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- Chernobyl is widely considered one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters due to its release of radioactive contaminants across Europe.
- The water and soil near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is still contaminated, and local children have experienced health problems like enlarged thyroids, cancer, and respiratory illnesses.
- Last month, the head of Russia’s environmental safety agency warned that an abandoned Usolyekhimprom chemical plant in southeast Russia could trigger a similar environmental catastrophe.
- The plant still holds mercury, oil waste, and unknown chemicals, which environmental officials worry could spread into the air, soil, and water in the event of a fire or flood.
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Three days after the disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on April 26, 1986, Soviet officials informed the public that an accident that had killed two people was "stabilized" and "under control."
By that time, an explosion had released toxic radioactive particles into the air. A subsequent fire then spread that radiation for miles across Europe.
The accident wound up being one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters, with environmental consequences that linger to this day. Water and soil near the plant are still contaminated, and children currently living in the area have seen health problems such as enlarged thyroids, cancer, and respiratory illnesses.
Now, there’s a risk that similar effects could occur in southeast Russia. In late July, Svetlana Radionova, the head of Russia’s environmental safety agency, warned that an abandoned chemical plant in Siberia is brimming with mercury and unknown chemicals.
The plant, she said, is at risk of setting off an "ecological Chernobyl."
Here’s what it looks like today.
The Usolyekhimprom plant used to manufacture chlorine, among other chemicals.
Vladimir Baikalsky/TASS/Getty Images
Usolyekhimprom, a Russian chemical company, owns hundreds of industrial facilities. This particular plant in the Irkutsk region of Siberia opened in 1933. It takes up about 1,500 acres.
The plant shuttered after it went bankrupt in 2017.
Vladimir Baikalsky/TASS/Getty Images
The now-empty plant is located within Usolye-Sibirskoye, a town of more than 80,000 people.
In July, Radionova went on a tour of the abandoned facility.
Vladimir Baikalsky/TASS/Getty Images
Russia’s environmental agency, known as Rosprirodnadzor, monitors actions that may have a negative impact on the environment.
After her tour of the plant, Radionova told the Russian newspaper Izvestia that she had witnessed a "huge, chemically dangerous enterprise" in a "half-destroyed state."
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- ‘Forever chemicals’ have been found in bottled water brands sold at Whole Foods and CVS, and it’s part of a larger contamination problem
- Breast milk could carry harmful chemicals like flame retardants and BPA, but breastfeeding is still the healthiest food source for babies
- Engineers carved a hole in the Empire State Building to make room for a 20-foot replica
SEE ALSO: Parts of the Marshall Islands are now more radioactive than Chernobyl because of US nuclear tests
Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Aria Bendix)