On this day in 1986, the worst accident in the history of nuclear power occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Pripyat, Ukraine.
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 9 children) with thyroid cancer, and estimated that as many as 9,000 people, among the approximately 6.6 million, will ultimately die from some form of cancer (one of the induced diseases). For its part, Greenpeace estimates a total death toll of 93,000 but cites in their report “The most recently published figures indicate that in Belarus, Russia and the Ukraine alone the accident could have resulted in an estimated 200,000 additional deaths in the period between 1990 and 2004.”
(— Wikipedia)
The anniversary was marked as Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko and mourners laid red carnations near the site.
Blogs
— The Path of Chernobyl
— Chernobyl at 20
— In My Own Little Corner
— Epitheliums
— Chernobyl Essay
— Raincoast Books
— Randy Morin
— Newspapers Uncovered
— Chernobyl: an Insidious Legacy
— Chernobyl’s unsettling legacy
— Chernobyl 20 years later
— Chernobyl March
Links
— 2006 TORCH full report (in pdf)
— Chernobyl’s Legacy (PDF, 902KB) by the Chernobyl Forum (UN) updated in 2006
— Health, Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts – a summary for non-specialists of the above UN report by GreenFacts
— The Chernobyl Catastrophe: Consequences on Human Health (PDF, 1.8MB) by Greenpeace International, April 2006.
— Better World Links on the Chernobyl Disaster
— BBC h2g2 giving a detailed description of events
— Fall-out data in 19 zones from Austria to Eastern USA
— The International Chernobyl Research and Information Network
— Western responsibility regarding the health consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe in Belyorussia, the Ukraine and Russia
— Frequently Asked Chernobyl Questions, by the IAEA.
— Official UN Chernobyl site
— The Human Consequences of the Chernobyl Accident: A Strategy for Recovery – UN Report, 2002 (PDF, 350KB)
— Nuclear Files.org Anti-nuclear organization’s comments on human toll
— The Chernobyl Disaster – including some discussion of the disagreements within the UN organization about its publications, Standford University
— Chernobyl – A Canadian Perspective (PDF 405KB) – A brochure describing nuclear reactors in general and the RBMK design in particular, focusing on the safety differences between them and CANDU reactors. Published by the CANDU organization.
— Tacis Nuclear Safety Programme, Overview of Chernobyl related projects European Union Chernobyl-related TACIS Projects with Budget estimates
— Annotated bibliography for Chernobyl from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
— Survey about the nuclear disaster with updated results
— Sharing our Humanity at the 20th Anniversary of Chernobyl
— Detailed analysis of the events, Georgia State University
— Another take on the sequence of events at Chernobyl, Uranium Information Centre (nuclear power industry group), Melbourne, Australia.
— Another account of the incident, World Nuclear Association
— Technical information concerning the accident, as well as a contrast between the RBMK reactor design that of American reactors, University of Pittsburgh
— Harvard Medical School study on Radiation and Chernobyl
— Radioecology and the Chernobyl Disaster, January 2003. Covers impact on the UK
Lessons A global perspective and knowledgeable comments on the lessons to be learnt, honestly pro-nuclear
— Details of the events leading up to the accident and the aftermath
— WNC reactor Issue Brief – Short technical analysis of the RBMK reactor design and changes made after accident, World Nuclear Association
— 20 Years 20 Lives – Eyewitness accounts in words and photographs
— A female tourist’s account, in photos, the veracity of which has been questioned.
— Pripyat town forum
— Interview with Sasha Yuvchenko – an engineer working in Chernobyl on 26th April 1986
— Cheating Chernobyl – New Scientist magazine interviews eyewitness Alexander Yuvchenko, who was at the power plant at the time of the accident.
— Mary Mycio’s Account of the Zone – Wormwood Forest: A Natural History of Chernobyl
— Animated Flash map—2 minutes and 30 seconds—of Caesium-137 contamination
— Photographs of Pripyat and Chernobyl
— Photos from Pripyat city and Chernobyl zone 2 trips in 2005
— Nuclear Nightmares: Twenty Years Since Chernobyl
— BBC On This Day: Including recordings of the first public announcement
— Zone of Exclusion: Pripyat and Chernobyl – Review of this book, with sample photo gallery shot in the dead zone in 2001
— More Dead Zone pictures
— Photos from the deserted town of Pripyat
— 2006 images of Chernobyl today
— Photos from the deserted town of Pripyat
— Chernobyl Gallery – Several images, many from inside the reactor.
— Chernobyl Heart (2003) – Academy Award-winning documentary BBC Horizon documentary ‘Inside Chernobyl’s Sarcophagus’, 1996. Footage and comment by Russian scientists conducting dangerous research in and around the burnt-out core.
— Stone, Richard, “The Long Shadow of Chernobyl“, National Geographic
— Nine Network Australia, 60 Minutes, ‘Inside Chernobyl’, air date April 16, 2006. Reporter Richard Carlton goes inside the control centre at Chernobyl and also visits the exclusion zone surrounding the plant. Focuses on the 1986 incident, the failing ‘sarcophagus’ and yet-to-be–realised plans to replace it, and the affected children in orphanages in nearby Belarus.
— Belarus 2006 Photographer who returned last month and exhibited Chernobyl photos in the Royal Photographic Society
— Chernobyl Children’s Project International – subject of documentary “Chernobyl Heart.”
— Aid Convoy – UK-based humanitarian aid to Ukraine
— List of charities primarily supporting Belyorussia but also Ukraine
— Our Generation – Youth group with education and volunteering projects
— Aratta – Public organisation supporting children and families
— SOS Belarus: The only big NGO still working in Belarus post Chernobyl
— BELRAD Institute – Radiation safety and protection institute
— Professor Yuri Bandazhevsky – Pathophysiology of incorporated radioactive emission