Chernobyl - the most serious accident in the European history

Hello everybody!

In our latest English lesson we were talking about the Chernobyl Disaster. After watching a documentary about the blast in the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl 30 years ago I want to tell you some important facts about it. It is also known as the most-serious nuclear accident in the European history. Two people died during the night of the blast and 80 people died in the following days.

The people living in Pripyat, four kilometres near the power plant, weren't informed immediatly about the radioactive toxic air but the radioactivity was 50 000 times higher as normal. 38 hours after the accident the government evacuated the whole city. 

Michael Gorbatschow didn't inform the rest of the world until Sweden measured an unusual amount of radioactivity in the air. They informed the bureau of radioacitvity in Vienna. Finally, the Sowjetunion confirmed that there has been a serious accident in the power plant in Chernobyl. As a next step, they decided to send over 600 pilots with helicopters over the reactor, which was still burning, to erase the fire. All of them were contaminated and died because of the radioactivity. 

But there was still the cloud full of toxic radioactivity, the invisible enemy, which drifted over Europe. People were told to stay at home. Everybody was afraid of a second explosion in the power plant and 10 days after the disaster they decided to send the first expert to Chernobyl but the situation was still critical. They wanted to put the water away and this is why they built a tunnel under the power plant. All the animals there died because of the radioactivity. 

2500 dead heroes weren't mentioned in all the statistics. Even 30 years after the accident, the 43000 people who once lived in the city weren't able to return to their homes. Everything is still contaminated and you can only visit the area with special equipment. The accidents repercussions still have effects on the people living near Chernobyl. The rate of cancer increased.

I'm glad living in a country without any power plants.

Regards,

Katja :)