Facts We May Not Know About Chernobyl Disaster

The Death Toll

In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, it was reported that only 2 people were killed. Eventually, an official report released in the second half of 1986 stated that 31 people had died as a direct result to the explosion, due to acute radiation poisoning or explosion trauma. However, some reports state that somewhere between 40,000 to 90,000 people died prematurely as a direct result of the radiation released.

Regardless of the number, evidence has shown that thyroid cancer risk doubled in unborn children per gray of radiation absorbed.