Chеrnobyl nuclear accident

The 26lh of April is a special day for the people living in Ukraine and regions situated not far from it. On that day in 1986 a horrible accident occurred at the Chornobyl nuclear station. There was a nuclear reactor explosion which had far

reaching consequences.

Contamination by various radioactive isotopes, such as cesium-137, iodine-131, strontium-90, plutonium-239 and plutonium-240, from the Chornobyl nuclear accident have affected the air, land, and water of Ukraine and vast areas beyond it. Recorded but unreported radiation levels in Kyiv a few days after the accident exceeded the maximum allowable levels by a hundredfold.

Press report claim that significant number of deaths by radiation sickness, elevated levels of stillbirth and birth defects and highly elevated rates of childhood leukemia, have occurred in the affected areas. Those claims and other concerns are being researched by host of scientists and medical professionals from Ukraine and other countries.

Recent detailed field studies indicate that significant areas of agricultural and forest land of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia will remain unsafe for human occupancy and food production for upwards of eight thousand years. Nevertheless, thousands of people who were evacuated after the accident have returned to live and farm in these highly contaminated regions. Thus, the Chornobyl region, in fact, has become something of a living laboratory for the study of nuclear contamination.

A number of foreign countries offered specialized medical equipment and drugs for biological elimination of isotopes of different chemical elements from human body. Later on thousands of children were taken to other republics of the former USSR and abroad for corresponding medical treatment.

Such accidents like that in Chornobyl must never be repeated again, because the very existence of millions of people may be under the threat. The safe maintenance of nuclear power stations depends on proper work and sufficient technical knowledge of every worker and engineer.