Hello. This is my last post about major ecological catastrophes, which took place in previous century. In previous post I wanted to bring some information about less known events in Bhopal and Aral Sea.
Today I will write about Cheronobyl disaster.
On April 26, 1986 in Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant happened the worst accident in the history of nuclear power. The cause of it was a dangerous test, which was supposed to check cooling system reaction during core shutdown procedure. During the test reactor was cut off from efficient cooling what resulted in rapidly increasing temperature and finally explosion and fire. Fire of the reactor lasted for 9 days releasing large amounts of radioactive dusts into the atmosphere. Radioactive cloud drifted not only over Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, but also over whole east, west and south Europe.
During accident 203 people were hospitalized immediately, of whom 31 died from radiation. Most deaths were among firefighters who came after explosion and were trying to stop fires. 135,000 people were evacuated from the 2500 km buffer zone around the plant, including 50,000 from the nearby town of Pripyat. Pripyat today is abandoned ghost town.
The total predicted number of deaths due to the disaster is highly controversial, generally calculated for around 4 000, with about 50% among disaster liquidators. On the whole world about 600 000 people were exposed to increased radiation levels, however there is no prove that this had any impact on their health. Depending on different sources this number can be much higher or lower. Different organizations like Green Peace have interest in showing overrated results of disaster. Governments of Belarus and Ukraine gets international help for fighting with effects of the accident. Impact on ecosystem is not yet widely studied but already made reports shows increase in numbers of wild animals.
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant worked producing energy to 2000 when last working reactor have been shut down. Zone around plant is still closed, however it is known that some people returned to their homes. Also in 2002, zone have been opened for tourism. One day trip costs about $150 - $200. Power plant site is to be cleared by 2065
Questions
1. What do you think about atomic power plants? Would you be disturbed having one in your town ?
2. Would you like to visit a place like Pripyat, knowing that there is increased radiation ?
1)I'm supporter of nuclear power plants so I wouldn't mind if there would be one in my town as with modern technology chance of breakdown is extremely low.
ReplyDelete2)I don't find anything intersting in visiting places such as Pripyat but still radiation there is not that high so it would not be a problem.
I think nuclear power is good but you have to take care and niedopuszczać to failure. This is the only case of such a catastrophe and we know that a lot of countries benefited from such a source of energy. We are happy to me to call and saw Chernobyl as there is after all these years. it would be a new experience for me, I hope that one day I can go there.
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