Norwegian Sheep Dangerously Radioactive
High rainfall has made Chernobyl an issue again
by Bent Lorentzen
Chernobyl mutated stillborn
October 14, 2009
Copenhagen Denmark
On April 25, 1986 – over 23 years ago – Russian technicians made a serious mistake in the testing of one the Chernobyl electric power plant's four nuclear reactors. At a bit after 1 AM on April 26, 1986, the nuclear chain reaction in the reactor core went out of control, and the power plant "melted down," resulting in the world's worst non-military nuclear disaster in history. Chernobyl sits some 80 miles from the capitol city of Kiev of now-independent Ukraine. The accident resulted in the immediate deaths of 30 people as well as the evacuation of nearly 150,000. It also resulted in the establishment of a huge no-man's region where a great deal of wildlife has been observed mutating over the decades, as well as countless thousands of human deaths due to disease and mutations, including cancer.
Due to prevailing winds, a great deal of Chernobyl's fallout rained down over large portions of Scandinavia and the North Sea. Over the decades, dangerously high levels of radioactivity – including from caesium isotope, which is also used in the atomic clocks that regulate the GPS system, eg: how the Internet integrates itself globally – has been detected in various Scandinavian foodstuff, including grazing animals and herring caught in the seas around northern Europe. These elements tend to go up the food chain. But outside of the deadly no-man's region in the Chernobyl area – as well as inhabited farm regions in the Ukraine, Byelorussia and Russia – in recent years it had been thought the problem had generally leeched itself out of continuing to be a serious health hazard to human beings.
Due to a possible side-effect of climate change, physicists and biologists have determined this is no longer the case.
As a result of this year's unusually high rainfall in Norway – which research models indicate may be a response to climate change – the fields and woodland of southern Norway's hills this fall have provoked a bonanza growth of mushrooms which sheep love to eat. Mushrooms are known for pulling up various minerals, which includes the radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl incident, directly into edible parts of the plant. This has forced the Norwegian government to placing into special 2-month quarantine some 30,000 sheep, in an effort to bring the radioactive level of the lamb meat down to where it is assumed it can be safe for human consumption. The technology to decontaminate the affected sheep also includes feeding them the inorganic compound, Prussian blue, which helps bind the radioactive caesium in the sheep’s stomachs so it can be excreted. Those familiar with the history of Europe’s oil-painting art world may find this more recent use of Prussian blue quite interesting, albeit tragic.
This scientific data is coming on the heels of a resurgence in Europe in the use of nuclear energy, partly in response to economic and greenhouse gas pressures from society.
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Comments: 63
A horror that continues to this day...
In the rush of certain circles of Western thought to turn towards alternate fuels other than fossil, nuclear is the only large output producing technology available. Ignoring it based on accidents like this is pure folly.
Rory, yes! That's very insightful, and I've had that discussion with others who have a hard time understanding that.
Most biologists think so, at least in terms of deeply serious radioactivity. "radioactrivity" actually is one of the driving forces of evolution. I've been in natural caves with a geiger counter when an environemntal science student, and radon and other naturally occuring radiactive issues exist. But the problem with Chernobyl has probably been deeply washed over by industry, especially in its in-vitro effect on infants, as the image illustrates, and will continue to be an issue for hundreds of years.
The chernobyl incident was not a volcanic-like explosion, spewing raioactive isotopes beyond that barrier in the stratosphere, so it wasn't instantly a globe-enveloping inicident, though it's been measured in the South Pole, from snowfall. It went into the atmosphere's lower layers, got infused into clouds and fell down over a mostly 2,000 mile radius, depending on pervailing winds. There were some 30 radiactive isotopes that spewed from Chernobyl's plant. Currently, the worst offenders of these isotopes are caesium-137, strontium-90, and plutonium-239.
The caesium and strontium has a half-life of some 3 decades. But the plutonium has a half life of almosat 25,000 years.
The strontium-90 is analogous to calcium, and can induce cancer in bone tissue. Caessium-137 is also very very serious for organic life, and deeply affects our immune system as well as inducing mutations and cancer.
About 20% of Belaruse's agricultural land is seriously affected to this day, and currently impacts about 1/4th of its population.
Some 50 million curies were released by Chernobyl, and that's over 15,000,000 times more than was released by 3-Mile Island in the USA back in 1978.
There not even 0.01% of a doubt that the caessium affecting Norwegian sheep resulted from the Chernobyl incident.
