HIS 100 Module One Activity

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Southern New Hampshire University *

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History

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Dec 6, 2023

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HIS 100 Module One Activity: Project Topic Exploration. Identify the topic you chose to explore:  I have always been interested in the Chernobyl Nuclear accident. I will be focusing on that. Explain what you already know about the chosen topic based on your personal history or experiences.  I was watching television on 26 April 1986 when the first rumblings of something happening in the Soviet Union around the Chernobyl nuclear plant. As I was 15 at the time, it piqued my interest. The initial emergency response involved more than 500,000 personal and initial costs ran about 18 billion roubles (roughly $68 billion in US currency). Chernobyl is listed as the worst nuclear disaster in history. As I learned a while later, the accident occurred during a test of the steam turbine’s ability to power the emergency pumps in the event of a simultaneous loss of external and a coolant pipe failure. Following the disaster, the city of Pripyat was completely evacuated (approx. 49,000 people). Later the exclusion zone was increased to 19-mile radius, displacing another 68,000 people (Wikipedia, 17 October 2023). A wildly cited study conducted by the World Health Organization in 2006 predicted 9,000 cancer-related deaths in Russa, Ukraine, and Belarus (Wikipedia, 17 October 2023). Describe the beliefs, assumptions, and values you have related to the topic chosen.

 As of today, the area around Pripyat is still highly contaminated. Tours are being held that go into Pripyat but only last about 12 hours due to the contamination. My one concern is how many lives were lost in the first months. The Soviet Union would never release the total numbers of those injured or killed. The most agreed upon number of assistance workers is 600,000. The government says only 31 were killed in the blast and the firefighting efforts later on. There are studies that were made that have total deaths of 240,000. Civilian deaths were estimated in the tens of thousands due to lasting effects of radiation poisoning and cancer diagnosis (Wikipedia, 24 October 2023). In a factory in Chernihiv, northern Ukraine, the radiation was found to be very toxic, in fact, most workers would have an almost lethal dose in their eight-hour shift (BBC Future, 25 July 2019). Explain why this topic is relevant to current events or to modern society.  Chernobyl continues to expel radiation. The 19-mile exclusion zone will be uninhabitable for between 20 years and several thousands of years (Newsweek, 26 April 2018). There are several reports that say the area around Chernobyl will be uninhabitable for 20,000 years. With the war now raging in the area of the Chernobyl exclusion site, it could stir up radioactive soil and plant material making it dangerous for decades to come. Even those living outside the exclusion zone still are effected with higher risk of cancer. We can not really understand the immense disaster if another one of those reactors melts down. Probably unlivable for 40,000 years. References

BBC Future, (25 July 2019). Gray, Richard. The True Toll of the Chernobyl Disaster. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190725-will-we-ever-know-chernobyls- true-death-toll Glowatz, Elana. Newsweek 90, (26 April 2018). When Will Chernobyl Be Live Able? Facts on the Anniversary of the Soviet Nuclear Disaster. Retrieved from https://www.newsweek.com/when-chernobyl-livable-facts-anniversary-soviet-nuclear-disaster- 902831 Wikipedia. (13 October 2023). Chernobyl. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl Wikipedia (24 October 2023). Chernobyl, Deaths Due to the Chernobyl Disaster. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_due_to_the_Chernobyl_disaster

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HIS 100 Module One Activity

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