The Chernobyl disaster was caused by a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986. It is considered the worst nuclear disaster in history and one of only two nuclear energy accidents rated at seven on the International Nuclear Event Scale. About 49,000 people were evacuated from the area, primarily from Pripyat. The clean-up is expected to take about 20 years and cost about $1.5 billion.
About Chernobyl disaster in brief
The Chernobyl disaster was caused by a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986. It is considered the worst nuclear disaster in history and one of only two nuclear energy accidents rated at seven on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The accident started during a safety test on an RBMK-type nuclear reactor, which was commonly used throughout the Soviet Union. A large amount of energy was suddenly released, vaporising superheated cooling water and rupturing the reactor core in a highly destructive steam explosion. This was immediately followed by an open-air reactor core fire that released considerable airborne radioactive contamination for about nine days that precipitated onto parts of the USSR and western Europe. About 49,000 people were evacuated from the area, primarily from Pripyat. To reduce the spread of radioactive contamination from the wreckage and protect it from weathering, the protective Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant sarcophagus was built by December 1986. The Chernobyl New Safe Confinement, a larger enclosure that allows the removal of debris, while containing radioactive hazard, is scheduled for completion in 2065. The initial response, together with later decontamination of the environment, ultimately involved more than 500,000 personnel and cost an estimated 18billion Soviet rubles (roughly US$68billion in 2019, adjusted for inflation) The accident resulted in safety upgrades on all remaining Soviet-designed R BMK reactors, which continue to be operational as of 2019, which generated most of the heat generated in the most heat-generating operation of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation has, at multiple times, reviewed all the published research on the incident and found that at present, fewer than 100 documented deaths are likely to be attributable to increased exposure to radiation. At least 14 suspected radiation-induced cancer deaths followed within the next 10 years. Among the wider population, an excess of 15 childhood thyroid cancer deaths were documented as of 2011. At present, models with the greatest confidence values of the eventual total death toll in the decades ahead from Chernobyl releases vary, from 4,000 fatalities when solely assessing the three most contaminated former Soviet states, to about 9,000 to 16,000 fatalities when assessing the total continent of Europe. Due to the continued deterioration of the sarcagus, it was further enclosed in 2017. The removal of both the sarcophophagus and the reactor was further completed in 2017, which allows the sarcphagus to be enclosed in a large enclosure that was designed to contain the radioactive debris. The clean-up is expected to take about 20 years and cost about $1.5 billion. The reactor explosion killed two of the reactor operating staff. The fire gradually released about the same amount of contamination as the initial explosion. The exclusion zone was later increased to 30 kilometres radius when a further 68,000people were evacuated from the wider area. About 70% landed, where around 70 per cent landed, before being finally contained on 4 May 1986.
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This page is based on the article Chernobyl disaster published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 10, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
