Day of Remembrance for those killed at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Day of Remembrance of Those Died in Radiation Accidents and Disasters

Exactly 32 years ago, one of the worst disasters of the past century took place - the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Therefore, it was this date that was chosen for the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Radiation. We all know a lot about Chernobyl and, of course, we grieve for the dead so far. They talk a lot about this tragedy, write, shoot. Therefore, today we will remember not only those who suffered in the world-famous accident, but also those who died from the lethal effects of radiation in places near which there were no nuclear reactors. Nevertheless, the victims of these stories received serious illnesses or even died from the dangerous radiation.

Orange, 1917-26

At a factory located in the US state of New Jersey, in the first half of the twentieth century, watches with luminous hands and a dial were made. Such accessories were wildly popular in those years. It never occurred to anyone that fluorescent paint, which included radioactive radium, was deadly.

First of all, the workers of the factory suffered from it. They often put loose brushes in their mouths and simply indulged in painting their teeth and faces with a luminous substance. It is clear that soon most of them became seriously ill. Young girls had jaw necrosis, frequent and abnormal fractures, and anemia.

Until now, it is not known for certain how many employees of the enterprise died as a result of exposure to radiation, but the count was definitely in dozens. When the cause of the ailments was finally identified, several women workers sued the factory owner. But it all ended in an amicable agreement between the parties.

Kramatorsk, 1980s

In the 80s, 6 residents died in one of the new buildings of the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk for 9 years. Most of them were residents of the same apartment. The first to enter there was a family of 3 people: mother, daughter and son. First, the girl died, then her brother, and then their mother. Then the death of an entire family did not alert anyone. Everyone decided that this was just a fatal coincidence.

Other tenants were moved into the ill-fated apartment. Soon the minor son of the new owners also died. A strange thing: he, like all members of the previous family, was diagnosed with blood cancer. The boy's grief-stricken father achieved a thorough check, as a result of which a capsule with a radioactive substance called cesium-137 was found in the wall. It was she who, according to experts, was the cause of the ailment of the victims.

It turned out that this miniature capsule, only 8 mm in length, was once part of a device - a level gauge. It was lost back in the 70s by a worker on the territory of a quarry, from where crushed stone was later delivered to construction sites in Kramatorsk. So the radioactive part found itself in the wall of a residential building.

In addition to the 4 people mentioned, another 2 residents of neighboring apartments fell ill from the effects of radiation and died. Many residents of the house were permanently disabled.

Togliatti, 1983-84

In 1984, another scheduled inspection was carried out at the Kuibyshevphosfor enterprise. In the course of it, it turned out that one of the level gauges was missing a part with radioactive cesium. Having examined the territory with dosimeters, the specialists were horrified. The radiation level in some shops was dozens of times higher than the norm. A thorough investigation was carried out.

It turned out that a year ago, that is, in 1983, two friends had an internship at Kuibyshevphosfor. It was they who took the radioactive part from the level gauge, broke it and, not finding anything of value inside, they simply threw out its fragments right in the workshop. Both received burns to their hands. More than 20 workers were injured.

Goiânia, 1987

In September 1987, in the Brazilian city of Goiânia, someone took out a radioactive part of a radiotherapy machine from a non-working hospital, which is used to treat cancer. Apparently, not finding a buyer, the part was simply thrown away.

So she ended up in a junkyard, where Devar Ferreira found her. For fun, he took the beautiful glowing powder from the part home. There, his relatives and friends, who came to visit Ferreira, admired the glow and even rubbed the skin with radioactive cesium in order to entertain themselves and those around him. Of course, they had no idea what kind of substance it was.

Such carelessness cost many of them their health and even their lives. Devar Ferreira's 6-year-old niece, his wife and two employees died in the same 1987.

