Map of the spread of the Chernobyl radioactive cloud. Map of radiation pollution in Russia

Terrible disaster in Chernobyl became an unprecedented case in the historical chronicle of nuclear energy. In the first days after the accident, it was not possible to assess the real scale of the incident, and only after some time an exclusion zone was created within a radius of 30 km Chernobyl nuclear power plant. What happened and is still happening on closed area? The world is full of various rumors, some of which are the fruit of an inflamed imagination, and some of which are the true truth. And the most obvious and realistic things do not always turn out to be reality. After all, we are talking about Chernobyl - one of the most dangerous and mysterious territories of Ukraine.

History of the construction of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

A plot of land 4 km from the village of Kopachi and 15 km from the city of Chernobyl was chosen in 1967 for the construction of a new nuclear power plant, designed to compensate for the energy shortage in the Central Energy Region. The future station was named Chernobyl.

The first 4 power units were built and put into operation by 1983; in 1981, construction began on power units 5 and 6, which lasted until the infamous 1986. Over the course of several years, a town of power engineers emerged near the station - Pripyat.

The first accident hit the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1982 - after scheduled repairs, an explosion occurred at power unit 1. The consequences of the breakdown were eliminated within three months, after which additional safety measures were introduced to prevent similar incidents in the future.

But, apparently, fate decided to finish what it started; the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was not supposed to work. That's why on the night of April 25-26, 1986 Another explosion occurred at power unit 4. This time the incident resulted in a global disaster. No one can still say for sure what exactly caused the reactor explosion, which resulted in thousands of broken destinies, twisted lives and premature deaths. The disaster, Chernobyl, the exclusion zone - the history of this incident is controversial to this day, although the time of the accident itself has been established with an accuracy of seconds.

A few minutes before the explosion of the 4th power unit

On the night of April 25-26, 1986, an experimental test of turbogenerator 8 was scheduled. The experiment started at 1:23:10 on April 26, and 30 seconds later a powerful explosion occurred as a result of a drop in pressure.

Chernobyl accident

The 4th power unit was mired in fire, firefighters managed to completely extinguish the fire by 5 o'clock in the morning. And a few hours later it became known how powerful the radiation emission was in environment. A couple of weeks later, the authorities decided to cover the destroyed power unit with a concrete sarcophagus, but it was too late. The radioactive cloud spread over a fairly large distance.

The Chernobyl disaster brought great misfortune: the exclusion zone, created shortly after the event, prohibited free access to the vast territory belonging to Ukraine and Belarus.

Area of the Chernobyl exclusion zone

Within a radius of 30 kilometers from the epicenter of the accident there is abandonment and silence. These are the territories Soviet authorities considered dangerous for permanent residence of people. All residents of the exclusion zone were evacuated to other populated areas. Several more zones were additionally defined in the restricted area:

a special zone occupied directly by the nuclear power plant itself and the construction site of power units 5 and 6;
zone 10 km;
zone 30 km.

The boundaries of the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were surrounded by a fence, warning signs were installed about elevated level radiation. Ukrainian lands that fell into the forbidden territory are Pripyat itself, the village of Severovka in the Zhitomir region, the villages of the Kyiv region of Novoshepelevichi, Polesskoye, Vilcha, Yanov, Kopachi.

The village of Kopachi is located at a distance of 3800 meters from the 4th power unit. It was so badly damaged by radioactive substances that the authorities decided to physically destroy it. The most massive rural buildings were destroyed and buried underground. The previously prosperous Kopachi were simply wiped off the face of the earth. Currently there are not even self-settlers here.

The accident also affected a large area of Belarusian lands. A significant part of the Gomel region was banned, about 90 settlements fell within the radius of the exclusion zone and were abandoned by local residents.

Mutants of Chernobyl

Territories abandoned by people were soon taken over by wild animals. And people, in turn, launched into lengthy discussions about the monsters into which radiation had turned the entire fauna exclusion zones. There were rumors about mice with five legs, three-eyed hares, glowing boars and many other fantastic transformations. Some rumors were reinforced by others, multiplied, spread and gained new fans. It got to the point that some “storytellers” started rumors about the existence of mutant animals in the closed area of the museum. Of course, no one managed to find this amazing museum. And with fantastic animals it turned out to be a complete bummer.

Animals in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant are indeed exposed to radiation. Radioactive vapors settle on plants that some species feed on. The exclusion zone is inhabited by wolves, foxes, bears, wild boars, hares, otters, lynxes, deer, badgers, bats. Their bodies successfully cope with pollution and increased radioactive background. Therefore, the forbidden zone unwittingly became something of a reserve for many species of rare animals living on the territory of Ukraine.

And yet, there were mutants in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. This term can be applied to plants. Radiation became a kind of fertilizer for flora, and in the first years after the accident, the size of the plants amazed the imagination. Both wild and commercial crops grew huge. The forest 2 km from the nuclear power plant was particularly damaged. The trees are the only ones who could not escape from the radioactive explosion, so they completely absorbed all the fumes and turned red. The red forest could turn out even more terrible tragedy, if it caught fire. Fortunately, this did not happen.

