Map of radioactive fallout zones from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Map of pollution from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

How many years have passed since the tragedy? The course of the accident itself, its causes and consequences have already been completely determined and are known to everyone. As far as I know, there is not even any double interpretation here, except in small things. Yes, you know everything yourself. Let me tell you some seemingly ordinary moments, but perhaps you haven’t thought about them.

Myth one: Chernobyl is remote from big cities.

In fact, in the case of the Chernobyl disaster, only an accident did not lead to the evacuation of Kyiv, for example. Chernobyl is located 14 km from the nuclear power plant, and Kyiv is located only 151 km from Chernobyl (according to other sources 131 km) by road. And in a straight line, which is preferable for a radiation cloud and 100 km will not be - 93.912 km. And Wikipedia generally gives the following data - the physical distance to Kyiv is 83 km, along roads - 115 km.

By the way, here's a complete map to complete the picture

Clickable 2000 px

IN During the first days of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the battle against radiation was also waged on the outskirts of Kyiv. The threat of infection came not only from the Chernobyl wind, but also from the wheels of vehicles traveling from Pripyat to the capital. The problem of purifying radioactive water formed after the decontamination of cars was solved by scientists from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.

IN In April-May 1986, eight radioactive control points for vehicles were organized around the capital. Cars heading to Kyiv were simply sprayed with hoses. And all the water went into the soil. Reservoirs were built to collect used radioactive water in a fire emergency manner. In just a matter of days they were filled to the brim. The capital's radioactive shield could turn into its nuclear sword.

AND only then the leadership of Kyiv and the headquarters civil defense agreed to consider the proposal of polytechnic chemists to purify contaminated water. Moreover, there have already been developments in this regard. Long before the accident, a laboratory was created at KPI for the development of reagents for wastewater treatment, headed by Professor Alexander Petrovich Shutko.

P The technology proposed by Shutko’s group for disinfecting water from radionuclides did not require the construction of complex treatment facilities. Decontamination was carried out directly in the storage tanks. Within two hours after treating the water with special coagulants, radioactive substances settled at the bottom, and the purified water met the maximum permissible standards. After that, only radioactive fallout was buried in a 30-kilometer zone. Can you imagine if the problem of water purification had not been solved? Then many eternal burial grounds with radioactive water would be built around Kyiv!

TO Unfortunately, Professor A.P. Shutko. He left us at just 57 years old, just 20 days short of the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. And the chemist scientists who worked with him side by side in Chernobyl zone for their dedicated work they managed to receive the “title of liquidators”, free travel in transport and a bunch of diseases associated with radioactive exposure. Among them is Associate Professor of the Department of Industrial Ecology of the National Polytechnic University Anatoly Krysenko. It was to him that Professor Shutko was the first to suggest testing reagents for purifying radioactive waters. Working with him in Shutko’s group were KPI Associate Professor Vitaly Basov and Lev Malakhov, Associate Professor at the Civil Air Fleet Institute.

Why is the Chernobyl accident, and the dead city is PRIPYAT?

There are several evacuated settlements located on the territory of the exclusion zone:
Pripyat
Chernobyl
Novoshepelichi
Polesskoe
Vilcha
Severovka
Yanov
Kopachi
Chernobyl-2

Visual distance between Pripyat and Chernobyl nuclear power plant

Why is only Pripyat so famous? This is simply the largest city in the exclusion zone and the closest to it - according to the last census conducted before the evacuation (in November 1985), the population was 47 thousand 500 people, more than 25 nationalities. For example, only 12 thousand people lived in Chernobyl itself before the accident.

By the way, after the accident Chernobyl was not abandoned and completely evacuated like Pripyat.

People live in the city. These are EMERCOM officers, police officers, cooks, janitors, and plumbers. There are about 1500 of them. It's mostly men on the streets. In camouflage. This is the local fashion. Some apartment buildings are inhabited, but people do not live there permanently: the curtains are faded, the paint on the windows is peeling, the windows are closed.

People stay here temporarily, work on shifts, and live in dormitories. Another couple of thousand people work at the nuclear power plant; they mostly live in Slavutich and go to work by train.

Most work in the zone shift method, 15 days here, 15 in the wild. Locals say average salary in Chernobyl it is only 1,700 UAH, but this is very average, some have more. True, there is nothing special to spend money on here: you don’t need to pay for utilities, housing, food (everyone is fed three times a day for free, and not bad). There is one store, but the choice there is small. There are no beer stalls or any entertainment at the sensitive facility. By the way, Chernobyl is also a return to the past. In the center of the city stands Lenin in full height, a monument to the Komsomol, all the street names are from that era. In the city, the background is about 30-50 microroentgen - the maximum permissible for humans.

Now let’s turn to the blogger’s materials vit_au_lit :

Myth two: lack of attendance.

Many people probably think that only radiation seekers, stalkers, etc. go to the accident zone, and normal people will not come closer than 30 km to this zone. How fitting they are!

The first checkpoint on the road to the plant is Zone III: a 30-kilometer perimeter around the nuclear power plant. At the entrance to the checkpoint, such a line of cars lined up that I couldn’t even imagine: despite the fact that the cars were allowed through the control in 3 rows, we stood for about an hour, waiting for our turn.

The reason for this is the active visits by former residents of Chernobyl and Pripyat in the period from April 26 to the May holidays. They all go either to their previous places of residence, or to cemeteries, or “to the graves,” as they also say here.

Myth three: closedness.

Were you sure that all entrances to the nuclear power plant are carefully guarded, and no one except maintenance personnel is allowed in, and you can only get inside the zone by stepping on the guards’ paw? Nothing like this. Of course, you can’t just drive through the checkpoint, but the police just issue a pass for each car, indicating the number of passengers, and go ahead and get exposed.

