Chernobyl accident
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The Chernobyl accident occurred on April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Pripyat, Ukraine. At that time, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. The event is regarded as the worst accident in the history of nuclear power. Because there was no containment building to trap the radiation, radioactive fallout drifted over parts of the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, the UK, and the eastern United States. Large areas of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia were badly contaminated. About 60% of the radioactive fallout landed in Belarus. About 200,000 people needed to be evacuated (moved away) and moved to other places where they could live after the accident.
The accident raised concerns about the safety of the Soviet nuclear power industry. It slowed its expansion (getting bigger) for some time. It also forced the Soviet government to become less secretive. Since then, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus became separate countries. Those countries have been burdened with continuing costs for decontamination (removing the radiation) and health care because of the accident. Exposure to radiation leads to a higher risk of getting cancer. It is difficult to accurately tell the number of deaths caused by the events at Chernobyl. Most of the people affected have not died yet. When and if the people involved die of cancer, or related diseases, it will be hard to tell if this was because of the accident. A 2005 IAEA report tells of 56 direct deaths, 47 of those were accident workers and 9 were children who died of thyroid cancer. The report estimates that up to 4,000 people may die from long term diseases related to the accident. Greenpeace, along with others, thinks that the study's conclusions may be false.
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