The Red Forest is the most dangerous forest on the planet, and at the same time, the most persistent. Radiation seemed to preserve it, slowing down all natural processes. So, the Red Forest immerses you in some kind of parallel reality, where eternity is the measure of everything.

Residents of the Chernobyl exclusion zone

After the accident, only station workers and rescuers were left in the exclusion zone to eliminate the consequences of the accident. The entire civilian population was evacuated. But as the years passed, a significant number of people returned to their homes in the exclusion zone, despite legal prohibitions. These desperate guys began to be called self-settlers. Back in 1986, the number of residents of the Chernobyl exclusion zone numbered 1,200 people. What is most interesting is that many of them were already at retirement age and lived longer than those who left the radioactive zone.

Now the number of self-settlers in Ukraine does not exceed 200 people. All of them are dispersed across 11 settlements located in the exclusion zone. In Belarus, the stronghold of the inhabitants of the Chernobyl exclusion zone is the village of Zaelitsa, an academic town in the Mogilev region.

Basically, self-settlers are elderly people who could not come to terms with the loss of their home and all the property acquired through back-breaking labor. They returned to their contaminated homes to live out their short lives. Since there is no economy or any infrastructure in the exclusion zone, people living in Chernobyl zone alienation, are engaged in household farming, gathering, and sometimes hunting. In general, they were engaged in their usual type of activity within their own walls. So no radiation is scary. This is how life goes in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

Chernobyl exclusion zone today

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant finally ceased operation only in 2000. Since then, the exclusion zone has become completely quiet and gloomy. Abandoned towns and villages make your skin crawl and make you want to run away from here as far as possible. But there are also brave daredevils for whom the dead zone is the abode of exciting adventures. Despite all the physical and legal prohibitions, stalker-adventurers constantly explore the abandoned settlements of the zone and find a lot of interesting things there.

Today there is even a special direction in tourism - Pripyat and the surrounding area of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Excursions to the dead city arouse great curiosity not only among residents of Ukraine, but also among guests from abroad. Tours to Chernobyl last up to 5 days - this is how long one person is officially allowed to stay in the contaminated area. But usually trips are limited to one day. The group, led by experienced guides, walks along a specially designed route that does not cause harm to health.

When to visit

	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr
Max./min. temperature
Chance of precipitation

Virtual walk around Pripyat

And for those curious who don’t dare get to know Pripyat in person, there is a virtual walk through the Chernobyl exclusion zone - exciting and certainly absolutely safe!

Chernobyl exclusion zone: satellite map

For those who are not afraid to travel, a detailed map of the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant will be very useful. It marks the boundaries of a 30-kilometer zone, indicating settlements, station buildings and other local attractions. With such a guide, you won't be afraid to get lost.

Findings in government institutions of Pripyat

After extinguishing the fire from the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, heroic liquidators worked for a very long time to eliminate the consequences of the accident. The radius of destruction from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant reached even North America and Japan.

Helicopter over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

The primary tasks assigned to the professionals were the decontamination of Pripyat and the removal of radioactive dust that had settled on the roofs of houses and the intact nuclear power plant units.

After the accident, the people of Pripyat for the first time began to realize the danger of “radiation” - an enemy that cannot be seen.

Eliminating the consequences was quite difficult. After all, we had to look for special methods in the fight against radiation, deadly elements and dust that had settled throughout the area. Then the helicopters entered the battle.

Fire station of Pripyat

During each flight, and there were 5-6 of them per shift, it was necessary to pour tons of PVA glue onto the roofs of the power units. Such dust cannot be removed with a vacuum cleaner or a broom. That is why a helicopter with glue was urgently needed for the Chernobyl NPP workers. After hardening, the glue was cut, rolled up and sent for destruction.

An important mission to collect radiation dust was carried out by Mi-8, Mi-24, Mi-26 and Mi-6 helicopters.

Eliminating the consequences of what happened on April 26, people risked their lives. First of all, radiation sickness struck the Chernobyl liquidators. However, then none of these heroes thought about themselves when entering into battle with an invisible enemy.

The moment of a helicopter crash over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

Helicopter crash at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

Each of the liquidators took what they were doing very seriously. But no one even suspected that after the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, another one could happen.

