Event commemorating the
18th Anniversary
of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster
History of the United Nations
and Chernobyl
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, April 26, 1986- the
routine 20-second shut down of the system seemed to be another test of
the electrical equipment. But seven seconds later, a surge created a
chemical explosion that released nearly 520 dangerous radionuclides
into the atmosphere. The total power of the explosion was estimated to
be more than 100 times that of the atomic weapons used in World War II.
The force of the explosion spread contamination over large parts of the
Soviet Union, now the territories of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Had
the other three RBMK blocks exploded, high-levels of radiation would
have spread to the English Channel. According to official reports,
thirty-one people died immediately and 600,000 “liquidators,” involved
in fire fighting and clean-up operations, were exposed to the high
doses of radiation. Based on the official reports, near 8,400,000
people in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia were exposed to the radiation,
which is more than the population of Austria. About 155,000 sq. km of
territories in the three countries were contaminated, which is almost
half of the total territory of Italy. Agricultural areas covering
nearly 52,000 sq. km, which is more than the size of Denmark, were
contaminated with cesium-137 and strontium-90, with 30-year and 28-year
half-lives respectively. Nearly 404,000 people were resettled but
millions continued to live in an environment where continued residual
exposure created a range of adverse effects.
No reports were released until the
third day after the Chernobyl explosion. Then, Swedish authorities
correlated a map of enhanced radiation levels in Europe with wind
direction and announced to the world that a nuclear accident had
occurred somewhere in the Soviet Union. Before Sweden’s announcement,
the Soviet authorities were conducting emergency fire fighting and
clean-up operations but had chosen not report to the accident or its
scale in full. No established legitimate authority was able to
immediately address the situation and provide answers for questions
such as: Is it safe to leave the house? Is it safe to drink water? Is
it safe to eat local produce? Communicating protective measures early
would also have most likely enabled the population to escape exposure
to some radionuclides, such as iodine 131, which are known to cause
thyroid cancer. Early evacuation would have helped people avoid the
area when iodine 131 is most dangerous, 8-16 days after release.
During the first four years after
the Chernobyl accident the Soviet authorities decided to largely deal
with the consequences of the explosion at a national level. Without
Soviet support, the United Nations and its partners sought ways to
provide emergency support, which included assessing the nuclear safety
and environmental conditions of the contaminated area, and diagnose the
various medical conditions that resulted from the accident. The UN also
focused on raising the awareness of the area’s inhabitants, teaching
them how to protect themselves from radionuclides found in the
environment and agricultural products.
It is here that the story begins. With the
history of the UN and Chernobyl, the UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has
provided information on all aspects of the Chernobyl and UN work such
as: UN Coordinators, Inter-Agency Task Force,
Quadripartite Coordination Committee, OCHA, Chernobyl Trust
Fund, as well as the ICRIN Chernobyl network. For more information
click any of the links above.
