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Slappie

A Chernobyl visit

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>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.)

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>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.

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I 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

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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

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>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

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