The Legacy of Chernobyl - Very Graphic - Discretion Advised, page 1

The Nation - "The Legacy of Chernobyl"

"A boys brain outside his head..."

From the article:

"Twenty-six years after the meltdown at Chernobyl, the legacy of the 1986 explosion lives on.

'It is a disaster that left a 30-kilometre uninhabitable exclusion zone, displaced hundreds of thousands of people, and still threatens the lives of tens of thousands,' writes Greenpeace today.

All these years and a triple meltdown at Fukushima later, the industry and its supporters have yet to learn." "The nuclear industry still hasn't realized or admitted that its reactors are unsafe...That puts the tens of millions of people living near the worlds more than 400 reactors at risk" "To get a sense of just what those tens of millions live at risk of, take a look at these photographs by award winning photographer Paul Fusco...an extraordinary MAGNUM photographer who traveled to the Ukraine to see the legacy of Chernobyl after twenty years. " "Yet his extraordinary photographs, which you can see here in a short promotional slideshow, aren't printed in US papers. They're like his pictures of US military funerals, his current project, which is called Bitter Fruit. 'The pictures are printed a lot in Europe. Never here,' Fusco told the Scripps students. 'Why do you think that is?'"

Slideshow Links: (Vimeo video and a slideshow at original article.)
Enenews
The Nation - Slideshow

I posted this in hopes of convincing those who still believe the nuclear industry and it's PR/advertising companies that nuclear energy is the most dangerous and destructive way to produce electricity. It seems that despite the largest meltdowns in human history there are many who still believe it's safe. Japan will suffer into the next century and the first step in helping them is at least recognizing reality and ending the denial. I don't want to see anyone in my country have to suffer like this. Spread the truth and make everyone aware of just how profoundly damaging and destructive this technology. There is too much proof to the contrary of what the industry and it's supporters say for any human to have to suffer the consequences of allowing these private corporations to profit off of such a horrible technology.

There were ways to make nuclear "safe", such as using thorium or actually designing the plant right instead of bowing to the profit gods, but those days are long gone and we must deal with what we got. I hope anyone who still believes nuclear is safe will research on the internet and in your library about the very real suffering caused by the release of radionuclides into the environment. I really hope people don't believe the lie that only a few thousand died as a result of Chernobyl. The future of Japan, especially Fukushima, is a dark and painful one. Let's not forget them and let's not allow this to happen to us.

I apologize in advance to anyone who may be disgusted or emotionally disturbed by what they may see. The medical condition of these children is heart-wrenching. I can't even imagine what it must feel like for some of these children. I also understand that children weren't the only ones affected. The adults are susceptible to cancer just the same as the kids. There is also the damage we can't see. Not just the brain damage and physical damage caused by the accumulation of radionuclides in the body, but the social aspects as well. Families were torn apart and entire towns have been permanently altered for the worse. Radiation and heavy metal toxicity from radionuclides in the body also cause lowered IQ's! One more thing, the DNA of these kids are permanantly damaged. If these children ever have kids of their own, they will create offspring with damaged DNA and continue to pass on the pain and suffering. (That is if they aren't sterile already.) That means entire genetic lines are destroyed forever. Please share your thoughts and spread this information to everyone. This is such an important topic and the potential for an eternal catastrophe is always just one earthquake, accident, or flood away, and yet there is almost no talk of it on the news, radio, or even people's lives.

reply to post by FissionSurplus

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Well, let me just state I've researched a fair bit about Fukushima and nuclear power in general, but I am no expert and the talk about sealing the corium in concrete was a year ago when it first happened. I really forget the reasons that were discussed back then concerning the entombment question. That said, I believe one of the main issues was how active the fuel was. I think it was way too hot to just dump boron or sand on top of it and seal it in concrete. These rods were in operation for a long time and were nearing the end of the cycle, I believe. This would cause the rods to be full of plutonium from the transmutation of uranium isotopes. I also remember reading there would be some chemical reaction caused making the situation even worse. I'm not positive about the chemical reaction idea, though. The other thing is they don't even know exactly where the fuel is. When they looked into the primary of reactor number 2, they expected the water level to be something like between 20-30 meters high, but when they actually saw the feed from the camera it was only a couple feet! The consensus these days seems to be that the fuel melted through the containment within the first few days making any operation basically futile. Tepco recently released plans to install a hundred foot wall underground to help prevent the leakage of radionuclides into the ocean, which clearly supports that the coriums have long since eaten through containment and started into the foundation and then into the ground.

I'm sorry for the non-reply, basically. I will look up the answer to your question, but right now I'm going to watch The Daily Show and Colbert. I'll get back to you tonight unless someone else can elaborate.

reply to post by KillThePoor

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Thanks, I appreciate it.

On a side note, if they cannot contain such a disaster, then perhaps we are not ready for nuclear energy. I fear all the old nuclear plants within the US, especially the older ones in the northeast, are all disasters waiting to happen.

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