Chernobyl: The World’s Worst Nuclear Power Accident - Background
In Spring 1986, the world’s worst nuclear power accident occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, 80 miles north of Kiev in Ukraine in the former Soviet Union. The accident has been described by the United Nations as “the greatest environmental catastrophe in the history of humanity.”
On 26 April 1986, at 1:23 AM, a core meltdown occurred at Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, creating a chemical explosion and a fireball which blew off the reactor’s 1,000-ton steel and concrete lid. Some 190 tons of highly radioactive uranium and graphite were expelled, spewing radioactive substances to a height of more than 1kilometer into the earth’s atmosphere.
It is estimated that the explosion released more than 200 times the radioactive fallout of the two nuclear weapons used at the end of World War II, spreading a radioactive cloud over large parts of the former Soviet Union, including Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, across Europe, and reaching as far as Greenland and parts of Asia. The radioactive plume initially traveled in a northwest direction toward Sweden, Finland and Eastern Europe, exposing the unsuspecting public to levels up to 100 times the normal background radiation.
The After-Effects of Chernobyl Based on the official reports by the United Nations, up to 9 million people in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia have been affected directly or indirectly by the radiation fallout. While there are no definitive figures of deaths resulting from the Chernobyl accident, reports vary from zero to over 100,000 fatalities.
The Toxic Legacy of Nuclear Power
The radioactive byproducts of the Chernobyl plant explosion will remain in affected areas for some 48,000 years.
Alternatives in Energy Sources
The world must decrease its dependence on nuclear energy and advance a global shift to clean, sustainable and environmentally benign sources of energy that do not pose the risks inherent in nuclear energy production.
