2007
21 April: In Science of Superstorms, a BBC2 documentary Russian military pilots
describe how they create rain clouds to protect Moscow from radioactive fallout after the
Chernobyl disaster. More than 10,000 km2 of Belarus were sacrificed to save the Russian
capital from toxic radioactive material.
23 April: A study of birds around Chernobyl suggests that nuclear fallout,
rather than the impact of relocation and stress and deteriorating living conditions, as
suggested by the IAEA, may be responsible for human birth defects in the region. Timothy
Mousseau, at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, and his colleagues examined 7700 barn
swallows from Chernobyl and compared them with birds from elsewhere. They found that Chernobyl's
swallows were more likely to have tumours, misshapen toes and feather deformities than swallows
from uncontaminated parts of Europe. "We don't fully understand the consequences of low doses
of radiation," says Mousseau. "We should be more concerned about the human population."
2 June: The impact of the Chernobyl disaster is often seen as a problem in Belarus,
Ukraine and Russia. The medical effects of Chernobyl disaster, however, have spread all around
the world. Courier-Life Publications reports on a story of a New York based medical specialist:
"There are between 150 and 200 thousand people in the NY metropolitan area who come from the
affected region, and the 'cancer rates are going up and up'"
4 June: The incidence of cancer in northern Sweden increased following the accident
at Chernobyl. This was the finding of a much-debated study from Linköping University in Sweden
from 2004. Two studies using different methods has shown a statistically significant increase
in the incidence of cancer in northern Sweden, where the fallout of radioactive cesium-137 was
at its most intense.
16 August: Swedish children born in the months following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster
suffered mental impairment from the radioactive fallout, a study found. The report by economists
Douglas Almond and Lena Edlund from Columbia University, New York, and their Stockholm University
colleague Mårten Palme carried out an analysis of more than 560,000 Swedish children born between
1983 and 1988. They found that academic performance was generally weaker in all children still in
utero at the time of maternal exposure to Chernobyl fallout, and this effect was most pronounced
for those foetuses at 8 to 25 weeks post conception. This is the peak period of brain development
when cells may be particularly vulnerable to being killed by relatively low doses of radiation.
The researchers say it appears prenatal exposure to radiation levels previously considered safe
was actually damaging to cognitive ability.
17 September: The French-led consortium Novarka signs a contract to build a new Shelter
around the site of Reactor 4 for more than Euro 430 million. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko
and the French trade minister, Herve Novelli, oversee the signing by the consortium, which includes
French builders Bouygues and Vinci. The consortium will build an arch-shaped metal structure 105m
tall, 260m wide and 150m long to cover the existing containment structure, which stands over the
reactor and radioactive fuel that caused the accident. The new sarcophagus will weigh about 18,000
tons -- more than twice the weight of the Eiffel tower and will resemble a half-cylinder and slide
over the existing sarcophagus. [pictures] According to official estimates, the reactor still contains about
95% of the original nuclear fuel from the plant. The EBRD is contributing Euro 330 million (about
US$460m.) to the project and says it will take about 1,5 years to design the shelter and another
four years to build it.
Officials also signed a US$200m contract with the US firm Holtec International to build a
storage facility for spent nuclear fuel from Chernobyl's NPP three other reactors, which kept
operating until the station was shut down in 2000.
14 December: The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
launch an appeal for their Chernobyl
Humanitarian Assistance and Rehabilitation Programme (CHARP) for the period 2008-2009.
2008
23 February: Publication of "Anecdotes and empirical research in Chernobyl" by
researchers from the Royal Society in Biology Letters. The scientists mop the floor with all
the studies on the consequences of Chernobyl that has been done so far and have received wide
attention by the international media. They state: "Although Chernobyl is perhaps the largest
environmental disaster ever, there has been minimal monitoring of the status of free-living
organisms or humans in stark contrast to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where careful monitoring has
continued for over 60 years." And asking themselves: "Why has there been no concerted effort
to monitor the long-term effects of Chernobyl on free-living organisms and humans?" Further
on: "The official reports by IAEA, WHO and UNDP were narrative renditions of parts of the
literature [..]. Scientific enquiry depends on rigorous analysis of data rather than rendition
of anecdotal evidence." [read more]
5 March: Atomstroyexport has begun work to extend the service life of the Chernobyl
protective concrete shelter. This contract envisages the repair of the roof over the confinement,
installation of protection systems, and the reinforcement of supporting beams. The project will
buy time for the next stage: the construction of a new confinement, or arc. The project moderator
is the International Chernobyl Shelter Fund and is financed by the G8 and European Union countries.
