April 26, 1986 - Chernobyl - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

Chernobyl nuclear power plant explodes.The Chernobyl nuclear power plant, located 80 miles north of Kiev in the Ukraine, was the site of the world’s worst nuclear power disaster. On April 26, 1986 at 1:21 a.m., workers at the power plant were conducting a routine test of reactor No. 4 when suddenly a chain reaction caused explosions and a huge fireball blew the steel and concrete lid right off. The radioactive particles released were equivalent to 30 or 40 times the radioactivity of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While 400,000 people had to be evacuated and resettled, the known fatalities are 59 – 50 of which were rescue workers from exposure to radiation and nine children who developed thyroid cancer. Meanwhile, the radioactive particles drifted over many parts of the world, badly contaminating parts of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Despite the magnitude of the catastrophe, the Soviet Union released no information about the explosion for three days.Early reports from the United Nations stated that more than 8.4 million people in the three affected countries had been exposed. However, many years later a panel of more than 100 experts gathered at a United Nations forum to study the effects. They estimated that approximately 4,000 of the 600,000 people exposed in the worst affected regions could eventually die from cancer and leukemia. Critics of the forum’s report expect the numbers will be much higher. Although the true number of casualties will never be known, the fear of nuclear radiation in these areas, and for others close to other nuclear power plants, remains high. And as the world searches for alternatives to global-warming energy sources, nuclear power is coming back into fashion, however with heightened vigilance for human safety.

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