Epidemiological survey of the medical consequences of the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine.

The characteristics of the contamination resulting from the Chernobyl accident are defined, as a basis for epidemiological investigations. Due to loss of integrity of the nuclear fuel and thermal buoyancy from fire and nuclear heating, a large quantity of radioisotopes were released over a period of up to 16 days. The areas affected were very large, 37 million hectares in Ukraine alone.