Free Republic

Mutant wolves roaming the deserted streets of Chernobyl appear to have developed resistance to cancer - raising hopes the findings can help scientists fight the disease in humans...

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit Egypt on Tuesday, 23 January, to join his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in laying the foundation of El-Dabaa, Egypt's first-ever nuclear power plant (NPP). Both Putin and Sisi will take part in an official ceremony of the final stage of pouring the concrete of the fourth reactor of Dabaa developed by the Russian state atomic energy corporation ROSATOM in Dabaa city, located in the Mediterranean Marsa Matrouh province, about 320 kilometres northwest of the capital Cairo, Egyptian news outlets reported. The long-awaited NPP, which will operate with a 120-megawatt capacity for...

More than 35 years after the world’s worst nuclear accident, the dogs of Chernobyl roam among decaying, abandoned buildings in and around the closed plant – somehow still able to find food, breed and survive. Scientists hope that studying these dogs can teach humans new tricks about how to live in the harshest, most degraded environments, too. They published the first of what they hope will be many genetics studies on Friday in the journal Science Advances, focusing on 302 free-roaming dogs living in an officially designated “exclusion zone” around the disaster site. They identified populations whose differing levels of...

Cleveland, Ohio, has informed city residents that their water is safe amid growing concerns about the environmental consequences from the derailment of a train hauling chemicals in the northeastern part of the state. In a statement, Cleveland Water notified residents that its drinking water comes from Lake Erie, which is “separate from the Ohio River and its watershed.” “There’s no indication that Lake Erie or its watershed have been impacted by the train derailment in East Palestine,” the department said in its statement. “The testing that we regularly perform would catch any changes to our source water should they arise.”...

Environment activist Erin Brockovich is calling on the Biden Administration to "step up" after a trail derailment in eastern Ohio led to a controlled release of toxic chemicals. On February 3, a train operated by Norfolk Southern Railway derailed near East Palestine, Ohio, and cause a major fire near the track. Around 20 of the 50 cars that derailed were transporting hazardous materials, including vinyl chloride, a toxic and flammable gas. Out of fear that the fire could cause an explosion, officials decided to conduct a controlled burn of hazardous materials, which began on February 6. However, the process still...

Norfolk Southern Railroad and the Environmental Protection Agency released a list of chemicals and hazardous materials on Sunday carried by a train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. The derailment, which occurred on February 3, caused a fire that lasted several days. Officials decided to initiate a controlled release of the chemicals to mitigate the risk of an explosion; all residents within one mile of the crash site were told to evacuate, although they were permitted to return to their homes on February 8. Norfolk Southern provided the EPA with a list of cars affected by the crash and the...

The impact of the acute exposure to high doses of radiation was severe for the environment and the human population. But more than three decades after the accident, Chernobyl has become one of the largest nature reserves in Europe. A diverse range of endangered species finds refuge there today, including bears, wolves, and lynxes. As with other pollutants, radiation could be a very strong selective factor, favouring organisms with mechanisms that increase their survival in areas contaminated with radioactive substances. After detecting the first black frogs in 2016, we decided to study the role of melanin colouration in Chernobyl wildlife....

t was the fall of 1986, some six months after the catastrophic Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explosion, and a group of soldiers suited up to enter the radiation-riddled site. Their task: Clean hundreds of tons of expelled, highly radioactive, nuclear fuel from rooftops near the reactor. Dressed in what appears to be foul-weather gear, one of the young men cinches his gloves and tightens the drawstring of his hoodie to shield his cheeks. Another slips a .1-inch-thick piece of lead, thinner than the protective coverings provided for dental X-rays, over his back. Some insert the sheets inside their undershorts, creating...

As the staging ground for an assault on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, one of the most toxic places on earth, was probably not the best choice. But that did not seem to bother the Russian generals who took over the site in the early stages of the war. “We told them not to do it, that it was dangerous, but they ignored us,” Valeriy Simyonov, the chief safety engineer for the Chernobyl nuclear site, said in an interview. Apparently undeterred by safety concerns, the Russian forces tramped about the grounds with bulldozers and tanks, digging...

WASHINGTON — A Ukrainian official has provided VOA with exclusive photos of the aftermath of Russia’s five-week occupation of Ukraine’s decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, showing what he says are Russian trenches dug into radioactive soil near a 1986 nuclear accident at the site. Evgen Kramarenko, director of the Ukrainian state agency managing the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl plant, sent the photos to VOA on Wednesday, saying he had taken them himself on a visit to the site with several of his colleagues the day before. It was the first visit to the site by Kramarenko’s team since...

