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Title :

Chernobyl Accident

Latitude :

51.3833

Longitude :

30.1

Type :

Accident

Country :

Ukraine

Time :

1986-04-26 01:00:00+02

Description :

After nuclear tests in the atmosphere, the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine on April 26, 1986, was the most significant large scale source of environmental radioactive contamination. At about 0123 Hours Moscow time, two explosions in quick succession blew the roof off the Unit 4 reactor building of the Chernobyl plant, ejecting concrete, graphite and debris and leaving a gaping hole exposing the reactor core to the outside air. The smoke and gases rose to a height of over 1 km into the atmosphere followed by large fragments of uranium fuel. Transuranics and fission product radionuclides from the reactor core, plus activation products and essentially all the noble gases were released to the atmosphere during the first ten days after the accident before the releases could be contained. The heat from the fire increased the release rates of radioiodine, a substantial fraction of the volatile metallic elements, including radiocaesium, and somewhat lesser amounts of other radionuclides normally found in the fuel of a reactor that has been operating for about three years . According to the best current information regarding the source characteristics and measurements on environmental samples, the total activity of radionuclide mixture released in this accident was about 8 000 PBq (200 MCi) (as of 26.04.86) or 1 900 PBq (50 MCi) (decay-corrected to 06.05.86). These values do not include the release of the noble gases xenon and krypton which were almost totally released into the atmosphere in an amount of about 7 000 PBq (as of 26.04.86) [IAEA, 1996; NEA, 1995]. Total releases into the environment of the most radiologically-significant volatile radionuclides 131I, 137Cs and 134Cs have been recently estimated as about 1 500 PBq, 85 PBq and 46 PBq, respectively [AEN NEA, 1995]. About 8 PBq of 90Sr and 0.1 PBq of a-emitting plutonium nuclides were also released and mostly deposited in the vicinity of Chernobyl.

Databaseid :

CHERNO02

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