20th Anniversary of the Chernobyl Accident

There are numerous threads and posts on ATS that actually advocate the use of nuclear weapons against Iran, Iraq, Syria, North Korea, well, the list could be rather all-inclusive.

Many posters on ATS are young and many don't remember or, possibly, don't even know about the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Many don't know the dangers of the peaceful use of nuclear energy much less the deliberate use of nuclear weapons.

We are commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident -- April 25th - 26th, 1986 -- and this is an opportune time to help make clear the danger of nuclear weapons. Consider that the result of Chernobyl was an accident and the result has been devastating. Ponder the results of a deliberate use of a nuclear weapon.

Chernobyl

Chernobyl today

Hopefully, the sobering content of this link will help educate people about the danger of nuclear energy and that it might make clear that the use of nuclear weapons are unthinkable.

Twenty years after Chernobyl, we still find people dying, people developing cancer and thousands of children sick.

Not directly on topic, but reading about the liquidators of Chernobyl, I find it sad that these brave men and women are dying today without the recognition they deserve. They are every bit as much heroes as the firemen and other first responders who assisted after 9/11, but their story is far less known.

More information on them here,, including video.

[edit on 24-4-2006 by koji_K]

[edit on 24-4-2006 by koji_K]

I was read that those who worked near the reactor to save lives claimed the dense radiation "tasted like metal" and felt like "pins and needles" driving into their skin.

How terrible it must have been to have been the ones fighting the fires and trying to cover the reactor core. Truly, truly heroic.

Interesting programme on BBC R4 yesterday - a UK research scientist was saying that the US negotiated exclusive rights to monitor much of the affected population as the radiation released by the reactor was about 1/3rd of that released by nuclear testing in the US in the 50's and they thought it was a good, discreet way to test the effects of what they did to US citizens.

Chernobyl Story under the listen again menu

www.bbc.co.uk...

I was watching a documentary on Chernobyl today ("The battle of Chernobyl")..It was very graphic and made me feel queasy. Theres really no way to really imagine what the liquidators went through..

Each liquidator had to make their own suit out of lead (which was estimated to weigh around 25kg) to wear whilst cleaning off the roof. They could only stay up there for 45 seconds each time because the radiation was so strong. Their reward for such work? One hundred dollars and a certificate.

Miners from other towns were forced into tunnels underneath the reactor. Inside the tunnels it was 50 degrees. The men worked with only pants on, no protection at all. They drank poisoned water.

The documentary was just awful to watch...All the footage of young, laughing, happy men who met painful, slow deaths.

(Anyone in Australia with pay tv should check their tv guides..the documentary will be shown again in the coming days. It is a must see, albeit a saddening one).

I watched the same documentary, and it seems like a case of sabotage or insanity, since It can't be called an accident.

Deputy chief Diatlov against orders, procedures, safety regulations and protests of the crew, ran the reactor test at 200mw instead of required 700mw, thus stalling it and causing the chain reaction.

It is also interesting that back in the 60s he was arrested and investigated for a similar accident on a nuclear sub reactor. His son died of leukemia, how is not clear.

Grief stricken father that lost his son to radiation locked in a battle with the atom like Ahab hunting his whale?

Considering the set he would make a prime target for sabotage recruitment. Some persuasion, a tad of subconscious mapping and there he goes.

My respects and admiration to all the brave heroes that worked on the site knowing they're not going to survive.

God rest their souls.