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Chernobyl 30 Years On-Fallout Zone or Enchanted Wildlife Sanctuary?

nucklehead

By nucklehead
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nucklehead

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Exactly three decades ago, an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine sent a radioactive cloud across Europe. Within weeks, nearly 100,000 people who lived in a large zone surrounding the disaster site had been evacuated, never to return to the poisoned land.

Today, the relics of their past — hollowed-out hotels, empty swimming pools, crumbling farming villages and oxidized ferris wheels — stand in ghostly abandonment across a contaminated region larger than Rhode Island.But time has not stood still. Nature has reclaimed the area, and new photographic data show the 1,600 square-mile Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is now “basically an incredibly large sanctuary” for animals large and small, according to University of Georgia biologist Jim Beasley.Anecdotal reports of wildlife doing well in the ruins of Chernobyl have been controversial. Some scientists argue that the disaster has taken a deleterious toll on fauna, causing genetic damage and population declines. A study published last fall, however, backed up the idea of the fallout zone-turned-enchanted forest with data from helicopter observations and animal tracks. They pointed to flourishing animal populations.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/04/26/30-years-after-chernobyl-disaster-camera-study-captures-a-wildlife-wonderland/?postshare=9631472602221044&tid=ss_fb

 

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“In our studies, species that have historically shown high mutation rates, such as the barn swallow (Hirundo rustica), the icterine warbler (Hippolais icterina) and the Eurasian blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla), are among the most likely to show population declines in Chernobyl,” said Timothy A. Mousseau, a professor of biological sciences at University of South Carolina. “Our hypothesis is that species differ in their ability to repair DNA, and this affects both DNA substitution rates and susceptibility to radiation from Chernobyl.”

What researchers have discovered is that birds and mammals now have smaller brains and cataracts in their eyes as a result of the radioactivity at Chernobyl. Tumors are found on some birds in high-radiation areas, and 40 percent of male birds are sterile. Populations of many organisms have shrunk, including those of birds, butterflies, dragonflies, bees, grasshoppers, spiders, and large and small mammals.

Wolves, however, have shown no effects of radiation in terms of their population density, while some species of birds seem to be more abundant. Researchers suggest this may be the result of fewer competitors or predators in those highly radioactive areas.

 

wolf.jpg

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Warhippy Canucks Hall-of-Famer

Warhippy

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It's both and neither.

 

The fundamental microbial life in Chernobyl near pripyat is either dead or so retarded in its own fashion from the fallout that the forest isn't decaying like it should.  No decay means no loss of contaminated life via natural decomposition if I recall.  Which means that the worst of the fallout in the area has yet to be covered up

 

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/science-nature/forests-around-chernobyl-arent-decaying-properly-180950075/

 

It's an ongoing experiment in the effects of fallout.

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Tre Mac Canucks Franchise Player

Tre Mac

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The Ukraine is weak.

 

It's crazy how much worse this disaster could of been had three people not risked their lives to go into the large reactor and open a valve:

 

https://www.thetrumpet.com/article/14007.24.186.0/europe/three-men-who-saved-millions

 

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When that white-hot, melting reactor core touched the water, it would trigger a massive, radiation-contaminated steam explosion. The fallout created by it would contaminate much of Europe. The death toll would make the first Chernobyl blast look almost insignificant.

Journalist Stephen McGinty wrote, “This would trigger a nuclear explosion that, so Soviet physicists calculated, would vaporize the fuel in the three other reactors, level 200 square kilometers [77 square miles], destroy Kiev, contaminate the water supply used by 30 million people, and render northern Ukraine uninhabitable for more than a century” (The Scotsman, March 16, 2011).

The 2009 School of Russian and Asian Studies had an even bleaker assessment: If the melting core reached the water, the resulting explosion “would have wiped out half of Europe and made Europe, Ukraine, and parts of Russia uninhabitable for approximately 500,000 years.”

