Atomic Insights

Atomic energy technology, politics, and perceptions from a nuclear energy insider who served as a US nuclear submarine engineer officer

Chernobyl Accident: Advice and Sources

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Here is our best advice in case of a reactor accident that releases large amounts of radioactive material.

  • If there is evidence of increased radioactivity in the air, stay indoors and breath filtered air. Forced evacuations make taking this action far more difficult.
  • It is worth the effort to take sensible precautions against inhaling or ingesting radioactive material, if the efforts themselves pose little risk. Paper surgical masks or even a handkerchief can reduce internal doses by a factor of ten or more.
  • A healthy diet is important to help recover from any negative effects of high exposures.
  • There is little uptake of radioactive materials typical of reactor accidents from food. Most isotopes pass through the human digestive system.
  • It is worth the effort to prevent skin contamination by wearing protective clothing. Long sleeves, gloves, long pants, and socks can help protect against beta burns. Like thermal burns, beta burns are painful and might cause severe health effects if untreated or if widespread.
  • Alcohol is not a radiation antidote.
  • There is no evidence of adverse health effects below long term dose rates of approximately 5 RAD per year.
  • There is no evidence of birth defects from radiation exposures below several tens of RAD. If the exposure occurs between 8 and 15 weeks after fertilization, there is a remote chance of smaller head sizes after an exposure of approximately 10 RAD. Outside that stage of development, it appears that the threshold is 30 to 60 RAD.

Suggested readings for more information about the Chernobyl Accident.

Issac Asimov, Short Term; Long Term, essay published in On the Past Present and Future, Barnes and Noble Books, New York, NY, 1992.

P.S.W. Chan, A. R. Dastur et al, The Chernobyl Accident: Multidimensional Simulations to Identify the Role of Design and Operational Features of the RBMK-1000, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, CANDU Operations Sheridan Park Research Community, Mississauga, Ontario CA, paper presented September 1987.

Chernobyl: Ten Years On Radiological and Health Impact, An appraisal by the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, November 1995.

Sohei Kondo, Health Effects of Low-Level Radiation, published in the US by Medical Physics Publishing, Madison, WI, 1993.

Piers Paul Read, Ablaze: The Story of the Heros and Victims of Chernobyl, Random House, New York, NY, 1993.

Ten Years After Chernobyl – What do we really know? http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Booklets/Chernoten/

You can also find the most up-to-date information about the accident and its effects at http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Features/Chernobyl-15/index.shtml. This site provides several articles that are the product of intense study of the effects by the IAEA 15 years after the accident that occurred on April 26, 1996.

In the news: April 1996

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Crude Oil Hits 4 Year High

(March 19, 1996) – April delivery crude oil gained $1.28 to close at $23.27 per barrel on Monday March 18. This price is almost 40% higher than it was at the beginning of February 1996. Traders attribute the increase to tight inventories caused by a cold winter, decisions by oil firms to keep inventories low to reduce carrying costs, and stalled negotiations between Iraq and the UN to allow Iraq to sell as much as $1 billion dollars worth of oil every 90 days to pay for humanitarian supplies.

California Utility Restructuring

(March 18, 1996) – The California Public Utilities Commission delayed their awaited decision on stranded cost recovery at the request of Pacific Gas & Electric. PG&E filed their motion in an attempt to prevent certain retail customers from leaving their system. PG&E claimed that competitors are determined to invade their service territory and disrupt an orderly transition to the competitive industry structure envisioned in the Commission’s December 20, 1995 decision.

According to that plan, the restructuring of California’s electric utility industry would start in January of 1998 and would include recovery provisions for uneconomic investments. The next meeting of the California Public Utilities Commission will be on April 10, 1996, and will take place in San Francisco.

Interim Repository

(March 15, 1996) – US Senate committee approves interim waste repository. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has given its blessing to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1996, clearing the way for its adoption. The bill includes provision for the construction of a central interim waste repository for spent fuel, and means that the US government could meet its obligation to begin accepting spent fuel in 1998.

Uranium Prices on the Rise

(March 8, 1996) – Since the beginning of 1995, the NUEXCO price of uranium has increased by approximately 60%. This price increase is encouraging uranium mining companies in Canada, Australia, and the United States to begin new projects. Last week, Uranium Resources announced plans for two in-situ leach mining projects in New Mexico and one in Texas that will increase production capacity by 1500 tons per year or more.

Chernobyl Health Effects: Best Available Data

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Therefore, the immediate death toll from the accident was 31. Since the accident, 11 more deaths – possibly caused by radiation – have occurred among the population of highly exposed people, bringing the death toll to 42.The health effects of the accident at Chernobyl have been the subject of numerous intensive studies. Here are the […]

Chernobyl Politics and Market Share: Possible Motives Behind Emphasis

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When Unit 4 blew up, it became a hugh opportunity for those who wanted to point out the weaknesses of the Soviet system. It is impossible to separate the reaction to Chernobyl from the long-standing rivalry between the Communist and the Capitalist economic systems. The Chernobyl nuclear station was never viewed as just an electricity […]

Letter from the Editor: Learning from a Tragedy

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As a former nuclear plant supervisor, I was appalled by reports of plant bosses who ordered operators into highly contaminated areas without ensuring that they used protective clothing or breathing devices. Last April, Atomic Energy Insights published its first issue. In the past year, AEI has attempted to provide a view of atomic topics that […]

The Accident at Chernobyl: What Caused the Explosion?

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On April 26th, 1986, at 1:23 am, Alexander Akimov did what he and thousands of other nuclear plant operators have been trained to do. When confronted with confusing reactor indications, he initiated an emergency shutdown of Unit 4 of the large electricity generating station near Pripyat in Ukraine. By doing so, he unwittingly initiated an […]