They say that before they also asked for passports. By the way, children under 18 years old are not allowed into the zone.

The road to Chernobyl is surrounded on both sides by a wall of trees, but if you look closely, you can see the abandoned dilapidated ruins of private houses among the lush vegetation. No one will return to them.

Myth four: uninhabitable.

Chernobyl, located between the 30- and 10-kilometer perimeters around the nuclear power plant, is quite inhabitable. lives in it service staff stations and districts, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and those who returned to their former places. The city has shops, bars, and some other amenities of civilization, but no children.

To enter the 10-kilometer perimeter, it is enough to show the pass issued at the first checkpoint. Another 15 minutes by car and we arrive at the nuclear power plant.

It's time to get a dosimeter, which my madam carefully provided me with, having begged this device from her grandfather, who was obsessed with this kind of gadgets. Before leaving vit_au_lit I took readings in the courtyard of my house: 14 microR/hour - typical indicators for an uninfected environment.
We put the dosimeter on the grass, and while we take a couple of shots against the backdrop of the flowerbed, the device quietly calculates itself. What did he intend there?

Heh, 63 microR/hour - 4.5 times more than the average city norm... after that we get advice from our guides: walk only on the concrete road, because... The slabs are more or less cleared, but don’t get into the grass.

Myth five: the inaccessibility of nuclear power plants.

For some reason, it always seemed to me that the nuclear power plant itself was surrounded by some kilometer-long perimeter of barbed wire, so that God forbid some adventurer would come closer to the station than a few hundred meters and receive a dose of radiation.

The road leads us straight to the central entrance, where regular buses arrive from time to time, transporting plant workers - people continue to work at the nuclear power plant to this day. According to our guides, several thousand people, although this figure seemed too high to me, because all the reactors had long been shut down. Behind the workshop you can see the pipe of the destroyed reactor 4.

The area in front of the central administrative building has been converted into one large memorial to those killed during the liquidation of the accident.

The names of those who died in the first hours after the explosion are carved on the marble slabs.

Pripyat: that same dead city. Its construction began simultaneously with the construction of the nuclear power plant, and it was intended for plant workers and their families. It is located some 2 kilometers from the station, so it suffered the most.

There is a stele at the entrance to the city. In this part of the road the radiation background is the most dangerous:

257 microR/hour, which is almost 18 times higher than the city average. In other words, the dose of radiation that we receive in 18 hours in the city, here we will receive in an hour.

A few more minutes and we reach the Pripyat checkpoint. The road runs close to the railway line: in the old days, the most ordinary passenger trains ran along it, for example Moscow-Khmelnitsky. Passengers traveling this route on April 26, 1986 were then issued a Chernobyl certificate.

People are allowed into the city only on foot; we were never able to get permission to travel, although the guides had IDs.

Speaking of the myth of non-attendance. Here is a photo taken from the roof of one of the high-rise buildings on the outskirts of the city, near the checkpoint: among the trees you can see cars and buses parked along the road leading to Pripyat.

And this is what the road looked like before the accident, during the time of the “living” city.

The previous photo was taken from the roof of the rightmost of the 3 nine areas in the foreground.

Myth six: The Chernobyl nuclear power plant does not work after the accident.

On May 22, 1986, by resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 583, the commissioning date for power units No. 1 and 2 of the Chernobyl NPP was set as October 1986. Decontamination was carried out in the premises of the power units of the first stage; on July 15, 1986, its first stage was completed.

In August, at the second stage of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, communications common to the 3rd and 4th units were cut, and a concrete dividing wall was erected in the turbine room.

After the work was completed to modernize the plant's systems, provided for by the measures approved by the USSR Ministry of Energy on June 27, 1986 and aimed at improving the safety of nuclear power plants with RBMK reactors, on September 18, permission was received to begin the physical start-up of the reactor of the first power unit. On October 1, 1986, the first power unit was launched and at 16:47 it was connected to the network. On November 5, power unit No. 2 was launched.

On November 24, 1987, the physical start-up of the reactor of the third power unit began; the power start-up took place on December 4. On December 31, 1987, by decision of the Government Commission No. 473, the act of acceptance into operation of the 3rd power unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant after repair and restoration work was approved.

The third stage of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, unfinished power units 5 and 6, 2008. Construction of the 5th and 6th blocks was stopped with a high degree of readiness of the facilities.

However, as you remember, there were many complaints foreign countries regarding the operating Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

By the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated December 22, 1997, it was recognized as expedient to carry out early decommissioning power unit No. 1, shut down on November 30, 1996.

By the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated March 15, 1999, it was recognized as expedient to carry out early decommissioning power unit No. 2, shut down after an accident in 1991.

From December 5, 2000, the reactor's power was gradually reduced in preparation for shutdown. On December 14, the reactor was operated at 5% power for the shutdown ceremony and December 15, 2000 at 13:17 by order of the President of Ukraine during the broadcast of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant teleconference - National Palace“Ukraine”, by turning the emergency protection key of the fifth level (AZ-5), the reactor of power unit No. 3 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was stopped forever, and the station stopped generating electricity.

Let's honor the memory of the heroic liquidators who, without sparing their lives, saved other people.

Since we're talking about tragedies, let's remember The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -

Although the 2011 earthquake and the Fukushima scare brought the radiation threat back into the public consciousness, many people still don't realize that radioactive contamination is a danger around the world. Radionuclides are among the six most dangerous toxic substances listed in a report that was published in 2010 by the Blacksmith Institute, a non-governmental organization focused on environmental pollution. The location of some of the most radioactive places on the planet may surprise you - as well as the many people living under threat possible consequences radiation for themselves and their children.

