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Local effects. Surrounding wildlife and fauna were drastically affected by Chernobyl's explosions. Coniferous trees, which are plentiful in the surrounding landscape, were heavily affected due to their biological sensitivity to radiation exposure. Within days of the initial explosion many pine trees in a 4 km radius died, with lessening yet ...
e. Nuclear fallout is residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. [1] It commonly refers to the radioactive dust and ash created when a nuclear weapon explodes.
Nuclear fallout is the distribution of radioactive contamination by the 520 atmospheric nuclear explosions that took place from the 1950s to the 1980s. In nuclear accidents, a measure of the type and amount of radioactivity released, such as from a reactor containment failure, is known as the source term.
e. Since the mid-20th century, plutonium in the environment has been primarily produced by human activity. The first plants to produce plutonium for use in Cold War atomic bombs were the Hanford nuclear site, in Washington, and Mayak nuclear plant, in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. Over a period of four decades, [1] "both released more than 200 ...
Nuclear power has various environmental impacts, both positive and negative, including the construction and operation of the plant, the nuclear fuel cycle, and the effects of nuclear accidents. Nuclear power plants do not burn fossil fuels and so do not directly emit carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide emitted during mining, enrichment ...
This effect is most important for altitudes above 30 km, corresponding to less than 1 percent of sea-level air density. The effects of a moderate rain storm during an Operation Castle nuclear explosion were found to dampen, or reduce, peak pressure levels by approximately 15% at all ranges.
A nuclear and radiation accident is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "an event that has led to significant consequences to people, the environment or the facility." Examples include lethal effects to individuals, large radioactivity release to the environment, or a reactor core melt. [6]
Effects of the Chernobyl disaster. The 1986 Chernobyl disaster triggered the release of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere in the form of both particulate and gaseous radioisotopes. As of 2024, it was the world's largest known release of radioactivity into the environment.