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Science 16 December 1988:
Vol. 242. no. 4885, pp. 1513 - 1519
DOI: 10.1126/science.3201240
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Articles

Science, Vol 242, Issue 4885, 1513-1519
Copyright © 1988 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

The global impact of the Chernobyl reactor accident

LR Anspaugh, RJ Catlin, and M Goldman

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550.

Radioactive material was deposited throughout the Northern Hemisphere as a result of the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station on 26 April 1986. On the basis of a large amount of environmental data and new integrated dose assessment and risk models, the collective dose commitment to the approximately 3 billion inhabitants is calculated to be 930,000 person-gray, with 97% in the western Soviet Union and Europe. The best estimates for the lifetime expectation of fatal radiogenic cancer would increase the risk from 0 to 0.02% in Europe and 0 to 0.003% in the Northern Hemisphere. By means of an integration of the environmental data, it is estimated that approximately 100 petabecquerels of cesium-137 (1 PBq = 10(15) Bq) were released during and subsequent to the accident.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The Sequoyah Corporation Fuels Release and the Church Rock Spill: Unpublicized Nuclear Releases in American Indian Communities.
D. Brugge, J. L. deLemos, and C. Bui (2007)
Am J Public Health 97, 1595-1600
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Thyroid disease in northern Italian children born around the time of the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
F. Chiesa, N. Tradati, L. Calabrese, B. Gibelli, G. Giugliano, G. Paganelli, C. De Cicco, C. Grana, G. Tosi, E. DeFiori, et al. (2004)
Ann. Onc. 15, 1842-1846
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Significant increase in trisomy 21 in Berlin nine months after the Chernobyl reactor accident: temporal correlation or causal relation?.
K Sperling, J Pelz, R-D Wegner, A Dorries, A Gruters, and M Mikkelsen (1994)
BMJ 309, 158-161
   Abstract »    Full Text »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)