Hanford, USA - 10th place

The Hanford complex in Washington state was integral part the US project to develop the first atomic bomb, producing plutonium for it and the “Fat Man” used in Nagasaki. During the Cold War, the complex increased production, providing plutonium for most of America's 60,000 nuclear weapons. Despite its decommissioning, it still contains two-thirds of the country's high-level radioactive waste - about 53 million gallons (200 thousand cubic meters) of liquid, 25 million cubic meters. feet (700 thousand cubic meters) solid and 200 sq. miles (518 sq. km) of groundwater contaminated with radiation, making it the most contaminated area in the United States. Destruction surrounding nature in the area makes you realize that the threat of radiation is not something that will come with a missile attack, but something that can lurk in the very heart of your own country.

Mediterranean Sea - 9th place

For years, it has been said that the Italian mafia syndicate 'Ndrangheta used the sea as a convenient place to dump hazardous waste, including radioactive waste, profiting from the provision of related services. According to the assumptions of the Italian non-governmental organization Legambiente, since 1994, about 40 ships loaded with toxic and radioactive waste have disappeared in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. If true, these claims paint an alarming picture of the Mediterranean basin being contaminated by an unknown amount of nuclear material, the true extent of which will become clear when hundreds of barrels are compromised by normal wear and tear or other processes. The beauty of the Mediterranean may well be hiding an unfolding environmental disaster.

Coast of Somalia - 8th place

Since we are talking about this sinister business, the Italian mafia just mentioned did not limit itself only to its own region. There are also allegations that those left without state protection Somali soil and waters have been used to dump and flood nuclear materials and toxic metals, including 600 barrels of toxic and radioactive waste, as well as waste medical institutions. In fact, the UN Environment Program believes that the rusting drums of waste that washed up on the Somali coast during the 2004 tsunami were dumped into the sea back in the 1990s. The country is already devastated by anarchy, and the impact of waste on its impoverished population may be as devastating (if not worse) than anything they have experienced before.

Mayak, Russia— 7th place

The Mayak industrial complex in northeast Russia has been a nuclear materials production plant for decades, and in 1957 it became the site of one of the worst nuclear incidents in the world. As a result of the explosion, which resulted in the release of up to one hundred tons of radioactive waste, a vast area was contaminated. The fact of the explosion was kept under cover of secrecy until the eighties. Since the 1950s, waste from the plant has been dumped in the surrounding area, as well as into Lake Karachay. This has led to contamination of the water supply that supplies the daily needs of thousands of people. Experts believe Karachay may be the most radioactive place in the world, and more than 400,000 people have been exposed to radiation from the plant as a result of various serious incidents - including fires and deadly dust storms. The natural beauty of Lake Karachay deceptively hides pollutants that create, where they enter the waters of the lake, a level of radiation sufficient for a person to receive a lethal dose of radiation within an hour.

Sellafield, UK— 6th place

Situated on the west coast of England, Sellafield was originally a manufacturing plant atomic bombs, but then went into the field of commerce. Since it began operating, it has suffered hundreds of accidents, and two-thirds of its buildings themselves are now considered radioactive waste. The plant dumps around 8 million liters of radioactive waste into the sea every day, making the Irish Sea the most radioactive sea in the world. England is famous for its green fields and rolling landscapes, yet nestled in the heart of this industrialized country is a toxic, high-hazard site spewing hazardous substances into the World Ocean.

Siberian Chemical Plant, Russia— 5th place

Mayak is not the only dirty place in Russia; There is a chemical industry facility in Siberia that contains more than forty years of nuclear waste. Liquids are stored in open basins, and poorly maintained reservoirs hold more than 125,000 tons of solids, while underground storage is capable of leaking into groundwater. Winds and rains carried the pollution throughout the surrounding area and its wildlife. And many minor accidents led to the loss of plutonium and the explosive spread of radiation. The snow-covered landscape may look pristine and clean, but the facts make clear the true extent of pollution that can be found here.

Semipalatinsk test site, Kazakhstan— 4th place

Once the site of nuclear weapons testing, the area is now part of modern-day Kazakhstan. The site was allocated for the Soviet atomic bomb project due to its "uninhabitable" nature - despite the fact that 700 thousand people lived in the area. The site was where the USSR detonated its first atomic bomb and holds the record as the site with the highest concentration of nuclear explosions in the world, with 456 tests over 40 years from 1949 to 1989. Although testing at the site—and its effects in terms of radiation exposure—was kept secret by the Soviets until its closure in 1991, the radiation harmed the health of 200,000 people, researchers estimate. The desire to destroy peoples on the other side of the border led to the specter of nuclear contamination, which hung over the heads of those who were once citizens of the USSR.

Mailuu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan— 3rd place

In Mailuu-Suu, which according to a 2006 Blacksmith Institute report is considered one of the ten most polluted cities on Earth, the radiation comes not from atomic bombs or power plants, but from the extraction of materials needed in related activities. technological processes. In this area, uranium mining and processing facilities were located, which are now abandoned along with 36 uranium waste dumps - more than 1.96 million cubic meters. The region is also characterized by seismic activity, and any disruption of the localization of substances could lead to their contact with the environment or, if released into rivers, contamination of water used by hundreds of thousands of people. These people may never worry about the threat of a nuclear attack, but they still have good reason to live in fear of nuclear fallout whenever the earth shakes.

Chernobyl, Ukraine— 2nd place

The site of one of the worst and most inglorious nuclear accidents, Chernobyl is still heavily contaminated, despite the fact that a small number of people are now allowed into the zone for a limited time. The infamous incident exposed 6 million people to radiation, and estimates of the number of deaths that will eventually occur due to the Chernobyl accident range from 4,000 to 93,000. The radiation emissions were a hundred times greater than those that occurred during the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Belarus absorbed 70 percent of the radiation, and its citizens faced unprecedented levels of cancer. Even today, the word “Chernobyl” conjures up horrific images of human suffering.

