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Chernobyl and the future

Too soon for a final diagnosis

Nature volume 440, pages 993–994 (2006)Cite this article

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.

The radiation exposure from the Chernobyl accident differed greatly from that created by the atomic bombs in Japan, yet only fragmented studies have tracked the human consequences of Chernobyl, in contrast to the coordinated approach of Japan's Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (now the Radiation Effects Research Foundation). Without a similar approach, speculation about Chernobyl's human cost will be unconstrained by hard evidence, and interested parties will be able to exaggerate or underplay the consequences.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Thyroid Carcinogenesis Research Group, Strangeways Research Laboratories, Worts Causeway, Cambridge, CB1 8RN, UK

    Dillwyn Williams

  2. Department of Environmental Science, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, 70211, Finland

    Keith Baverstock

Authors
  1. Dillwyn Williams
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  2. Keith Baverstock
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Williams, D., Baverstock, K. Too soon for a final diagnosis. Nature 440, 993–994 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/440993a

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