20 years from Сhernobyl

Chernobyl Interinform

The exploded reactor
Igor Kostin (taken 12 hours after the catastrophe)

of the plant 01:23:40: The emergency shutdown fails
01:23:48: The reactor explodes, emitting radioactivity
28th of April, 1986
21:00:00: The Soviet news TASS first reports the accident
29th of April, 1986:
Western news first report of the meltdown

What really happened – the meltdown

45,000 people from the city of Pripjat
Until May 5th:
Evacuation of 130,000 people from within 30 km of ground zero
May 1st, 1986:
The state begins the control of water and milk
23. Mai 1986:
Iodine tablets start to be disseminated

control the flames
600,000 – 860,000 young men
(so called liquidators) are drafted to clean
up the wreckage
Until May 5th: 4,200 tons of lead and sand
are dropped on the nuclear reactor
May 6th: The fire is finally brought under control

Two men clean a vehicle
Source: Chernobyl Interinform

Igor Kostin

guarding the death zone

zone

Photo: Igor Kostin

Kostin

around the reactor
Contaminated regions:
Belarus: 30 percent
Ukraine: 7 percent
European Russia: 1,6 percent
Total of 162,000 km2 are contaminated
Nine million people are affected. 400,000 loose their houses and properties

cloud all over Europe
Scandinavia, the Baltic States, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and other regions were contaminated as well

April 26th, 00.00

April 27th,12.00

April 27th, 00.00

April 29th, 00.00

Source:
UNESCEAR Report,
New York 2000;
Annex J.

evacuated from their irradiated village to a housing complex in Minsk.
Photo: Martina Buchholz

gland, causes thyroid cancer

Cesium 137

Halftime: 30 years; stored in all organs, causes cancer, enters the food chain

Strontium 90

Halftime: 28 years; stored in teeth and bones, causes leukaemia

Plutonium 239

Halftime: 24.000 years; contaminates water reservoires, causes cancer

Radioactive elements dispersed by Chernobyl

breakdown of the immune system
Uncontrollable bleeding and anemia
Damage to the gastrointestinal tract
Damage to internal organs and the central nervous system
Tumors as long-term effects

can cause cancer
The question is how often this occurs and if other diseases can also be attributed to it
According to new studies, the effects of low-level radiation include:
Genome instabilities
Mutations of DNA
Malformations
Increased cell aging

than 50 deaths by mid-2005
Approximately 4,000 cases of thyroid cancer with only 9 deaths and healing rates of 99% (with western standard medicine)
No proof of a rise in malformations, sterility, leukaemie or other types of cancer attributed to the meltdown
Up to 4,000 possible deaths due to the accident in Chernobyl
The case of Chernobyl can be considered closed. Poverty, unhealthy living standards and the psychiatric impact of the fall of the Soviet Union far exceed the effects of radiation.

Source: Chernobyl-Forum-Report Sept. 2005

25.000 deaths amongst the 800,000 Liquidatoren (Source: state cancer registries in three states)
94 percent of liquiodators are ill (Source: Ukrainian Embassy 2005)
84 percent of 3 million people exposed to radioactivity in Ukraine are ill (Source: Chernobyl Interinform)
According to the Belarus cancer registry, the cancer rate has increased by 40% since Chernobyl
A working group of the WHO calculated 50,000 cases of thyroid cancer within the next 30-50 years amongst children 0-4 years of age at the time of the accident

2002

58

66

79

82

90

84

66

54

51

34

13

3

6

2

2

2

3

6

3

17

19

23

18

26

36

43

62

75

28

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

122

122

97

101

127

132

131

136

139

148

155

189

210

213

259

295

393

491

539

510

545

627

702

785

816

10

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

20

100

Cases of thyroid cancer

Cases of thyroid cancer

free by German IPPNW doctor)

20 %
In the region of Gomel, Belarus: rise in cancer rate by 55,9 %
In the regions of Gomel and Mogilev: Doubling of breast cancer rates, as well as a shift of 15 years towards younger women
Rise of childhood leukaemia in the affected regions: 300%
Rise of brain tumors amongst small children in Ukraine: 580%

Sources:
IPPNW & German Society for Radiation Protection

brain tumor
Photo: Rolf Schulten

Europe
Significant rise in malformations in several European countries
At least 10,000 additional Malformations in Europe

Sources:
IPPNW & German Society for Radiation Protection

rise in gastrointestinal and CNS-diseases
95% of liquidators suffer from ocular diseases
Accelerated aging due to damage to antioxidant systems
Children
70% of children of affected parents are registered as chronically ill (Ukraine, 1996)
13x rise in childhood diseases in the region of Gomel

10.000 Liquidatoren have died from radiation

Thyroid cancer

More than10.000 cases of thyroid cancer in the normal population
More than 50.000 expected cases of thyroid cancer in the near future

Sources:
IPPNW & German Society for Radiation Protection

Neonatal mortality

Malformations

10,000 severe cases of malformations in Europe

5,000 additional childhood deaths in Europe

Radiation Protection

Genetische Schäden
Bei Kindern von Liquidatoren und Menschen in belasteten Gebieten wurden Erbgutveränderungen festgestellt

Einschätzung

Dies sind sehr konservative Zahlen. Das russische Umwelt-ministerium bezifferte die Zahl der durch Tschernobyl kranken Menschen Anfang der 90er Jahre auf über 1,3 Millionen

Cancer, leukaemia and other diseases

Rise in cancer and leukaemia cases in several states. No metanalysis to date.
13x rise in childhood manifestation of diseases in affected regions

100,000 people left out of the calculations.
The calculations did not include non-cancer diseases.
5,000 casualties are missing from the original study in the press release.

UNDP, 2002