Fukushima, Japan— 1st place

The 2011 earthquake and tsunami was a tragedy that destroyed lives and homes, but the biggest long-term threat may be the impact of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. The worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl caused fuel meltdowns in three of the six reactors and leaked radiation into the surrounding area and into the sea so much that radioactive material was found up to two hundred miles from the plant. Until the accident and its consequences are fully revealed, the true extent of environmental damage remains unknown. The world may still feel the effects of this disaster for generations to come.

Do you think that a dose of radiation can only be obtained from the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant? Huge mistake!

In the territory former USSR a huge number of infected objects. Traces of the largest accidents are still active today, 25 years after the fall of the country.

Often we don’t even think that very close by is a huge radioactive burial ground, a nuclear testing zone, or an outcropping of geological rocks with a background level that is thousands of times higher.

Operating radioactive contamination facilities

1. Production Association "Mayak", Ozyorsk, Russia

Coordinates:

Infected areas: Chelyabinsk region

The accident at Mayak in 1957 was the third largest, after Chernobyl and Fukushima. But the enterprise for the production of components and regeneration of nuclear materials still operates to this day.

Lake Karachay nearby is the dirtiest radioactive zone on the ground. The background here is 1000 times higher than Chernobyl.

However, numerous emergency situations infect the atmosphere and soil of the entire Urals. The last major release took place in 2017. The radioactive cloud reached Europe, losing a significant part along the way.

2. Siberian Chemical Plant, Seversk, Russia

Coordinates: 56°21′16″ n. w. 93°38′37″ E. d.

Infected areas:Tomsk region

At this plant for the processing of solid radioactive materials in 1993, radioactive substances were released into the atmosphere, 2 thousand people were injured - the area is still characterized by elevated background levels.

Official sources say that the case in 1993 is the only one. However, according to GreenPeace, small emissions occur regularly.

3. Mining and chemical plant, Zheleznogorsk, Russia

Coordinates: 55°42′44″ n. w. 60°50′53″ E. d.

Infected areas:Krasnoyarsk region

Until 1995, the enterprise produced weapons-grade plutonium necessary for creating nuclear warheads. In subsequent years, the enterprise was retrained for storing nuclear waste.

The dumping of radioactive materials into the Yenisei is a fairly common and undeniable event. Fortunately, the general background downstream does not exceed too much acceptable standards.

However, at the moment the enterprise is a source of infection. All hope lies in creation full cycle reprocessing, in which the waste will become fuel for a new nuclear power plant.

4. Western Mining and Chemical Combine, Mailuu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan

Coordinates: 41°16′00″ n. w. 72°27′00″ E. d.

Infected areas: Jalal-Abad region of Kyrgyzstan; Andijan and Namangand regions of Uzbekistan

Until 1968, uranium was mined here. Over time, the deposits were exhausted, the industry was reoriented to the production of radio tubes, which also lost their value.

Today, near the settlement there is the world's largest radioactive waste storage facility. The general radiation background is such that Mailuu-Suu is one of the 10 most polluted cities in the world.

Scenes of accidents with large-scale radioactive releases

5. Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Pripyat, Ukraine

Coordinates: 51°23′22″ n. w. 30°05′59″ E. d.

Infected areas: Bryansk, Oryol, Tula, Kaluga regions of Russia; Brest, Gomel, Grodno, Minsk, Mogilev regions of the Republic of Belarus

The tragedy at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant led to the largest radioactive contamination of territories in human history. Clouds of active gases passed right through Russia. Got it too Eastern Europe– Romania, Balkan countries.

And the troubles are not over yet.

Areas contaminated with cesium-137 will continue to poison residents for at least another 30 years. And the radioactive background in many areas and settlements of the Bryansk, Kaluga, Tula and Gomel regions exceeds the permissible level many times over.

6. 569th Coastal Technical Base, Murmansk, Russia

Coordinates: 69°27′ N. w. 32°21′ E. d.

Infected areas: Murmansk region
In 1982, here, on Andreeva Bay, there was a leak of radioactive water. As a result, 700 thousand tons of water flowed into the Barents Sea - more than from Fukushima.

Andreeva Bay is not the only “dirty” place in the Murmansk region. But she is abandoned, unlike the others.

Spent nuclear fuel disposal sites and coastal bases for nuclear service vessels located in the Murmansk region attract researchers from all over the world. The level of radiation is increasing every year.

7. Chazhma Bay, Nakhodka, Russia

Coordinates: 42°54′02″ n. w. 132°21′08″ E. d.

Infected areas: Peter the Great Bay (?), water area of ​​the port of Nakhodka

As a result of the accident on the K-431 nuclear submarine in August 1985, an area of ​​about 100 thousand square meters was contaminated.

Although the background is gradually decreasing, Pavlovsky Bay is still dangerous for visits. In addition, leaks are likely, distributing dangerous isotopes into sea waters.

8. Aikhal village, Russia

Coordinates: 65°56′00″ n. w. 111°29′00″ E. d.

Infected areas: The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)

The Kraton-3 project, within the framework of which an underground explosion was carried out near the village of Aikhal on August 24, 1978 to study seismic activity with an accidental release in environment, making the area 50 km around uninhabitable.

In addition, similar experiments were carried out in Yakutia (but without air contamination) within the framework of the projects “Crystal”, “Horizon-4”, “Kraton-3/4”, “Vyatka”, “Kimberlite” and a whole series of explosions in the city area Peaceful.

Official sources claim that the explosion sites have a standard natural background. Whether this is actually true is unknown.

9. Kama-Pechora Canal, Krasnovishersk, Russia

Coordinates: 61°18’22″N. w. 56°35’54″E. d.
Infected areas: Perm region

A series of surface explosions for the construction of the canal led to the contamination of the nearby Pechora forests back in 1971.

Since then, the area, even the crater itself, has become habitable.