Exactly. Which was why I got so upset at Hillary for suggesting we would engage in a "limited" nuclear war if it got aggressive with Israel. That was almost as stupid a comment as some of the evangelical nonsense from Palin during the 2008 election campaign. I don't mean to be offensive towards any religion with that comment, but we really need to take more responsibility for our human activities rather than justify them via some archaic writing by men who aren't around anymore.
1) Actually 3 mile is thought of as a successful failure much like Apollo 13. The outer containment vessel, did its job, keeping the H3 from any reducer, ie 02. About 99.9% contained if what I read was correct. Some water soluables were released in the wash water. I highly recommend that all nuclear facilities have secondary containment as part of their design except maybe some NDG's. Containment of PWR designs are to be beefed up considering Chernobyl.
2) Fuel rods from below only
3) Cooling rods from above only
4) Look to internal convection circulation light water designs. (Self "Natural" cooling)
5) Explore the use of NDG (Nuclear Decay Generators) Smaller generators that use decay which are designed to use waste fuel rods to do the power generating. More than anything else the spent fuel rod question will stop the expansion of any future nuclear program.
6) To handle the waste fuel rod question, smaller cool, low or non boiling (OTEC) water, running generators which maximise NLET (Non Linear Energy Transfers - infrared and microwave energy ) instead of LET (linear Energy Transfer - +2 Alpha, -2 Beta & Gama )
7) Whether you realise it or not we are all living on a NDG we call Earth. What explains Earth's magnetic flips?
but that doesn't mean I'm going to stick my head into a microwave oven and expect my brain to function just fine after that experience.
This is why i'm against nuclear plants in America because they are never monitored right by the government. We had a plant near me go bad and all the safety devices to shut it down were rotted away.
Another thing is the way rich countries in Europe and America have been dumping nuclear waste off the Somali cost until the tsunami washed it up and exposed so many people to radiation sickness.
The world never seems to learn or care about what it costs for its greed and lack of caring for their fellow man.
People that thinks we are any better than other countries getting rid of our waste need to wake up and look at how we destroy poor countries for profit.
With over one billion on this planet in starvation mode already....
There is a bright side to this story: if the mushrooms will naturally "clean out" the radioactive elements from the environment, they should be allowed to do so. The cost of keeping the sheep from eating them is minimal, looking at the longer-term harm that would come, if the rains hadn't washed the contaminated soil away.
Your voice is heard and gives one so much to think about.
I do remember 1986 so well as I was pregnant that year and so scared of all the food in the super market. Thank god my daughter is well and was not affected but not many can say the same thing.
This is part of our journey too and I would appreciate you to post there all the time.
Thank you in advance my dear friend
I've got so many balls in the air right now, dear, so please forgive me if it takes a few moments of time to always digest right away what comes my way. I apologize for that. You certainly don't deserve that from me.
I think the time has come to appologize for not understanding before that all is part of the journey. I am learning every moment of my life and am not ashamed to ask forgiveness. You are very dear to me, very compassionate and a man of integrity who is trying in all possible ways to be of help not only to certain people but the whole humanity. Your articles are to be treasured.
Will answer the others tomorrow; it is late and am tired after teaching 6 hours.
love
Chernobyl tore down the Berlin Wall Rory and not Reagan's actions? That is a stretch even for you
But why bother going into semantics and finger pointing? We live in a world where over one billion human beings are starving. A world where the UN discovered 3 years ago that we produce enough food to feed the world two times over, but due to the economic policies of the western democratic world's predatory capitalism, we allow such suffering to exist, often being trapped into thinking that the food will "trickle down" from Wall Street.
So why not instead focus our resources on reducing the suffering in the world? That's the most natural, honest and effective way to get on with the business of securing wealth.
Here's an article that touches upon that...
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?grpId=3659174697244817&articleId=281474977772133
Of course none of those nations with such problems as lack of food have any responsibility. Nope; corruption, government interference with local markets (dictates, taxation etc), local oligarchies, protectionism...the list of things that aren't these nations' (or the UN's) own fault is endless.
Equating the US under Bush with the former Soviet Union? Now that must take ignorance of a grand scale to make that leap. Since you use the word many, I suppose you can make a comparison or two that might stick?
We sometimes forget that in pointing at others we mostly wind up pointing more fingers back at ourselves. It's a healthy thing to look at our own snug behaviors to understand how out of control, like an unchecked nuclear reaction, some of that may impact people elsewhere, which in our globalized world, brings it all that back at us in ever quicker cyclings.
The US has done some rotten things but at least in this century, nothing that can be equated with Soviet practices
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I had no idea that the tragedy was still being felt so far away after so long. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.