 

 

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smithers joe Canucks Franchise Player

smithers joe

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chernobyl was built on a flood plain. it floods every 100 years or so. i think the last flood was like 150 years ago. they say, when it floods again, radioactive material still there, will wash down the black sea to the balkans. millions more will die.

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canuckspride Abbotsford Star

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Much of the contamination was just covered up *not in terms of conspiracy* but literally covered up. We walked down the road in pripyat parts of the road not covered had high radiation compared to the new pavement which was safe.

 

In the hospital for example, the basement had to be sealed off because it was where they stored all the firefighters clothing after the explosion. The discarded clothing in the basement of the hospital is still dangerously radioactive. when you walked through the hospital occasionally you would find an old piece of uniform from the firefighters and your gieger counter would go crazy!

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TheOgRook Canucks Regular

TheOgRook

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30 minutes ago, canuckspride said:

Much of the contamination was just covered up *not in terms of conspiracy* but literally covered up. We walked down the road in pripyat parts of the road not covered had high radiation compared to the new pavement which was safe.

 

In the hospital for example, the basement had to be sealed off because it was where they stored all the firefighters clothing after the explosion. The discarded clothing in the basement of the hospital is still dangerously radioactive. when you walked through the hospital occasionally you would find an old piece of uniform from the firefighters and your gieger counter would go crazy!

Ok, you know darn well we all want to hear more about this more about this story lol. Spill the beans!

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Nuxfanabroad Canucks Hall-of-Famer

Nuxfanabroad

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& 30 yrs has slipped by. We were all busy celebrating Expo, as that Hell unfolded, half a world away.

 

We see ourselves as being clever. Basically, with seemingly cheap energy, we created a century of meteoric-growth. To me, nuclear amounts to an incredibly risky, silly way to boil water. For countless engineers, scientists & skimming politicians, it represented "good business". Mistakes were made, & "it seemed a good idea, at the time!", may be inserted almost anywhere into the narrative.

 

Now the bills(true cost) start rolling in. With decades in between, cause/effect & culpability all get lost in the shuffle.

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Tortorella's Rant Canucks Hall-of-Famer

Tortorella's Rant

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6 hours ago, Tre Mac said:

The Ukraine is weak.

 

It's crazy how much worse this disaster could of been had three people not risked their lives to go into the large reactor and open a valve:

 

https://www.thetrumpet.com/article/14007.24.186.0/europe/three-men-who-saved-millions

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzLtF_PxbYw

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canuckspride Abbotsford Star

canuckspride

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15 hours ago, TheOgRook said:

Ok, you know darn well we all want to hear more about this more about this story lol. Spill the beans!

Haha no worries,

 

The whole town of Pripyat was very eerie. Before we went into the town we stopped by the power plant and saw the actual building that had the accident in it. They have workers there now building the new esophagus that will cover the reactor that will contain the radiation.

 

Before we entered the town there was a final checkpoint to go past as our guide gave them the documents we signed earlier to be allowed in. Once inside we walked around the old streets and went into the buildings they had cleared and made safe. We had walked into one room at the school and the floor was covered in gas masks and other rooms still had all the regular effects (ie chemistry class still had all their writings on the chalk boards etc)

 

A while back a salvage team had gone through many of the buildings to extract any metals that could be salvaged so a lot of the physical damage is from the demolition processes.

 

At one point in the hospital we stopped at the entrance to the basement. Our guide said they had sealed it with sand and dirt to prevent anyone going down there, since there was so much radioactive clothing left over from the first responders down there. He pointed out a rag on the ground that had come from the basement and when we moved the geiger counter close the alarm went off.

 

 

Once we left we had to go through a scanner (very old fashioned one) that detected the radiation levels your clothing. Mind you if there was anything that was high, you would have to get rid of that clothing. 

 

All of the paths we were taken on were approved and clean for visiting.

 

one thing to check out is the Russian Woodpecker. It is straight out of a James Bond movie..and we got to climb it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duga_radar

 

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