Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
the central without informing and evacuating the civilian population living in cities
close to facilities, so that thousand people were exposed to the effects of the
radioactive cloud. It was only after the reporting of an excessive level of radiation in
the atmosphere by Swedish nuclear central and international diplomatic pressures
that the Soviet government of
cially admitted the accident. The inhabitants of the
town of Pripyat and areas contaminated (about 350,000 people) were then evacu-
ated, but much later than it would have been necessary. The leakage of radioactive
particles caused an increase in the levels of radiation in Scandinavia, Eastern
Europe and Central Europe but also in the West, forcing the authorities to carry out
stringent checks on the level of radioactive substances in the air, in the environment
and especially in food.
Apart from the heavy economic loss resulted from the explosion of the plant and
especially by the complete evacuation of entire highly populated residential areas
within a radius of tens of kilometers, the death toll caused by the Chernobyl
accident cannot be quanti
cial reports drawn up by the main
organizations involved in the assessment of radiation exposures and health effects,
about 65 victims, in large part the so called
ed precisely. The of
, people who participated
in containment operations near the reactor and at least another 4,000 presumed
dead. But it should be considered that the estimated amount of people directly
contaminated is about 600,000. Given the long-term effects of radiation on human
health, it is impossible to know how many people have been (or will be) affected by
serious illnesses (malformations, tumors, leukemia) for exposure to radioactive
materials released to the environment at the disaster.
The Chernobyl accident had a dramatic impact from many points of view. First,
it put in evidence in the eyes of world public opinion of risks arising not only from
nuclear weapons but also from the exploitation of nuclear energy.
29
In many countries, environmental and anti-nuclear movements made Chernobyl
as a symbol of the catastrophic consequences from the exploiting of this source of
energy. In Italy, after a referendum held in 1987 it was decides to abandon the use
of nuclear energy for civilian use and proceed with the decommissioning of all
nuclear site that were built up to that time. The accident also in
“
liquidators
”
uenced a systematic
review of all procedures so far adopted to deal with nuclear emergencies. The
rst
consequence was to put the need to avoid in the future omissions or reticent
behavior by the authorities and to inform the public and the authorities of the
neighboring countries of possible threats. Chernobyl pose perhaps for the
rst time
the problem of the adoption of international measures for monitoring and for early
warnings to prevent and facing major technological disasters.
Moreover, in order to assess the severity of accidents in nuclear facilities and
radiation sources and transport, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
adopted a classi
cation system by considering three different areas of impact
(people and the environment to exposition radiation; radiological barriers and
control, defense-in-depth) and developed an International Nuclear Event Scale.
29
Cameron et al. (
1988
) and Beck (
1992
).
