Chornobyl (Chernobyl)

[Sally888]

So theres a new horror movie coming out about Chornobyl and how they do tours now. My son had lots of questions and I realized I could barely answer any of them. I was 6 years old when the incident took place and we never were taught much about it in school. So I've been doing lots of reading and can't get out of finding more information on it. There are a few things I dont get, radiation levels are still quite high, why do people pay hundreds of dollars per person to tour and even eat fish from the contaminated lake? Why do they keep putting of fixing the Sarcophagus that quiet clearly is in disrepair and apparently holds 95% off the radiation still? I'd like to discuss this event in time, not debate it.

[avoncallingu]

Money - is probably why they aren't doing things and people haven't witnessed recently what radiation can do to you. Those are my guesses.
That accident happened just at the end of April and May 1 was a big holiday in the USSR. Rather than telling people to stay indoors instead of going out to parades and celebrations - the government just let everything go ahead because they didn't want people to know serious it was - so thousands of people got ill that would have been kept relatively safe if they had stayed indoors.
Children from the Chernobyl area are still hosted each summer in the Kitchener-Waterloo week to give them a break from the bad environment.
Men were sent out on the roof that day to "fight" the fire dressed in rubber suits as protection and were given 15 minute shifts. They really didn't "volunteer" for this duty. They all got radiation sickness, of course - it was a suicide mission.
Wow! I guess I still feel pretty strongly about this.

[Sally888]

I remember our local paper writing up about host parents (im an hour from Kitchener)

Thats something I might do when my own children get older.

[slayer_glade]

As avoncallingu said, money is a big part. There are places that have a lot less radioactivity than others and those are the places that people are allowed to tour.

As for the sarcophagus, it needs to be contained. Afterwards, they can remove all the radioactive stuff inside the structure. The more it corrodes and falls apart, the more radioactive elements are released into the water, ground, etc.. That needs to be taken care of. A very dangerous job.

First time I hear about the fish eating thought.

[lecale]

.

[Sally888]

Slayer, Yes, on trip advisor they talked about eating the carp from the contaminated river.

They actually let you go right near the reactor and in pripyat As well as let you wander off and go into random buildings. I had read that a lot of these buildings still hold pockets of high radiation.
Higher levels of radiation are still found at the fun fair etc and you are allowed to wak around there.

[Sally888]

Lecale, I also was reading that they covered up the potential 2nd explosion for 20 years?

Its interesting that the Worldwide nuclear (energy board?) downplays it so much and claims that a lot of the mutations, etc aren't from the explosion. Over 50% of children are now born with heart defects.

Its sad, I never realized how much had been covered up/ is covered up.

If only 5% of the radiation has caused this much damage imagine whats in the sarph.! I also was shocked that they continued to run the other nuclear reactors right next to 4 until year 2000?

[lecale]

.

[DaveP]

At the time the USSR government was not on good terms with the entire west, so yeah, there was a huge amount of cover up. I've seen photo essays that show people with huge swollen thyroids and mutated kids, kids who will never mentally develop...the country that got hit the worst was Belarus. It's a story that has become a lot more interesting over time (even though it stated out as sensational).

In Japan the people were so freaked out about their nuclear disaster that they voted to stop using nuclear energy. Within the last month the last reactor closed. They are now looking at geothermal energy, where they use hotspots in the earth to heat water etc etc. Germany also made a commitment to move away from nuclear energy.

Belarus? i hadn't heard that. I thought the worst effects were in the Ukraine. Clearly I have some reading to do. Dang, I love google! And kids today just take it for granted.

[DaveP]

Belarus? i hadn't heard that. I thought the worst effects were in the Ukraine. Clearly I have some reading to do. Dang, I love google! And kids today just take it for granted.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4485003.stm

Wow. Just wow.

[lecale]

.

[lecale]

.

[hollyquaiscer]

I'm not sure why it is that governments from countries like USSR and Japan think nothing of doing cover-ups, putting the lives of people all over the world at danger. It seems to be more important to "Save Face" and play down the truth when these disasters happen. Radiation kills, and it is very sad that money is more important than peoples lives. Terrible horrific birth defects have resulted, people have suffered unimaginable lives and I feel that we haven't gotten to the worst of it yet.

People who take trips through the Chernobyl infected areas must have some sort of death wish. The government plays these things down, as they are well aware of the chaos that would ensue if that told people not to eat fish from the rivers, streams and sea that fed them due to possible contanimation. It all comes down to money.....how very sad

[Sally888]

I watched a documentary on Belarus last night, it was so sad. Its amazing how its just the direction of the wind that determined their fate. One family sat there and ate contaminted food that they grew as they have no other choice. They fed it to their kids and everything. So Sad!

[Sally888]

I just dont understand why if this sarph is such a threat to release so much more damage why doesn't all of Europe fund the project? If the radiation was to escape in the amounts they have indicated it would destroy a lot more then just local areas.

The whole denial that the sickness isn't from Chernobyl is disgusting.