| Discovery
News
Radioactive
rain still falls periodically on Moscow 15 years after the
Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power station exploded in what
was the world's worst peacetime nuclear disaster. The blast
spewed radiation equivalent to 500 times that of the atomic
bomb dropped on Hiroshima in World War II.
Although
Moscow was originally not designated as an affected territory
following the accident, Natalya Shandala of Moscow's Institute
of Biophysics told ITAR-TASS news agency Wednesday that
radionuclide levels in the region had been 250 times above
normal following the explosion.
Chernobyl
reactor four, which exploded on April 26, 1986, was encased
in a huge concrete sarcophagus as a stopgap measure to contain
the radiation. Vladimir Asmolov, director of the Institute
of Safety Problems, reported, "The sarcophagus never
was an absolutely safe facility." He said he was uncertain
how long it could stand intact. Approximately 160 tons of
radioactive material remain locked inside the sarcophagus.
The
accident affected at least 3 million people and continues
to cause new elevated incidences of disease, including thyroid
cancers and high levels of stress and suicide, in the contaminated
areas. Government officials have reported that a total of
1,717,822 people still live in regions contaminated by radiation
and that 35 percent of many foods grown there, including
meat, milk, berries and mushroom, show evidence of radiation.
The
results of an independent scientific study done in France
revealed Tuesday that some French soil is still contaminated
by radiation from the disaster. Officials in France had
originally claimed that the country had not been affected.
Scientists from the CRII-RAD laboratory reported that in
some parts of eastern France levels of the artificial radioactive
element caesium 137 were as high as those in the Ukraine
within several miles of the disaster.
On Wednesday,
the 15th anniversary of the Chernobyl explosion, the International
Atomic Energy Agency issued a press release saying the accident
was by far the most devastating in the history of nuclear
power. IAEA Director General Mohammed El Baradei stated
in the release, "The accident had a disastrous impact
on life, health and the environment in Ukraine, Belarus
and Russia and prompted fear and concerns in other nations
of the world about the effects of radiation."
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