The explosion was on a day of normal tests. It was one of the tests going wrong that set off the explosions. In addition to greatening fears of nuclear damage, it was blow to the soviet Union economically. Gorbachev actually said the economic and spiritual damage brought by Chernobyl was "the real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union five years later."
Chernobyl is actually not in Russia, it is currently in Ukraine. But at the time of the explosion, it was the Soviet Union who occupied that area. The town of Pripyat was evacuated and 50,000 people would never go back to their homes again.
The Soviet Union was initially very secretive about the accident and never made an official statement until Sweden wanted information about the higher levels of radiation. Radioactive clouds moved in on nearby countries due to the wind. At that point, it became very hard for the Soviet Union to keep this a secret
The numbers regarding the deaths had changed over time and there has never been a really official number. In 1995, the Ukrainian government said that 125,000 had died from Chernobyl. In 2005 the United Nations said that 50 people had died in the months following the accident. They also said that 9,000 people could eventual die from cancer related diseases.
Chernobyl was an accident that will effect the area for thousands of years. It is not the kind of accident that people will forget in a few years. And the consequences are still noticeable in continued deaths even today.
https://www.history.com/topics/1980s/chernobyl
I think this post describes the event and its lasting effects very well. Since you talked about how there still could be continued deaths today because of this incident, I was wondering if it is safe to visit the site of the explosion. From the research that I did, it seems that it is somewhat safe to visit. It has been opened since 2011 and you can visit it with a specialist tour guide. The amount of radiation you're exposed to is about the same as going on a long distance flight. However, it is still not safe to stay there for long periods of time and the main danger is not the radiation, but unsafe structures which have been deserted for over 30 years with their metal stripped away.
ReplyDeleteSource:
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/chernobyl-tv-show-hbo-sky-ukraine-nuclear-safe-to-visit-tourism-disaster-a8902581.html
I've always been really interested in the Chernobyl incident and I think you did a really good job describing how deadly the incident really was. Another incident I'm familiar of is the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster that occurred in Japan in 2011. It is the only other Level 7 event classification of the International Nuclear Event Scale besides Chernobyl. The cause of the event was a magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck Japan on March 11th of 2011. Both onsite and offsite power that powered the plant were lost, leading to a major problem. Systems that required the power that was cut off were now unable to keep the reactor fuel cool. This lead to a whole lot of problems such as a build up of hydrogen gas that exploded, damaging the reactors. Both of these events show the dangers of nuclear energy but given how few occur, I still think that nuclear energy is one of the best green energies.
ReplyDeleteSources:
https://www.oecd-nea.org/fukushima/
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/15/asia/japan-fukushima-nuclear-fuel-rods-removal-scli-intl/index.html
I really liked how you put Chernobyl into the context of the Cold War. I thought the Gorbachev quote was very surprising. When you mentioned that The Soviet Union was very secretive about the explosion, and didn't tell other countries about it even though the information could have saved lives, it reminds me of a similar current event regarding the Corona Virus. On December 31 the Chinese government tells the WHO organization about cases of an "Unknown" disease, yet on December 27, Wuhan Health officials were told about the Corona Virus, not an unknown disease. This along with the silencing of doctors trying to spread awareness of the Corona Virus like Li Wenliang shows an attempt by the Chinese government to cover up the Corona Virus. A study published in March claimed that if the Chinese government had notified other countries about the Corona Virus 3 weeks earlier, there could be a death reduction of about 95%. I think it is very strange that governments try to cover things like this up as other countries were bound to find out eventually.
ReplyDeleteSources:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wuhan-china-doctor-warned-to-keep-quiet-after-sounding-alarm-coronavirus-december-2020-02-04/
https://www.axios.com/timeline-the-early-days-of-chinas-coronavirus-outbreak-and-cover-up-ee65211a-afb6-4641-97b8-353718a5faab.html
I've always been really intrigued by Chernobyl and the impact of it's released radiation on the surrounding area. All living organisms were affected. Birds in the area around Chernobyl today have significantly smaller brains due to mutations, and there was a great reduction in the population of insects, such as bees and spiders, as well as slower rates of tree growth. Furthermore, the trees of the Red Forest (a famous forest near the nuclear plant where trees turned red and died) are not decomposing at normal rates. It seems like fungi and microbes that are responsible for decomposition have also been affected by radiation and are slowing down the decomposition process significantly. There is high risk of a fire starting from all of the litter that has accumulated since the accident, which would spread radioactive particles from the soil and litter. The world is still at risk and is impacted by the Chernobyl accident.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/forests-around-chernobyl-arent-decaying-properly-180950075/