Case Study

Investigation Task: Chernobyl Accident as a

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Transboundary Pollution Incident

What happened?

The Chernobyl disaster, which occurred in 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in the
Soviet Union, is considered the most catastrophic event in the history of nuclear power
generation. Located in the settlement of Pryp’yat, the power station was 10 miles northwest
of the city of Chernobyl and 65 miles north of Kyiv, Ukraine. The power station, which
began operations between 1977 and 1983, housed four reactors, each with the capacity to
generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2023).

According to (Blakemore, 2021) on April 25, 1986, routine maintenance was scheduled at the
station’s fourth reactor. During a test to see if the reactor could still be cooled if the plant lost
power, workers violated safety protocols, leading to a power surge inside the plant. Despite
attempts to shut down the reactor, another power surge caused a chain reaction of explosions.
The nuclear core was exposed, releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere.

Firefighters tried to extinguish the fires, and helicopters dumped sand and other materials to
contain the contamination. However, the nearby city of Pripyat, built to house plant workers,
wasn’t evacuated until about 36 hours after the disaster began.

The disaster resulted in the release of up to 30 percent of Chernobyl’s 190 metric tons of
uranium into the atmosphere1. The Soviet Union evacuated 335,000 people and established a
19-mile-wide “exclusion zone” around the reactor. At least 28 people initially died as a result
of the accident, while more than 100 were injured. The area surrounding the Chernobyl
nuclear disaster is expected to remain uninhabitable for up to 20,000 years.

Causes of the Incident

The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated
with inadequately trained personnel (Chernobyl | Chernobyl Accident | Chernobyl Disaster -
World Nuclear Association, n.d.). The reactor built at Chernobyl is an RBMK reactor, which
was never built by any country outside the USSR because it had characteristics that were
rejected everywhere outside the Soviet Union (Chernobyl Accident and Its Consequences,
2019). One of the most crucial causes of the accident is the large positive void coefficient
possessed by the nuclear reactor. This means that an increase in voids or steam bubbles is
associated with a rise in core reactivity(Causes of the Chernobyl Accident, n.d.).

Transboundary Nature of the Incident

The fallout from the explosions was highly radioactive and was sent up into the atmosphere,
covering a wide geographical area. Due to wind and other weather conditions, the radioactive
plume drifted over large regions of the Soviet Union, Europe (including Eastern, Western,
and Northern regions), Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. These areas were all badly
contaminated, leading to the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people (Chernobyl
Accident and Its Consequences, 2019b).

Referring to (Chernobyl Accident and Its Consequences, 2019c) the disaster produced the
“largest uncontrolled radioactive release into the environment ever recorded” and mostly had
an immediate impact on Ukraine, Belarus, and West Russia. The World Nuclear Association
estimates at least five percent of the reactor’s nuclear material leaked into the atmosphere.
Vast swathes of Belarus were contaminated by the explosion, rendering about a fifth of the
country’s arable farmland unusable.

The presence of strong winds in the atmosphere that night pushed radioactive fallout further
into West Europe and Scandinavia. Just days after the nuclear incident occurred, raised levels
of background radiation were being observed in places like Sweden. The World Nuclear
Association said: “Most of the released material was deposited close by as dust and debris,
but the lighter material was carried by wind over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and to some
extent over Scandinavia and Europe.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 7,722 square miles
(20,000 square kilometers) of Europe were contaminated. The exact impact of the radiation
depended on whether it was raining when contaminated winds passed overhead.
 (Chernobyl Disaster Mapped - Vivid Maps, 2022)

These map show how a cloud of radiation engulfed Europe during the 1986 Chernobyl
disaster and the countries that were affected by the Chernobyl disaster.

Consequences of the Incident (displaced people )

Accoring to (Chernobyl | Chernobyl Accident | Chernobyl Disaster - World Nuclear

Association, n.d.-b) the Chernobyl accident caused the deaths, within a few weeks, of 30
workers and radiation injuries to over a hundred others. In response, the authorities
evacuated, in 1986, about 115,000 people from areas surrounding the reactor and
subsequently relocated, after 1986, about 220,000 people from Belarus, the Russian
Federation, and Ukraine. The accident caused serious social and psychological disruption in
the lives of those affected and vast economic losses over the entire region. Large areas of the
three countries were contaminated with radioactive materials, and radionuclides from the
Chernobyl release were measurable in all countries of the northern hemisphere.

Recent and Possible Future Responses to the Incident

In 2002, the world body announced a shift in the Chernobyl strategy, with a new focus on a
long-term developmental approach. And in 2019, a new safety casing over the old shelter was
completed and given to the Government of Ukraine (‘Disasters Know No Borders’ Says
Guterres, 35 Years on From Chernobyl Nuclear Accident, 2021). It was achieved with €2.2
billion in donations from over 45 nations. The experience to date shows that Chernobyl
recovery efforts must be linked to the 2030 Agenda and be fully aligned with the national
plans for sustainable development of Belarus and Ukraine (Chernobyl | Chernobyl Accident |
Chernobyl Disaster - World Nuclear Association, n.d.-c).
Refrence list:

Blakemore, E. (2021, May 3). The Chernobyl disaster: What happened, and the long-term

impacts. Culture.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/chernobyl-disaster

Causes of the Chernobyl accident. (n.d.). http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2015/ph241/seh1/

Chernobyl | Chernobyl Accident | Chernobyl Disaster - World Nuclear Association. (n.d.-b).

https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plant

s/chernobyl-accident.aspx

Chernobyl accident and its consequences. (2019a, May 1). Nuclear Energy Institute.

https://www.nei.org/resources/fact-sheets/chernobyl-accident-and-its-consequences

Chernobyl disaster mapped - Vivid Maps. (2022, March 4). Vivid Maps.

https://vividmaps.com/chernobyl-disaster/

‘Disasters know no borders’ says Guterres, 35 years on from Chernobyl nuclear accident.

(2021, April 28). UN News. https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/04/1090602

Kettley, S. (2020, April 20). Chernobyl MAPPED: Countries that were affected by Chernobyl

- radiation map revealed. Express.co.uk.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1141514/Chernobyl-map-radiation-fallout-w

hat-countries-affected-chernobyl-radiation

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2023, November 27). Chernobyl disaster | Causes,

Effects, Deaths, Videos, Location, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Chernobyl-disaster