And now - about the most important thing, why I started writing all this - about radioactive emissions and their consequences.
A visual diagram of the release of radioactive substances into the atmosphere on the 2nd day of the accident and several days later (pictures from here: http://www.dhushara.com/book/explod/cher/cher.htm)

The first signs of something terrible, hopelessly irreparable, appeared on Monday, at 9 a.m. on April 28, 1986, when specialists at the nuclear power plant in Forsmark, 60 miles from Stockholm, noticed alarming signals appearing on ghostly green screens. The instruments showed the level of radiation, and it was so unusually high that the experts were horrified. First guess: the leak came from a reactor at their station. But a thorough check of the equipment and the instruments that control it revealed nothing. And yet, sensors showed that the level of radiation in the air was four times higher than the maximum acceptable standards. IN urgently Geiger counters were used to immediately test all six hundred workers. Even these hastily obtained data showed that each worker received a radiation dose higher than permissible level. In the area surrounding the station, the same thing was repeated - soil and plant samples contained incredibly high amounts of radioactive particles. By the time Forsmark's scientists discovered the massive presence of radiation in the atmosphere, strong winds had carried it throughout Europe. A light rain falling on the salt marshes of Brittany turned the milk in the udders of cows into a toxic substance. The heavy rains that saturated the hilly land of Wales left the tender lamb poisoned. Toxic rains occurred in Finland, Sweden and West Germany. http://primeinfo.net.ru/news405.html
http://lenta.ru/articles/2006/04/17/smi/

Although the distance between Chernobyl and Stockholm is more than 1,000 miles, the radioactive rain left Sweden more contaminated than many of the Soviet Union's neighboring countries. http://www.dataplus.ru/Arcrev/Number_31/4_aes.htm

Where and how did nuclear power plant emissions spread:

In Scandinavia and the Baltics:

There is interactive map Europe, showing the spread of radioactive fallout on its territory: http://www.chernobyl.info/index.php?userhash=1182177&navID=2&lID=2

The degree of cesium-137 contamination in different regions of Europe (areas for which there is no data are indicated in white).

There's more here a large map - but it is quite strange and different from others, and for the worse: http://www.mcrit.com/espon_pss/images/MAPS_131/map13_risk_radioactivity.jpg

There is different countries world, maps, statistics:
http://www.davistownmuseum.org/cbm/Rad7b.html

Radioactive fallout - map from here: http://www.esi.ru/chernobl.htm

Map of pollution in Russia:

Atlas of contamination of the European part of Russia with cesium-137. http://www.ibrae.ac.ru/russian/chernobyl/nat_rep_99/map_cs.html

How these maps were created:
Moscow tourist clubs greeted all returnees with unexpected announcements: “Urgently undergo radiation control.” As the IAE later said, it was a brilliant decision by Academician V.A. Legasov - to measure the radiation background of the equipment of tourists who usually visit all the large and small rivers of Central Russia on May 1-9. As a result, the first rough map of radioactive contamination was compiled very quickly.
http://www.russ.ru/docs/116463410?user_session=

And some numbers and names for these cards:

20 years after the events at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the radiation contamination zone includes 4,343 settlements in 14 regions Russian Federation, where 1.5 million people live. http://www.regnum.ru/news/629646.html

“The pollution that came from Chernobyl, from 1 curie per square kilometer, amounts to 1.7% of the territory of Europe. The main Chernobyl spot is highlighted on the summary map, then the Gomel-Mogilev, then the Plavsko-Tula in Russia. The most affected were Bryansk, Kaluga, Oryol and Tula region, where the density of soil contamination with iodine 131 ranges from 0.1 to 100 Cu/km2 and more. Leningrad region(based on the “Chernobyl” trace, it can be assumed that the spot found with an increased radio background in the area of Medvezhyegorsk in Karelia is of the same origin). Pollution spread to the west - southwest, northwest, to the Scandinavian countries, then to the east - a very large, powerful trail with heavy precipitation. Then the clouds moved to the south and southwest: Romania, Bulgaria, west: southern Germany, Italy, Austria, the alpine part of Switzerland. The atlas indicates how much cesium fell in each country and in Europe as a whole. In Belarus - 33.5% of the total emissions, in Russia - 23.9%, in Ukraine - 20%, in Sweden - 4.4%, in Finland - 4.3%.
According to official estimates from three countries (the Republic of Belarus, Russia, Ukraine), at least more than 9,000,000 people were affected by the Chernobyl disaster in one way or another. In the RSFSR, 16 regions and one republic with a population of about 3,000,000 people living in more than 12,000 settlements were exposed to radioactive contamination.

Exceeding the indicators of endocrine system disease and metabolic disorders, diseases of the blood and hematopoietic organs, congenital anomalies more than 4 times; mental disorders and diseases of the circulatory system more than 2 times. The appearance of radiation-induced solid cancers is expected in the near future with a maximum intensity approximately 25 years after the Chernobyl accident for liquidators and 50 years for the population of contaminated areas." http://chernobyl.onego.ru/right/chernobyl.htm