All these people were ruined by either someone else's or their own negligence, as well as imprudence and excessive carelessness. Most of the similar behavior was the cause of other larger accidents. Let's remember everyone whose lives were taken by radiation:
NPP, (1986),
PA "Mayak", Kyshtym (1957),
Nuclear bombs, Palomares (1966),
Nuclear submarine, Chazhma (1985),
Sellafield Nuclear Complex, Windscale (1957),
Nizhny Novgorod, plant "Krasnoe Sormovo" (1970),
Three Mile Island NPP (1979),
Fukushima NPP (2011) ...
Unfortunately, this list is far from complete.
Everlasting memory…

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Radioactive accidents are a big disaster that causes irreparable harm to people's health and leads to their death. From 1944, when the "peaceful atom" began to serve man, to 2009, according to statistics, more than 100 accidents occurred in the world, but in fact much more. It is difficult to calculate how many lives they took, because the consequences appear after years. Therefore, in 2003, the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Radiation Accidents was established, which is celebrated annually on April 26 in all countries that are members of the UN.

Tragic story

The date of the Day was chosen in honor of the anniversary of the largest radiation catastrophe in the history of mankind. In the early morning, April 26, 1986, a reactor exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The release of radiation into the atmosphere was 100 times higher than the background radiation from the explosion of both bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As a result, 160,000 km2 of the territories of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia were polluted, 400,000 residents were forced to leave their homes. In the first months, 30 people died from radiation. 600 thousand people, including liquidators of consequences and residents of adjacent territories, received incurable diseases. An increase in radiation levels was recorded in Europe, Asia, America and Canada. The consequences of the accident have not been completely eliminated so far.

The second biggest disaster happened in Japan at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, in 2011. During the year, about a thousand people died.

In the USSR, nuclear accidents occurred in Chelyabinsk region(1948, 1949, 1957 and 1967), Nizhny Novgorod (1970), on nuclear submarines. Force majeure situations occur periodically at nuclear power plants, fortunately, they have not received widespread distribution.

Examples of the consequences of accidents at nuclear power plants make humanity think about the development of new sources of electricity. Some countries (Portugal, Iceland, Yugoslavia, Norway, etc.) have abandoned the use of nuclear reactors.

Is Memorial Day Needed?

Against the backdrop of crises and emergencies disturbing our lives, the Chernobyl and other disasters that previously took place in the USSR, began to gradually be forgotten. To avoid complete oblivion and to avoid the recurrence of such cataclysms in the future, the Day of Victims of Radiation Disasters is held.

Of the 200,000 Russians who participated in the liquidation of the accident, 46,000 became disabled. In addition to them, another 570 thousand people were recognized as victims. Many have already left us, their names have remained in our memory, and the survivors require attention and respect.

Monuments to victims of radiation accidents have been erected in Yaroslavl, Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities of the Russian Federation. Meetings with the laying of flowers and funeral wreaths are held. They pay tribute to the memory of the dead, and express gratitude to those who eliminated the consequences of the disasters. The heroes are talked about on radio and television. In order for the new generation to know and remember about the impending disaster, relevant materials are published in the press.

Celebrated on April 26th. On this day in 1986, an accident occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (Chernobyl nuclear power plant) - the largest man-made disaster of the 20th century in terms of damage and consequences.

The radioactivity brought with them by contaminated clouds from Chernobyl has been recorded not only in northern and southern Europe, but also in Canada, Japan and the United States. Only the southern hemisphere of the Earth remained unpolluted.

The Chernobyl accident in one way or another affected the lives of millions of people. Most of the population in the northern hemisphere has been exposed to varying degrees of radiation from the Chernobyl accident. People living outside the territory of the former Soviet Union received relatively small doses, and quite unevenly across countries, mainly depending on whether there was rain during the passage of the radioactive trace.

The risk group included the personnel of the Chernobyl NPP, participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the accident, evacuated people and the population of the affected areas. Almost 8.4 million people in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine were exposed to radiation, hundreds of thousands of them were evacuated from contaminated areas.

During the accident, over 300 people from the NPP personnel and firefighters were exposed to acute radiation exposure. Of these, 237 were initially diagnosed with acute radiation sickness (ARS), later this diagnosis was confirmed in 134 people. 28 people died from ARS in the first months after the accident.

Three more people died at the time of the explosion at the fourth power unit (one person died at the time of the explosion under the rubble, another died a few hours later from injuries and burns, and the third of them died of heart failure).

After the accident, 600 thousand citizens of the USSR were involved in work to eliminate its consequences (according to some estimates, up to 800 thousand people, including a large number of military personnel), including 200 thousand from Russia. They directly participated in the creation of the "Shelter" over the destroyed fourth block, in the decontamination of the Chernobyl NPP site and other blocks, in the work in the Chernobyl exclusion zone and temporary resettlement, in the construction of the city of Slavutich, etc.

