Chemical Agents of Opportunity for Terrorism: TICs & TIMs

Chemical Agents of Opportunity for Terrorism
Training Support Package
Participant Guide
Slide 12
On 26 April 1986, the most serious accident in the history of the nuclear industry
occurred in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former Ukrainian Republic of the
Soviet Union. Explosions damaged the reactor vessel and the subsequent fire dispersed
large amounts of radioactive materials into the environment (estimated at 400 times the
fallout of the Hiroshima atomic bomb). Iodine and cesium were the major radionuclides
released. Two people died in the initial steam explosion, but most deaths from the
accident were attributed to radioactive fallout. Initially there were 134 victims of acute
radiation poisoning, but several thousand cancer cases from radiation exposure
(primarily thyroid cancer in young children) have occurred; more cancer cases and
deaths are expected over the next few decades. Psychological effects have also been
documented among the exposed population, attributed to both poor communication
about risk and the social disruption in the region.The greatest deposition of radionuclides
occurred over large areas of the Soviet Union surrounding the reactor in what are now
the countries of Belarus (60% of fallout), the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Initial
identification of the event actually came from a Swedish nuclear power plant radiation
alarm 1000 miles away that detected the drifting radioactive fallout “cloud” from the
event. Initial evacuation and potassium iodide treatment of downwind residents was also
markedly delayed.
December 2008 Version 2.0 Page 375