Overview of the Chernobyl Plant
After the explosion
Present day sarcophagus
Abandoned city of Pripyat, near the Chernobyl plant. Radiation levels allow only brief visits to the area
Posted on 04/26/2005 9:35:49 AM PDT by Lukasz
People in Ukraine, Belarus and other countries are today commemorating the 19th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster. In the early hours of 26 April 1986, a massive chemical explosion blew the 1,000-ton cover off the top of Chornobyl's Unit Four reactor, spewing radiation over Ukraine, Belarus, and northern Europe. Millions of people were affected by the disaster north of Kyiv.
Prague, 26 April 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Ukraine and Belarus, the most affected countries, still wrangle with dire consequences of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster.
Though the world's worst civil nuclear accident happened in Ukraine, its biggest victim was arguably neighboring Belarus.
Given the prevailing winds, some 70 percent of Chornobyl's radioactive fallout landed on Belarus, contaminating one-third of its territory. One and a half million people -- including 420,000 children -- were located in the polluted area.
Valery Karbalevich of Strategy, a political-analysis center in Minsk, says the anniversary of the disaster is becoming routine: President Alyaksandr Lukashenka visits the affected regions, while the opposition remembers the disaster and uses the occasion to criticize the government.
"Today, the opposition invited people to go to the building of the presidential administration and leave petitions with proposals and demands there. After that, people are invited to gather in another location on the outskirts of the town where a mourning celebration is due to take place," Karbalevich says.
The Chornobyl anniversary has taken on great political significance in Belarus. Because the disaster was covered up for days after it happened, it came to be seen as a symbol of Soviet mendacity, and later became a traditional day for rallies by the opposition.
On 29 April, however, the Belarusian opposition will not demonstrate -- a fact Karbalevich says indicates that the memory of the public disaster is slowly fading.
However, Karbalevich says the tragedy remains a huge economic, social, political and ethic problem for Belarus.
"The problem is not gone, it remains," Karbalevich says. "All negative consequences have not disappeared. It is possible to say that the problems are growing but the public is paying less attention to it. The state also is paying less attention."
Karbalevich says that recently, the government floated the idea of building a nuclear plant to become more independent from Russian gas supplies. This kind of discussion was impossible several years ago.
Early on 26 April 1986, a fire broke out in Chornobyl's Unit Four reactor, and huge quantities of radioactive debris were released. The blast itself killed 31 people.
Concerned about the public-relations fallout, authorities initially covered up the news and neglected the surrounding population, which for four days had little if any information about the catastrophe.
After the government finally acknowledged the scale of the disaster, close to 150,000 inhabitants from nearby cities and villages were evacuated. People in Pripiat, the largest Ukrainian city in the region, believed they would return shortly. They never did.
Igor Losev, a professor at Kyiv's Mohyla Academy, says the disaster is being commemorated in Ukraine with meetings, rallies and other public events.
"It is business as usual, with the usual array of events -- conferences, rallies, meetings to commemorate this tragic anniversary," Losev says. "Everything goes on as usual. There is nothing principally new."
Losev says that though the celebrations are formal, the problem is real: "It [the disaster] concerns everybody and the consequences will be felt for a long time. Even today there are problems are there. There are hundreds of tons of nuclear fuel there and nobody knows what to do with it. And nobody can tell for sure what process is going on there in the building of former Chornobyl power station, where this notorious reactor was based, the one which exploded."
Losev and others have questioned the reliability of the so-called sarcophagus or covering that was placed over the damaged reactor. He says this problem is more than a Ukrainian concern because if something happens the whole region would again be affected.
The World Health Organization says there has been a large increase in radiation-related thyroid cancer among children in the affected areas. It estimates that 5 million people were exposed to radiation in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia.
But the exact number of resulting deaths has been hard to pin down, also because cancer can take years to develop in people exposed to radiation.
And today, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said a program to detect thyroid cancer in contaminated areas is at risk due to dwindling donor funds -- just as cancer rates are rising.
Experts forecast the thyroid cancer rate would peak between 2006 and 2020.