The largest group of responders has been involved in clean-up operations for varying lengths of time after the accident. Although they no longer worked in an emergency situation, were monitored, and the doses they received were constantly taken into account, they nevertheless received significant doses of radiation.

The participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the accident, risking their lives and health, fulfilled their duty and prevented the spread of destructive radioactive emissions.

Paying tribute to the memory of the victims, the heads of the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States at the summit in June 2001 decided to appeal to the member states of the United Nations (UN) to declare April 26 the International Day of Remembrance for Victims of Radiation Accidents and Disasters.

On December 17, 2003, the UN General Assembly supported the decision of the Council of CIS Heads of State to proclaim April 26 as the International Day of Remembrance for Victims of Radiation Accidents and Catastrophes, and also called on all UN member states to celebrate this International Day and hold relevant events within its framework.

In Russia, in memory of all the citizens of the country who died in radiation accidents and disasters, in 1993, by a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, the Day of Remembrance of those killed in radiation accidents and disasters was established, which was celebrated on April 26.

According to the Federal Law of April 1, 2012, signed by the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, the name was changed to "The Day of Participants in Elimination of the Consequences of Radiation Accidents and Disasters and the Memory of the Victims of These Accidents and Disasters."

The changes made made it possible to perpetuate the memory of the victims and pay tribute to the living participants in the liquidation of the consequences of radiation accidents and disasters.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

On April 26, 1986, the world's largest nuclear disaster occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Since 2003, on this day, by the decision of the UN General Assembly with the submission of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, the Day of Remembrance of those killed in radiation accidents and disasters is annually celebrated.

Let's remember the events of those days and their consequences, without going into the details of the accident and its causes.

On the night of April 26, an accident occurred in the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which resulted in an explosion that completely destroyed the reactor. The first, but far from the last, victims of the accident were the operator of the main circular pumps, Valeriy Khodemchuk, whose body was found under two 130-ton drum separators, and an employee of the commissioning enterprise, Vladimir Shashenok. He died on the morning of April 26 from a spinal fracture and multiple burns.

At the time of the accident, there were 134 people at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 28 of whom died during the first few months from radiation sickness. In the next 15 years, according to various sources, from 60 to 80 people died directly from the consequences of the Chernobyl accident. Another 134 people suffered from radiation sickness of varying severity.

Only three kilometers from the nuclear power plant was the city of Pripyat, now turned into a ghost town. In 1986, 49.4 thousand people lived here. Despite the proximity of the city to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the evacuation of local residents began only 36 hours after the accident. In the following days, residents of other settlements were evacuated. In total, 115 thousand people left their homes. A 30-kilometer Exclusion Zone was formed around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Over 800 thousand people took part in the liquidation of the consequences of the accident. A concrete sarcophagus began to be erected over the exploded reactor. On October 2, during construction work, a Mi-8 helicopter caught on a crane cable and crashed. On board there were 4 people: 1st class pilot Vorobyov V.K., navigator Yundkind A.E., lieutenant Khristich A.I. and senior warrant officer Ganzhuk N.A. They all died. The construction was completed in a month.

Above we wrote about the number of victims of the Chernobyl accident, but these figures can hardly be called accurate. So, the International organization "Doctors against nuclear war"Claims that tens of thousands of liquidators became victims of the accident, and because of radioactive emissions, more than 10 thousand children were born with deformities, and the same number of people eventually fell ill with thyroid cancer.

However, the story of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant does not end there. On October 1, 1986, the first power unit was launched, on November 5, the second power unit was launched, and on December 31, 1987, after the completion of restoration work, the third power unit was launched. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant continued to work. But on December 22, 1997, under the influence of the world community, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine made a decision to decommission the nuclear power plant, but the generation of electricity was finally stopped only on December 15, 2000 at 13:17.

On the same day, a fundamentally new stage in the work of the Chernobyl NPP began - the decommissioning of power units, which will be finally completed only in 2065. Interestingly, on February 12 this year, the roof of the sarcophagus over the engine room of the fourth power unit collapsed. Now work is underway on the construction of a new dome, the construction of which is planned to be completed by 2016.

