Chernobyl: 25 years on

A sarcophagus in the Chernobyl Zone. Image by Piotr Andryszczak

26th of April was the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. The Presidents of Russia and Ukraine attended a commemoration ceremony at the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster and were united in calls for new international ruling to ensure the safe running and development of nuclear facilities.

The explosion and fire at the Chernobyl facility based in the former USSR released massive quantities of radioactive material into the surrounding area and into the atmosphere, where it was detected as far away as Norway and Scandinavia. To this day, the areas most effected by the nuclear fallout are still dealing with its aftermath - large areas of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia are still contaminated with heavy radioactive elements. Death and poor health attributed to high radiation exposure are still being reported.

Chernobyl radiation map from CIA handbook


President Dmitry Medvedev did not specify what proposals he would bring to the international community. He did, however, stress that the Chernobyl disaster has taught that truth and honesty is paramount to protecting lives: "it is duty of the state to tell the truth to its people. It must be acknowledged that the (Soviet) state did not always behave correctly".

However, lessons from the present-day disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant must also be recognised. Here, the incident was not a man-made accident like Chernobyl but caused by the uncontrollable and unanticipated force of nature. To save lives, one needs to know at an instant the extent and the immediate consequences of the damage to the facility and the impending nuclear fallout in order to take effective action - knowledge that could not have been apprehended fast enough for the officials in Japan to make any formal statements. It is here that honesty and truthfulness, under a massive plume of radioactive dust, do not appear to hold much value.

A word that does appear to be of value is conscience. What we know from both these major incidents is the sheer magnitude of the danger that a nuclear fallout poses to life and health; a danger that cannot be naturally sensed or outrun, that can be so easily caused by man or nature and that is irreversible, destructive and long lasting. One must question whether our demand for energy outweighs the value of human life and the value of our environment - one that in future will be serving as a massive dumping ground for nuclear waste.

Safer, renewable and clean energy technology exists. Now would be the perfect time for world leaders to listen to their conscience, and their people, and make a move away from the tempting toxicity that is nuclear power. What should be the real take-home message from Chernobyl and Fukushima is: haven't we seen enough?

Source: Reuters

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Channel 4 4od: Nuclear Eternity

Heavy Water: A film for Chernobyl

Fukushima nuclear fallout

The Fukushima nuclear reactor on 16/03/11 (Digital Globe 2).


It was reported that the levels of radiation emanating from reactor 2 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has reached 10 million times that of normal (see The Guardian).

This frightening estimate was taken from tests performed on a pool of water that had formed in the reactor. Workers reportedly fled after recording the reading of 1,000 millisieverts (mSv) per hour; a second reading that would have confirmed this was never taken. Not long after, authorities at the nuclear plant (TEPCO) dismissed this announcement as a mistake and that new tests will be carried out. They in turn got a severe reprimand from the Japanese government for striking unnecessary terror on an already freaked out planet.

Since the nuclear fallout a series of rathered measured, and sometimes confusing reports have been released from Japan regarding the state of the nuclear reactors, the safety of the surrounding areas and the levels of radiation now found in the soil, sea, drinking water and food sources in and further afield of Fukushima. To be fair this is to be expected; this is a country battling one of the biggest nuclear disasters the world has ever seen since Chernobyl. It is also the biggest earthquake and worst nuclear disaster Japan has faced, the latter since WWII. With things having happened and still is happening so quickly there is precious little time for the relevant authorities to play to the gallery.

But it is this lack of news, made worse by the dominating news coverage of events in Libya, that makes the whole situation even more unnerving. The calm and dismissive statements being made while the nuclear reactor still stands damaged, smoldering and leaking hints of a ploy to prevent mass panic. Do the abnormal levels of radioactive matter being detected in the soil around Fukushima, the tap water as far away as Tokyo and in Japanese food products really pose no threat to human health? Authorities have so far declared the levels detected minimal, but with the long half life of some of these elements (Plutonium has a half life of 24,200 years) and with the reactors still releasing radiation into the water and atmosphere, who knows what the total levels may be, where this will end up and how this will effect the citizens of Japan and their later generations?

Only time can answer these questions. But right now as the courageous workers at the Fukushima plant battle on, the events in Japan should serve as a warning to the rest of the world. Nuclear power may be clean and have huge potential, but the dangers associated with it are immense and long lasting. Alternative energy sources that are safe, clean and renewable must be sought out. For the sake of world health and for sake of our future generations the world must find a way to put enterprise and politics aside and instead put a thinking cap on.

Story: The Guardian

Also see:

Fukushima nuclear fallout

NHK World