Chernobyl - What Is Chernobyl?

Chernobyl

As we know it, the Chernobyl Nuclear disaster has been the worst nuclear explosion in history. The explosion let off so many radioactive particles that millions of acres of farmland were contaminated and many of thousands of people were evacuated. Many stayed in the contaminated areas also. Farm animals were coming out with deformities and among humans several thousands of radiation induced illnesses and cancers were being detected. Though many of actions were eventually taking place to make sure it wouldn't get any worse, they were still finding out that the problem was way worse than originally expected. This research will help you know more about Chernobyl, it's history, and the effects of radiation.

What is Chernobyl?

On April 26, 1986, many residents of Pripyat, a small town in the Ukranian Republic woke up to what they thought was just an ordinary morning. What they didn't know was that all of the air they were breathing in was highly radioactive. The nuclear power plant that was known as Chernobyl was said to be extremely safe, so though the residents saw smoke and fire they weren't to worried. They didn't know how wrong they were though. Apparently, around 1:30 a.m. at least two powerful explosions had taken place and ripped open the fourth reactor unit.

After the chaos of the first few hours the plant workers had no idea how much of the radiation they were absorbing. They were equipped with dosimeters which are devices that measured their personal radiation levels. To put the accident into perspective, incidental radiation exposure that we would get from solar cosmic rays, rocks and soil, and also x-ray treatments only totals less than 400 millirens a year. The radiation dose per hour during the explosion was at least 2,500 times that amount. The dosimeters that they had were only to sense low levels of radiation, the ones that they really needed that sensed the high levels were lost in the explosion. People were rapidly becoming nauseous, faint, and strangely excited. The engineers and deputy chief of operations of the plant were still under the belief that the plant was still intact. Although, anyone that had worked at the plant should have been familiar with the symptoms of radiation poisoning and known that was the case.

Soon, people started to realize that all of the talk of their being nothing wrong was terribly off. They were finally starting to realize that it was all a cover up. Fires still began to burn in and around the plant while firefighters worked for hours to keep them under control. All of the workers were becoming more sick and unable to work. The doctor that was seeing most of the initial patients name was Dr. Belokon. He observed many of the initial medical problems. He also observed that the accident was going to affect more land, water, and air then anyone could have imagined. Chernobyl's story is filled with a lot of overconfidence, unpreparedness, and disregard. The Soviet Union acted as though the huge radioactive cloud was just going to go away and wouldn't touch any other towns. They would soon find out that wasn't the case.

What were the S/E diseases?

The surrounding area of Chernobyl turned into nothing but a huge laboratory for the darkest experiments. The most important was a long term study of how radiation affected the human body and how people absorb it. The five basic paths are external exposure, inhalation of radioactive particles, radiation burns to the skin, contact with radioactive material on the ground, and ingestion of contaminated food or drinks. People involved in the Chernobyl accident absorbed radiation through all five paths.

Chernobyl emitted radiation in the form of alpha, beta, and gamma rays. Alpha is not able to penetrate the flesh; instead you get it from ingestion. Beta on the other hand can penetrate flesh and cause burns. Here, a