Chernobyl 22 years later

The article is informative but way too short, and the numbers don't match up, which tells me there's still a great deal we don't know or are not allowed to know. We talk about the dangers of nuclear material "falling into the wrong hands" but this is an example of where the "right hands" were wrong.

I met a couple kids who were involved with Chernobyl about fifteen years ago. It was really sad the effects it had on them

Dannielle, I suspect there is a lot we haven't learned enough about to compile good statistics. This is one of the lessons of nuclear power.

Several european countries have nuclear waste recycling methods that keep them from being in the "mobile nuclear waste" debacle the US has at the moment. We don't know, however, if this is going to be the long-term answer. Your comment about the "right hands" going wrong is well taken.

During the Nixon administration Dixie Lee Ray headed the Atomic Energy Commission. I remember her making a comment about nuclear plants being so safe she would let her dogs sleep in them. That was before Three Mile Island and other accidents in the US.

Today, we may not have the answers, but we have an object lesson that reminds us to stop and think.

Wow, has it really been that long already?! Being someone who lives less than 25 miles from a nuclear power plant, I find it horrifying that something like Chernobyl could still happen. : (

National Geographic did a very interesting piece about how plants and wildlife have returned to the designated fallout zone around Chernobyl. Scientists are studying the genetic mutations of wild flowers, grasses, birds and deer now living in the exposed area. It was pretty fascinating. I think it was in the January 2008 edition. Both Discovery Channel and Animal Planet also did TV shows about it.

Here's the link to a short photo gallery with text from the NG show:
National Geo

Thanks for the link to the National Geographic pics De.

Debra, I love your response to my comment, especially since, when I came back and re-read it, it certainly could have sounded like I meant *your* article was "too short". I'd been writing about the French article at the other end of your link -- that author's numbers were confusingly presented and there were other facets left completely unexplored -- it was just an appetizer. Thank you for being so kind as to understand what I meant to say but didn't actually say.

I remember Harrisburg, PA, as terrifying. When we were watching the news, they presented the simple fact of the meltdown and the cataclysmic chain reaction -- it was about the same time the movie "The China Syndrome" came out, as I recall. A friend at college wrote a song about the event: The Harrisburg Rag--

Have a picnic on the island
It won't blow up!
Drink Pepsi from a radioactive cup
Swing your partner and then throw up --
That's the Harrisburg Rag!

Hilariously terrifying little ditty.

If only we could learn to stop and think before we build ourselves another leaky raft and climb aboard -- now *that* would be progress.

I am against nuclear power until they find a way to control the release of cessium and stronium radioactive gas into the atmosphere and until they have a good way to store the waste safely. The Chernobyl nuclear plant was never properly sealed and is still emitting radiation.

Nuclear anything scares me!


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Thanks for the link, Debra.

Thanks so much for this article. I am a scientist who is strongly against nuclear power. My Dad was a physicist and he was strongly against nuclear power. I know people who work at Los Alamos on waste containment (or rescue) programs. We can't handle nuclear waste. It is a nightmare (and that is the good news- the worst case is a lot worse than a mere nightmare, as Chernobyl reminds us, or I should say you remind us).

I always find it interesting that no matter how fervently in favor of nuclear power people are, they don't want waste being shipped through their town or even their state. Well, we can't have the nuclear power without the unwanted and dangerous waste, so let's have neither!

Thanks for the post.

I hadn't thought about that in forever!

Good article