The utilisation of nuclear energy entails, like any other human activity, risk of occurrence of accidents and emergencies. On Saturday 26th April 1986 early morning in the fourth block of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine occurred the biggest industrial accident in the peace usage of nuclear energy. It led to a vast leakage of radioactive debris to the wide surrounding area. An accident of such extent has never been thought possible before and it has surprised national authorities responsible for emergency preparedness practically in all counties operating nuclear power plants. It was crucial to prepare and introduce many countermeasures to restrict exposure of persons and environment to radiation. The most affected countries have been today{\crq}s Byelorussia, Russia and Ukraine. Although international instructions and criteria for failure actions had existed even before the Chernobyl accident, the experience with their application was very limited. Needless to say, some short-term countermeasures had been neglected or insufficiently realised. Inhabitants were not informed about the accident in time and therefore they hid late. Also iodine prophylaxis did not start in time, which led to unnecessarily high irradiation of thyroid gland. The evacuation was, in view of decreasing external exposure, executed within possibilities efficiently. As for the long-term countermeasures related not only to the liquidation of the aftermath of the accident in the area of the nuclear power plant but especially the decontamination works in residential units and on contaminated soils, regulation of food chains and relocation of persons from the affected areas, preventive and health care of the inhabitants living in the contaminated territory - these measures were massive in scope and in principle mostly reasoned and effective. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of some of these measures was somewhat deteriorated by the fact they were introduced area-wide (only on the basis of the surface contamination and not on the estimation of exposure from whole-body measurements), were not fully substantiated and later had to by cancelled for economical reasons. Not only economical factors play an important role in the planning and application of the countermeasures (mainly long-term ones). Without question it is necessary to secure that the measures can be applied in the contaminated areas in view of their effectiveness in sufficient extent for time long enough and after a thorough evaluation of all pros and cons, expenses and gains. As well, it is needed to take into consideration the effect of social and psychological factors, where in practise a satisfactory progress has not been made yet. Many studies proved that the introduction of countermeasures affects the increase of psychosocial tension among the involved people. This negative attitude results from the public{\crq}s lack of information about radiation and about the possibilities of its reduction and consequent fear and anxiety due to the uncertainty regarding future. Because of the concealment of information about the Chernobyl accident, also distrust of citizens against authorities has remained to be a problem. However, the approach of public is very important in regard to the effectiveness of countermeasures. In order that the measures would be accepted as well as possible, it is needed to secure corresponding education programs and to engage public into discussions and decision-making within the introduced measures.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:45774 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | ROTREKLOVÁ, Tereza |
| Source Sets | Czech ETDs |
| Language | Czech |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
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