However, the most important property is observed here radioactive contamination: Radiation is still encountered, although official measurements cannot cover the entire area, the main inspection sites are clean.

10. Udachny Mining and Processing Plant, Udachny, Russia

Coordinates: 66°26′04″ N. w. 112°18′58″ E. d.

Infected areas: Yakutia

A radioactive cloud resulting from an above-ground explosion as part of a project to create a dam for the Udachny mining and processing plant covered neighboring settlements.

Most of The territory today has a natural background, but in some places the so-called “dead forest” remains - areas of dead vegetation without any signs of life.

11. Gas condensate field, Krestishche, Ukraine

Coordinates: 49°33′33″ n. w. 35°28′25″ E. d.

Infected areas: Donetsk region of Ukraine

An attempt to eliminate a gas leak from a gas condensate field using directed nuclear explosion was not successful. But there was a release of radiation, echoes of which can still be found nearby today.

Both immediately after the experiment and today, there is no official data on the radiation background.

Polygons

12. “Globus-1”, Galkino, Russia

Coordinates: 57°31′00″ n. w. 42°36′43″ E. d.

Infected areas: Ivanovo region

The release from the peaceful underground explosion of the Globus-1 project in 1971 is still causing contamination of the surrounding area today.

According to official data, today the background level is approaching the permissible level (although some of the surrounding areas are still closed).

However, besides this place, there are several old radio burial grounds in the Moscow region, and in the west there is an increased background that appeared as a result of the Chernobyl accident.

If the authorities recognize the infection, benefits will have to be paid and benefits (including free higher education) will have to be provided.

13. Semipalatinsk Test Site, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan

Coordinates.

Findings in government institutions of Pripyat

After extinguishing the fire from the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, heroic liquidators worked for a very long time to eliminate the consequences of the accident. The radius of destruction from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant even reached North America and Japan.

Helicopter over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

The primary tasks assigned to the professionals were the decontamination of Pripyat and the removal of radioactive dust that had settled on the roofs of houses and the intact nuclear power plant units.

After the accident, the people of Pripyat for the first time began to realize the danger of “radiation” - an enemy that cannot be seen.

Eliminating the consequences was quite difficult. After all, we had to look for special methods in the fight against radiation, deadly elements and dust that had settled throughout the area. Then the helicopters entered the battle.

Fire station of Pripyat

During each flight, and there were 5-6 of them per shift, it was necessary to pour tons of PVA glue onto the roofs of the power units. Such dust cannot be removed with a vacuum cleaner or a broom. That is why a helicopter with glue was urgently needed for the Chernobyl NPP workers. After hardening, the glue was cut, rolled up and sent for destruction.

An important mission to collect radiation dust was carried out by Mi-8, Mi-24, Mi-26 and Mi-6 helicopters.

Eliminating the consequences of what happened on April 26, people risked their lives. First of all, radiation sickness struck the Chernobyl liquidators. However, then none of these heroes thought about themselves when entering into battle with an invisible enemy.

The moment of a helicopter crash over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

Helicopter crash at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

Each of the liquidators took what they were doing very seriously. But no one even suspected that after the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, another one could happen.

And now - about the most important thing, why I started writing all this - about radioactive emissions and their consequences.
A visual diagram of the release of radioactive substances into the atmosphere on the 2nd day of the accident and several days later (pictures from here: http://www.dhushara.com/book/explod/cher/cher.htm)

The first signs of something terrible, hopelessly irreparable, appeared on Monday, at 9 a.m. on April 28, 1986, when specialists at the nuclear power plant in Forsmark, 60 miles from Stockholm, noticed alarming signals appearing on ghostly green screens. The instruments showed the level of radiation, and it was so unusually high that the experts were horrified. First guess: the leak came from a reactor at their station. But a thorough check of the equipment and the instruments that control it revealed nothing. And yet, the sensors showed that the level of radiation in the air was four times higher than the maximum permissible norms. Geiger counters were quickly used to immediately test all six hundred workers. Even this hastily obtained data showed that every worker received a radiation dose above the acceptable level. In the area surrounding the station, the same thing was repeated - soil and plant samples contained incredibly high amounts of radioactive particles. By the time Forsmark scientists discovered the massive presence of radiation in the atmosphere, strong winds spread it throughout Europe. A light rain falling on the salt marshes of Brittany turned the milk in the udders of cows into a toxic substance. The heavy rains that saturated the hilly land of Wales left the tender lamb poisoned. Toxic rains occurred in Finland, Sweden and West Germany. http://primeinfo.net.ru/news405.html
http://lenta.ru/articles/2006/04/17/smi/

Although the distance between Chernobyl and Stockholm is more than 1,000 miles, the radioactive rain left Sweden more contaminated than many of the Soviet Union's neighboring countries. http://www.dataplus.ru/Arcrev/Number_31/4_aes.htm

Where and how did nuclear power plant emissions spread:

In Scandinavia and the Baltics:

There is an interactive map of Europe showing the spread of radioactive fallout on its territory: http://www.chernobyl.info/index.php?userhash=1182177&navID=2&lID=2

Cesium-137 contamination degree different regions Europe (areas for which there is no data are indicated in white).

