During the first twenty years after the accident, approximately 5,000 cases of thyroid cancer were registered in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus among those who were younger than eighteen at the time of the explosion. In Ukraine, in the first five years after the disaster, cases of cancer among children increased by more than 90 percent. Current estimates place it between the 4,000 deaths estimated by United Nations agencies in 2005 and the 90,000 suggested by Greenpeace International.
But the ultimate Chernobyl mortality toll, though difficult to estimate, may yet turn out to be significantly higher. It has been claimed that a total of 50 people died of acute radiation syndrome, and that 4,000 may die in the future of radiation-related causes. Out of these, 134 showed symptoms of acute radiation syndrome. Altogether, 237 people were airlifted from Chernobyl to Moscow and treated in the special clinic there.
Whereas the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki claimed close to 200,000 immediate victims - more than 100,000 killed and the rest injured - the Chernobyl explosion caused 2 immediate deaths and 29 deaths from acute radiation sickness in the course of the next three months. In terms of direct deaths attributable to the accident, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster turned out to be anything but a highly destructive force.
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