What is Chernobyl in chemistry?
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in on April 26, 1986. A nuclear meltdown in one of the reactors caused a fire that sent a plume of radioactive fallout that eventually spread all over Europe.
Is Chernobyl a chemical disaster?
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on Saturday 26 April 1986, at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union.
What happened at Chernobyl physics?
Inside a nuclear reactor core, the atoms of highly unstable metals (specifically uranium) are bombarded with neutrons escaping from other atoms, creating a chain reaction that just keeps going: neutrons split uranium atoms, creating more rogue neutrons, which split more uranium atoms and so on.
What are some of the major impacts from the Chernobyl disaster?
The immediate and short-term effects resulting from heavy fallout exposure include radiation sickness and cataracts. Late effects are thyroid cancer, especially in children and adolescents, and leukaemia among exposed workers. The accident has also had important psychosocial effects.
What was the purpose of Chernobyl?
Established soon after the disaster by the Russian military to cover the areas worst affected by radioactive contamination it was initially an area of 30 kilometer (19 mile) radius from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant designated for evacuation and placed under military control.
What happened at Chernobyl explained simply?
The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel. The resulting steam explosion and fires released at least 5% of the radioactive reactor core into the environment, with the deposition of radioactive materials in many parts of Europe.
How did the Chernobyl affect the environment?
After the accident, radioactive materials were deposited mostly on open surfaces such as lawns, parks, roads, and building roofs, for instance by contaminated rain. Since then, the surface contamination in urban areas has decreased because of the effects of wind, rain, traffic, street washing and cleanup.
How did the Chernobyl disaster affect people’s health?
The Chernobyl-exposed populations showed many of the symptoms that commonly appear following a traumatic accident or event: stress, depression, anxiety (including post-traumatic stress symptoms), medically unexplained physical symptoms, and subjective poor health.
What happened at Chernobyl in simple terms?