guppie01 0 #26 December 8, 2009 Tonsils? g"Let's do something romantic this Saturday... how bout we bust out the restraints?" Raddest Ho this side of Jersey #1 - MISS YOU OMG, is she okay? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
virgin-burner 1 #27 December 8, 2009 QuoteTonsils? g basically yes; just read another word that i cant remember now; it's very prevalent in fuckranians..“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.” -Hunter S. Thompson "No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try." -Yoda Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billvon 2,476 #28 December 8, 2009 >We have no idea how many animals were stillborn or were born >with lethal birth defects due to the radiation. Actually, we do. The incidence of fatal mutations is way, way up. One study showed a 600% increase in mutation rates in one species of birds, and a decrease in average offspring of 35%. (You can presume the balance died due to radiation effects.) However, they are beginning to adapt. The mice there are doing well and have apparently become partly immune to radiation. When new mice of the same species are introduced, they die quickly. So we are forcing evolution to happen very quickly there, and new animals are evolving which can handle the radiation. But the bigger issue is that there are no pesticides, herbicides, new construction, hunters, domestic cats, sewers, dumps or freeways in the area - and apparently those things are far more detrimental to wildlife than mere radiation. On the balance, just about every species there is doing far better with the radiation than with the former threat (man.) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billvon 2,476 #29 December 8, 2009 >Today perhaps. But not at the time of Chernobyl. When it went down, >I am virtually sure we were still running three or four Hanford, WA >DOE reactors . . . Well, we're talking commercial reactors here. Lots of modern military/government reactor designs are as vulnerable to power excursions as Chernobyl was; we rely on a higher level of operator training, and more careful design of safety systems, to prevent problems. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CSpenceFLY 1 #30 December 8, 2009 There is a video somewhere of one of her rides. I think it would be cool to go there. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
d16842 0 #31 December 10, 2009 QuoteI recently read something amazing about that area - namely that it is one of the most healthy and diverse ecosystems in the region. The radiation is surely a negative, but the positive influence of excluding humans from the area far overwhelms it. Sad that we are worse for the ecosystem than crippling doses of radiation. Dr. Victor Baryakhtar, Vice President for Ukraine's Academy of Sciences, observed that "Northern Ukraine is the cleanest part of the nation. It has only radiation." The other great zone for wildlife is the DMZ of Korea. 155 miles long and 5 miles wide, where when people go there they get shot at, it makes a great wildlife zone.Tom B Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
d16842 0 #32 December 10, 2009 Quote I think the worst accident on record in this country was the SL-1 reactor explosion and meldown in the early 1960's... 3 operators died. They did not find the third guy till a few days later due to his location ... impaled by a rod to the cieling of the containment building. If I remember that story, or one very much like it, investigators believe it was murder/suicide, using the reactor as a weapon. Inventive I guess.Tom B Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
d16842 0 #33 December 10, 2009 Quote>Today perhaps. But not at the time of Chernobyl. When it went down, >I am virtually sure we were still running three or four Hanford, WA >DOE reactors . . . Well, we're talking commercial reactors here. Lots of modern military/government reactor designs are as vulnerable to power excursions as Chernobyl was; we rely on a higher level of operator training, and more careful design of safety systems, to prevent problems. Maybe you are talking commercial reactors, but the thread is about Chernobyl and its impact on the environment. We slam the Russians for their stupidity, but at the time of their event we were running several reactors without containment and other essential safety systems right here in America, and it could have happened here to any of them.Tom B Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites