Another monstrous ecological disaster possible at Chernobyl

[lovuian]

http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/90/363/15358_chernobyl.html

04/26/2005 16:01
The explosion of the nuclear reactor of the Chernobyl power plant contaminated a vast territory of the European continent

A serious catastrophe is likely to occur on the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 2006. The disaster may become even more serious than the world-known blast of the station, which occurred on April 26th 1986. Specialists installed a sarcophagus around the nuclear reactor that year - the sarcophagus was supposed to protect the world from the harmful influence of radiation coming from the remnants of the hazardous production for 20 years. The warranty period has already elapsed: Chernobyl might become the center of another ecological disaster next year. Experts say that the protective housing of the reactor may collapse - the destruction of the nuclear storage might lead to lamentable consequences.

The fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was hidden from the whole world 20 years ago under the dome-like sarcophagus, which was officially called "Shelter." No one knows what is happening with 20 tons of nuclear fuel inside the construction. According to the Versia newspaper, the technical condition of the sarcophagus has worsened considerably according to the results of a recent external examination, which specialists of the nuclear power plant conduct on a regular basis. They particularly said that cracks appeared in the walls, whereas the ceiling of the construction slumped.

The personnel of the Chernobyl nuclear station was conducting a test at night of April 26, 1986, with a view to find out if turbines could generate the necessary amount of residual energy for the system of cooling pumps under the condition of electric power interruption. Specialists deliberately deactivated alarm protection systems not to impede the process. The safety shutdown system did not work and the reactor went out of control. The reactor started spewing out poisonous combustion products in the atmosphere. A huge cloud of radioactive dust contaminated the territory of the European part of the USSR and several foreign states - Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia and reached even Sweden.

People did not realize the danger during the first several days after the nuclear breakdown. It turned out that human beings and even technical equipment were unable to work under the condition of such a high radiation level. The radioactive background reached 2,000 Roentgens per hour between the third and the fourth power-generating units. The Soviet Union was keeping silence for several days after the blast at Chernobyl - the government issued the decision to start the urgent evacuation of people from the contaminated area only 24 hours

more...

Chernobyl still haunts us!!!

[lonestarnot]

1. Comforting. n/t

[struggle4progress]

2. The disaster, and surrounding lies, are the real reason the USSR collapsed

[PartyPooper]

5. Do you mean to say that it wasn't Saint Ronnie who was responsible?

I was led to believe he single-handedly brought down communisim, the Berlin wall, and everything else evil and bad in the world. I guess I have a lot more to learn.


:dunce:

[Auntie Bush]

17. You mean the Pope lied when he said he was responsible for

ridding the world of communism?

[megatherium]

18. Surely that contributed

but Kenneth Deffeyes, in his new book Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak says the collapse of oil prices in the 1980s destroyed the Soviet economy because oil was cheaper per barrel that it cost the Russians to produce. (Excellent book, by the way.)

I remember a Jack Ohman cartoon in the Portland, Oregonian, showing Soviet officials with big smiles on their faces assuring everyone that "things are just ducky", with a radioactive plume in the background.

[TahitiNut]

3. In my former 'life' as a Sr. Research Scientist (yeah, right) ...

... :eyes: I did some work on a project startup for Chernobyl. The project mentioned in the article sounds like the exact same project, funded under the control of the G-7. Everything in this article is consistent with what we knew about 11 years ago, afaik ... and I'm a bit surprised that anyone would be surprised. Wait until the structure collapses on the adjacent reactors. There'll be a "glow" across Europe. It's a HUGE clusterfuck, guys.

[jdj]

9. this is why I am anti-nuke under any circumstances.

because even over here the boy king wants to put the spent fuel rods in landfills

these motherfuckers don't care about us, and the aftereffects, they are all about the caching caching and then they live somewhere else that doesn't glow in the dark.

[megatherium]

19. I was pro-nuke until recently.

There are good arguments for nuclear power -- if it were done correctly (reprocessing the fuel properly, passively safe designs, etc), it could tide us over nicely to the future of renewable energy sources. But that's a big if, and wind and solar are rapidly catching up to nuclear (they're essentially already there for peak power, eventually they'll serve for baseline generation, when storage technologies such as hydrogen generation are developed).

[Colorado Blue]

10. Is there anything that can be done to shore it up or fix it? nt

[ChickMagic]

12. TahitiNut

One of our Radiologists is an expert on Chernobyl. He's been there many times and has written extensively on it. I just sent him this link to get his take on it. I'll let you know after he responds (may be a while), and if he gives me permission, I'll tell you who he is and what he said. Otherwise, I'll PM you.

[Javaman]

4. And so while the various criminal cases go on...

the ceiling continues the slump and since the repair work isn't supposed to take place until 2008, what happens in the mean time? What will the world do when the ceiling falls in?

My answer: nothing, except point fingers while innocent people die. Seems like the theme of the world lately.

[coda]

6. Check out this site

Incredible pics from the affected areas and the plant itself.

A young woman did a tour of the area and its ghost towns, on her motocycle and has some great commentary and stories(her dad is a scientist and works in the field; studies, measurement, etc).



http://www.kiddofspeed.com/

[struggle4progress]

8. Strange site: "Elena does Chernobyl", "Elena does the Gulag", ...

"Elena does the Orange Revolution."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=22591&mesg_id=22661

[Tiberius]

20. TRULY unbelievable

What a site! She rides through the Chernobyl area on a motorcycle? That is badass. And the images of Soviet era pictures and calendars, frozen in time. Creeeeeepy.

[Willy Lee]

15. What an amazing web site.

That girl has got some balls!

[JohnOneillsMemory]

7. Peak oil is leading to calls for more nuclear power, not less!..yikes...n/

[havocmom]

16. And the answer, my friend, is STILL blowing in the wind

and shining bright in the sky. But they have their investment capital tied up in coal, oil and nuke so they won't go there. And they damn well won't give anybody else a break to really do alternate fuels up right & practical.

Bill Gates learned from these guys: Don't let any upstart cut into your market with a better product!

[LiberalEsto]

11. When the Chernobyl mess happened

the Russians forced people from their conquered nations such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to do the cleanup work. This was to protect Russians from the severe health consequences of the disaster. They don't consider Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, etc. to be as human or as valuable as themselves.

I know about this because it almost happened to one of my cousins. My aunt said the Russians came knocking on the door one night back in 1986, wanting to conscript my cousin into doing their dirty work at Chernobyl. My cousin was able to slip out the back door and get away, but many other young Estonian men were forcibly sent to Chernobyl, and consequently developed radiation-related illnesses.

My other Estonian cousin still worries that the radiation cloud over the region might have left her children with genetic damage that could some day cause illnesses or birth defects.

Nuclear energy is a pathway to nightmares, if you ask me.

[hatrack]

13. There's a fascinating Nova episode from about 10 years ago on this

Not this story directly, of course, but about what happened during the accident and efforts to contain the remaining radioactivity.

It's called (I believe) "Suicide Mission at Chernobyl" and it follows the nuclear engineers going inside the wrecked structure to find out what happened with all of the fuel. All I know is those guys have far more guts than I will ever have.

The video footage from inside what's left of the power station is fascinating by itself. What's really fascinating and disturbing is how much of the remaining structure (including the reactor vessel lid, which weighs something like 20 tons) is supported by fractured and rusting I-beams. All of this is poised over massive amounts of radioactive dust and debris.

If you can find it, it's well worth watching.

[Bridget Burke]

14. I remember the episode well.

Very grim & frightening.

The engineers who inspected the ruin tended to die from cardiac problems--"clean" radiation often kills that way. Before they headed off for a day's work, they all smoked a few cigarettes. Guess they weren't worried about the long-term effects of smoking.

The episode was called "Back to Chernobyl," made about 1989. It was released in VHS but is not readily available now.