Thirty years since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster

ArabiaWeather.com - Muhammad Salameh - The Chernobyl disaster is classified as the worst disaster for radioactive leakage and environmental pollution that humanity has witnessed so far. The disaster occurred on April 26, 1986, in one of the nuclear reactors at the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine.

Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union at that time, when an error in the operation of the nuclear reactor during tests carried out by experts caused the uranium temperature to rise to the point of ignition, and this led to melting in the core of the reactor and the occurrence of successive explosions, and a cloud of toxic smoke saturated with materials was formed. The radioactive elements spread for kilometers in the sky over the explosion area, and the effects of the cloud exceeded the borders of Ukraine to its neighboring countries such as Belarus and Russia.

The disaster led to the death of 31 workers as a result of the explosions in the reactor, but the number of victims exceeded eight thousand as a result of exposure to nuclear radiation, and local statistics indicated that 2.3 million people are still suffering to varying degrees from nuclear radiation, and the disaster also led to the contamination of 1.4 million hectares of agricultural land In Ukraine and Belarus with contaminated radiation.

The disaster had many effects on health and the environment. For example, the number of people with thyroid cancer due to Chernobyl radiation was estimated at 6,000. Environmentally, radiation leakage into the surrounding forests led to the color of the trees turning bright red due to the high levels of radiation. The area around the nuclear plant was called "The Red Forest".