Bryansk and Tula regions are two of the four regions of the Russian Federation most affected by the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Tula region: as a result of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 18 of the 26 administrative territories of the region (17 districts and the city of Don) on an area of 14.5 thousand square meters were exposed to radioactive contamination. km, which amounted to more than half (56.3%) of its territory with a population of 928.8 thousand people. To the zone radioactive contamination The region currently includes 1,299 settlements, home to 713.2 thousand people. 122 settlements with a population of 32.2 thousand people, located in areas with a pollution density of 5 or more Ci/sq. km., classified as a residential zone with the right to resettle, 1177 settlements with a population of 680.1 thousand people in an area with a pollution density of 1 to 5 Ci/sq. km are classified as a residential area with preferential socio-economic status. In addition, 2,090 participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident live in the region, of which 1,687 are disabled. Malignant neoplasms of the thyroid gland in adults: in 2000, there were 5.9 cases per 100 thousand people in the region, in controlled territories - 7.7 cases, in 2001 - 5.6 and 6.0 cases, respectively. 687.4 thousand hectares (34.7%) of agricultural land in the region were in the zone of radioactive contamination, including 76.5 thousand hectares with a contamination density of more than 5 Ci/sq. km, where it is necessary to carry out soil liming and other special agrotechnical and agro-reclamation measures. According to the forecast of Roshydromet, the disappearance of levels of radioactive contamination of the area with cesium-137 isotopes is over 5 Ci/sq. km in the Bryansk and Tula regions is expected no earlier than 2029, and a reduction in pollution to the level of 1 Ci/sq. km - no earlier than 2098.
http://www.budgetrf.ru/Publications/Schpalata/2003/schpal2003bull03/schpal632003bull3-7.htm

Some settlements are listed here: In constantly controlled points of settlements in the region intermediate level the exposure dose rate of gamma radiation (with an acceptable value of 60 μR/h) has the following indicators: pos. Arsenyevo - 19 μR/h, Aleksin - 12 μR/h, Belev - 11 μR/h, Bogoroditsk - 13 μR/h, Venev - 11 μR/h, village. Volovo – 13 µR/h, village. Dubna – 11 microR/h, village. Zaoksky - 10 μR/h, Efremov - 13.5 μR/h, s. Arkhangelskoye (Kamenskoye district) - 16 μR/h, Kimovsk - 15.5 μR/h, Kireevsk - 15 μR/h, Kurkino village - 13.5 μR/h, village. Leninsky - 11 μR/h, Novomoskovsk - 15.5 μR/h, Odoev village - 12.5 μR/h, Plavsk - 33.5 μR/h, village. Dairy Yards of Plavsky district - 21 microR/h, Suvorov - 11.5 microR/h, village. Teploye Teplo-Ogarevsky district - 12 microR/h, Uzlovaya city - 21 microR/h, village. Chern – 16 µR/h, Shchekino – 14.5 µR/h, Yasnogorsk – 10.5 µR/h. The average monthly value of the gamma background level in Tula in September was 12.5 μR/hour. When researching food raw materials and food products produced in the region and imported from other regions, drinking water, no excess of hygienic standards for the content of radioactive substances was detected. http://www.etp.ru/ru/news/news/index.php?from4=21&id4=201

At the same time, everything is far from so simple. Here is what is said about violations of the law in this area:
Consequently, the exclusion of specific settlements of the Tula region from the number of territories with radiation contamination status or their transfer to a different, less preferential status must be carried out in compliance with the requirements of the Law of the Russian Federation "On social protection citizens exposed to radiation as a result of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant."
http://www.nuclearpolicy.ru/pravo/lawpractice/3dec1998.shtml

The situation on those contaminated as a result of the Chernobyl accident Russian territories– statistical tables of various data http://www.wdcb.rssi.ru/mining/obzor/Radsit.htm
"CHERNOBYL DISASTER: Results and problems of overcoming its consequences in Russia 1986 - 1999" http://www.ibrae.ac.ru/russian/chernobyl/nat_rep_99/13let_text.html
Objects of potential radiation hazard on the territory of Russia and their products http://www.igem.ru/staff/abstr/gis_rb.htm

In 1997, a multi-year European Community project to create an atlas of cesium contamination in Europe after the Chernobyl accident was completed. According to estimates carried out within the framework of this project, the territories of 17 European countries with a total area of 207.5 thousand square meters. km were contaminated with cesium with a contamination density of over 1 Ci/sq.km. http://www.souzchernobyl.ru/index.php?ipart=7

The contamination zone turned out to be so vast that the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, at a meeting in May 1986, compared it with “the consequences of a local nuclear war in the center of Europe.” Most of the area was contaminated with the strontium isotope Sr-90, the half-life is 30 years. In general, we are waiting for 2286, because any isotope becomes harmless after 10 half-lives. However, it will not be possible to repopulate Pripyat even then. The surroundings of the station and the city itself were contaminated with the plutonium isotope Pu-90, the half-life is 24080 years... http://forum.rockhell.ru/index.php?s=3e2d0a9b0e7b28bb810cb517dc206ab1&showtopic=636&st=50&p=29215entry29215

