Chernobyl

The Event

On the banks of the Pripyat River in Ukraine, near the border of Belarus, a nuclear power plant was hastily constructed in 1983, utilizing outdated 1960s technology. On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred, blowing the lid off the reactor and releasing seven tons of radioactive particles into the atmosphere. A mile-high nuclear cloud rained down isotopes on an unsuspecting population of several million. Because of the direction of the winds after the explosion, Belarus received 70 percent of the fallout (Ukraine received 20 percent, Russia 5 percent, and 5 percent was scattered globally).

The actual explosion was the size of a small atomic bomb. However, in actual fallout, Chernobyl produced 200 times the radioactive contamination of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, and 6 million times the emissions of Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. While the atmospheric radiation has returned to normal, hot particles of plutonium and cesium remain in the soil, in the water supply, and in plant and animal life. Much of the land will remain contaminated for hundreds or thousands of years.

The Long-Term Effects

At least 5 million people were exposed to dangerous radiation, and thousands have died or are disabled. Some 2 million “children of Chernobyl,” now adolescents and young adults, remain at risk for developing thyroid cancer and other Chernobyl-related diseases. More than 10,000 square miles of farmland and forests in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia were contaminated. Honey, milk, mushrooms, fruit, and fish are particularly absorbent and remain unsafe for consumption; children no longer pick berries or harvest mushrooms in the forest. Residents anxiously live with the fear of ingesting “hot particles” that would dramatically increase their chances of getting cancer.

[Page 131]Approximately 230,000 residents were evacuated from the “dead zone” and resettled in relatively safer regions. The new locations lacked adequate housing, jobs, and access to medical care. Relocation also caused secondary traumatic stress and a host of other psychological difficulties. After months or years of attempted resettlement, many families returned to their ancestral homes and farms due to a variety reasons, including the belief that the contaminated regions were not unsafe; the desire to be “home”; and social fatalism (“whatever is to happen will happen”). Also, the government's playing down of the seriousness of the long-term effects of Chernobyl during the first five years subsequent to the disaster has made the Chernobyl community highly distrustful of the government. Thus, the communities in the contaminated regions of Belarus and Ukraine remain in psychological crisis and emotional despair.

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