There's more here a large map - but it is quite strange and different from others, and for the worse: http://www.mcrit.com/espon_pss/images/MAPS_131/map13_risk_radioactivity.jpg

Here are different countries of the world, maps, statistics:
http://www.davistownmuseum.org/cbm/Rad7b.html

Radioactive fallout - map from here: http://www.esi.ru/chernobl.htm

Map of pollution in Russia:

Atlas of contamination of the European part of Russia with cesium-137. http://www.ibrae.ac.ru/russian/chernobyl/nat_rep_99/map_cs.html

How these maps were created:
Moscow tourist clubs greeted all returnees with unexpected announcements: “Urgently undergo radiation control.” As the IAE later said, it was a brilliant decision by Academician V.A. Legasov - to measure the radiation background of the equipment of tourists who usually visit all the large and small rivers of Central Russia on May 1-9. As a result, the first rough map of radioactive contamination was compiled very quickly.
http://www.russ.ru/docs/116463410?user_session=

And some numbers and names for these cards:

20 years after the events at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the radiation contamination zone includes 4,343 settlements in 14 regions Russian Federation, where 1.5 million people live. http://www.regnum.ru/news/629646.html

“The pollution that came from Chernobyl, from 1 curie per square kilometer, amounts to 1.7% of the territory of Europe. The main Chernobyl spot is highlighted on the summary map, then the Gomel-Mogilev, then the Plavsko-Tula in Russia. The most affected were Bryansk, Kaluga, Oryol and Tula region, where the density of soil contamination with iodine 131 ranges from 0.1 to 100 Ku/km2 or more. A spot was also registered in the Leningrad region (based on the “Chernobyl” trace, it can be assumed that the found spot with an increased radio background in the area of ​​the city of Tula) Medvezhyegorsk in Karelia, of the same origin). Pollution spread to the west - southwest, northwest, to the Scandinavian countries, then to the east - a very large, powerful trail with heavy precipitation. Then the clouds went to the south and southwest: Romania , Bulgaria, west: southern Germany, Italy, Austria, the alpine part of Switzerland. The atlas indicates how much cesium fell in each country and in Europe as a whole. In Belarus - 33.5% of the total emissions, in Russia - 23.9% , in Ukraine - 20%, in Sweden - 4.4%, in Finland - 4.3%.
According to official estimates from three countries (the Republic of Belarus, Russia, Ukraine), at least more than 9,000,000 people were affected by the Chernobyl disaster in one way or another. In the RSFSR, 16 regions and one republic with a population of about 3,000,000 people living in more than 12,000 settlements were exposed to radioactive contamination.

Exceeding the indicators of diseases of the endocrine system and metabolic disorders, diseases of the blood and hematopoietic organs, congenital anomalies by more than 4 times; mental disorders and diseases of the circulatory system more than 2 times. The appearance of radiation-induced solid cancers is expected in the near future with a maximum intensity approximately 25 years after the Chernobyl accident for liquidators and 50 years for the population of contaminated areas." http://chernobyl.onego.ru/right/chernobyl.htm

Bryansk and Tula regions are two of the four regions of the Russian Federation most affected by the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Tula region: as a result of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 18 of the 26 administrative territories of the region (17 districts and the city of Don) on an area of ​​14.5 thousand square meters were exposed to radioactive contamination. km, which amounted to more than half (56.3%) of its territory with a population of 928.8 thousand people. The radioactive contamination zone in the region currently includes 1,299 settlements, home to 713.2 thousand people. 122 settlements with a population of 32.2 thousand people, located in an area with a pollution density of 5 or more Ci/sq. km., classified as a residential zone with the right to resettle, 1177 settlements with a population of 680.1 thousand people in an area with a pollution density of 1 to 5 Ci/sq. km are classified as a residential area with preferential socio-economic status. In addition, 2,090 participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident live in the region, of which 1,687 are disabled. Malignant neoplasms thyroid gland in adults: in 2000, per 100 thousand people in the region there were 5.9 cases, in controlled territories - 7.7 cases, in 2001 - 5.6 and 6.0 cases, respectively. 687.4 thousand hectares (34.7%) of agricultural land in the region were in the zone of radioactive contamination, including 76.5 thousand hectares with a contamination density of more than 5 Ci/sq. km, where it is necessary to carry out soil liming and other special agrotechnical and agro-reclamation measures. According to the forecast of Roshydromet, the disappearance of levels of radioactive contamination of the area with cesium-137 isotopes is over 5 Ci/sq. km in the Bryansk and Tula regions is expected no earlier than 2029, and a reduction in pollution to the level of 1 Ci/sq. km - no earlier than 2098.
http://www.budgetrf.ru/Publications/Schpalata/2003/schpal2003bull03/schpal632003bull3-7.htm

Some settlements are listed here: In constantly controlled points of settlements in the region average level the exposure dose rate of gamma radiation (with an acceptable value of 60 μR/h) has the following indicators: village. Arsenyevo - 19 μR/h, Aleksin - 12 μR/h, Belev - 11 μR/h, Bogoroditsk - 13 μR/h, Venev - 11 μR/h, village. Volovo – 13 µR/h, village. Dubna – 11 microR/h, village. Zaoksky - 10 μR/h, Efremov - 13.5 μR/h, s. Arkhangelskoye (Kamenskoye district) - 16 μR/h, Kimovsk - 15.5 μR/h, Kireevsk - 15 μR/h, Kurkino village - 13.5 μR/h, village. Leninsky - 11 μR/h, Novomoskovsk - 15.5 μR/h, Odoev village - 12.5 μR/h, Plavsk - 33.5 μR/h, village. Dairy Yards of Plavsky district - 21 microR/h, Suvorov - 11.5 microR/h, village. Teploye Teplo-Ogarevsky district - 12 microR/h, Uzlovaya city - 21 microR/h, village. Chern – 16 µR/h, Shchekino – 14.5 µR/h, Yasnogorsk – 10.5 µR/h. The average monthly value of the background gamma level in Tula in September was 12.5 µR/hour. When studying food raw materials and food products produced in the region and imported from other regions, drinking water, excesses of hygienic standards for the content of radioactive substances were not revealed. http://www.etp.ru/ru/news/news/index.php?from4=21&id4=201