Forecast environmental situation in contaminated areas is still far from complete. We can speak more or less definitely only about a period of time of 10 - 20 years, and this applies only to 90Sr and 137Cs. As for transuranium elements (and therefore the forecast for many millennia), the accumulated information is too small. The lack of data on these radionuclides is felt on all aspects of the problem, starting from the amount of fuel in the sarcophagus (according to various experts from 39 to 180 tons) to the mechanism of formation of soluble compounds of plutonium, americium and neptunium in the soil and the migration routes of these radioactive elements. http://ph.icmp.lviv.ua/chornobyl/e-library/chornobyl_catastrophe/conclusion.html

Medical consequences of the Chernobyl disaster (pdf) http://mfa.gov.by/rus/publications/collection/report/chapter_3.pdf

In the same document we're talking about and about birth defects:

The other day, a sensational report by the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (SCEAR) “Human Consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Incident” was published. It states: no, there have not been and are not expected to be any severe massive consequences Chernobyl disaster! Objection: - Scientists have conducted hundreds of experiments on plants and animals. Everyone found negative impact low doses of radiation. Well, how can this be explained from the perspective of the UN report - by stress in mushrooms or pessimism in rats?

The Germans showed a film refuting the position of the official Ukrainian authorities
IN documentary film about Chernobyl, shown recently in Germany, there is evidence from scientists who claim: government data on the consequences of the disaster are falsified.
The film is based primarily on the research of Konstantin Checherov, a physicist at the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy, who until 1996 was a member of the commission investigating the causes of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. “The reactor does not pose any danger to Western Europe", says the scientist. http://www.russisk.org/article.php?sid=655

Medical consequences of the Chernobyl accident: forecast and actual data from the national register. There are statistics on morbidity among liquidators + 50-year studies of the Japanese after Hiroshima and several other articles. http://www.ibrae.ac.ru/russian/register/register.html

Medical aspects:
And almost thirty years ago in the United States, blowfly populations were exterminated in a number of states. Males irradiated with an appropriate dose of radiation were released into the population. After several generations, many kinds of monsters appeared in it. Then the entire population disappeared.
But the genetic mechanism for the transmission of hereditary characteristics in protozoa, flies and humans is essentially the same!
However, the consequences of the disaster manifest themselves thousands of kilometers from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. This is what the famous Russian ecologist, corresponding member, reports. RAS A. Yablokov:
"In the summer of 1986, there was a significant increase in Norway, Sweden and the UK. total number deaths among the population. The sanitary service rejects tens of thousands of meat carcasses due to unacceptable radioactivity. In the south of Germany, where
Chernobyl fallout was especially intense, infant mortality increased by 35%... ...And often radiation damage has the greatest impact in the third generation. So trouble will respond more than once" /We have become hostages of the nuclear power plant. "Trud", February 13, 1996/.
According to recent WHO data, 4.9 million people were exposed to Chernobyl radiation /E. Shakov, Will Chernobyl close? "New Russian Word", January 5, 1996/.
acad. HELL. Sakharov (“Memoirs”, New York, 1990. p. 262):
“...Even the smallest dose of radiation can cause damage to the hereditary mechanism, lead to a hereditary disease or death. There is no “threshold”, i.e. such a minimum value of the radiation dose that at a lower dose... damage will not occur.
...The probability of damage depends on the radiation dose, but, in within known limits, does not depend on the nature of the damage." "Irradiation, even in relatively small doses, disrupts conditioned reflex activity, changes the bioelectrical activity of the cerebral cortex, causes biochemical and metabolic changes at the molecular and cellular levels." These lines were taken by her from the books "The Danger of Nuclear War" And " Nuclear war: medical and biological consequences", the authors of which are E.I. Chazov, L.A. Ilyin and A.K. Guskova. These books were also published in the first half of the 1980s, before Chernobyl, although not long ago.
http://zhurnal.lib.ru/t/tiktin_s_a/adomdimitchernobil.shtml

According to official UN data, about 4 thousand deaths from the reactor worldwide were associated with the explosion of the reactor 20 years ago. cancer diseases. Meanwhile, environmentalists give a different figure: in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus alone, about 200 thousand people have already died due to the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, NEWSru.com reported in Russian branch Greenpeace. The report provides figures based on demographic statistics over the past 15 years. According to these data, 60 people have already died in Russia due to the Chernobyl accident. As for Ukraine and Belarus, this figure reaches 140 thousand (Main conclusions of the report).

According to Greenpeace, in the future, about 270 thousand cases of cancer worldwide will be related to the effects of Chernobyl radiation. Of these, 93 thousand will be fatal.
According to environmentalists, Greece, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Slovenia, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Italy, Estonia, Slovakia, Ireland, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium were affected by the Chernobyl accident , Spain, Portugal, Israel. Total area In addition to Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, lands contaminated only with cesium-137 amounted to 45,260 square kilometers.

