News
TM e CL ac I camas P rînt
_______ l_
WEdNEsdAy, ApRil 26, 2000
Chernobyl: The effects are still being seen today
Continued from page 1
smoke, and debris that traveled
through Europe and across the
Atlantic Ocean. Over one coun
try, the radiation in the air was
noted to be 20-150 counts per sec
ond, when the normal range is 5-10
counts per second.
The longest-lasting effect was
on the reindeer and sheep in Swe
den. 86,000 head of cattle were
evacuated but much of the live
stock was mutated. Enormous
amounts of milk in Poland, Hun
gary, Austria, and Sweden were
contaminated with radioactive io
dine and radioactive cesium.
There were bans on many agri
cultural goods in Eastern Europe
because of contamination. The sale
of milk, meat, many fruits and veg
etables was banned in 1986 and
1987 in the Russian markets of Kiev,
Chernigov, Minsk, and other small
cities and towns. The cost of this
ban in Russia totaled 11 billion
rubles(about 400 million dollars).
Even though the food was banned,
there were still many health effects
involved with those who con
sumed the contaminated food.
In the early phase of the
Chernobyl accident, the amount of
radiation from bodies of water was
estimated less than 1-2 percent of
the total exposure. But the radio
active contamination still made its
way to many rivers in the
Chernobyl area, such as the River
Pripyat, Uzh River, and the Dniepr
River. As the rivers drained into
the Kiev, the Kanev and the
Kremenchug reservoirs, the con
tamination of water, sediments, al
gae, mollusks, and fish dropped
significantly by dilution. The
Chernobyl Cooling Pond was the
most heavily contaminated water
body.
Contamination of groundwater,
especially with strontium-90, could
be a problem for the future in the
catchment basins downstream of
the Chernobyl area.
Radiation on the body
Ionizing radiation passes
through the body and interacts
with tissues that then leads to cell
death and later on to organ dys
function. Radiation effects were re
sponsible for a majority of the early
deaths in the Chernobyl accident.
There were 31 deaths immediately
after and into the first week after
the explosion of Chernobyl. There
were 237 people hospitalized for
signs of acute radiation sickness.
After the fire, 135,000 people
evacuated the area around the re
actor, and 800,000 “liquidators”
were moved in to try to decontami
nate the area.
A recent report shows that the
Chernobyl accident is still killing
people. According the Ukraine
Health Ministry ten times as many
people are getting thyroid cancer
each year. In 1996 there were an
estimated 900 cases of thyroid can
cer reported, all children under the
age of 15.
An estimated 3,576 people have
died from the accident. After ten
years there were 2000 extra cancer
deaths per year among the work
ers cleaning up the Chernobyl ac
cident. There were also 4,600
deaths among the 6.8 million resi
dents of the contaminated territo
ries' that include Kiev, Minsk,
Belarus, and many other parts of
Russia.
Changes in technology
To date, none of the accidents at
nuclear facilities were directly
caused by the facilities them
selves; rather they were caused by
human error, usually the operators.
Certainly In the case of Chernobyl,
Roses 3re Red,
"Lr.
Violets are Blue,
yx
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the accident would have been far
less severe had the plans included
a containment vessel.
There are currently 63 nuclear
plants in operation in the former
Soviet Union, with more under
construction. According to the In
ternational Atomic Energy
Agency, the safety of these plants
is a continu
ing concern.
The current
energy de
mand
in
these coun
tries is such
that there is
little flexibil
ity for clos
ing
even
those plants
that are the
least safe,
such as the
dozen or so
based on the flawed Chernobyl de
sign.
Assistance has been started by
many groups to bring the Soviet
reactors up to safety standards, or
at least to effect improvements.
This involves modifications, iden
tification of safety deficiencies,
strenuous guidelines in effect for
nuclear plants, the following is in
cluded. Plants need to be licensed
by the NRC, produce onsite and
offsite emergency response plans,
which include the NRC and the Fed
eral Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) working together,
and adhere to strict building codes.
Maintenance is also used as a pre
ventative measure for safety.
Building codes are set by the
NRC. The buildings are to with
stand winds up to 300 miles per
hour, tornadoes, and direct hits by
large aircraft. The containment
Regula
building is generally three-foot
tions
thick concrete lined with 3/4th inch
One of the thick steel and all material must pass
biggest inspection. The Chernobyl plant
fears that was built using from 70% to 90%
most of the defective materials.
population
As a result of these safety mea
shares is sures there has never been an acci
the possi dent in the United States involving
bility of a nuclear explosion and a commercial nuclear power plant
melt down. To prevent these leaking a significant amount of ra
events from occurring the United dioactive materials into the environ
States Nuclear Regulatory Com ment. We all can rest easy know
mission (NRC) has set rules and ing that there are many scientists
regulations that all nuclear facili and nuclear engineers that are work
ing hard to make sure that there will
ties must follow.
Among the thousands of never be another Chernobyl.
training of staff, and audits of the
status of plant components.
The United States alone has
contributed 1 billion dollars for
more than 700 safety related
projects in the Baltic and Russian
states with considerably more
money earmarked for more im
provements. A repetition of the
19 8 6
Chernobyl
accident is
now virtu
ally impos
sible.
The following students from
Sue Eggling's Integrated Science
Concepts class submitted this
article on Chernobyl from a class
project:
♦
Crystal Edwards
♦
Sherrie Martin
♦
Kelly Misley
. ♦ Emily Dayton
♦
Jose Jimenez
♦
Saida Johnston
♦
Jan Staehely
♦
David Parry
♦
Genoa Titus
♦
Pam Wheeler
♦
Alisha Davis
♦
Kimberly Hartwell
♦
Juan Lin
♦
Amy Morse
♦
Melissa Rickert
♦
Daniel Cowan
♦
Mike Nuttbrock
♦
Aaron Rudis
If your class has written something
and would like it considered for
publication, stop by BI 04 or call
campus ext. 2309.