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How the Chernobyl disaster affected the UK
Between April 25 and 26, 1986, the No. 4 Reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was in turmoil: the tragic irony results of a safety test simulating the incident.
Located in the now abandoned Ukraine town of Pripyat, the dead reactor spewed large amounts of radioactive debris and smoke into the atmosphere.
This will be humanity's worst nuclear disaster (to date) and it will have a profound effect on the surrounding landscape.
It is estimated that the explosion released four hundred times more radioactive material into the atmosphere than the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.
Despite being more than 1,600 miles apart, the UK feels the effects of Chernobyl's radioactive cloud.
"Mark and release" sheep
The impact of this was felt most severe in Wales, Scotland and some northern districts of England such as Cumbria, all of whom experienced heavy rain as a radioactive cloud passed through it.
Due to this radioactive rain, the sheep grazing fields in these areas were moderately polluted, and the sheep raised there were therefore at risk of radioactive contamination.
The British Food Standards Agency (FSA), has imposed restrictions on 9,800 farms in the UK, most of which are located in Wales and Cumbria.
Because radioactive particles are locked in upland peat in these areas, the sheep grazing on them must be supervised by the farmer.
Before being moved down from high ground for sale, sheep must be tested for Cesium-137 concentrations by the FSA.
The farmers were paid an additional £ 1.30 per animal by the FSA to compensate for the time it took to inspect them further, something known as a "Mark and Drop" restriction.
The last “Mark and Release” restrictions were lifted only on the last eight sheep farms in Cumbria and the last 327 Welsh sheep farms in 2012, ending lamb uncertainty.
Loch Ness
One site where the effects of radioactive rains in Chernobyl still exist today is the famous Loch Ness in Scotland.
Better known for being home to the long-standing urban legend of the Loch Ness monster, or Nessie, this Scottish lake holds a perpetual reminder of the Chernobyl Catastrophe.
A study of the polluting effects of acid rain on Loch Ness over the years saw a sediment core taken in 170 meters of water and analyzed by a team of scientists at University College London.
Part of the analysis is done on sediment including testing proven positive radioisotopes.
These radioisotopes were analyzed and found to correlate with those released from the Chernobyl disaster, showing that its effects still exist today.
In short
Although the UK was fortunate that the UK was not in immediate and serious danger from the Chernobyl Catastrophe, the fact that the effects were far away still indicated the extent of the explosion.
More than that, it really does offer the prospect of how our little world is truly interconnected, and how we affect the atmosphere for all of us.