The report also provides an analysis of diseases associated with the effects of radiation on the body: damage to the immune and endocrine systems, disorders in cardiovascular system and blood diseases, mental illness, damage at the chromosomal level and an increase in the number of developmental defects in children.
The number of cancer cases has increased sharply in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. In Belarus, between 1990 and 2000, there was an increase in cancer incidence by 40%, and in the Gomel region - by 52%. In Ukraine there was a 12% increase in the level of cancer, while in the Zhytomyr region the mortality rate increased almost threefold. In Russia, in the Bryansk region, the number of cancer cases increased 2.7 times.

In Belarus alone, until 2004, about 7 thousand cases of thyroid cancer were registered. According to some studies, the incidence of thyroid cancer in children has increased by 88.5 times, in adolescents by 12.9 times and in adults by 4.6 times. Experts estimate that over the next 70 years, the number of additional cases of thyroid cancer will range from 14 to 31 thousand cases. In Ukraine as a whole, about 24,000 cases of thyroid cancer are expected, 2,400 of which are fatal.

This significant increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer significantly exceeds the expected level (immediately after the accident, official sources predicted a slight increase in incidence). Moreover, the diseases are characterized by a short latency period and tumor spread beyond the thyroid gland in almost 50% of cases, necessitating repeated operations to remove residual metastases.

Five years after the accident, a significant increase in leukemia cases was reported among populations living in the most severely affected areas. An estimated 2,800 additional cases of leukemia are expected in Belarus between 1986 and 2056, 1,880 of them fatal.

There has been a marked increase in cancers of the colon, rectum, breast, bladder, kidney, lung and other organs. In 1987-1999, about 26 thousand cases of cancer caused by radiation were registered in Belarus, of which 18.7% were skin cancer, 10.5% were lung cancer and 9.5% were stomach cancer.

In Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, the number of diseases of the circulatory and lymphatic systems has increased. Ten years after the accident, the number of diseases circulatory system increased by 5.5 times. On the territory of Ukraine, the number of blood and circulatory system diseases among residents of contaminated areas has increased by 10.8-15.4 times.

The effects of radiation on the reproductive system. Accumulation of radionuclides female body leads to an increase in the level of the male hormone testosterone, which is responsible for the appearance of male characteristics. Conversely, cases of impotence have become more frequent in men 25-30 years old living in radiation-contaminated areas. Children in contaminated areas suffer from delayed sexual development. Mothers experience delayed onset and interruptions menstrual cycle, more frequent gynecological problems, anemia during and after pregnancy, premature birth and rupture of membranes.
http://www.newsru.com/world/18apr2006/greenpeace.html

How much data was not included in official statistics? How can we now determine whether certain diseases are caused by the effects of radiation or not? You can only record the growth trends of certain diseases, and only...

A fragment of the front page of the Berlin edition of Die Tageszeitung

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which occurred in 1986, could have caused more than a thousand child deaths in the UK, says an English scientist. A study by epidemiologist John Urquhart found that for several years after the disaster, there was an increased infant mortality rate in British regions where radioactive fallout occurred, Sky News reports. The scientist analyzed medical statistics in areas where “black rains” occurred after the explosion of a Soviet reactor, and calculated that the increase in child deaths from 1986 to 1989 was 11% - compared with 4% in other regions. In reality, this means more than a thousand deaths, John Urquhart said at a conference in London dedicated to the twentieth anniversary of the disaster. According to his research, this negative trend stopped four years after Chernobyl. Official maps show the radioactive clouds passed through Kent and London into Hertfordshire and the eastern midlands of Great Britain before hitting Bradford and the Isle of Man and heading towards Northern Ireland. The scientist believes that approximately half of the regions of England and Wales could potentially be affected by this disaster. http://www.newsru.com/world/23mar2006/chernobyl.html

About how asexual worms switched to traditional way reproduction
http://chernobyl.onego.ru/right/izvestia26_04_2003.htm

In the context of all this, theoretical information will not be superfluous:
THE BASICS OF THE SCIENCE OF RADIOACTIVITY http://www.radiation.ru/begin/begin.htm
About iodine against radioactivity http://www.inauka.ru/news/article50772.html
X-ray radiation http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/

More miscellaneous information

And the radiation continues to spread...
Legal proceedings are underway in Moscow regarding the import of radioactive Chernobyl pipes into Russia
http://www.newsru.com/russia/08dec2005/chernobil.html
http://www.sancenter.ru/003.html
Look through the news sites, there’s about pipes, and about blueberries, and about equipment stolen from burial grounds...
And no one understands that just one particle is enough, not visible to the eye so that the destinies of our subsequent generations change... we are already paying with various kinds of diseases, decreased immunity and continue to believe that this has nothing to do with Chernobyl.

I will write about Latvia and the Baltic states separately in the next issue.

See the beginning of the topic here:
20 years of the Chernobyl accident (part 1: map and table)
All about Chernobyl and its consequences - (part 2: many links about the accident itself and Pripyat)

(after the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters) an accident in which about 100 tons were released into the environment radioactive waste. An explosion followed, polluting a vast area.

