A few cases of overdosing with iodine preparations, the sleep and concentration disturbances, and other emotive reactions of citizens, such as the uncertainty and the anxiety.
Those were the immediate consequences of the utter lack of information of inhabitants and the belittling the impact of the Chernobyl accident. Fortunately, according the experts, there was no acute risk to health of people because of the radiation.
The contaminated air masses and proceeding radioactivity came to the Czechoslovakia from east and later again, after the air wave put off from the Alps and traveled back in the direction to Poland. The first signs of the coming radioactivity were put down More Gazprom Ukraine gas cuts ...
Gazprom threat to Ukraine's gas ...
'Monsoon risk' to cyclone victims ... by the workers of Dukovany nuclear power plant during the night on April 29. Later this day, the measuring began in the Regional hygienic stations and in the work places of the Institute of hygiene and epidemiology.
The Peace race was the prestigious event of the socialistic era. It had high sport level but it played also the political and ideological role. The traditional participating countries were Czechoslovakia, Poland and DDR. In the beginning of 1986 the Soviet Union joined and the race should start from Kiev (Ukraine). The Czechoslovak cyclist learned about the accident from their West-German colleagues during the race in Italy. Because of the political reasons it was impossible to cancel the laps in Kiev or even cancel the participation of the Czechoslovak team.
On November 1986, for the first time in the fifty years period, less boys than girls were born. The scientists are convinced that it was caused by the radiation from Chernobyl. The embryologist Miroslav Peterka claims that because of the accident in Chernobyl, 450 boys weren't born.
In the part of the Ukrainian territory has been living since the half of the 19th century the Czech minority. They are called the Volyn Czechs. A few villages of these Czechs is situated only tens kilometers from Chernobyl power plant. They were hit by the radiation and for example the village of Malá Zubovščina was included since December 1989 in the area that was determined to displace.
Every summer the hundreds of the children from the countries that were affected by the Chernobyl accident attend the curative stays. These stays are organized and financed by the Czech-Russian society, the Ministry of Health, the Foreign Ministry, the Czech compatriot associations, the Chernobyl UNESCO programme and number of sponsors. The curative stays are being organized since 1991, when the idea to help children from the areas affected by the accident was originated. It was during the visit of the Václav Havel in Ukraine. At that time the agreement was created that laid a base to this activity of the Czech-Russian society.
On 26th April 1986 at 1.23.49 AM Moscow time an accident occurred at the ChNPP Unit 4. The accident was the severest one in the entire history of the nuclear power industry. The reactor core and the safety systems were destroyed and the majority of the core bearing structures was damaged. The reactor started releasing radiation to the environment and the adjoining area was contaminated by active core fragments with pieces of fuel rods, graphite, and structural elements. The first dose values measured around the destroyed Unit 4 and throughout the ChNPP territory were startling. Close to the Unit 4 the gamma-exposure rate reached 2000 R/hour. Dose rates in the reactor exceeded 5000 R/hour. Only 31 victims were officially recorded by the Soviet government at the time of the accident.
In the middle of May 1986 a Governmental Commission decided to make a long-term covering of the Unit 4. The design of a protective sarcophagus ‘Shelter’ was started on 20 May 1986. Numerous research and development institutions, design organizations, scientific subsidiaries of ministries and their offices were involved in the design process. The design idea was to constrict a cover consisting of structural elements that would be up to 50 meters long and use the intact walls and structures as supports. Among the 18 options proposed, the one selected was the most risky.
In the more than 20 years since the accident no more than 60 percent of the Shelter rooms have been surveyed. The surveying of residuary premises is impossible because of high radiation areas or impenetrable obstructions, which are caused by the structural collapses and the generation of lava-like fuel containing materials. There are also several rooms that were filled with concrete during the Shelter construction. The lack of knowledge of large portions of the Shelter contributes to some of the most serious risks today.
The creation of the SIP was a culmination of efforts over the last ten years of 20th century by experts in Ukraine and in the international community to develop an acceptable economical and ecological approach to resolve the problems of the ChNPP Unit 4 Shelter. In 1992 the tender for projects to convert the Shelter into and environmentally safe system was announced and became the first step to international cooperation. On 17 June 1993, the Jury accepted the Concept for the Conversion of the Shelter.
Prypiat is an abandoned city in the Zone. It was home to the Chernobyl NPP workers, that is less than 3 km from the town. The city was evacuated in 1986 following the Chernobyl disaster. Its population had been around 50,000. During the night of 26-27 April, more than 24 hours after the explosion, the committee, faced with ample evidence of extremely high levels of radiation and a number of cases of radiation exposure, had to acknowledge the destruction of the reactor and order the evacuation of the nearby city of Prypiat.
The Zone is an area of 1,104 square miles centered on the nuclear power plant site which has been evacuated of all its population. A circle of 30 km in radius was established around the power plant which is located between the city of Chernobyl to the south and Prypiat which is north of it. A total of about 135,000 people, including 45,000 from the city of Prypiat, and from dozens of smaller towns and villages were evacuated from this area soon after the accident. This area is quarded by police and military men. In some villages within the zone, the people are still living (mainly the older ones); they refused to leave the area or they returned after the evacuation.
(radio-Prague)
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