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the 30-kilometer Exclusion Zone around it, along with the ghost town of Pripyat, are attracting a lot of attention. Already in the 90s, the "Zone" became a "tourist Mecca" for thrill-seekers, and in 1995 the Agency for Information, International Cooperation and Development "Chernobylinterinform" was created, the main task of which was to organize tourist trips to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and then dozens of companies organizing excursions around the "Zone" and Pripyat.

After the appearance in 2007 of the computer game "S.T.A.L.K.E.R .: Shadow of Chernobyl", developed by the Ukrainian studio GSC Game World, interest in the Exclusion Zone has increased dramatically. Despite the fact that there is a checkpoint on its territory, the number of so-called stalkers - young people illegally entering the Chernobyl exclusion zone - has increased. However, in addition to thrill-seekers, poachers and local residents are often seen here picking berries and mushrooms.

Be that as it may, do not forget that Chernobyl accident is the largest nuclear disaster in history, changing the fate of millions of people.

Tell students about the Chernobyl tragedy; about the people who took part in the elimination of this accident, to contribute to the formation of environmental knowledge and their use in educational and practical activities.

Develop a positive, active life position;

Foster a sense of compassion, respect.

April 26 - International Day of Remembrance for Victims of Radiation Accidents and Disasters; proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in December 2003 (the member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States took the initiative to adopt the corresponding resolution).

April 26, 2011 marks the 30th anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

30 years ago, on the night of April 25-26, 1986, one of the world's largest industrial accidents occurred at a nuclear power plant located near the city of Chernobyl, 130 km from the capital of Ukraine, Kiev. Nuclear reactor the fourth power unit of the nuclear power plant went out of control, exploded and caught fire. Eyewitnesses said that at about 1 hour 24 minutes on the night of April 26, two explosions were heard.

Burning pieces of graphite and sparks flew up over the roof of the fourth power unit. Some of them fell on the roof of the turbine hall and caused a fire in the building. As a result of the fire, a huge amount of deadly radioactive substances in the reactor got into the environment. They were blown away by the winds for many hundreds of thousands of kilometers from Chernobyl. Where radioactive substances hit the surface of the earth, zones of radioactive contamination were formed.

The Times newspaper wrote in April 1987:

"Not a single event after World War II touched so many people in Europe as the explosion of the 4th reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant."

What radioactive substances got into the environment?

On our earth there were already thousands of tons of cesium, iodine, lead, zirconium, cadmium, beryllium, boron, an unknown amount of plutonium - only four hundred and fifty types of radionuclides. Their number was equal to three hundred and fifty bombs dropped on Hiroshima.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation in Europe, the following radioactive substances were released into the environment as a result of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant: isotopes of iodine, cesium and strontium.

Radioactive isotopes can be very dangerous to humans. Even in small quantities, radioactive elements are life-threatening. Radiation can damage the genetic makeup.

What radioactive elements pose the greatest danger to humans 30 years after the disaster?

For 30 years, the radioactive isotopes of cesium and strontium with a half-life of about 30 years have posed a particular danger. Currently, more than 60% of the original amount of these elements is still in environment.

Superlong-lived plutonium is especially dangerous. In a reactor fire, plutonium and soot formed "hot particles" that are easily carried by the wind and, when entering the human body, settle in the lungs, causing serious internal radiation. To one degree or another, radiation affects all inhabitants of the Earth. About 600 thousand people passed directly through the work in the "zone" to eliminate the consequences of the accident and through the contaminated territories.

Large doses of radiation lead to death. It was precisely such a painful death from radiation that many participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster took. The first of them were the heroes-firemen, who put out the burning reactor immediately after the explosion. Most of them died within the next 14 days.

Small doses of radiation do not immediately lead to visible consequences, but can cause damage to individual organs, upset the immune system, and cancer. Radiation often causes blood and thyroid cancer.

Ultra-low ("permitted") radiation doses can cause a violation genetic structure, which, being inherited, can cause irreversible damage to the health of the children and grandchildren of the exposed person.

The tragic consequence of the Chernobyl pollution has been a sharp number of spontaneous abortions and stillbirths. The body of pregnant women rejects the fetus after exposure to small doses.

