Legacy of Chernobyl

To this day there are still 11 RBMK reactors that are fully functional. In total, over 200,000 people were relocated because of the disaster. At first, the government actions seemed inadequate but in time they would take extensive safety measures including; decontaminating settlements, removing certain affected foods from human consumption, and providing clean food for livestock. In the months after the explosion attention turned to removing the radioactive debris from the roof.

While the worst of the radioactive debris had remained inside what was left of the reactor, it was estimated that there was approximately 100 tons of debris on that roof which had to be removed to enable the safe construction of the 'sarcophagus'—a concrete structure that would entomb the reactor and reduce radioactive dust being released into the atmosphere. The Soviets used approximately 60 remote-controlled robots, most of them built in the Soviet Union itself. Many failed due to the difficult terrain, combined with the effect of high radiation fields on their batteries and electronic controls. In 1987, Valery Legasov, said: "We learned that robots are not the great remedy for everything. Where there was very high radiation, the robot ceased to be a robot—the electronics quit working." To this day there is radiation at the Chernobyl site and they created the sarcophagus in order to contain radiation. They also created laws to make working at the power plant safer and educating workers. Also they created laws to notify the government and public.