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Main » 2010 » March » 6 » Chernobyl
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The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (then part of the Soviet Union), now in Ukraine. It is considered to be the worst nuclear power plant disaster in history and the only level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale. It resulted in a severe release of radioactivity following a massive power excursion that destroyed the reactor. Most fatalities from the accident were caused by radiation poisoning. On April 26, 1986 at 01:23 a.m. (UTC+3) reactor number four at the Chernobyl plant, near Pripyat in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, exploded. Further explosions and the resulting fire sent a plume of highly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area, including the nearby town of Pripyat. Four hundred times more fallout was released than had been by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.The plume drifted over large parts of the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Northern Europe. Rain contaminated with radioactive material fell as far away as Ireland. Large areas in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia
were badly contaminated, resulting in the evacuation and resettlement
of over 336,000 people. According to official post-Soviet data, about 60% of the radioactive fallout landed in Belarus. The accident raised concerns about the safety
of the Soviet nuclear power industry as well as nuclear power in
general, slowing its expansion for a number of years while forcing the
Soviet government to become less secretive. The countries of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus have been burdened with the continuing and substantial decontaminationChernobyl, as over time it becomes harder to determine whether a death has been caused by exposure to radiation. The 2005 report prepared by the Chernobyl Forum, led by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and World Health Organization (WHO), attributed 56 direct deaths (47 accident workers, and nine children with thyroid cancer), and estimated that there may be 4,000 extra cancer deaths among the approximately 600,000 most highly exposed people. lthough the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
and certain limited areas remain off limits, the majority of affected
areas are now considered safe for settlement and economic activity.
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