Chernobyl - What Have We Learned?

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-X

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2. Soviet-Built Nuclear Plants and Their Safety

   • Yasuo Onishi, Oleg V. Voitsekhovich, Mark J. Zheleznyak

   Pages 1-7

3. The Chernobyl Accident and Its Aquatic Impacts on the Surrounding Area

   • Oleg V. Voitsekhovich, Vladimir Kanivets, Yasuo Onishi

   Pages 9-47

4. Radioecological Aspects of Water Use

   • O. V. Voitsekhovich, G. Perepelyatnikov, O. Nasvit, V. Klenus, V. Belyaev, O. Volkova et al.

   Pages 49-85

5. Population Dose Estimate Due to Aquatic Pathways

   • Vladimir Berkovskiy, Oleg V. Voitsekhovich

   Pages 87-107

6. Radiation Risk Assessment and Countermeasure Justification

   • I. P. Los’y, I. Segeda, K. Shepelevich, O. V. Voitsekhovich, Yasuo Onishi

   Pages 109-140

7. Management of the Fresh Water Environment in the Chernobyl Affected Area

   • Oleg V. Voitsekhovich, Yasuo Onishi

   Pages 141-201

8. Water Protection Measures for Radioactive Groundwater Contamination in the CEZ

   • D. A. Bugai, A. S. Skalskiy, S. P. Dzhepo

   Pages 203-245

9. Where Do We Go from Here? Construction of the New Safe Confinement

   • Yasuo Onishi, Mark J. Zheleznyak, Oleg V. Voitsekhovich

   Pages 247-278

10. Summary and Conclusions

    • Yasuo Onishi, Oleg V. Voitsekhovich, Mark J. Zheleznyak

    Pages 279-286

11. Back Matter

    Pages 287-289

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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.

• Aquatic Environmental Assessment
• Chernobyl
• Chernobyl Lessons Learned
• Chernobyl Nuclear Accident
• Fresh water
• Groundwater
• Radiation Protection
• Water Remediation
• ecology
• environment
• safety
• water quality and water pollution
• ecotoxicology

• Washington State University, Richland, USA

  Yasuo Onishi

• Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute, Kiev, Ukraine

  Oleg V. Voitsekhovich

• Ukrainian Center of Environmental and Water Projects, Kiev, Ukraine

  Mark J. Zheleznyak

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