Chernobyl - ten years after

This folder contains ten brief factsheets which aim to give a balanced presentation of the facts relating to the reactor accident at the Chernobyl power station ten years after the event. Details of the incident are given and its aftermath, in particular as it has affected the lives and health of people living in the immediate vicinity, is considered. Since records of the health of people in the region before the accident were very poor, it is extremely difficult to make definitive statements about the health effects of the accident. It is clear, however, that there has been a marked increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer especially among children in Belarus. Although curable this has given rise to deaths owing to poor health care. It is likely that deaths due to other cancers will occur in the longer term. Though estimates vary, they are in the region of 10-25,000 world wide over the next 70 years. Comparisons with the numbers of deaths from other large-scale non-nuclear industrial disasters are provided which put the Chernobyl incident in context and experts who refute the wilder claims made in the media are quoted. The status of the plant today and the international effort to improve the safety of the 15 original RMBK commercial reactors still operating in the former USSR are described. (Author)