Chernobyl fallout around the world - site with maps of Global Radiation Patterns

[flamingdem]

http://users.owt.com/smsrpm/Chernobyl/glbrad.html

The spread of radioactive contaminates into the atmosphere from the Chernobyl accident was eventually detected all over the world. Events, such as volcano eruptions and nuclear bomb testings, result in major effluent emission that also can be detected with very sensitive equipment.

The risk to the public health of the people in neighboring countries from the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, USSR, has been a primary element in evaluating the magnitude this accident has had on the world. The citizens of eastern Europe and Scandinavia are the most concerned, because their countries received the majority of the exposure in the first week of the accident and thus, their health is at the highest risk.

On Friday, April 25, 1986, as a result of human error during experiments being performed by the staff at Chernobyl, the cooling system failed resulting in the melting of fuel and, of greater importance to the public, the graphite moderator ignited and began the release of what has been approximated as 1900 PBq <1> of activity to the environment (it has been commented that had there been a containment building similar to the ones used in U.S. reactors, this value might have been greatly reduced). The most hazardous isotopes released in this accident are known to Cs-137, I-131, and Sr-90. These isotopes have half-lives sufficiently long to allow them to migrate into the body or, in the case of Iodine, have the tendency to accumulate in the thyroid gland.

The plume from the burning graphite initially traveled in a northwest direction toward Sweden, Finland and eastern Europe, exposing the public to levels up to 100 times the normal background radiation. A very serious concern involves the contamination of grain and dairy products from fallout. This contamination presents the chance for permanent internal contamination. Both Sr-90 and I-131 migrate to vital organs in the body where they are impossible to remove, serving as a constant source of unnecessary radiation and as a cause of cancer or other diseases.

Regions of heaviest fallout from the effluents from the fire at Chernobyl are shown in the figure below (Map shows borders in 1986). In these regions radiation exposure exceeded 100 mrads/h (0.1mrem/hr or 0.001mSv/hr) <4>.

[cui bono]

1. TYVM for this. Was looking for something like this earlier. n/t