ABSTRACT
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant is situated next to the river Pripyat, which is an important component of the Dnieper river-reservoir system, one of the largest surface water systems in Europe (Fig. 1). After the Chernobyl accident in April 1986, radioactive fallout on the Pripyat and Dnieper catchments threatened to wash downriver into the Kiev Reservoir, a major source of drinking water for the city of Kiev, and to other areas downstream where the river-reservoir system is also used for significant fisheries and irrigation. The radioactive contamination of aquatic systems, therefore, became a major issue in the immediate aftermath of Chernobyl.[1-3] In this entry, we will outline the major impacts of the accident on water resources, covering contamination of rivers, lakes, and reservoirs as well as uptake to fish and impacts on ground-and irrigation waters.
