The Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded more than three decades ago, in 1986. The accident is even the subject of a TV miniseries from HBO, which premiered earlier this week.
Most people know the general story. Due to human error, the nuclear reactor exploded and released radioactive material across Europe. However, few know the basic details. Here are five facts you probably didn't know about Chernobyl.
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Around 30,000 people were near the Chernobyl reactor when it exploded on April 26, 1986. It is believed that people exposed to radiation received about 45 rem (rem is a unit of radiation dosage). This value is similar to the average dose received by survivors of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
The data are in the book “Physics for future presidents: The science behind the headlines”. Richard Muller, emeritus professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, led the study.
The initial explosion was huge. However, the greatest damage from radiation happened in the first few weeks. You can think of radiation as fragments that fly out when a core explodes, like shrapnel from a bomb.
Like popped bubble wrap, each nucleus can explode and release radiation only once. Just 15 minutes after the Chernobyl explosion, radioactivity dropped to a quarter of its initial value. After one day, to a fifteenth; after three months, to less than 1%.
Much of the radiation literally went up in smoke. Only radiation close to the ground affected the population.
The Chernobyl explosion didn't just release a lot of radiation. She also started a fire at the power plant. Firefighters who rushed to stop the flames were exposed to high levels of radiation. Dozens died from radiation poisoning.
Chernobyl lacked an important safety measure: a containment building.
A containment structure is an airtight shell that surrounds a nuclear reactor. This shell, which is usually dome-shaped and made of steel-reinforced concrete, is designed to confine fission products that might be released into the atmosphere during an accident.
If there had been a containment building at Chernobyl, according to Muller's book, "the accident might well have caused virtually no deaths."
The Chernobyl area was evacuated after the explosion. Once the humans left, the wildlife returned.
The numbers of elk, deer and wild boar living in the exclusion zone are similar to population numbers in nearby uncontaminated nature reserves, according to a 2015 study.
Wolves are doing especially well on the spot. They have a population that is seven times the population of wolves in neighboring reserves.
“That doesn't mean radiation is good for wildlife. It just means that the effects of human habitation – including hunting, agriculture and forestry – are much worse,” said Jim Smith, coordinator of the study's observation team and professor of environmental sciences at the University of Portsmouth in the UK United.
