Chernobyl: Catastrophe and Consequences

The explosion at Unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power station was the worstnuclear accident in history. Radioactive fallout from the accident (directly or indir-ectly) a�ected the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the former SovietUnion and contamination spread throughout Europe. In the 19 years since theaccident, thousands of scienti®c papers have been published on Chernobyl and itsconsequences. In this book we have tried to summarise this vast literature, focusingparticularly on the long-term consequences of the accident to people and theenvironment.There are many historical accounts of the Chernobyl accident (e.g., Shcherbak,1989; IAEA, 1991; UNSCEAR, 2000; Mould, 2000; Kryshev and Ryazantsev, 2000;OECD/NEA, 2002). Whilst this book focuses primarily on the longer term impactsof the accident, here we brie¯y summarise the history of the accident and itsimmediate consequences. In particular, we aim to put Chernobyl within thecontext of other (natural and man-made) sources of radioactivity in the environ-ment. This chapter also introduces some key concepts and units of radiation meas-urement and risk assessment. Many of these will be familiar to some readers, and aretherefore where possible included in boxes separate from the main text.