At the same time, everything is far from so simple. Here is what is said about violations of the law in this area:
Consequently, the exclusion of specific settlements Tula region from among those having the status of territories with radiation contamination or their transfer to another, less preferential status must be carried out in compliance with the requirements of the Law of the Russian Federation "On the social protection of citizens exposed to radiation as a result of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant."
http://www.nuclearpolicy.ru/pravo/lawpractice/3dec1998.shtml

The situation in Russian territories contaminated as a result of the Chernobyl accident - statistical tables of various data http://www.wdcb.rssi.ru/mining/obzor/Radsit.htm
"CHERNOBYL DISASTER: Results and problems of overcoming its consequences in Russia 1986 - 1999" http://www.ibrae.ac.ru/russian/chernobyl/nat_rep_99/13let_text.html
Objects of potential radiation hazard on the territory of Russia and their products http://www.igem.ru/staff/abstr/gis_rb.htm

In 1997, a multi-year European Community project to create an atlas of cesium contamination in Europe after the Chernobyl accident was completed. According to estimates carried out within the framework of this project, the territories of 17 European countries with a total area of ​​207.5 thousand square meters. km turned out to be contaminated with cesium with a contamination density of over 1 Ci/sq.km. http://www.souzchernobyl.ru/index.php?ipart=7

The contamination zone turned out to be so vast that the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, at a meeting in May 1986, compared it with “the consequences of a local nuclear war in the center of Europe.” Most of the area was contaminated with the strontium isotope Sr-90, the half-life is 30 years. In general, we are waiting for 2286, because any isotope becomes harmless after 10 half-lives. However, it will not be possible to repopulate Pripyat even then. The surroundings of the station and the city itself were contaminated with the plutonium isotope Pu-90, the half-life is 24080 years... http://forum.rockhell.ru/index.php?s=3e2d0a9b0e7b28bb810cb517dc206ab1&showtopic=636&st=50&p=29215entry29215

The forecast of the environmental situation in contaminated areas is still far from complete. We can speak more or less definitely only about a period of time of 10 - 20 years, and this applies only to 90Sr and 137Cs. As for transuranium elements (and therefore the forecast for many millennia), the accumulated information is too small. The lack of data on these radionuclides is felt on all aspects of the problem, from the amount of fuel in the sarcophagus (according to various experts, from 39 to 180 tons) to the mechanism of formation of soluble compounds of plutonium, americium and neptunium in the soil and the migration routes of these radioactive elements. http://ph.icmp.lviv.ua/chornobyl/e-library/chornobyl_catastrophe/conclusion.html

Medical consequences Chernobyl disaster (pdf) http://mfa.gov.by/rus/publications/collection/report/chapter_3.pdf

In the same document we're talking about and about birth defects:

The other day, a sensational report by the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (SCEAR) “Human Consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Incident” was published. It states: no, there have not been and are not expected any severe mass consequences of the Chernobyl disaster! Objection: - Scientists have conducted hundreds of experiments on plants and animals. All showed negative effects of low doses of radiation. Well, how can this be explained from the perspective of the UN report - by stress in mushrooms or pessimism in rats?

The Germans showed a film refuting the position of the official Ukrainian authorities
IN documentary film about Chernobyl, shown recently in Germany, there is evidence from scientists who claim: government data on the consequences of the disaster are falsified.
The film is based primarily on the research of Konstantin Checherov, a physicist from the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy, who until 1996 was a member of the commission investigating the causes of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. “The reactor does not pose any danger to Western Europe", says the scientist. http://www.russisk.org/article.php?sid=655

Medical consequences of the Chernobyl accident: forecast and actual data from the national register. There are statistics on morbidity among liquidators + 50-year studies of the Japanese after Hiroshima and several other articles. http://www.ibrae.ac.ru/russian/register/register.html

Medical aspects:
And almost thirty years ago in the United States, blowfly populations were exterminated in a number of states. Males irradiated with an appropriate dose of radiation were released into the population. After several generations, many kinds of monsters appeared in it. Then the entire population disappeared.
But the genetic mechanism for the transmission of hereditary characteristics in protozoa, flies and humans is essentially the same!
However, the consequences of the disaster manifest themselves thousands of kilometers from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. This is what the famous Russian ecologist, corresponding member, reports. RAS A. Yablokov:
"In the summer of 1986, Norway, Sweden and the UK experienced a significant increase in the total number of deaths among the population. The sanitary service rejected tens of thousands of meat carcasses due to unacceptable radioactivity. In southern Germany, where
Chernobyl fallout was especially intense, infant mortality increased by 35%... ...And often radiation damage has the greatest impact in the third generation. So trouble will respond more than once" /We have become hostages of the nuclear power plant. "Trud", February 13, 1996/.
According to recent WHO data, 4.9 million people were exposed to Chernobyl radiation /E. Shakov, Will Chernobyl close? "New Russian Word", January 5, 1996/.
acad. HELL. Sakharov (“Memoirs”, New York, 1990. p. 262):
“...Even the smallest dose of radiation can cause damage to the hereditary mechanism, lead to a hereditary disease or death. There is no “threshold”, i.e. such a minimum value of the radiation dose that at a lower dose... damage will not occur.
...The probability of damage depends on the dose of radiation, but, within certain limits, the nature of the damage does not depend." "Irradiation, even in relatively small doses, disrupts conditioned reflex activity, changes the bioelectrical activity of the cerebral cortex, causes biochemical and metabolic changes in the molecular and cellular levels". These lines were taken by her from the books "The Danger of Nuclear War" and " Nuclear war: medical and biological consequences", the authors of which are E.I. Chazov, L.A. Ilyin and A.K. Guskova. These books were also published in the first half of the 1980s, before Chernobyl, although not long ago.
http://zhurnal.lib.ru/t/tiktin_s_a/adomdimitchernobil.shtml

According to official UN data, about 4 thousand deaths from cancer worldwide are associated with the explosion of the reactor 20 years ago. Meanwhile, environmentalists give a different figure: in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus alone, about 200 thousand people have already died due to the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, the Russian branch of Greenpeace told NEWSru.com. The report provides figures based on demographic statistics over the past 15 years. According to these data, 60 people have already died in Russia due to the Chernobyl accident. As for Ukraine and Belarus, this figure reaches 140 thousand (Main conclusions of the report).