Since then, many emergency situations involving emissions have occurred at the plant.

Siberian Chemical Plant, Seversk, Russia

atomic-energy.ru

Test site, Semipalatinsk (Semey), Kazakhstan

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Western Mining and Chemical Combine, Mailuu-Suu city, Kyrgyzstan

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Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Pripyat city, Ukraine

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Urta-Bulak gas field, Uzbekistan

Aikhal village, Russia

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On August 24, 1978, 50 kilometers east of the village of Aikhal, as part of the Kraton-3 project, an underground explosion was carried out to study seismic activity. The power was 19 kilotons. As a result of these actions, a large radioactive release occurred to the surface. So big that the incident was recognized by the government. But there have been a lot of underground nuclear explosions in Yakutia. Elevated background levels are typical for many places even now.

Udachninsky mining and processing plant, Udachny city, Russia

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As part of the Crystal project, on October 2, 1974, an above-ground explosion with a capacity of 1.7 kilotons was carried out 2 kilometers from the city of Udachny. The goal was to create a dam for the Udachny mining and processing plant. Unfortunately, there was also a large release.

Pechora - Kama canal, Krasnovishersk city, Russia

On March 23, 1971, the Taiga project was carried out 100 kilometers north of the city of Krasnovishersk in the Cherdynsky district of the Perm region. As part of it, three charges of 5 kilotons each were detonated for the construction of the Pechora-Kama canal. Since the explosion was superficial, a release occurred. A large area was infected, where, however, people live today.

569th Coastal Technical Base, Andreeva Bay, Russia

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Test site "Globus-1", Galkino village, Russia

Here, in 1971, another peaceful underground explosion was carried out under the Globus-1 project. Again for the purpose of seismic sounding. Due to poor quality cementing of the wellbore to place the charge, substances were released into the atmosphere and into the Shacha River. This place is the closest officially recognized man-made contamination zone to Moscow.

Mine "Yunkom", Donetsk, Ukraine

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Gas condensate field, Krestishche village, Ukraine

Here was another unsuccessful experiment using nuclear explosion for peaceful purposes. More precisely, to eliminate a gas leak from the field, which could not be stopped for a whole year. The explosion was accompanied by a release, a characteristic mushroom and contamination of nearby areas. There are no official data on background radiation at that time or at the present time.

Totsky training ground, Buzuluk city, Russia

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Once upon a time, an experiment called “Snowball” was conducted at this test site - the first test of the influence of the consequences of a nuclear explosion on people. During the exercise, a Tu-4 bomber dropped nuclear bomb with a capacity of 38 kilotons of TNT. Approximately three hours after the explosion, 45 thousand military personnel were sent to the contaminated territory. Only a few of them are alive. Is the landfill decontaminated? at the moment- unknown.

A more detailed list of radioactive sites can be found.

Do you think that a dose of radiation can only be obtained from the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant? Huge mistake!

On the territory former USSR a huge number of infected objects. Traces of the largest accidents are still active today, 25 years after the fall of the country.

Often we don’t even think that very close there is a huge radioactive burial ground, a zone nuclear tests or the outcrop of geological rocks with a background level increased thousands of times.

Operating radioactive contamination facilities

1. Production Association "Mayak", Ozyorsk, Russia

Coordinates:

Infected areas: Chelyabinsk region

The accident at Mayak in 1957 was the third largest, after Chernobyl and Fukushima. But the enterprise for the production of components and regeneration of nuclear materials still operates to this day.

Lake Karachay nearby is the dirtiest radioactive zone on Earth. The background here is 1000 times higher than Chernobyl.

However, numerous emergency situations infect the atmosphere and soil of the entire Urals. The last major release took place in 2017. The radioactive cloud reached Europe, losing a significant part along the way.

2. Siberian Chemical Plant, Seversk, Russia

Coordinates: 56°21′16″ n. w. 93°38′37″ E. d.

Infected areas:Tomsk region

At this plant for the processing of solid radioactive materials in 1993, radioactive substances were released into the atmosphere, 2 thousand people were injured - the area is still characterized by elevated background levels.

Official sources say that the case in 1993 is the only one. However, according to GreenPeace, small emissions occur regularly.

3. Mining and chemical plant, Zheleznogorsk, Russia

Coordinates: 55°42′44″ n. w. 60°50′53″ E. d.

Infected areas:Krasnoyarsk region

Until 1995, the enterprise produced weapons-grade plutonium necessary for creating nuclear warheads. In subsequent years, the enterprise was retrained for storing nuclear waste.

The dumping of radioactive materials into the Yenisei is a fairly common and undeniable event. Fortunately, the general background downstream does not exceed the permissible limits too much.

However, at the moment the enterprise is a source of infection. All hope is to create a full recycling cycle, in which the waste will become fuel for a new nuclear power plant.

