Chernobyl

 On the 26th of April 1986, a disaster took place somewhere in the Soviet Union. This disaster that took place at the Chernobyl resulted in its nuclear power plants to explode and damage almost everything. Everyone that lived within a 30km radius of the power plant had to be evacuated due to the immense contamination. The power plant explosion was the world’s worst nuclear disaster and it still holds that record as of today. In total, about 350,000 people were forced to leave the area. Many people have left their homes and almost all of their belongings behind. If you were to visit Chernobyl today, I highly recommend that you do not even think about doing so, you will notice nothing but an old town that has sunk and slipped to turn into an abandoned ghost town. 

Many European countries had to face major impacts on both their agricultural and natural ecosystems, however, the countries that were most affected were Russian and Ukraine. The chemicals that were exerted from the blast had resulted in them being exposed to plants and animals. In some of the affected areas, you could find the chemicals in everyday items such as meat, fish, milk and even wood! 

One of the other major impacts on the affected countries was its economy. There were many reasons as to why the economy was impacted hard, I will be listing a few of them:

1) The damage that was caused by the power plant explosion

2) The cost of sealing off the reactor.

3) The cost of relocating those who were forced to evacuate.

4) The health care cost of those who were exposed to the radiation

5) The cost of cleaning up the toxic waste

6) The cost of researching on how to make food that was contaminated safe again

It got to the point where entrepreneurs had a lack of confidence in opening up new business in the area. On top of that, many companies abroad and local didn’t want to take the risk of investing in an area that has dangerous levels of radiation. After all, people would stay away from products that are made in that area. All this cost the affected countries about more than 700 billion dollars 35 years on after the incident.  

                                                                

Chernobyl today is seeing some improvements compared to when it first happened. 21 years ago, in 2000, the last of the reactor was put to rest and shut down. The reactors are now being disposed of its fuel and the surrounding area of the plant is now being decontaminated. Due to the slight improvements, some residents are slowly returning back to the properties and belongings they left behind. Whereas for the wildlife in the area, they did experience mutations when the nuclear plant first exploded; however recently, they have started to thrive again and their numbers are increasing as well. 

As climate change is on the rise, we need to implement environmental regulation to avoid an incident like this to occur again so that ourselves and our children can live a prosperous life.