Chernobyl disaster poses long-term risks
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E-mail Xinhua, April 26, 2013
Ukrainian scientists are still evaluating Chernobyl-related problems now, 27 years after one of the world's worst nuclear disaster occurred at the power plant.
Environmental and health issues in the contaminated areas still pose a real challenge for Ukraine, they say.
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Environmental and health issues in the contaminated areas still pose a real challenge for Ukraine. [File photo/Xinhua] |
TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCES
After the No. 4 nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl power plant exploded on April 26, 1986, emissions were more than 15 times higher than the radioactive contamination of the bombs dropped on Japan's Hiroshima and Nagasaki, according to experts.
The disaster has caused thousands of cancer cases among local people as they have eaten milk, vegetables and meat that contained extremely high amounts of radionuclides.
According to official data, a total of 31 people died as an immediate result of the accident and 134 others were diagnosed with acute radiation syndromes.
However, Union-Chernobyl Ukraine, a Kiev-based NGO, said over 780,000 people have died of the radiation impact, with nearly 130,000 of them being clean-up workers.
LONG-TERM RISKS
Some health professionals expect an outbreak of radiation-related illnesses in the next few decades in Ukraine.
According to the National Commission of Radiation Protection, the level of radionuclides exceeds the norm in 60 Ukrainian towns and villages. The long-lasting cesium and strontium locked up in the forests and soil pose potential threats to the health of the local people.
Due to their relatively high biological availability, cesium and strontium, which get into the body with food, may provoke gastric and kidney cancer, cardiovascular diseases and mental problems.
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