Present day sarcophagus
Abandoned city of Pripyat, near the Chernobyl plant. Radiation levels allow only brief visits to the area
Have you seen the following website, which is a piece written by a woman about her solo motorcycle rides through present-day Chernobyl? Complete with many photos, it is truly fascinating.
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/chapter1.html
Yeah, Chernobyl; how well I remember, seeing it 10 years later.
By the way, many Ukrainians told me that the first indication they had that something was "wrong"--the ordinary people were not told until much later---was that suddenly, out of the blue, there were all these convoys of trucks on the highways, carrying household goods towards Moscow.
Household goods of the Communist apparati, of course, fleeing like rats on a sinking ship, with no concern or care for anyone else.
The firemen, construction workers and others who entered the damaged containment building were true heroes. They went in knowing that it would kill them and that it wouldn't be a quick and painless death.
Their actions saved untold thousands of lives.
No but thanks for the link, I will read later.
Wormwood in both Russian and Ukrainian is Polyn', also called 'bitter wormwood' Gorkaya Polyn' in Russian, Girka polyn' in Ukrainian.
From Otkrovenie Svyatogo Ionna Bogoslova (Revelations of St. John the devine), Chapter 8:
10 Tretiy Angel vostrubil, i upala s neba bol'shaya zvezda, goryashchaya podobno svetil'niku, i pala na tret'yu chast' rek i na istochniki vod. (The Third Angel blew his trumpet, and from heaven fell a great star, burning like a lamp, and it fell onto a third of the rivers and sources of water.)
11 Imya sey zvezde polyn'; i tret'ya chast' vod sdelalas' polyn'yu, i mnogie iz lyudey umerli ot vod, potomu chto oni stali gor'ki. (The name of that star was Wormwood, and a third part of the waters became as wormwood, and many of the people died from the waters, because they became bitter.)
I viewed some pictures last year from the "Chornobyl Ghost Town story". Elena, I think her name was, apparently rode her motocycle through the region.
Some bloggers said the story was false... --- But the pictures were great.
Fascinating.
The company I work for is bidding on the clean up of Chernobyl. I didn't know this, but they only shut off the reactor 2 years ago. I could go on and on about the stories I've heard about the site ... the illnesses, mutated people, etc. Thanks, communism!
Poland and Sweden were the first countries which figure out what is going on. I had five years then, I don’t remember but my mom told me that after government immediately informed our society, on next day all kids including me must drink Lugol’s drink (iodine) . We have enough Lugol’s drink in Poland cause, our country was prepared even to eventual nuclear attacks…
There are currently bids on cleaning up the site (I mentioned in an earlier post that my employer is bidding on the work). I'm not sure who is financing the project.
I do believe some contractors are there now doing some emergency fixes while the project is going through the bidding process.
oh that is good news indeed.
I was living at Lviv (Lwow) at the time of Chernobyl disaster which is about 300-400 miles from the epicentre. It was really a terrifying time, especially because the entire USSR learned about this disaster several weeks later from the news. I remember that in the month following the disaster, the insects were not flying and the birds did not sing. It was really an eerie silence.
The former class mate of my dad participated in the Chernobyl disaster liquidation effort. I heard that 19 years after the disaster, between 10,000 and 25,000 of those who participated in Chernobyl disaster liquidation effort have passed away from radiation or related effects. In 1986, about 800,000 liquidators participated in the disaster liquidation effort. They came from all over former USSR (mostly Ukraine, Russia and Belarus but also from other of the 15 fmr. Soviet Republics), and some of the "liquidators" weren't even told initially (usu. military personnel) that they were going to Chernobyl disaster area. Really terrible toll and another testimony to the callousness and safety neglect of the Soviet Regime.
The effects of this tragedy will be with us for a long long time, especially with 5 million people in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia who were directly affected by the disaster.
??? so what are you trying to say?
Absolutely amazing. The woman is braver than I am, I'll tell you that for nothing.
Horrible, really horrible things. Anyway you were lucky that you lived so close to Polish border, pretty “far” from epicenter.
Astounding photos. How can anyone say this is made up ?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.