Posted on 07/25/2008 2:12:31 PM PDT by forkinsocket
Deep in the radioactive bowels of the smashed Chernobyl reactor, a strange new lifeform is blooming.
TWENTY-TWO YEARS AGO, on 26 April 1986, reactor No 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, in Ukraine, blew apart, spewing radioactive dust and debris far and wide.
Ever since, a 30 km 'exclusion zone' has existed around the contaminated site, accessible to those with special clearance only. It's quite easy, then, to conjure an apocalyptic vision of the area; to imagine an eerily deserted wasteland, utterly devoid of life.
But the truth is quite the opposite. The exclusion zone is teeming with wildlife of all shapes and sizes, flourishing unhindered by human interference and seemingly unfazed by the ever-present radiation. Most remarkable, however, is not the life buzzing around the site, but what's blooming inside the perilous depths of the reactor.
Sitting at the centre of the exclusion zone, the damaged reactor unit is encased in a steel and cement sarcophagus. It's a deathly tomb that plays host to about 200 tonnes of melted radioactive fuel, and is swarming with radioactive dust.
But it's also the abode of some very hardy fungi which researchers believe aren't just tolerating the severe radiation, but actually harnessing its energy to thrive.
"Our findings suggest that [the fungi] can capture the energy from radiation and transform it into other forms of energy that can be used for growth," said microbiologist Arturo Casadevall from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York, USA.
(Excerpt) Read more at cosmosmagazine.com ...
Triffids?
cool
I wonder how much research is done at chernobyl.
There is no place else like it, and hopefully never will be.
Huh. Wouldn’t we be blessed if a treatment for radiation poisoning comes out of something so bad?.
Hmmm. Oak Ridge (TN) reservation and the quality, sought after deer hunting permits come to mind.
Grammy, I owe you freepmail. I’m going to catch up on the garden before dark (it needs help after my weeklong absence), then I’ll fm you tonight.
This sounds like the opening paragraphs of a new Michael Crichton thriller. Don’t let the fungus out!
‘Wolves Eat Dogs’ - Martin Cruz Smith
An excellent novel set smack dab in the middle of current-day Chernobyl. You’ll learn a lot and be entertained as well. :)
Yeah, to heck with the giant ants & giant grasshoppers. This is atomic athlete’s foot!
and so it began... :(
Googy...we can nuke Iran and Afghanistan and then drop some of this fungus in the area to clean up.....
LOL.
I saw this in a movie, ‘The Green Slime.’
i’m afraid that Chernobyl will be forever barren as are Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The place will be a desolate, barren wasteland for 100,000 years!
The delusional moonbats, many with "PHD" after their names told us so, ad nauseam. That's why the US hasn't allowed new Nuclear Plants for 40 years.
Good enough for me!
< /sarc >
They are?
Damn!
Last I heard they were thriving giant cities...
We were stationed in Berlin when Chernobyl blew up, my son was born 2 weeks earlier. Scared the crap out of us.
The Andromeda Strain.
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