Where is Chernobyl, which areas were contaminated by radiation, how is the contamination measured?
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Fig. 1: The Chernobyl nuclear power station lies in the border area between Ukraine and Belarus - in the middle of Europe. Click on the map to enlarge it.
European Union, Brussels 1998.
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Fig. 37: Population trends in the contaminated territories since the nuclear accident.
Source: Chernobyl Committee, Chernobyl Interinform, UN 2001/2002. (Please click to enlarge)
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| (1.1) | M. De Cort, G. Dubois, Sh. D. Fridman, M.G. Germenchuk, Yu. A. Izrael, A. Janssens, A. R. Jones, G. N. Kelly, E. V. Kvasnikova, I. I. Matveenko, I. M. Nazarov, Yu. M. Pokumeiko, V. A. Sitak, E. D. Stukin, L. Ya. Tabachny, Yu. S. Tsaturov and: "Atlas of Caesium Deposition on Europe after the Chernobyl Accident", EUR report nr. 16733, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, 1998, Plate 1 | | (2.1) | UNDP/UNICEF: The Human Consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident. A Strategy for Recovery, January, 2002, p. 27 | | (3.1) | Wolfgang Botsch: Untersuchungen zur Strahlenexposition von Einwohnern kontaminierter Ortschaften der nördlichen Ukraine, Universität Hannover, 2000, p. 3 | | (30.1) | Green Cross: CD: Guide to chernobyl consequences in Belarus, Minsk, 2001, Introduction | | (1.2) | M. De Cort, G. Dubois, Sh. D. Fridman, M.G. Germenchuk, Yu. A. Izrael, A. Janssens, A. R. Jones, G. N. Kelly, E. V. Kvasnikova, I. I. Matveenko, I. M. Nazarov, Yu. M. Pokumeiko, V. A. Sitak, E. D. Stukin, L. Ya. Tabachny, Yu. S. Tsaturov and: "Atlas of Caesium Deposition on Europe after the Chernobyl Accident", EUR report nr. 16733, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, 1998, p. 19, Plate 17, 19, 23 | | (2.2) | UNDP/UNICEF: The Human Consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident. A Strategy for Recovery, January, 2002, p. 35 | | (5.1) | Sahm, Astrid: Transformation im Schatten von Tschernobyl, Münster, 1999, Chapter 6.1, p. 185-186 | | (4.1) | Gabriele Mraz, Antonia Wenisch: Der Reaktorunfall in Tschernobyl. Darstellung der Folgen für Umwelt und Gesundheit aus der Sicht verschiedener Interessengruppen, Austrian Institute for Applied Ecology, Wien, 1986/87, p. 6 ff. | | (4.2) | Gabriele Mraz, Antonia Wenisch: Der Reaktorunfall in Tschernobyl. Darstellung der Folgen für Umwelt und Gesundheit aus der Sicht verschiedener Interessengruppen, Austrian Institute for Applied Ecology, Wien, 1986/87, p. 11 | | (7.1) | Committee on the Problems of the Consequences of the Catastrophe at the Chernobyl NPP: 15 Years after Chernobyl Disaster, Minsk, 2001, p. 5/6 ff. | | (16.1) | Committee on the Problems of the Consequences of the Catastrophe at the Chernobyl NPP: Interview, Minsk, 16.04.2002, p. 1 | | (8.1) | Chernobyl Interinform Agency: Kiew, Interview on 18.04.2002, p. 1 | | (6.1) | UNDP: Belarus: Choices for the future. National Human Development Report, Minsk, 2000, p. 104/105 | | (23.1) | Chernobyl Interinform Agency, Kiev und, and Chernobyl Committee: MailTable of official data on the reactor accident, (e-mail communication, 21.5.2002), |
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Further literature
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| (100) | Alexijewitsch, Swetlana: Eine Chronik der Zukunft, Aufbau Verlag, Berlin, 2000 | | (101) | Boos, Susan: Beherrschtes Entsetzen. Das Leben in der Ukraine zehn Jahre nach Tschernobyl, Rotpunktverlag, Zürich, 1996 |
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Where is Chernobyl?
The Chernobyl power plant lies in northern Ukraine, near the border with Belarus (1.1). Both countries border Poland to the west and Russia to the east. In the former Soviet Union, Belarus and Ukraine were the two westernmost states.
The Chernobyl power plant is about 7 km from the border with Belarus, while about 120 km to the south lies Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, with a population of about 3 million. The reactor complex, which has been inactive since 12 December 2000, stands by the river Pripyat, which joins the Dnieper at the town of Chernobyl, 12 km away (2.1; 3.1).
Which areas were contaminated by radiation?
In the night of 25 to 26 April 1986, the explosion of the reactor in Chernobyl, the greatest industrial disaster in the history of humankind, released one hundred times more radiation than the atom bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki (30.1). In addition to the reactor's immediate surroundings - an area with a radius of about 30 km - other regions were contaminated, particularly in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.
The contaminated territories lie in the north of Ukraine, the south and east of Belarus and in the western border area between Russia and Belarus (1.2). International estimates suggest that a total of between 125 000 and 146 000 km2 in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine are contaminated with caesium-137 at levels exceeding 1 curie (Ci) or 3.7 x 1010 becquerel (Bq) per square kilometre (5.1). This is an area greater than that of the neighbouring countries of Latvia and Lithuania combined. At the time of the accident, about 7 million people lived in the contaminated territories, including 3 million children. About 350 400 people were resettled or left these areas. However, about 5.5 million people, including more than a million children, continue to live in the contaminated zones (2.2; 4.1; 4.2).
How is the contamination measured?
Caesium-137 (half-life 30 years) was the most widely distributed long-lived radioactive element after the accident. Maps and descriptions of the contaminated territories therefore usually refer to caesium-137, giving the contamination per square kilometre either in the old unit, curies (Ci), or in becquerels (Bq). Both units indicate how much radiation is measured by Geiger counters in these areas. A becquerel is equivalent to one radioactive disintegration per second. 1 Bq = 27 trillionths of a curie (picocuries).
The value "over 1 Ci/km2 caesium-137" does not in itself indicate how much radiation is absorbed by the people living in these areas. The authorities responsible for managing the disaster in the three countries affected estimate that people living in an area contaminated with 1 to 5 Ci/km2 absorb an average of less then 1.0 millisieverts per year. Sieverts (Sv) or millisieverts (mSv) are the internationally recognised units used to measure the harmful effects of radiation on the human body (biologically effective dose).
Only when soil contamination is over 5 Ci/km2 are people likely to absorb more than 1 to 5 mSv per year. As a comparison: Within the European Union, 1 mSv per year is the dose limit specified for people living near a nuclear power station (8.1; 16.1; 6.1).
Most of the contaminated territory lies in Belarus, since up to 70 per cent of the total fallout was deposited here. Of the total area of Belarus, 22 per cent was contaminated with more than 1 Ci/km2 caesium-137. At the time of the accident, 2.2 million people lived in these areas, one fifth of the population of Belarus. 7.25 per cent of Ukraine's territory was contaminated following the accident, and 0.6 per cent of the Russian Federation (7.1; 23.1).
Because of variable weather conditions in the days following the accident, radiation also spread over large parts of Scandinavia, Poland and the Baltic states, as well as southern Germany, Switzerland, northern France and England.
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