ECOLOGY
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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It killed all life within a 1, 000-mile radius of the meltdown.
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It started a fire that scorched over 1, 000 acres of forest.
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It contaminated a 1, 000-square-mile area with radioactivity.
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It made the area around the reactor uninhabitable for 1, 000 years.
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Detailed explanation-1: -Overall, in plants and animals, when high doses were sustained at relatively close distances from the reactor, there was an increase in mortality and a decrease in reproduction. During the first few years after the accident, plants and animals of the Exclusion Zone showed many genetic effects of radiation.
Detailed explanation-2: -Some 150, 000 square kilometres in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine are contaminated and stretch northward of the plant site as far as 500 kilometres. An area spanning 30 kilometres around the plant is considered the “exclusion zone” and is essentially uninhabited.
Detailed explanation-3: -Levels of radiation at Chernobyl. The radiation levels in the worst-hit areas of the reactor building, including the control room, have been estimated at 300Sv/hr, (300, 000mSv/hr) providing a fatal dose in just over a minute.
Detailed explanation-4: -According to reports from Soviet scientists, 28, 000 square kilometers (km2, or 10, 800 square miles, mi2) were contaminated by caesium-137 to levels greater than 185 kBq per square meter. 830, 000 people lived in this area. About 10, 500 km 2 (4, 000 mi2) were contaminated by caesium-137 to levels greater than 555 kBq/m2.