С hernobyl nuclear power plant accident in Ukraine. С hernobyl nuclear power plant accident in Ukraine.

Where is Chernobyl? Where is Chernobyl? Chernobyl is located about 81 miles (130 km) north of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, and about 12 miles (20 km) south of the border with Belarus. The fourth reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was designed and built during the 1970s and 1980s. A manmade reservoir, roughly 8.5 square miles (22 sq. km) in size and fed by the Pripyat River, was created to provide cooling water for the reactor.

In the spring of 1986 the people of Pripyat in Ukraine were enjoying unusually warm weather.Unseen and unknown to them, just three kilometers away workers at Chernobyl power plant were preparing to test the nuclear reactor. The result of the test was unexpected and catastrophic.

At 1:23a.m. on 26 of April 1986, the worst nuclear power plant accident started to unfold. The Chernobyl accident was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel.The resulting steam explosion and fires released at least 5% of the radioactive dust into the atmosphere and wind spread this over Ukraine.

Workers at the plant who were sent to put out the fire died immediately from radiation. In many other people developed serious disaster such a thyroid cancer in the following year.In Ukraine, Russia and Belarus over one million people affected by radiation. By 2000, about 4000 cases of thyroid cancer has been diagnosed in exposed children.

By 11:00 on 27 April, buses had arrived in Pripyat to start the evacuation. The evacuation began at 14:00. Around people left the city in the first evacuation and over the next few months a futher people moved from the contaminated surrounding. Some people refused to leave their homes.

Chernobyl unit 4 is now enclosed in a large concrete shelter which was erected quickly (by October 1986). However, the structure is neither strong not durable. A New Safe Confinement structure is due to be completed in Chernobyl today

The region today is widely known as one of the world's most unique wildlife sanctuaries. Thriving populations of wolves, deer, lynx, beaver, eagles, boar, elk, bears and other animals have been documented in the dense woodlands that now surround the silent plant. Only a handful of radiation effects, such as stunted trees growing in the zone of highest radiation and animals with high levels of cesium-137 in their bodies, are known to occur.

But that's not to suggest that the area has returned to normal, or will at any point in the near future. Because of the long-lived radiation in the region surrounding the former Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the area won't be safe for human habitation for at least 20,000 years.

Created by the students of 8-A class Glib Cherniy and Sofia Momotiuk