Effects of the Chernobyl disaster children of liquidators conceived after the accident, when compared to their siblings that were conceived before. However, this effect has diminished sharply over time. Soviet authorities started evacuating people from the area around Chernobyl only on the second day after the disaster (after about 36 hours). By May 1986, about a month later, all those living within a radius of the plant (about 116,000 people) had been relocated. This area is often referred to as the zone of alienation. However, significant radiation affected the environment over a much wider scale than this 30 km radius encloses. According to reports from
Chernobyl Heart Chernobyl Heart Chernobyl Heart is a 2003 documentary film by Maryann DeLeo. The film won the Best Documentary Short Subject award at The 76th Academy Awards. In the film, DeLeo travels through Ukraine and Belarus with Adi Roche, the Irish founder of the Chernobyl Children's Project International, observing the effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on the health of children in the area. Many children developed a previously unknown cardiac degradation condition known in the area as "Chernobyl heart", in addition to other severe radiation poisoning effects DeLeo explored the Chernobyl disaster again in 2008 with the film "White Horse".