The Chernobyl pollution has caused and continues to cause an increase in the mortality rate of the population of all ages.

The huge collective dose of radiation from the Chernobyl disaster could not but lead to changes in genetic level... Thus, in West Berlin, there was a 2.5-fold increase in the number of newborns with Down syndrome among those conceived in May 1986. This disease is associated with genomic mutations (changes in the normal number of chromosomes).

In the contaminated areas, there is an increase in the number of children with congenital malformations, such as, for example, a split lip and palate, doubling of the kidneys, ureters, the appearance of extra fingers, anomalies in the development of nervous and circulatory systems, infection of the esophagus.

Cancer is one of the typical manifestations of the effects of radiation. Selective studies in Poland, which lasted 11 years and covered 21 thousand people, showed that every second woman and every tenth child living in the affected areas have an enlarged thyroid gland.

Studies conducted in Yekaterinburg showed that by 1998, every third child had abnormalities in the development of the thyroid gland. Of the 119,178 children who were under 10 years of age at the time of the disaster, 45,873 cases of other pathologies of this gland were found for 62 cases of cancer.

Radiation interferes with all known types of immunity. One of the causes of impaired immunity is a deficiency or excess of vital microelements.

45% of children living in the territory of Ukraine contaminated by the Chernobyl discharge have a reduced immune status. As a result, there is an increase in the frequency and severity of acute and chronic diseases.

In children born in the affected areas, there is a delay in the development of the central nervous system, lag speech development, neurotic disorders, violation mental development... Cases of birth of children irradiated in the womb with underdevelopment of the brain and skull have been recorded.

Radiation exposure entails a noticeable increase in the general morbidity of the population. An increase in the number of diseases of the respiratory system, disorders of the visual apparatus, allergies, and incurable skin diseases has been noted.

Let's summarize the above. The accident at the nuclear power plant had a negative impact on human health and resulted in: decrease in fertility; increased mortality; genetic disorders; an increase in the number of children with congenital malformations; an increase in the incidence of cancer; change in hormonal status; violation of immunity; impaired mental development, diseases of the circulatory system.

As a result of the Chernobyl accident, more than 53.5 thousand square kilometers of Ukrainian territory were polluted. No people live on the territory of 2,598 square kilometers - they were forcibly resettled. 162 thousand people were evacuated and resettled from their places of permanent residence, including the city of Pripyat was completely resettled. Firefighters from the city of Pripyat were the first to arrive at the burning nuclear power plant. Many of them received terrible doses of radiation and died painfully.

Echo of Chernobyl! Kirill Voloshin

CHERNOBYL - one word is enough.

And the heart, like a painful lump,

It starts to shrink, waiting

A hot blizzard with an atom inside.

There sunsets flared up alo,
Burning through the field, steppes, forest.
The future is on a par with the sky
With light-colored NPP buildings.

Woe is not to drink, but to drink in one gulp! ..
Don't touch anything here with your hand:
Dead city over the Pripyat river,

This city is a ghost town

Emits a dead sign

Opening the hem over Hell,
He lost the battle in the war ...

And children irradiated with uranium
Caught up in the wind of change
Dispersed for a long time different countries…

I think you are sane today,
And they are alive even this year,
But many have already died in agony,
And many people still suffer ...

And it's not a sign, not a miracle,
In the mistake of little of everything ...
And the city is empty. Actually people
They left him in just a day.

And they thought then that it would not be for long

Didn't lock the houses tightly

And the valuable took something carelessly

Didn't know that forever! forever and ever!

Those who survived turned gray
Having so accepted the common misfortune.
The verdict is terrible: irradiated
Each is stitched with a "peaceful" atom.

Better b - steppe, nomadic life,
In the faces - wind hops and copper of the sun,
What is such a disease - radiation,
Slow painful death.

It's easier to ruin everything and fall asleep
Turning into today's mound.
... Dead city over the Pripyat river,
Dead city of Pripyat over the river.

The city was named Pripyat after the full-flowing beauty of the river, which, whimsically wriggling with a blue ribbon, connects the Belarusian and Ukrainian Polesie and carries its waters to the gray Dnieper. And the city owes its appearance to the construction of the V.I.Lenin Chernobyl nuclear power plant here. February 4, 1970 is considered the beginning of the construction of the city.

