What is Chernobyl?

Question

I need it for Science.

Answer 1

In April 1986, Chernobyl' (Chornobyl' in Ukrainian) was an obscure city on the Pripiat' River in north-central Ukraine. Almost incidentally, its name was attached to the V.I. Lenin Nuclear Power Plant located about twenty-five kilometers upstream.

On April 25th -26th, 1986 the World's worst nuclear power accident occurred at Chernobyl in the former USSR (now Ukraine). The Chernobyl nuclear power plant located 80 miles north of Kiev had 4 reactors and whilst testing reactor number 4 numerous safety procedures were disregarded. At 1:23am the chain reaction in the reactor became out of control creating explosions and a fireball which blew off the reactor's heavy steel and concrete lid.

It released thirty to forty times the radioactivity of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world first learned of history's worst nuclear accident from Sweden, where abnormal radiation levels were registered at one of its nuclear facilities.

Ranking as one of the greatest industrial accidents of all time, the Chernobyl' disaster and its impact on the course of Soviet events can scarcely be exaggerated. No one can predict what will finally be the exact number of human victims. Thirty- one lives were lost immediately. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, Russians, and Belorussians had to abandon entire cities and settlements within the thirty-kilometer zone of extreme contamination. Estimates vary, but it is likely that some 3 million people, more than 2 million in Belarus' alone, are still living in contaminated areas. In the Mid-Nineties, the city of Chernobyl' was still inhabited by almost 10,000 people. Billions & billions of rubles have been spent, to relocate communities and decontaminate the rich farmland.

Chernobyl' has become a metaphor not only for the horror of uncontrolled nuclear power but alsofor the collapsing Soviet system and its reflexive secrecy and deception, disregard for the safety and welfare of workers and their families, and inability to deliver basic services such as health care and transportation, especially in crisis situations. The Chernobyl' catastrophe derailed what had been an ambitious nuclear power program and formed a fledgling environmental movement into a potent political force in Russia as well as a rallying point for achieving Ukrainian and Belorussian independence in 1991.

Answer 2

Chernobyl was a city in northern Ukraine, near the border with Belarus. It was a major communications node and important centre of trade and commerce, especially in the 19th century. The city is located 9 miles south by south-east of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which is notorious for the Chernobyl disaster. Due to the actions of incompetent operators and the inherently unsafe RBMK design, a reactor at the plant exploded on April 26, 1986; as a result of the explosion and ensuing fire, clouds of radioactive particles were released. More than 100,000 people were evacuated from the city and other affected areas. Despite the fact that radiation is still being emitted from the nuclear disaster site, the 800-year-old city of Chernobyl survives, although barely. As of 2004, government workers still police the zone, trying to clean up radioactive material. Hundreds of people have decided to live with the dangers and have returned to their homes in the zone's towns and villages.

Answer 3

Chernobyl


(chĭrnō´byēl) , Ukr. Chornobyl, abandoned city, N Ukraine, near the Belarus border, on the Pripyat River. Ten miles (16 km) to the north, in the town of Pripyat, is the Chernobyl nuclear power station, site of the worst nuclear reactor disaster in history. On Apr. 25, 1986, during an unauthorized test of one of the plant's four reactors, engineers initiated an uncontrolled chain reaction in the core of the reactor after disabling emergency backup systems. On Apr. 26, an explosion ripped the top off the containment building, expelling radioactive material into the atmosphere; more was released in the subsequent fire. Only after Swedish instruments detected fallout from the explosion did Soviet authorities admit that an accident had occurred. The reactor core was sealed off by air-dropping a cement mixture, but not before eight tons of radioactive material had escaped.

Twenty firefighters died immediately from overexposure to radioactivity, while hundreds suffered from severe radiation sickness. Pripyat, Chernobyl, and nearby towns were evacuated. People who lived near the plant in Ukraine and Belarus at the time have seen a greatly increased incidence of thyroid cancer, and genetic mutations have been discovered in children later born to exposed parents. Nearly all thyroid cancer cases, however, were successfully treated. Ukraine has estimated that some 4,400 people died as a result of the accident and during its cleanup, but a 2005 report prepared by several UN agencies and regional governments indicated that less than 50 deaths were directly attributable to radiation from the disaster and an estimated 4,000 deaths might ultimately result from it, mainly due to higher cancer rates. The agricultural economies of E and N Europe were temporarily devastated, as farm products were contaminated by fallout. One Chernobyl reactor remained in operation until Dec., 2000, when the complex was shut down.

See S. Alexievich, Voices from Chernobyl (2005).

Answer 4

Chernobyl is a town in the formal USSR (now Ukraine). It is famous for the nuclear reactor accident that occurred there. The reactor's cooling system developed a fault and the core heated. The accident released a lot of radioactive fallout in Northern Europe and caused a lot of damage to agriculture in Scandinavia.

Answer 5

Accidentally, the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl(somewhere Russia), got a malfunction and the nuclear substances leaked out. Great harm to people around the area. More detailed information in ENCARTA

Answer 6

Chernobyl is a city in Russia, which had the biggest non-wartime, nuclear meltdown in human history in the 1980s. Definitely a forboding sign to any country (especially the U.S.) who was in the business of the nuclear arms race about the dangers of producing nuclear chemicals.

Answer 7

Chernobyl is in the Ukraine, near Belarus in Russia. The accident wasn't recognized by the world, as Russia tried to cover it up initially. Many of their countrymen died of fallout and radiation poisoning.

Answer 8

It is a city in the former Soviet Union. It is the site of the largest Nuclear power accident in history. The Soviet equipment was unsafe and poorly maintained. HUGE 'Dead Zone' around the remains of the power plant that is uninhabitable to this day.

Fortunately, we maintain our plants rigorously and have multiple layers of built in safety measures so we do not have to worry about such a disaster here in the west.

Answer 9

Cher·no·byl [chər nṓb’l]
(plural Cher·no·byls)
n
site of nuclear power plant disaster: the site of a nuclear power plant near Kiev, in Ukraine, where there was a catastrophic accident in 1986

Answer 10

The site of the world worst nuclear accident in the former USSR now Ukraine. April 25th -26th, 1986