According to Greenpeace, in the future, about 270 thousand cases of cancer worldwide will be related to the effects of Chernobyl radiation. Of these, 93 thousand will be fatal.
According to environmentalists, Greece, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Slovenia, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Italy, Estonia, Slovakia, Ireland, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium were affected by the Chernobyl accident , Spain, Portugal, Israel. The total area of ​​land contaminated only with cesium-137, in addition to Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, amounted to 45,260 square kilometers.

The report also provides an analysis of diseases associated with the effects of radiation on the body: damage to the immune and endocrine systems, disorders of the cardiovascular system and blood diseases, mental illness, damage at the chromosomal level and an increase in the number of developmental defects in children.
The number of cancer cases has increased sharply in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. In Belarus, between 1990 and 2000, there was an increase in cancer incidence by 40%, and in the Gomel region - by 52%. In Ukraine there was a 12% increase in the level of cancer, while in the Zhytomyr region the mortality rate increased almost threefold. In Russia, in the Bryansk region, the number of cancer cases increased 2.7 times.

In Belarus alone, until 2004, about 7 thousand cases of thyroid cancer were registered. According to some studies, the incidence of thyroid cancer in children has increased by 88.5 times, in adolescents by 12.9 times and in adults by 4.6 times. Experts estimate that over the next 70 years, the number of additional thyroid cancer cases will range from 14 to 31 thousand cases. In Ukraine as a whole, about 24,000 cases of thyroid cancer are expected, 2,400 of which are fatal.

This significant increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer significantly exceeds the expected level (immediately after the accident, official sources predicted a slight increase in incidence). Moreover, the diseases are characterized by a short latency period and tumor spread beyond the thyroid gland in almost 50% of cases, necessitating repeated operations to remove residual metastases.

Five years after the accident, a significant increase in leukemia cases was reported among populations living in the most severely affected areas. An estimated 2,800 additional cases of leukemia are expected in Belarus between 1986 and 2056, 1,880 of them fatal.

There has been a marked increase in cancers of the colon, rectum, breast, bladder, kidney, lung and other organs. In 1987-1999, about 26 thousand cases of cancer caused by radiation were registered in Belarus, of which 18.7% were skin cancer, 10.5% were lung cancer and 9.5% were stomach cancer.

In Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, the number of diseases of the circulatory and lymphatic systems has increased. In the ten years after the accident, the number of diseases of the circulatory system increased 5.5 times. On the territory of Ukraine, the number of blood and circulatory system diseases among residents of contaminated areas has increased by 10.8-15.4 times.

The effects of radiation on the reproductive system. The accumulation of radionuclides in the female body leads to an increase in the level of the male hormone testosterone, which is responsible for the appearance of male characteristics. Conversely, cases of impotence have become more frequent in men 25-30 years old living in radiation-contaminated areas. Children in contaminated areas suffer from delayed sexual development. Mothers experience delayed onset and interruption of the menstrual cycle, more frequent gynecological problems, anemia during and after pregnancy, premature birth and rupture of membranes.
http://www.newsru.com/world/18apr2006/greenpeace.html

How much data was not included in official statistics? How can we now determine whether certain diseases are caused by the effects of radiation or not? You can only record the growth trends of certain diseases, and only...

A fragment of the front page of the Berlin edition of Die Tageszeitung

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which occurred in 1986, could have caused more than a thousand child deaths in the UK, an English scientist believes. A study by epidemiologist John Urquhart found that for several years after the disaster, there was an increased infant mortality rate in British regions where radioactive fallout occurred, Sky News reports. The scientist analyzed medical statistics in areas where “black rains” occurred after the explosion of a Soviet reactor and calculated that the increase in child deaths from 1986 to 1989 was 11% - compared with 4% in other regions. In reality, this means more than a thousand deaths, John Urquhart said at a conference in London dedicated to the twentieth anniversary of the disaster. According to his research, this negative trend stopped four years after Chernobyl. Official maps show the radioactive clouds passed through Kent and London into Hertfordshire and the eastern midlands of Great Britain before hitting Bradford and the Isle of Man and heading towards Northern Ireland. The scientist believes that approximately half of the regions of England and Wales could potentially be affected by this disaster. http://www.newsru.com/world/23mar2006/chernobyl.html

About how asexual worms switched to traditional way reproduction
http://chernobyl.onego.ru/right/izvestia26_04_2003.htm

In the context of all this, theoretical information will not be superfluous:
THE BASICS OF THE SCIENCE OF RADIOACTIVITY http://www.radiation.ru/begin/begin.htm
About iodine against radioactivity http://www.inauka.ru/news/article50772.html
X-ray radiation http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/

More miscellaneous information

And the radiation continues to spread...
Legal proceedings are underway in Moscow regarding the import of radioactive Chernobyl pipes into Russia
http://www.newsru.com/russia/08dec2005/chernobil.html
http://www.sancenter.ru/003.html
Look through the news sites, there’s about pipes, and about blueberries, and about equipment stolen from burial grounds...
And no one understands that just one particle is enough, not visible to the eye so that the destinies of our subsequent generations change... we are already paying with various kinds of diseases, decreased immunity and continue to believe that this has nothing to do with Chernobyl.

I will write about Latvia and the Baltic states separately in the next issue.

See the beginning of the topic here:
20 years of the Chernobyl accident (part 1: map and table)
All about Chernobyl and its consequences - (part 2: many links about the accident itself and Pripyat)