Environmental and human impacts of chernobyl nuclear disaster?

Question

Environmental and human impacts of chernobyl nuclear disaster?

Answer 1

Along with what others have written in here, there is an extremely good documentary on HBO called "Chernobyl Heart". It shows the reactor now and a huge area around the reactor (I think its like 45 miles in every direction) that no one is supposed to live in. It also shows many orphanages that have popped up in contaminated areas like Minsk where millions still live, but it's still considered highly contaminated. It shows how kids are severely affected from the ones who were young when it happened (with many thyroid cancers) and kidney failure to the ones just being born with all the incredible defects. And if they aren't born with them, they always have them within about six months when living in contaminated regions because their immune systems are so weak. I highly suggest you watch for it and watch it.

Also, online you can find a gal who rides her motorcycle in the 'no live' zone. Her dad is a nuclear physist so he's taught her where to go and where not to.

Lastly, a lot of people here in the United States think "why should I worry about that, it happened clear across the world?" When Chernobyl exploded, it only spewed 3% of it's entire reactor. Two years ago, at the Davis-Bessie power plant in Ohio, it came within 30 days of potentially having an entire meltdown. That is a potential of 100%. If that had happened, most of Ohio and Indiana and Michigan and with the wind going the way it typically does, a great deal of New York and Pennsylvania would have evacuated. A great majority of those would never ever be able to return home. That land would have been unihabitable. Think about all of that for a minute. Even if you don't live in those states, there are still tons of nuclear power plants in the US.

My grandfather worked for a nuclear enriching plant in southern Ohio in the 70's and 80's and he got lit up all the time just like Karen Silkwood did (the movie Silkwood is about her story) and scrubbed down. And yes, he died from kidney failure. Too much radiation is never a good thing.

I think we have a lot to learn from our Russian friends and what they've been through. And I think it needs to be taken into high regards especially with all of the 'going green' that is being talked about these days. Lots of people want to go back to more nuclear power. I'm not totally against it, but I think we have to realize the huge risks that come with it.

Answer 2

There are still fields in wales affected by fall out.  If sheep feed on the grass they are not fit for human consumption because of bioaccummulation of radioactive particles.

Answer 3

The environmental impact of Chernobyl upon humans was considerable and not just back in the old USSR.

There was a joke circulating soon after the Chernobyl to the effect that all the sheep in Wales glowed in the dark.  Not sure if this was true, however, high radiation levels were detected in Wales and also in much of Scandinavia.

Not sure what the situation is now concerning rad-levels.  Probably still quite high - we're talking of half life of several hundred thousand years or so.

In and around the Chernobyl area in Russia, there are hundreds of birth defects every year.  It gets worse.

Answer 4

I think all would agree it is the worst environmental disaster of all time. An entire city abandoned and countless miles of contaminated land, some of which still has people living on it.