In the mid-1980s, about 48,000 people lived in prosperous Pripyat, and it was designed for 75-78 thousand residents. Such a rapid population growth (annually the number of Pripyat residents increased by more than one and a half thousand people, of which almost half were newborns) was also facilitated by the fact that, in addition to the nuclear power plant, residents began to serve a convenient transport hub for the entire Polesie - a large railway station Yanov is located near the city. Pripyat itself built a bus station and a large river pier, more like a small river port. So this garden city grew and lived until April 26, 1986.

Currently, the city of Pripyat is dead city, also called a ghost town. There are organized excursions-car races. The purpose of visiting the city is to study the state of natural objects, but most often people come to Pripyat to look at the city, in which for 30 years there has been no rumble of cars, children's laughter, in which lonely houses are still waiting for their owners who so quickly left their cozy at home:

This accident forced humanity to relate to nuclear energy and the safe operation of nuclear power plants in a new way. The explosion affected not only the republics of the former USSR - Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, but also a number of countries bordering The Soviet Union.

In Ukraine, there are 2 million 600 thousand victims of the Chernobyl disaster, 255 thousand liquidators, 106 thousand disabled people.

Today, 30 years later, we are talking about the lessons of the Chernobyl disaster.

At first, “The Chernobyl disaster is undoubtedly the most terrible event in the history of civilization. As a result, all of humanity suffered. ” The consequences of the accident are global and dire. Global, because the radioactive substances from the exploded reactor were spread throughout the planet. Terrible because a huge number of people have been exposed to radiation.

Secondly,

Thirdly, Unfortunately, many long-lived radioactive elements ejected from an exploded reactor 30 years ago are still in the environment, carried by streams of air and water, and pose a threat to the health of the inhabitants of the Earth.

The very first major radiation accidents in history occurred during the development of nuclear materials for the first atomic bombs.

September 1, 1944 in the USA , Tennessee, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, while trying to unclog a pipe in a laboratory uranium enrichment device, an explosion of uranium hexafluoride occurred, resulting in the formation of the hazardous substance hydrofluoric acid. Five people who were at that time in the laboratory suffered from acid burns and inhalation of a mixture of radioactive and acid fumes. Two of them were killed and the rest were seriously injured.

In the USSR, the first serious radiation accident occurred on June 19, 1948 , on the very next day after the nuclear reactor for the production of weapons-grade plutonium (facility "A" of the Mayak plant in the Chelyabinsk region) reached its design capacity. As a result of insufficient cooling of several uranium blocks, their local fusion with the surrounding graphite occurred. Within nine days, the channel was cleared by manual reaming. During the liquidation of the accident, all male personnel of the reactor, as well as soldiers of construction battalions involved in the liquidation of the accident, were exposed to radiation.

March 3, 1949 in the Chelyabinsk region As a result of the massive discharge of high-level liquid radioactive waste into the Techa River by the Mayak plant, about 124 thousand people in 41 settlements were exposed to radiation. The highest radiation dose was received by 28,100 people who lived in the coastal settlements along the Techa river; cases of chronic radiation sickness were recorded in many exposed.

December 12, 1952 in Canada the world's first serious accident at a nuclear power plant occurred. A technical error of the personnel led to overheating and partial melting of the reactor core.

September 29, 1957 there was an accident called "Kyshtym". A container containing radioactive substances exploded in the Mayak radioactive waste storage facility in the Chelyabinsk region. Experts have estimated the power of the explosion at 70-100 tons of TNT equivalent. The radioactive cloud from the explosion passed over the Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk and Tyumen regions, forming the so-called East Ural radioactive trail with an area of ​​over 20 thousand square kilometers. According to experts, from the moment of the explosion to the evacuation from the industrial site of the plant, more than five thousand people were exposed to a single irradiation of up to 100 roentgens. In the elimination of the consequences of the accident in the period from 1957 to 1959, from 25 to 30 thousand servicemen took part. In Soviet times, information about the disaster was classified.

October 10, 1957 in the UK in the town of Windscale, there was a major accident at one of the two reactors producing weapons-grade plutonium. Due to an error made during operation, the temperature of the fuel in the reactor rose sharply, and a fire broke out in the core, which lasted for about four days. As a result, 11 tons of uranium burned out, and radioactive substances got into the atmosphere. Radioactive fallout has contaminated vast areas of England and Ireland; the radioactive cloud reached Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Norway.

