Chernobyl: The Gift That Never Stops Giving

[Better Believe It]

Chernobyl: The Gift That Never Stops Giving
by Robert Alvare
Robert Alvarez is a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and served as Senior Policy Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Energy from 1993-99.
August 13, 2010

The threats to human health and the environment from Chernobyl fallout, scientists are now finding, will persist for a very long time.


Abandoned city of Pripiat, near the Nuclear Power Plant at Chernobyl, Ukraine


It's been 24 years since the catastrophic explosion and fire occurred at Chernobyl in the Ukraine. The accident required nearly a million emergency responders and cleanup workers. According to a recent report published by the New York Academy of Medicine nearly one million people around the world have died from Chernobyl fallout.

Now we are finding that threats to human health and the environment from the radioactive fallout of this accident that blanketed Europe (and the rest of the world to a lesser extent) will persist for a very long time. There is an exclusionary zone near the reactor, roughly the size of Rhode Island (1000 sq kilometers), which because of high levels of contamination,people are not supposed to live there for centuries to come. There are also"hot spots" through out Russia, Poland Greece, Germany, Italy, UK, France, and Scandinavia where contaminated live stock and other foodstuff continue to be removed from human consumption.

Here are a few recent examples:

A fast-growing number of wild boars in Germany are having to be destroyed and disposed as radioactive wastes.

The mammal population in the exclusionary zone near the reactor is declining, despite the absence of humans, indicative of growing radiation damage to fauna and flora.

Wildfires in Russia appear to be spreading high levels of radioactive contamination from Chernobyl.
True to form, governments with major nuclear programs or ambitions are silent and are encouraging the view that it's time we forget about Chernobyl.

http://www.commondreams.org/further/2010/08/13-1


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Chernobyl Radiation Killed Nearly One Million People: New Book

NEW YORK, New York, April 26, 2010 (ENS) - Nearly one million people around the world died from exposure to radiation released by the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl reactor, finds a new book from the New York Academy of Sciences published today on the 24th anniversary of the meltdown at the Soviet facility.

The book, "Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment," was compiled by authors Alexey Yablokov of the Center for Russian Environmental Policy in Moscow, and Vassily Nesterenko and Alexey Nesterenko of the Institute of Radiation Safety, in Minsk, Belarus.

The authors examined more than 5,000 published articles and studies, most written in Slavic languages and never before available in English.

The authors said, "For the past 23 years, it has been clear that there is a danger greater than nuclear weapons concealed within nuclear power. Emissions from this one reactor exceeded a hundred-fold the radioactive contamination of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

"No citizen of any country can be assured that he or she can be protected from radioactive contamination. One nuclear reactor can pollute half the globe," they said. "Chernobyl fallout covers the entire Northern Hemisphere."

Read the full article at:

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2010/2010-04-26-01.html



http://www.nyas.org/Publications/Annals/Detail.aspx?cid=f3f3bd16-51ba-4d7b-a086-753f44b3bfc1

[Desertrose]

1. We really don't need any more nuke plants.

Really.

I remember Three Mile Island...very scary time.

Used to live between TMI & Peach Bottom nuke...really glad I'm not there anymore....but family still is.:(

[TheWraith]

6. Did you say we need to ban cars after the Pinto?

The Chernobyl reactor was a bad design, operated by morons, and run without a containment building. No other country on the planet Earth has ever built their reactors without a containment building. Three Mile Island was a perfect example of where the approaches differ: everything still went wrong, but no explosion and no one was killed.

[ixion]

7. What you say is true (bad design, etc) however, inevitably

something will go wrong. It's called "Murphy's Law," and it applies to everything in the universe. ;)

[Better Believe It]

8. Right. Better than having a windmill or solar panel blow up!

[madokie]

9. Ban people who make stupid comparisons maybe

Many studies will differ with you on the fact people have died due to TMI and are still dying. We have several reactors that are reaching their designed live time that the industry want to patch up and extend their licenses and to me that is simply stupid. Nuclear energy is neither safe, cheap nor co2 neutral. To me only a fool can't see that.

[madokie]

10. Itchie finger, sorry

[rfranklin]

2. What we need is more nuclear power plants...

Reddy Kilowatt says its really, really safe!

[scarletwoman]

3. Electricity too cheap to meter!

[Better Believe It]

4. And the new and improved tiny nuclear bombs aren't really that dangerous!

It's mainly a loud boom that can scare people.

[immoderate]

5. Some risks are not to be taken.

Playing with nuclear is crazy.

--imm

[MadHound]

11. Let's not forget radioactive wild boars

<http://news.discovery.com/animals/radioactive-wild-boars-increase-in-number.html>

Worse, if boars are uptaking radiation through their food in the area, what about domesticated animals. I remember the scare that went through the country when is was shown that fallout from fifties era nuclear tests settled in the soil of Wisconsin. Grass and other plants started passing on that radiation to cows, who in turn gave us radioactive milk.

Wonder if anybody has their eye on that possibility in Southern Germany.

[Old Troop]

12. Aside from being deadly, it's a time

capsule.
http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/chernobyl-then-now/14634