4. Western Mining and Chemical Combine, Mailuu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan

Coordinates: 41°16′00″ n. w. 72°27′00″ E. d.

Infected areas: Jalal-Abad region of Kyrgyzstan; Andijan and Namangand regions of Uzbekistan

Until 1968, uranium was mined here. Over time, the deposits were exhausted, the industry was reoriented to the production of radio tubes, which also lost their value.

Today, near the settlement there is the world's largest radioactive waste storage facility. The general radiation background is such that Mailuu-Suu is one of the 10 most polluted cities in the world.

Scenes of accidents with large-scale radioactive releases

5. Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Pripyat, Ukraine

Coordinates: 51°23′22″ n. w. 30°05′59″ E. d.

Infected areas: Bryansk, Oryol, Tula, Kaluga region Russia; Brest, Gomel, Grodno, Minsk, Mogilev regions of the Republic of Belarus

The tragedy at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant led to the largest radioactive contamination of territories in human history. Clouds of active gases passed right through Russia. Got it too Eastern Europe– Romania, Balkan countries.

And the troubles are not over yet.

Areas contaminated with cesium-137 will continue to poison residents for at least another 30 years. And the radioactive background in many areas and settlements of the Bryansk, Kaluga, Tula and Gomel regions exceeds the permissible level many times over.

6. 569th Coastal Technical Base, Murmansk, Russia

Coordinates: 69°27′ N. w. 32°21′ E. d.

Infected areas: Murmansk region
In 1982, a leak occurred here, on Andreeva Bay. radioactive water. As a result, 700 thousand tons of water flowed into the Barents Sea - more than from Fukushima.

Guba Andreeva is not the only “dirty” place Murmansk region. But she is abandoned, unlike the others.

Waste disposal sites located in the Murmansk region nuclear fuel and shore bases of nuclear service vessels attract researchers from around the world. The level of radiation is increasing every year.

7. Chazhma Bay, Nakhodka, Russia

Coordinates: 42°54′02″ n. w. 132°21′08″ E. d.

Infected areas: Peter the Great Bay (?), water area of the port of Nakhodka

As a result of the accident on the nuclear submarine K-431 that occurred in August 1985, an area of about 100 thousand square meters was contaminated.

Although the background is gradually decreasing, Pavlovsky Bay is still dangerous for visits. In addition, leaks are likely, distributing dangerous isotopes into sea waters.

8. Aikhal village, Russia

Coordinates: 65°56′00″ n. w. 111°29′00″ E. d.

Infected areas: Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)

The Kraton-3 project, within the framework of which an underground explosion was carried out near the village of Aikhal on August 24, 1978 to study seismic activity with an accidental release into the environment, making the area 50 km around uninhabitable.

In addition, similar experiments were carried out in Yakutia (but without air contamination) within the framework of the projects “Crystal”, “Horizon-4”, “Kraton-3/4”, “Vyatka”, “Kimberlite” and a whole series of explosions in the city area Peaceful.

Official sources claim that the explosion sites have a standard natural background. Whether this is actually true is unknown.

9. Kama-Pechora Canal, Krasnovishersk, Russia

Coordinates: 61°18’22″N. w. 56°35’54″E. d.
Infected areas: Perm region

A series of surface explosions for the construction of the canal led to the contamination of the nearby Pechora forests back in 1971.

Since then, the area, even the crater itself, has become habitable.

However, the most important property of radioactive contamination is observed here: radiation is still encountered, although official measurements cannot cover the entire territory, the main inspection sites are clean.

10. Udachny Mining and Processing Plant, Udachny, Russia

Coordinates: 66°26′04″ N. w. 112°18′58″ E. d.

Infected areas: Yakutia

A radioactive cloud resulting from an above-ground explosion as part of a project to create a dam for the Udachny mining and processing plant covered neighboring settlements.

Most of the territory today has a natural background, but in some places the so-called “dead forest” remains - areas of dead vegetation without any signs of life.

11. Gas condensate field, Krestishche, Ukraine

Coordinates: 49°33′33″ n. w. 35°28′25″ E. d.

Infected areas: Donetsk region of Ukraine

An attempt to eliminate a gas leak from a gas condensate field using a directed nuclear explosion was unsuccessful. But there was a release of radiation, echoes of which can still be found nearby today.

Both immediately after the experiment and today, there is no official data on the radiation background.

Polygons

12. “Globus-1”, Galkino, Russia

Coordinates: 57°31′00″ n. w. 42°36′43″ E. d.

Infected areas: Ivanovo region

The release from the peaceful underground explosion of the Globus-1 project in 1971 is still causing contamination of the surrounding area today.

According to official data, today the background level is approaching the permissible level (although some of the surrounding areas are still closed).

However, besides this place, there are several old radio burial grounds in the Moscow region, and in the west there is an increased background that appeared as a result of the Chernobyl accident.

If the authorities recognize the infection, benefits will have to be paid and benefits (including free higher education) will have to be provided.