Editor's Summary
20 April 2006
Twenty years on
On 28 April 1986 the Soviet Union acknowledged that there had been an accident in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine two days earlier. This week's cover shows a helicopter crew monitoring radioactivity above the damaged reactor 4 later that summer. In a series of pieces in this issue we chart the costs of Chernobyl, the world's worst peacetime nuclear accident, in terms of human lives and ecological damage. And with the perspective of 20 years, it's time also to assess the prospects for nuclear energy in the twenty-first century. In a Commentary anticipating the UN agencies' forthcoming Chernobyl report, Dillwyn Williams and Keith Baverstock stress the importance of comprehensive health monitoring of populations in the most affected areas of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Without it, the nuclear power industry will never overcome the public suspicion that is a lasting legacy of Chernobyl.
News: Special Report: Counting the dead
Twenty years after the worst nuclear accident in history, arguments over the death toll of Chernobyl are as politically charged as ever, reports Mark Peplow.
doi:10.1038/440982a
News Feature: Nuclear power: Chernobyl and the future: when the price is right
Once touted as too cheap to meter, nuclear power has become too costly to build. But the economics may be shifting, finds Jim Giles.
doi:10.1038/440984a
News Feature: Nuclear waste: Chernobyl and the future: Forward planning
The global future of nuclear power may rest in large part on local politics, reports Geoff Brumfiel.
doi:10.1038/440987a
Commentary: Chernobyl and the future: Too soon for a final diagnosis
Twenty years ago, the nuclear accident at Chernobyl exposed hundreds of thousands of people to radioactive fallout. We still have much to learn about its consequences, argue Dillwyn Williams and Keith Baverstock.
doi:10.1038/440993a