Civil War
Andrei Serdyuk, Chernobyl, Ukrainian S.S.R. (1986)
Edited by Alexandra Bezio (2021)
On April 26th, 1986, Nuclear Power Reactor 4 exploded during a test at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located north of Kiev, Ukraine in what was then the Soviet Union. As the core of the reactor began to melt, an explosion occurred that blew the top off the reactor and immediately sent a wide trail of radioactive material and metal across a very large area, covering parts of the U.S.S.R. as well as both Eastern and Western Europe. The explosion killed two engineers and severely burned two more. During the disaster and emergency response, 134 station staff and firemen were hospitalized with acute radiation syndrome, having absorbed high doses of ionizing radiation. Out of those 134 staff, twenty-eight fatalities occurred in the months after the accident, with an additional fourteen casualties due to radiation-induced cancers. Over 350,000 residents of the contaminated areas were evacuated and relocated, and resettlement of impacted areas is still ongoing.
The Chernobyl disaster generated significant concern around the Soviet Union about nuclear power and safety culture. The disaster was a result of a flawed Soviet reactor design as well as a few serious mistakes made by plant operators. More broadly, Chernobyl was a direct consequence of Cold War isolation and the lack of sufficient safety culture with nuclear power in the U.S.S.R. The accident was an important event in the last years of the Soviet Union as it led to major changes in safety culture and in industry cooperation, particularly between East and West before the Soviet collapse in 1991. The accident spurred new research of thyroid cancers due to ionizing radiation at a young age, and it furthered the public health efforts around cancer screening for nuclear accidents, which later were used after the Fukushima disaster. The Fukushima Daiichi accident occurred on March 11th, 2011, in Ōkuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The accident resulted after The Great East Japan Earthquake and 15-metre tsunami which disabled the power supply and cooling of 3 of the Fukushima reactors, which resulted in all cores melting within the first 72 hours following the accident. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident is second only to Chernobyl as the worst nuclear disaster in history.
The following government report was written by Andrei Serdyuk, who served as the Ukrainian S.S.R. Health Minister on the Cabinet of Ministers at the time of the Chernobyl disaster. The document was composed directly after the event as an official report on Chernobyl's immediate impacts, such as radiation contamination of the land and the number of patients hospitalized as a result of radiation poisoning and injury. In addition to this, the report included information on the disaster's effect on agriculture, the medical services provided by emergency officials, and efforts to identify contaminated people.
1. According to data of the UkSSR Ministry of Health 27,500 people have been evacuated from the city of Pripyat' to the Ivankovsky and Polessky Rayons. The remaining population (about 20,000) moved away separately. As of 29 April 1986, 16,500 people were left at evacuation sites. The population of the regions adjacent to the city of Pripyat' (the city of Chernobyl' and others) are beginning to move away separately.
2. The radiation situation. An increased background radiation is being registered at the present time in the cities of Zhitomir (10-12 times [normal]), Rovno (about 10 times), L'vov (2-3 times), and Kiev (2-3 times). It is below the maximum permissible norms.
The contaminated path connecting Kiev with the Ivankovsky and Polessky Rayons. The movement of transportation from this region to Kiev is being accompanied by the contamination of some city streets. The contamination of vehicles which have visited the region is being recorded.
The decontamination of part of the equipment, people's clothing, and their washing was not done at the moment of the evacuation.
The Sanitary and Epidemiological Service organized the continual radiation monitoring of Kiev and the Kiev, Zhitomir, Rovno, and other Oblasts. Radiation monitoring in the locations of the Kiev water inlet and the Kiev Reservoir [more - SIC] has been established.
3. Agriculture. According to data of radiometric and dosimetric research the radioactive contamination of the area has occurred in the Chernobyl', Ivankov, and Vyshgorod Rayons of Kiev Oblast'. Part of the agricultural crops and pastures was contaminated. The movement of isotopes to the organisms of animals and subsequently to milk is not excluded.
4. Medical service. Doctor's house calls have been organized in evacuation sites, and medical institutions are operating. In addition, doctors, paramedics, vehicle transportation, and medicines have been sent.
As of 0900 29 April [the following] have been hospitalized: in Moscow, 144 ill with radiation sickness; in the cities of Kiev and Chernovtsy and the urbanized villages of Ivankov and Polessky, 270 people who have displayed some symptoms of illness with a radiation etiology.
[Stamp: Incoming N0 1532/46 on two sheets
29 April 1986
Subject to return to the 2nd Sector of the Ukrainian
CP CC's General Department]
[5.] An active identification of people contaminated with radioactive substances is being conducted.
Sixty beds for the treatment of possible patients with radiation sickness have been organized in the UkSSR Ministry of Health's Kiev Scientific Research Institute of Radiology.
6. In the situation which has developed many services responsible for carrying out special measures are working insufficiently actively.
Deputy Chief of the Ukrainian CP CC's Department of Science and Educational Institutions [signature] A. Serdyuk
A. Serdyuk, 'Some First Priority Questions in connection with the Situation in the Region of the Chernobyl AEhS', April 29, 1986, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Archive of the Ukrainian National Chornobyl Museum. Contributed by Anna Korolevska and Adam Higginbotham. Translated by Gary Goldberg. https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/208456
Cléro, Enora, et al. “Lessons learned from Chernobyl and Fukushima on thyroid cancer screening and recommendations in case of a future nuclear accident.” Environment International 146 (2020): 106-230.
Peterson, Maxine. The Chernobyl Disaster. Hauppauge, New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2013.
Kapitza, Sergei P. “Lessons of Chernobyl: The Cultural Causes of the Meltdown.” Foreign Affairs 72, no. 3 (1993): 7–11.
Wright, Scott. “Preface” in Fukushima Daiichi: Causes and Consequences, edited by Scott Wright, viii-ix. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2017.
World Nuclear Association. 2021. “Chernobyl Accident 1986.” World Nuclear Association. May 2021. https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/chernobyl-accident.aspx.