CHERNOBYL is back under the control of Ukrainian troops after Russian forces formally gave up the nuclear plant. The site of the 1986 nuclear tragedy in northern Ukraine was captured in the opening days of the war, sparking fears of a major radioactive disaster as a result of heavy fighting around the plant. Ukraine's state nuclear company Energoatom said on Thursday that all of the "outsiders" who had been occupying the plant have left. It released a letter signed by the Russian National Guard in which custody of Chernobyl was handed back to Ukraine. Earlier, it said that some Russian...

Several hundred Russian troops have been withdrawn from the Chernobyl nuclear facility in Ukraine after suffering from “acute radiation sickness” and are being treated in Belarus, according to reports. The Pentagon confirmed earlier that the Russian forces began to pull out from the defunct facility, which was taken on the first day of the invasion, after a pledge by the Kremlin to scale back its offensive. But an employee at the Public Council at the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone management said the soldiers had fled while “irradiated” and bused to a medical facility in Gomel, Belarus, the...

- Russian troops that took over the Chornobyl nuclear power plant have transferred control back to Ukraine, the International Atomic Energy Agency said. - The IAEA said those Russian troops moved two convoys toward Kremlin-allied Belarus, while a third convoy left the nearby city of Slavutych, also toward Belarus. - The agency added that it “has not been able to confirm reports of Russian forces receiving high doses of radiation while being in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone.” Russian troops that took over the Chornobyl nuclear power plant last month have transferred control back to Ukraine, the International Atomic Energy...

Russia destroys Chernobyl lab, gaining 'highly active samples' BY JOSEPH CHOI - 03/23/22 12:37 PM EDT © AP Photo/Sergei Grits The Russian military has reportedly destroyed a laboratory near the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant that was working to improve the management of nuclear waste and contained "highly active samples." The State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management said in a statement on social media that Russian forces had destroyed the most recently established laboratory in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The laboratory, which was created with the cooperation of the European Union, sought to improve the infrastructure for handling...

Ukraine says it has restored a broken power line to the Chernobyl power plant, the scene of a nuclear meltdown in 1986, which is held by Russian troops. Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said that “heroes” from the national power grid company managed to restore the connection. The power is used to run pumps which keep spent nuclear fuel cool to prevent radiation leaks. Ukraine said Wednesday that power had been cut to the site and that there was enough diesel fuel to run on-site generators for 48 hours. The International Atomic Energy Agency played down concerns, saying it saw little...

Chernobyl still running on backup generators, Ukrainian staff held captive by Russian troop Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine was still powered by backup generators Saturday, three days after external power was cut. Ukrainian workers at the site have been held captive around the clock for two weeks, Ukraine’s nuclear energy regulator Energoatom told the UN’s nuclear watchdog. “The plant’s staff of 211 technical personnel and guards have still not been able to rotate, in effect living there since the day before Russian forces took control,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday in a press release. The Russian military...

According to the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin is "preparing a terrorist attack on the Chernobyl nuclear power plant," the government agency claimed Friday. According to a social media post on Twitter, the department said that a "man-made catastrophe" is planned at the plant and will be manipulated to appear as if Ukraine was responsible for it. "Putin is preparing a terrorist attack on the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. A man-made catastrophe is planed [sic] at the CNPP controlled by Russian forces, for which the occupiers will try to shift responsibility to Ukraine," the department wrote.

Ukraine’s closed Chernobyl nuclear power plant has been disconnected from the nation’s power grid by Russian forces, Ukraine’s state-owned grid operator Ukrenergo said Wednesday, potentially jeopardizing the cooling of nuclear material still stored at the site. “Because of military actions of Russian occupiers the nuclear power plant in Chornobyl was fully disconnected from the power grid. The nuclear station has no power supply,” Ukrenergo said in a statement on its official Telegram page, using Ukraine’s spelling for the plant. Electricity is needed for cooling, ventilation and fire extinguishing systems at the closed site. In a statement on its Facebook page,...

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian authorities say the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant, site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, has been knocked off the power grid. Emergency generators are now supplying backup power. The state communications agency says the outage could put systems for cooling nuclear material at risk. The cause of the damage to the power line serving Chernobyl was not immediately clear, but it comes amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The site has been under control of Russian troops since last week. Ukrainian grid operator Ukrenerho said that according to the national nuclear regulator, all Chernobyl facilities are...

Russian army is firing from all sides upon Zaporizhzhia NPP, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Fire has already broke out. If it blows up, it will be 10 times larger than Chornobyl! Russians must IMMEDIATELY cease the fire, allow firefighters, establish a security zone!— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 4, 2022