Overview
- Of timely importance in today's world
- Useful not only to researchers but to emergency planners faced with possible terrorist actions
- A comprehensive 20-year study
- Will appeal to an international audience
Part of the book series: Environmental Pollution (EPOL, volume 12)
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About this book
Twenty years ago, on April 26, 1986, Unit 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant experienced a nuclear reactor accident and released six times more radionuclides into the atmosphere than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. The accident significantly damaged the environment and is expected to result in as many as 4000 deaths due to leukemia and other cancers. The cause of the accident was specific to a particular Soviet-built reactor; but the environmental and human consequences are applicable to Western nuclear plant accidents. Contrary to public perception, the former Soviet Union did what they could to protect the public from the Chernobyl accident within funding restrictions. They involved the highest level of political and scientific leaders and even conducted public surveys to identify concerns and fears. However, the secrecy with which the information was treated caused mistrust of the Chernobyl assessment and contributed to the widespread mental health problems associated with the accident. Some Chernobyl countermeasures were successful, but many were ineffective or made things worse. We hope that the details presented in this book may be useful for Western countries in preparing for possible accidents or potential terrorist attacks with nuclear or chemical agents. The assessment of the Chernobyl accident, its impacts, and its count- measures and remediation has been published widely in many Western nations, but much of the research is still known only in Ukraine and Russia.
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Table of contents (9 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Editors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Chernobyl - What Have We Learned?
Book Subtitle: The Successes and Failures to Mitigate Water Contamination Over 20 Years
Editors: Yasuo Onishi, Oleg V. Voitsekhovich, Mark J. Zheleznyak
Series Title: Environmental Pollution
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-5349-5
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental Science, Earth and Environmental Science (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4020-5348-1Published: 02 October 2006
Softcover ISBN: 978-94-007-9892-2Published: 26 November 2014
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4020-5349-8Published: 03 June 2007
Series ISSN: 1566-0745
Series E-ISSN: 2215-1702
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: X, 291
Topics: Waste Water Technology / Water Pollution Control / Water Management / Aquatic Pollution, Pollution, general, Environment, general, Effects of Radiation/Radiation Protection, Environmental Management, Ecotoxicology