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Lessons Learned from the Chernobyl Accident

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Abstract

This chapter describes the lessons learned from the Chernobyl accident on the basis of practical experience. Main characteristics of radionuclides release and consequences of radiological contamination of the environment, and also remediation actions, taken to protect workers and population against radiation at different stages of rectification of the consequences of the accident in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine in 1986–2018 are analyzed. Criteria for applying countermeasures, such as maximum expected effective irradiation dose for the population and terrestrial density of radionuclides contamination for evacuation and resettlement, restriction of business activities, etc., and also action level of radionuclides in food to reduce the internal dose, are provided. Main positive and negative features of the decisions taken in the process of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster elimination are considered. Practically all agricultural countermeasures implemented in the large scale on contaminated lands after Chernobyl accident can be recommended for use in case of future accidents. We focus mainly on the Chernobyl exclusion zone as the territory of radiation-ecological reserves of Ukraine and Belarus for scientific research in the field of radioecology and radiobiology, as well as on the most contaminated 10-km zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant—a Zone for special industrial usage, not suitable for living in the near future.

By an example of the Chernobyl disaster, it is shown that in comparison with radiological consequences the socio-psychological ones have made much more influence on human life and health due to lack of urgent, objective, and truthful information on the accident and its impact on the health, in mass media.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine

    Valery Kashparov

  2. CERAD CoE Environmental Radioactivity/Department of Environmental Sciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Aas, Norway

    Valery Kashparov

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  1. Valery Kashparov
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Radioecology and Radiation Protection, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Germany

    Georg Steinhauser

  2. Department of Health and Environmental Sciences, Graduate School of Medicine and Faculty of Medicine Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan

    Akio Koizumi

  3. Department of General System Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, Meguro, Tokyo, Japan

    Katsumi Shozugawa

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Kashparov, V. (2019). Lessons Learned from the Chernobyl Accident. In: Steinhauser, G., Koizumi, A., Shozugawa, K. (eds) Nuclear Emergencies. Current Topics in Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8327-4_3

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