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Chernobyl Disaster
On 26th April 1986, the fourth reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant 12km south of the Belarusian border, exploded. Yet, it was not until abnormal radiation levels were registered at one of Sweden’s nuclear facilities that the world learned about the disaster, initially concealed by the Soviet authorities. Belarus was the region worst hit by the Chernobyl disaster, with 75% of the fallout landing on its territory, and around one-fifth of its area seriously affected.
By 1990, 2million people, 20% of the country’s forests and well over 250,000 hectares of agricultural land had been contaminated. It is estimated that today more than 2million people in Belarus alone still live in contaminated areas - there is no access to “clean” food. People still till their fields, herd cattle and eat the produce of their labours. Medical experts expect as many as 40% of children exposed to Chernobyl’s radiation to develop thyroid cancer over the next 30years. In 1988, 83 children were revealed to have pathology of the thyroid gland in 1989, 807 and in 1990 9,924.
The people of Chernobyl were exposed to radioactivity 90 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb.
According to the UN, there is now a real threat to the gene pool of Belarus with second-generation children even more likely to suffer side effects.
Thankfully, the Chernobyl nuclear plant was closed in December 2000 yet our work continues. It is currently estimated that is will take up to 400 years to rid Belarus of contamination.
For the children brought to the UK by the Chernobyl Children Life Line we hope that a rest from the relentless bombardment of radiation, which affects every part of the Belarus food chain, will boost their damaged immune systems.
The Explosion
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Power plant number 4 exploded: illegal isolation of emergency core cooling system.
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1900 tons of debris (fallout) carried up into the atmosphere, as this was a ‘ground burst’
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2 people killed immediately, but a further 29 died the following day.
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Since a further 17,000 have died from radiation exposure.
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The explosion was 200 times more devastating than the combined blasts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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