Active Vocabulary to Text a

error	- ошибка
failure	- повреждение
arson	- поджог
dam	- дамба
impact	- воздействие
to claim	- уносить жизни
to mitigate	- смягчать
to result in	- приводить к
hazardous	- опасный
huge	- огромный

Text A

Man-made disasters

Man-made disasters are disasters which are caused by human actions. They often occur as a result of human error or failure and other factors. Man-made disasters result in huge loss of life and property. They can be divided into different categories, such as technological hazards and sociological hazards.

Technological hazards are divided into industrial ones, structural collapse, fire, the release of hazardous materials and transport accidents. Industrial disasters often have a huge environmental impact. For example, the Chernobyl disaster is regarded as the worst nuclear catastrophe in history of mankind.

Structural collapses are often caused by engineering failures. They include bridge failures, dam failures, mining accidents etc.

Fires are generally started by lightning, as well as careless human actions or arson. Fires can burn the areas of thousands square kilometers.

Man-made disasters are accidents, which result in release of hazardous materials that include biological, chemical and radiological ones. The radiological materials are the most hazardous.

Transport accidents are divided into several categories which include aviation, rail, road and sea accidents. They often occur as a result of human actions. Over the years they have claimed thousands of human lives.

Sociological hazards include civilian disorder, terrorist acts, war conflicts, etc.

The extent of human and material losses depends on a range of factors, such as the geographical location they occur in. In a densely populated area and in a wealthy country, material losses can be huge, in a poorer country the material damage being relatively small. But the poorer countries have more victims than the richer ones have.

To prevent, respond to and mitigate consequences of man-made disasters many international organizations have been established. These are ICDO, EMERCOM of Russia, FEMA, OCHA, ICRC, UNO, etc.

Questions on Text a

1. What is a man-made disaster?

2. What consequences are caused by man-made disasters?

3. How are man-made disasters classified?

4. What are technological hazards divided into?

5. Which hazardous materials do you know?

6. Radiological materials are the most hazardous, aren’t they?

7. How many categories are transport accidents divided into?

8. Could you name any sociological hazards?

9. What are the reasons of man-made disasters?

10. Does the material damage and human losses depend on the geographical location?

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Text b Consequences of the Chernobyl Catastrophe

The Chernobyl disaster occurred on 26 April 1986. It happened due to nuclear explosion at the Chernobyl Power Plant in Ukraine. The explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, which spread over European countries. It is widely considered to be the worst nuclear power plant accident in history. Over 500,000 workers were involved in the decontamination of the area and in averting consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe.

The amount of radioactive materials was four hundred times more than the number of radioactive materials released by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Approximately 100,000 km² of land was contaminated with fallout, the worst hit regions being in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Slighter levels of contamination were detected over all of Europe except for the Iberian Peninsula.

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant is located next to the Pripyat River, which feeds into the Dnieper River reservoir system, one of the largest surface water systems in Europe. The radioactive contamination of aquatic systems therefore became a major problem in the immediate aftermath of the accident. After the disaster, four square kilometers of pine forest turned reddish-brown and died. Some animals in the worst-hit areas also died or stopped reproducing.

The radiation dose received by the inhabitants of the affected areas was mostly internal, due to the oral intake of contaminated food, especially home produced milk, wild fruits and mushrooms. The highest doses were absorbed by the clean-up workers (liquidators) and the inhabitants of the most contaminated communities. According to OCHA, up to nine million people were and are affected by the devastating results of the Chernobyl catastrophe. Independent epidemiological studies established a significant rising all types of cancer, as well as thousands of deaths, a sharp increase in the number of stillbirths and childhood mortality, a growing number of birth defects and genetic abnormalities, disturbance and retardation of mental development.

To cope with consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe the Chernobyl Recovery and Development Programme (CRDP) was launched in 2003. The main goal of the CRDP’s activities is supporting the Government of Ukraine in mitigating long-term social, economic and ecological consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe.