancers cases and nearly 100,000 fatal cancers. [6]

Are impacts still being felt today?
Yes, very much so. Hundreds of thousands of people were involved in the clean-up operations in Chernobyl up until 1989. Today, many are still suffering from the damage to their health.

The accident at Chernobyl and its consequences, the evacuation and resettlement of 350,400 people, also had a profound social impact on the three countries concerned - Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Tens of thousands still suffer from physical and mental health problems.

International estimates suggest that a total of between 125,000 and 146,000 km2 in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine are still contaminated with caesium-137 at levels exceeding 1 curie (Ci) or 3.7 x 1010 becquerel (Bq) per km2.

In addition, other areas in Europe such as Scandinavia and indeed the UK are still affected by the nuclear fallout they experienced 20 years ago. In 2006, government scientists admitted that 200,000 sheep on 375 farms in the UK, including a number in Scotland, were still grazing on land contaminated by the fall-out. [7]

Additional sources of information, images and testimonies:

• Chernobyl time-line of events
• Chernobyl - Twenty years Twenty lives project
• Chernobyl Journal
• Pripyat website
• Chernobyl - 20 Years After
• Bellona's pages on the accident and aftermath
• BBC Chernobyl diary
• Other nuclear accidents around the world

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