The Effects Of Radiation Exposure On The Environment

On the morning of April 26th 1986 the world experienced the worst nuclear and engineering disaster ever: the nuclear disaster of Chernobyl. Reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded due various reasons: the design of the reactor itself had a major flaw that would make it unstable when run at low power, and the employees responsible for running the reactor were inadequately trained. Leonid Toptunov, the

Not many people fully know what happened at Chernobyl, or understand the effect it has had on today’s nuclear science. Chernobyl has been named as the largest man-made disaster ever recorded. Chernobyl is the most influential and important event during the 1980’s because it has completely changed how the world views anything nuclear by changing experimentation and usage of nuclear materials and power as a whole. It was extremely influential because it caused thousands of people to move out of their homes, while damaging nearby cities and countries and covering the surrounding area in radioactive smog, and is still a threat to surrounding cities and countries today. It also has caused the nearby area to be thriving with wildlife.

On April 26, 1986, a nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant experienced a catastrophic meltdown that emitted radioactive material into the atmosphere, killing 31 people.

(Events of Fukushima Nuclear disaster) The Fukushima Nuclear disaster had many effects on the environment and health, some of its effects on the health are, infection of skin and that is mainly caused because of radiation and chemicals in the water after the incident and little supply of clean water, it also impacted the citizens physiologically (mainly the mothers, kids and workers) who might have diseases as anxiety and depression, problems in pregnancy, related to deficiency of iodine in the body, and some hormones not functioning properly, all these causes might lead to still birth, and miscarriage and finally, radiation syndrome which is caused because of the release of massive amounts of radiation, spread of cancer (as thyroid cancer) because of radiation, and ascend of genetic inheritable diseases As in Diagram 2 (Health Concerns in Fukushima), we can signify that the percentages of cancer increased highly because of the disaster in comparison to nowadays and especially between people of ages (1month-20years)

This article focuses on the fact that even after seven years, lethal levels of radiation have been detected at a destroyed nuclear power plant. The high levels of radiation could eventually lead to cancer through mutations in their genetic code. Furthermore, an expert warned that it could lead to a global catastrophe if the leaks were not taken care of properly. Water had been contaminated around the area of the power plant had seeped into the ground, which could cause

(1)At 1:23 am on April 26th 1986, 2 explosions devastated a nuclear power plant in Chernobyl. These explosions unleashed huge amounts of toxic radiation into the atmosphere. This radiation created a toxic plume of radiation that not only devastated Chernobyl but affected almost the whole of Europe. It started with total evacuation of the city, this started within 24 hours of the disaster and immediately an exclusion zone was in place. What the Ukrainian officials didn’t know at the time is just how serious this was. The wind blew the plumes created by this explosion one plume north and one plume west. The plumes were highly toxic and had been contaminated by the nuclear radiation. The radiation going west even reached north wales and many parts of Scotland and the south of Ireland. The radiation going north badly affected Finland, Sweden and parts of Norway. To put that into perspective the disaster released at least 100 times more radiation than the atom bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

By November 1986, in order to limit a further release of radiation, the nuclear reactor was encased in concrete, with a long term planned completion of the Chernobyl cleanup by 2065 (Peplow, 563). After the disaster, a vast amount of the land was inhabitable due to the high levels of radiation, this in turn caused a decline in industry and agriculture, and increased the unemployment rate forcing citizens to migrate outside of the affected areas to find work (van der Veen, 126). These declines precipitated psychosocial impacts on the citizens with a “downward spiral of anxiety, depression, apathy, and fatalism” (van der Veen, 126). The increased burden on the Soviet finances, with the enormous costs of cleanup, relocation, compensation, and ongoing health care for those citizens affected, a need for further financial assistance from the IMF and World Bank could only possibly occur if they were to change their economy in agreement with the West’s negations (van der Veen,

People and animals were affected badly some died from the chernobyl explosion. Many died from it because it was so bad,

On the morning of April 26, 1986, a nuclear reactor in Chernobyl, Russia exploded, changing the lives of the residents and workers living in Chernobyl forever. This explosion is considered the worst nuclear accident in history. The huge outburst was created by “A power surge [that] caused fuel in the reactor to overheat, resulting in a steam explosion and fire.” Not only was this devastating to so many people, but the fallout coming from the damaged reactor also resulted in high levels of radiation that dangerously impacted the environment and its surrounding area. Even today, thirty years later, traces of radiation still permeate everything living and nonliving around Chernobyl, resulting in major deformations in plants and animals. In the books, The Truth About Chernobyl by Grigori Medvedev and Voices From Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich, the authors describe their views of the accident.

The Chernobyl accident happened in 1986. The power surge caused an explosion and destroyed the reactor. The radiation of the explosion caused Ukraine to suffer and and killed millions of kids and adults. Radiation contaminated the air, water, and food supply as well as contaminating peoples bodies. The plant and animal life had a huge decrease after the explosion. The animals could not help disperse the plant life like pollinating plants and spreading seeds. Hundreds of thousands of people evacuated their homes to more safer environments. Long term effects caused citizens of chernobyl to develop cancer and thyroid cancer from drinking milk from cows in Chernobyl. Debris from the explosion caused fires around the cities in Ukraine. The

There have been lots of nuclear accident around the world. One of the accident that had a major impact on the world was the Chernobyl disaster. The disaster took place on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. The disaster was caused by a reaction explosion induced by design faults and staff application errors. The accident took place in the course of scheduled tests to check the power supply mode in the event of external sources loss. Even after 10 days, explosions and ejections of radioactive substances continued. The release of radiation and radioactive substance polluted the places within 30 km of Chernobyl, and those areas have been closed for a long period of

Chernobyl was one of the largest and most powerful nuclear reactors in the former Soviet Union. It was used to power the part of the U.S.S.R now known as Ukraine. Also it was thought of as one of the safest nuclear reactors in the world. But on April 26, 1986 something went terribly wrong and it is now thought of as the worst nuclear disaster in history. It killed over 100,000 people with its radiation and is still expected to contribute to the deaths of over 300,000 people.

On 11 March 2011 in Japan, the Fukushima nuclear power plant was seriously damaged by an earthquake and the radioactive substances were leaked to the surrounding. Local people had to evacuate away and up till now they are living under threat.

Early in the morning of April 27, 1986, the world experienced its largest nuclear disaster ever (Gould 40). While violating safety protocol during a test, Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl power plant was placed in a severely unstable state, and in a matter of seconds the reactor output shot up to 120 times the rated output (Flavin 8). The resulting steam explosion tossed aside the reactor’s 1,000 ton concrete covering and released radioactive particles up to one and a half miles into the sky (Gould 38). The explosion and resulting fires caused 31 immediate deaths and over a thousand injuries, including radiation poisoning (Flavin 5). After the

The Chernobyl accident was a disastrous nuclear event that happened on 26th April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. The Chernobyl disaster is classified as a level 7 event according to the International Nuclear Event Scale (only two events have been classified this high in the past) and has caused damages that consist of the cost of 500,000 workers and 18 billion rubles, 31 deaths according to the Soviet casualty count (this is still being disputed) and between 4000-27000 affected future deaths due to radiation exposure [G1].