In April 1967 there was another radiation incident at PA Mayak. Lake Karachay, which was used by the Mayak PA for dumping liquid radioactive waste, became shallow; at the same time, the coastal strip and the bottom of the lake were partially exposed. Radioactive dust from the dried bottom sediments was blown away by the wind far beyond the lake: an area of ​​1,800 square kilometers, inhabited by about 40 thousand people, was contaminated.

The most serious incident in the nuclear power industry in the United States was the accident at the Threemile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, which occurred March 28, 1979 ... As a result of a series of equipment failures and gross errors of operators, 53% of the reactor core melted at the second power unit of the NPP. An inert radioactive gas was released into the atmosphere. In addition, 185 cubic meters weakly radioactive water. 200 thousand people were evacuated from the area exposed to radiation.

On the night from 25 to 26 April 1986 at the fourth unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (Ukraine) the largest nuclear accident in the world occurred - with the partial destruction of the reactor core and the escape of fission fragments outside the zone. According to experts, the accident occurred due to an attempt to perform an experiment to remove additional energy during the operation of the main nuclear reactor. 190 tons of radioactive substances were released into the atmosphere. Eight of the 140 tons of radioactive fuel from the reactor ended up in the air. Other hazardous substances were released into the atmosphere in a fire that lasted almost two weeks. People in Chernobyl were exposed to radiation 90 times more than when the bomb fell on Hiroshima. As a result of the accident, radioactive contamination occurred within a radius of 30 kilometers. An area of ​​160 thousand square kilometers was contaminated. The northern part of Ukraine, Belarus and the west of Russia were affected. 19 Russian regions with an area of ​​almost 60 thousand square kilometers and a population of 2.6 million people were exposed to radiation pollution.

September 30, 1999 the largest accident in the history of nuclear power in Japan occurred. At the plant for the manufacture of fuel for a nuclear power plant in the scientific town of Tokaimura (Ibaraki Prefecture), due to personnel error, an uncontrollable chain reaction which lasted for 17 hours. 439 people were exposed to radiation, 119 of them received a dose exceeding the annual allowable level. Three workers received critical doses of radiation. Two of them died.

On August 9, 2004, an accident occurred at the Mihama nuclear power plant, located 320 kilometers west of Tokyo on the island of Honshu... In the turbine of the third reactor, there was a powerful release of steam with a temperature of about 200 degrees Celsius. The NPP employees who were nearby received serious burns. No radioactive material leaks were detected as a result of the accident. At the time of the accident, there were about 200 people in the building where the third reactor is located. Four of them died, 18 were seriously injured.

Today, 30 years later, we are talking about the lessons of the Chernobyl disaster.

At first, “The Chernobyl disaster is undoubtedly the most terrible event in the history of civilization. As a result, the whole of humanity suffered ”

The consequences of the accident are global and dire. Global, because the radioactive substances from the exploded reactor were spread throughout the planet. Terrible because a huge number of people have been exposed to radiation.

Secondly, you cannot rely on technology, no matter how reliable it seems

Thirdly, Unfortunately, many long-lived radioactive elements ejected 20 years ago from an exploded reactor are still in the environment, carried by streams of air and water, and pose a threat to the health of the inhabitants of the Earth.

Therefore, people should remember about Chernobyl for the sake of the future, be aware of the danger of radiation and do everything so that such disasters never happen again.

REQUIEM. Vladimir Lakhutin

The bell of trouble sounds over the world,
Disturbing the memory, remembering the grief,
The face of the gray war is cruel and terrible,
Like a raging sea in a storm.
Japan has been grieving for many years
Known to the people of Hiroshima, Nagasaki,
But tragedy is not prohibited,
There are nuclear blocks everywhere.
Humanity does not want to understand
That life in the world is the most sacred
It can be cut off instantly
In the crucible of an explosion or in the thick of battle.
We do not count all the sacrifices and trials,
But the arsenals, polygons are intact,
Chernobyl deadly news
A warning to new generations.
The millennium has begun
The twenty-first century walks on the earth,
May his children have better luck
And the sun's ray meets them every day.

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