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Chernobyl : looking back to go forward : proceedings of an International Conference on Chernobyl : looking back to go forward
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Copyright Year | 2008 |
| Abstract | The Chernobyl Forum was organized by the United Nations to examine the health and environmental effects of the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station Unit Number 4. This paper is concerned with the environmental effects, including human exposure, as determined by the Expert Group on Environment. The accident on 26 April 1986 resulted in the release of a large amount of radioactive materials over a period of ten days. These materials were deposited throughout Europe (and to a minor extent throughout the remainder of the northern hemisphere) with the three more affected countries being Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine. The more important radionuclides from a human dosimetric standpoint were I, Cs and Cs, with half-lives of 8 d, 2 a and 30 a, respectively. More than five million persons lived on territories in these three countries judged to be contaminated at >37 kBq/m. Many countermeasures were employed to mitigate the effects of the accident, with the main focus being on urban and agricultural areas. The collective effective dose to the residents of the contaminated territories is estimated to be about 55 000 man Sv; the collective thyroid dose is estimated to be 1.6 × 10 man Gy. Effects on non-human biota were observed that ranged from minor to lethal; a notable effect was the killing of a pine forest near the accident site. The current increase in the number and diversity of species in the most contaminated area is due to the absence of human pressure. The current shelter over the damaged reactor was constructed under time pressure, and it has significant leakage or airborne radionuclides and inflow of rainwater. The immediate waste management practices were chaotic and remediation is needed. It is planned to build an NSC structure over the top of the existing structure and to eventually dismantle the damaged reactor. This will put additional pressure on waste management, including the need for a new site for geologic disposal of transuranic waste. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1312_web.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
