September 06, 2005
Ukraine: New Report Says Chornobyl's Final Death Toll To Reach 4,000
by Golnaz Esfandiari
Site of the disaster
![]()
Although exact figures have been elusive, some experts have long estimated that the death toll stemming from the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine could reach the tens or even hundreds of thousands. But according to a new report, the number of total eventual victims may be far lower than those grim estimates -- that is, around 4,000. RFE/RL reports on the new findings by the Chernobyl Forum, a group that includes experts from eight United Nations agencies.
Prague, 6 September 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Nearly two decades after the world's worst nuclear accident, a new UN report concludes that its consequences were not as dire as predicted.
The Chernobyl Forum report says that so far, some 50 people have been killed as a result of the explosion at Ukraine's Chornobyl power plant. Most were rescue workers who died within months of the accident because of exposure to high doses of radiation.
"Early on, the people who worked in the reactor and so on, there were about 30 deaths acutely from the accident and about another 20 have died over the next two years," World Health Organization expert Dr. Fred Mettler, one of the authors of the report, said.
Chornobyl's Reactor 4 exploded on 26 April 1986, sending a cloud of radiation over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and much of Europe. The report finds that more than 600,000 people received high levels of exposure, including reactor staff, emergency and recovery personnel, and residents of the nearby areas. But it says that claims that tens or even hundreds of thousands of people died as a result of the accident are exaggerated.
Mettler told RFE/RL that the final death toll from the accident could reach up to 4,000 people. "There are about 4,000 children who got thyroid cancer and to date between about nine to 15 of those have died. That's a slow-growing disease so there may be some more that may in fact die from that," he said. "Then there's the issue of cancers and how many have died is mostly a projection based on dose and risk and the number for the people living in the highly contaminated areas and the people who were highly exposed is projected to be about 4,000 cases."