The Chernobyl Power Plant is located 10 miles north of Chernobyl, Ukraine. In 1986, a nuclear disaster occurred at the plant during a safety test that caused radioactive fallout across Europe. The city of Pripyat, built to house Chernobyl plant workers, is now abandoned within a 30 km Zone of Alienation around the plant. Estimates of deaths caused by the disaster range from 4,000 to over 100,000, depending on the organization, and radiation continues to spread from the site through wind and water contamination. A new Chernobyl Arch is planned to cover the remains of the exploded reactor for the next 100-300 years.
3. Location
Chernobyl NPP is located
10 miles north of the city
of Chernobyl in a city
known as Pripyat.
4. Pripyat, now in the zone of alienation, was founded in 1970 with the purpose
of housing the workers of the Chernobyl Nuclear Facility.
This is it now.
6. FACTS
• 30 km Zone of Alienation
(approx.18 miles in diameter)
• Government has guard posts/checkpoints around
the area. Guided tours are now allowed.
• Wind and water continue to spread the nuclear
radiation.
• The soil in the area is contaminated with
radiation. 5 to 8 million people still live in
contaminated areas.
8. HOW MANY DIED?
Greenpeace 2006
• Acute Radiation Sickness (ARS) deaths in 1986: 28
• ARS patients who died later: 19 (some from other
causes)
• Others who died during explosion: 2
• Child thyroid cancer deaths (1992-2002): 15 (UN figure)
• Predicted extra cancer deaths: from 4,000 (UN) to
93,000 (Greenpeace)
• Estimated deaths from non-cancer causes 1990-2004:
107,000 (Greenpeace)
• Dozens killed in accidents building sarcophagus
(according to an engineer)
9. Future: Chernobyl Arch
• The arch will last for 100 to
300 years, while the fuel will
remain deadly for thousands.
• Some of the plutonium will
be decaying into americium,
which is even more hazardous
for health.
10. Today’s problems
• They were intended to be temporary, but 20
years on, only half of them have even been
mapped and inventoried.
• slowly seeping
radionuclides into
ground water
