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Chernobyl Disaster Essay

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The word disaster is one of the most commonly used words in society and if something is described as a disaster then it is usually because something extremely bad or unacceptable has occurred. It can reflect a variety of individual disasters that can range from geological, such as an earthquake or tsunami, or it can be purely manmade such as a biological or chemical disaster. There is not a single definition of the word Disaster with the United Nations defining it as being a serious disruption to the functioning of a community or society (WCPT, 2016). However, others define it as a sudden accident or a natural catastrophe that causes immense damage or loss of life (Wright, 2013). The purpose of this assignment it to critically analyse a particular …show more content…

Therefore, the author has chosen to focus on the Chernobyl disaster that took place in 1986, with a particular focus on the children who were living within the area. This essay will examine and discuss what the impact and repercussions were for this group of individuals and what has been achieved and is still being executed to ensure their health needs are being prioritised. This essay will aim to answer a proposed question in relation to the chosen topic, this being: What impact has the Chernobyl Disaster had on the health and well-being of children who lived within the surrounding areas of the nuclear power station? Outline of the Chernobyl Disaster Albert Einstein once said “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe”. In the early hours of Saturday morning on April 26, 1986, Reactor Number 4 at Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Pripyat, Ukraine exploded and a large fire ensued. This incident has been described as the worst nuclear disaster the world has ever seen with the explosion unleashing …show more content…

On the morning of 28 April workers at the Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant in Sweden, which is approximately 680 miles from Chernobyl were found to have radioactive particles on their clothes. It was therefore, Sweden’s search for the source of this radioactivity that brought light to the serious nuclear disaster that had occurred in what is now known as Ukraine. The Swedish authorities made the connection between the rising radiation levels in Europe and the Soviet union due to the directions of the wind and then announced to the world that a nuclear accident had to have occurred within that area. It is then that reports were released, three days after the Chernobyl explosion to confirm that there had been an incident. However, the information being released to the public was still not a true representation as to the seriousness of the situation. No established legitimate authority was able to immediately address the situation and provide answers for questions such as: Is it safe to leave the house? Is it safe to drink water? Is it safe to eat local produce? Communicating protective measures early would also have most likely enabled the population to escape exposure to some radionuclides, such as iodine 131, which are known to cause thyroid cancer. Early evacuation

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