Chernobyl, Ukraine--Ten years after the world's worst nuclear accident, scientists are confident that they know what triggered the accident, and they are beginning to get a picture of its legacy of health effects. But the nature of the explosion itself and the subsequent release of radioactivity are still a matter of debate. In particular, between 10 and 50 tons of the uranium oxide fuel are still unaccounted for. Some researchers are concerned that fuel in the warren of rooms beneath the reactor could become critical if it is exposed to water, but the risk is uncertain because they don't know how much fuel remains in the building.
Volume 272, Number 5260, Issue of 19 April 1996, pp. 352-354
Research into the health effects of the Chernobyl accident has become a major international enterprise, and scientists pursue the opportunity to study the effects of long-term exposure to low levels of radioactivity. The studies are, however, hampered by initial secrecy about the accident and the difficulties of reconstructing individual dose rates.
Volume 272, Number 5260, Issue of 19 April 1996, pp. 355-356
Paris--The most pronounced health impact on the general population of exposure to radiation from the Chernobyl accident is a sharp increase in childhood thyroid cancer in the most contaminated regions. The increase surprised many researchers because it began earlier and was much larger than expected. This has led some researchers to wonder whether some groups in the exposed population are genetically susceptible to radiation damage.
Volume 272, Number 5260, Issue of 19 April 1996, pp. 357-360
Research into the health effects of the Chernobyl accident has become a major international enterprise, and scientists pursue the opportunity to study the effects of long-term exposure to low levels of radioactivity. The studies are, however, hampered by initial secrecy about the accident and the difficulties of reconstructing individual dose rates.
Volume 272, Number 5260, Issue of 19 April 1996, pp. 355-356
Three major international efforts to look for changes in the incidence of leukemia and solid tumors in populations exposed to fallout from Chernobyl have so far been unable to detect any increases. The work is, however, hampered by poor record-keeping in some republics and the difficulties of reconstructing radiation dose rates. Monitoring must be continued for several more years before any definitive conclusions can be reached.
Volume 272, Number 5260, Issue of 19 April 1996, p. 358
Some 800,000 people who participated in the initial efforts to contain the accident and in cleaning up the aftermath have been exposed to high radiation levels. They would be an ideal population to study, but the work is hampered by problems in the data on how much radiation they received.
Volume 272, Number 5260, Issue of 19 April 1996, p. 360