The EBRD has already accumulated US$1b. for the project.
April: The English Edition of Le Monde Diplomatique states in a background article:
"For 50 years dangerous concentrations of radionuclides have been
accumulating in earth, air and water from weapons testing and reactor incidents. Yet serious studies
of the effects of radiation on health have been obscured - not least by the World Health Organisation."
The whole article, entitled Chernobyl: the great cover-up, can be found
here.
25 April: The Food Standards Agency Wales reveals that up to 359 Welsh farms are still operating under restrictions imposed in the wake of Chernobyl, almost 22 years after reactor 4 went into meltdown. Heavy rain washed radioactive material from clouds onto fields.
The radiation is absorbed from the soil by plants, which are then eaten by sheep.
For the hundreds of Welsh farmers still living with Chernobyl's legacy, the restrictions mean their
animals are only allowed to enter the food chain after rigorous safety tests.
26 April: Ukraine pays homage to victims of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, 22 years
after the disaster. "The Chernobyl catastrophe became planetary and even now continues to take its
toll on people's health and the environment," the Health Ministry said in a statement.
Activists from across Russia, Ukraine and Belarus turned out in force in urban centers across the
former Soviet republics to hold ceremonies commemorating 22nd anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster
and express outrage at Russia's current nuclear plans.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon marks the anniversary by pledging UN assistance for the stricken region's renewal.
In a statement to mark the anniversary, he notes that the UN General Assembly has proclaimed 2006-2016 a
"decade of recovery and sustainable development" for the Chernobyl area.
2 October: Researchers from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, have tracked
the Chernobyl fallout to reveal that much more plutonium was found in the Swedish soil at a depth that
corresponded with the nuclear explosion than that of Poland. They took soil samples in various locations
in the two countries, measuring the presence and location of cesium-137, plutonium (239, 240Pu), and
lead-210Pb. Radionuclides occur in soil both from natural processes and as fallout from nuclear testing.
The collected soil samples reveal insights based on several conditions, such as how the radionuclides
were delivered to the soil, whether from a one-time event like the Chernobyl disaster or from atmospheric
bomb testing. As the team examined a range of soil types from the two countries, they found a spike in
239, 240Pu in Sweden's soil at a depth that coincides with the Chernobyl disaster, yet no similar blip in
Poland's soil. Meteorological research showed that it rained in Sweden while the radioactive cloud was over
that country. Leeched of much of its radionuclides, much less plutonium fell on Poland when the cloud later
crossed over its borders.
2009
30 January:President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko signs the law on the government program for
decommissioning of the Chernobyl NPP, and transformation of the Shelter confinement facility into a safer object.
The law, coming into force on January 1, 2010, says the nuclear plant will be finally shut down by 2065.
The decommissioning will take four phases. The nuclear fuel rods will be removed in 2010-2013 and the
reactor systems will be put in dead storage in 2013-2022. After a cool down of the reactor systems in
2022-2045, the systems will be demounted in 2045-2065 concurrently with decontamination of the nuclear power
plant's site.
2010
January: 'Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the
Environment' written by Alexey Yablokov, Vassily Nesterenko and Alexey Nesterenko
is published by the New York Academy of Sciences. The book is in contrast to findings by
the WHO, IAEA and United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation
(UNSCEAR) who based their findings on some 300 western research papers, and who found little
of concern about the fallout from Chernobyl.
