What was the basic aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster?

Answer 1

Chernobyl’ Accident, accident at the Chernobyl’ nuclear power plant in the Ukrainian republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) that produced a plume of radioactive debris that drifted over parts of the western USSR, Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia. The accident, which occurred on April 26, 1986, was the worst nuclear power accident in history. Large areas of the Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Russian republics of the USSR were contaminated, resulting in the evacuation and resettlement of roughly 200,000 people.
The principal environmental effect of the Chernobyl’ accident has been the accumulation of radioactive fallout in the upper layers of soil, where it has destroyed important farmland. The second most important impact has been the threat to surface water and groundwater. The cleanup in some of the most heavily contaminated areas within the evacuation zone, such as Pripyat’, involved the stripping and burying of topsoil and vegetation, the sealing of wells, and the building of structures designed to prevent surface water from entering streams and rivers that drain into the Dnieper River system, which provides Kyiv's water supply.

By most measures, the country most seriously affected by the accident is Belarus (which changed its name from Belorussia after it, along with the other Soviet republics, became independent with the collapse of the USSR in 1991). Almost 20 percent of the republic’s farmland was removed from production during the years immediately after the accident. Half of the vast 27,850-sq km (10,750-sq mi) area described as being "seriously contaminated" by radiation (with levels of radioactive cesium in topsoil exceeding 5 curies) is in Belarus. The regions commonly identified as experiencing the greatest contamination include the oblasts (regions) of Homyel’, Mahilyow, and Brest in southern and eastern Belarus; Kyiv, Zhytomyr, and Chernihiv in northern Ukraine; and Bryansk in southwestern Russia.

Effects on public health have been more difficult to determine and are subject to considerable controversy. It is not always clear which health problems are caused directly by radiation and which are caused by poor nutrition, the general low level of health, and the anxiety and stress produced by fear of radiation exposure. These issues surround the debate over the causes of higher death rates among the more than half a million workers who participated in the Chernobyl’ cleanup.

However, at least one type of cancer can be attributed directly to Chernobyl’. There has been a significant rise in the incidence of thyroid cancer among children in the areas where radiation levels are highest. Thyroid cancer rates in Homyel’ Oblast, for example, increased 22-fold from 1986 through 1990 compared to the period from 1981 through 1985.

Answer 2

Chernobyl is an ongoing disaster. The area will be uninhabitable for many years to come. Everything in the area was deformed or killed by the radiation. Additionally, the radioactive cloud from the reactor not only had a devastating physical result but a political one also. It was the beginning of the end on the political dominance of the Russians. Now, dispite the heroic sacrifcies of the immediate clean up crews, the concrete containment must again be replaced due to deterioration. The radiation was only contained and not removed.

Answer 3

okay here we go:

A "2005 report prepared by the Chernobyl Forum, led by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and World Health Organization (WHO), attributed 56 direct deaths (47 accident workers, and nine children with thyroid cancer), and estimated that as many as 9,000 people among the approximately 6.6 million most highly exposed, may die from some form of cancer (one of the induced diseases).[3] Nearly 20 years after the disaster, according to the Chernobyl Forum, no evidence of increases in the solid cancers and, possibly more significantly, none of the widely expected increases in leukemia have been found in the population."

-wikipedia.org
wikipedia's source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5173310.stm

more stuff:
the Chernobyl disaster released as much as 400 times the radioactive contamination of the Hiroshima bomb, it was 100 to 1,000 times less than the contamination caused by atmospheric nuclear weapons testing in the mid-20th century.
theres a whole 10 sections on this kind of stuff, raw facts, on this wikipedia page. Yes there were so many effects after the disaster they actually devoted a whole page for it on wikipedia here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster_effects

Answer 4

Two decades after the Chernobyl reactor melted down, the exclusion zone remains uninhabitable. Over 100,000 people were evacuated in the days following the disaster. Now, emptiness, decay and nature have taken over as the site begins the slow process of healing.

Tree branches on both sides of the desolate, two-lane road hang low with melting slush as we approach the Chernobyl exclusion zone in northern Ukraine on an unseasonably non-frigid late December day in 2003. Heavy, gray clouds press down on the damp, white landscape. Cars are nowhere to be seen, freeing our rickety old Skoda station wagon to swerve away from the deepest of the plentiful potholes.

Answer 5

I'm Ukrainian so this mean't somethin to me. Pretty much everything was left radioactive on some level and to this day its still radio active. Some still so much in places that its like five hundred times that of the atomic bomb or somethin. i was it on a website, very interesting stufff. The town of cherynobyl is pretty much overgrown now by plants in buildings and nature pretty much took over, the land there will be unhabitable for at least 800 years, which brings me to this question, why would people want to mess with nuclear technology when it can do this kind of damage?? this is the type of thing that if a world war happened with nuclear weapons, I think mankind would just continue to kill eachother until no one was left, if that would ever happen NUCLEAR things would be what made it happen.

SCARY THING- IT ALMOST HAPPENED IN THE UNITED STATES....go to yahoo search and type in THREE MILE ISLAND INCIDENT, we had a nuclear meltdown in the UNITED STATES and not many people know about it!! check it out, its freakin scary!

Answer 6

radioactive contamination of the soil and water which takes along time to decompose..it depends on the nuclear fuel, ie. uranium, plutonium, cobalt, etc. most likely enriched uranium which has a half life of.......it'll still be there when are children are gone!

Answer 7

besides all the people that died?? that whole area is uninhabitable for about 900 years...

http://www.belarusguide.com/chernobyl1/chernobyl.htm

http://www.uic.com.au/nip22.htm


there are hundreds of books, websites, articles on this topic..

Answer 8

shAdy Aftermath G-G-G-G-UNIT

Answer 9

There's not enough room on this page for that.