Questions on Text A

1. What is a man-made disaster?

2. What consequences are caused by man-made disasters?

3. How are man-made disasters classified?

4. What are technological hazards divided into?

5. Which hazardous materials do you know?

6. Radiological materials are the most hazardous, aren’t they?

7. How many categories are transport accidents divided into?

8. Could you name any sociological hazards?

9. What are the reasons of man-made disasters?

10. Does the material damage and human losses depend on the geographical location?

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Text B

Consequences of the Chernobyl Catastrophe

The Chernobyl disaster occurred on 26 April 1986. It happened due to nuclear explosion at the Chernobyl Power Plant in Ukraine. The explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, which spread over European countries. It is widely considered to be the worst nuclear power plant accident in history. Over 500,000 workers were involved in the decontamination of the area and in averting consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe.

The amount of radioactive materials was four hundred times more than the number of radioactive materials released by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Approximately 100,000 km² of land was contaminated with fallout, the worst hit regions being in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Slighter levels of contamination were detected over all of Europe except for the Iberian Peninsula.

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant is located next to the Pripyat River, which feeds into the Dnieper River reservoir system, one of the largest surface water systems in Europe. The radioactive contamination of aquatic systems therefore became a major problem in the immediate aftermath of the accident. After the disaster, four square kilometers of pine forest turned reddish-brown and died. Some animals in the worst-hit areas also died or stopped reproducing.

The radiation dose received by the inhabitants of the affected areas was mostly internal, due to the oral intake of contaminated food, especially home produced milk, wild fruits and mushrooms. The highest doses were absorbed by the clean-up workers (liquidators) and the inhabitants of the most contaminated communities. According to OCHA, up to nine million people were and are affected by the devastating results of the Chernobyl catastrophe. Independent epidemiological studies established a significant rising all types of cancer, as well as thousands of deaths, a sharp increase in the number of stillbirths and childhood mortality, a growing number of birth defects and genetic abnormalities, disturbance and retardation of mental development.

To cope with consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe the Chernobyl Recovery and Development Programme (CRDP) was launched in 2003. The main goal of the CRDP’s activities is supporting the Government of Ukraine in mitigating long-term social, economic and ecological consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe.

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 823