While the most apparent human and environmental damage occurred, and continues to
occur, in the Ukraine, Belarus and European Russia, more than 50 percent of the total
radioactivity spread across the entire northern hemisphere, potentially contaminating some 400 million
people. Based on 5000 published articles and studies by multiple researchers and observers,
mostly available only in Slavic languages and not available to those outside of the
former Soviet Union or Eastern bloc countries, the authors estimated that by 2004, some 985,000
deaths worldwide had been caused by the disaster.
All life systems that were studied - humans, voles, livestock, birds, fish, plants, mushrooms,
bacteria, viruses, etc., with few exceptions, were changed by radioactive fallout, many
irreversibly. Increased cancer incidence is not the only observed adverse effect from the
Chernobyl fallout - noted also are birth defects, pregnancy losses, accelerated aging, brain
damage, heart, endocrine, kidney, gastrointestinal and lung diseases, and cataracts among
the young. Children have been most seriously affected - before the radioactive Chernobyl
releases, 80% of children were deemed healthy, now in some areas, only 20% of children are
considered healthy. Many have poor development, learning disabilities, and endocrine abnormalities.
September: Clearance of the assembly site for the New Safe Confinement (NSC) right
next to the shelter of Unit 4 and excavation work for the foundations have been completed. Pilling for
the foundations and the lifting cranes started.
Funds for the construction of the NSC are still lacking. The completion of the Shelter
Implementation Plan, of which the NSC represents about two thirds of total costs,
requires an additional 600 million euro, with current overall cost estimates about 1.6 billion
euro. So, despite all positive reports on financial contributions and donor-countries, fact
is that only 60% of the necessary funds have been collected. A 'pledging event' will take
place in Kiev in April to coincide with the 25th Anniversary of the accident.
2011
January: Ukraine's Emergencies Ministry legalizes tourist tours to Chernobyl and Pripyat. Visitors
have to sign a waiver, exempting the tour operator from all responsibility in the event
that they later suffer radiation-related health problems. Driven round at breakneck speed, and told
not to touch any of the irradiated vegetation or metal structures, "tourists" are invited
to briefly inspect the stricken number four reactor as the Geiger counter, which guides
carry, clicks ever higher. The most arresting "attraction" is not the ruined plant, however, but
nearby Pripyat. Visitors can walk through the debris-strewn corridors of its Palace of
Culture, admire its crumbling Olympic-sized swimming pool, and wander through the empty
classrooms of one of its biggest schools.
4 February: Birds living around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear accident have
5% smaller brains, an effect directly linked to lingering background radiation. The finding
comes from a study of 550 birds belonging to 48 different species living in the region. Evidence
for developmental errors in the nervous systems of people exposed to radiation is
widespread, including reduced head size and brain damage. Low levels of ionizing radiation cause
changes in both central and autonomous nervous systems and can cause radiogenic encephalopathy.
Electroencephalographic studies revealed changes in brain structure and cognitive disorders.
However, psychological effects of radiation from Chernobyl have recently been attributed to
post-traumatic stress rather than developmental errors, and increased levels of neural tube
defects in contaminated areas may be ascribed to low-dose radiation, folate deficiencies or
prenatal alcohol teratogenesis. Surprisingly, studies of high school performance and cognitive
abilities among children from contaminated areas in Scandinavia that were in utero during
the Chernobyl disaster show reductions in high school attendance, have lower exam results
and reduced IQ scores compared to control groups. These cognitive effects are assumed to
be due to developmental errors in neural tissue caused by radiation during early pregnancy.
20 June: The zone is closed to tourists as trips are suspended. The prosecutor
general’s office conducts checks and rules that the Emergencies Ministry has broken the law by
operating trips as well as making an unhealthy profit. With every tourist to the zone paying
around a US $100 for entry the Ministry has a turnover of millions dollars every year.
The Emergencies Ministry files a lawsuit in a bid to resume tours to the contaminated zone.
25 November: A Kiev court officially bans tours to Chernobyl and its surroundings. Officials
rule that the Emergencies Ministry does not have the right to authorise trips to Chernobyl
without permission from the Interior Ministry.