The radiation is probably still having an effect but animal lifespans in nature are so short, there isn't time for the deleterious effects and cancer to build up like in longer-lived humans. It's pretty fascinating how it's become such a natural wildlife preserve.
The radiation is probably still having an effect but animal lifespans in nature are so short, there isn't time for the deleterious effects and cancer to build up like in longer-lived humans. It's pretty fascinating how it's become such a natural wildlife preserve.
You would assume a good bit of the negative affect of the radiation on the animal population would be on reproduction. I'm curious how that is
The radiation is probably still having an effect but animal lifespans in nature are so short, there isn't time for the deleterious effects and cancer to build up like in longer-lived humans. It's pretty fascinating how it's become such a natural wildlife preserve.
The scientists don't "know" how they are thriving and can't tell if there are any major side effects. It really is fascinating. I, for one, wouldn't eat the meat!
I was reading about this a short while ago and didn't know that the incident actually occurred during a test. They were testing to see if a system they had put in would be able to power the backup turbines until the generators kicked-in in the event of a total power loss. Somewhat ironic that they were trying to make the place safer and ended up destroying the whole plant.
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I was reading about this a short while ago and didn't know that the incident actually occurred during a test. They were testing to see if a system they had put in would be able to power the backup turbines until the generators kicked-in in the event of a total power loss. Somewhat ironic that they were trying to make the place safer and ended up destroying the whole plant.
The whole plant wasn't destroyed. The other three reactors were still operational for years afterward and Reactor 3 wasn't shut down until 2000.
I watched a documentary a little while back, I think it was called Wolves of Chernobyl. I thought it was fantastic, it was really interesting to see how the wolves thrive, and since people are not really allowed in, they exhibit no fear.
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Even though he says he only wanted steak and potatoes, he was aware of all the rapes.
The scientists don't "know" how they are thriving and can't tell if there are any major side effects. It really is fascinating. I, for one, wouldn't eat the meat!
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The whole plant wasn't destroyed. The other three reactors were still operational for years afterward and Reactor 3 wasn't shut down until 2000.
Well, technically you are correct. I guess what I meant to say was the entire plant and surrounding area was doomed to years of radioactivity after the incident. It effectively ended all regular human activity at the plant and the surrounding area.
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Had a much wider impact than just the immediate surrounding area. My uncle and cousin's sheep were just cleared from restrictions a few years back.
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A week earlier, on 26 April 1986, reactor number four at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in what was then the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine exploded, sending a plume of radio- active particles – equivalent in toxicity to 400 Hiroshima bombs – more than seven kilometres up into the atmosphere and due east in the breeze. In the days that followed, as a fire raged unchecked inside the twisted, white-hot remains of the reactor, the wind direction reversed and the plume, now a kilometre tall, headed west towards north-western Europe. It wasn't until workers at a nuclear reactor in Finland detected abnormally high doses of radioactivity on their clothes - up to 100 times normal background levels – that anyone outside the Soviet Union realised the true severity of the accident.
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On 2 May 1986, the plume finally passed over parts of the UK and, with fateful timing, so too did a column of cloud carrying heavy rain. The rain fell hardest where it always falls hardest – on the uplands. As the droplets of water fell from the sky, they carried with them the radionuclides – in particular, caesium-137, iodine-131 and strontium-90 – that had been dispersed from Chernobyl. It is estimated that 1% of the radiation released from the reactor fell on the UK. In an effort to prevent these radionuclides entering the food chain once they had settled on the upland soil, the ministry of agriculture, fisheries and food, as it was then known, ordered an immediate restriction on the movement and sale of sheep within the most affected areas – particularly north Wales, south-west Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Lake District, where the landscape is predominantly suited to grazing sheep. In total, almost 9,000 farms, and four million sheep, were placed under restriction.
I wonder what the impact on fish and the aquatic life is in the local streams and rivers. Would be interesting to know what is happening with that part of the whole thing.
It is pretty remarkable the ability for animals to adapt to their environment, now in 30 years will this be a booming town once again because these animals are thriving so the people will slowly come back? I hope they keep this area off limits forever to preserve the natural area. It would be a great study in 500 years to see the affects of a nuclear explosion, if humanity can last that long.
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They have had a plan to clean up the entire area but every year the material sinks deeper into the soil so the cleanup goes up significantly in cost with each passing year to the point where I don't think it will be cleaned up now until we have some sort of robot fleet.
The Finns were the first outside of the USSR to detect it, but the official story is that the Kremlin didn't know about it either until they were contacted by Finland to find out what was happening.
Up until that point, the local authorities were calling it a temporary shutdown at the plant and not reporting it.
There were also some true heroes there who killed themselves to prevent the concrete floor of the reactor from cracking which could have led to an unimaginable explosion.
I wonder what the impact on fish and the aquatic life is in the local streams and rivers. Would be interesting to know what is happening with that part of the whole thing.
It is pretty remarkable the ability for animals to adapt to their environment, now in 30 years will this be a booming town once again because these animals are thriving so the people will slowly come back? I hope they keep this area off limits forever to preserve the natural area. It would be a great study in 500 years to see the affects of a nuclear explosion, if humanity can last that long.
There was an episode of 'River Monsters" a couple years ago where he was fishing around Chernobyl. It was pretty neat, but its so hard to tell if a lot of the atmosphere and things like that were created for the show. Regardless, he caught what seemed like plenty of fish and aside from the radiation testing/scanning he had to stop for, things seemed fairly normal.
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Chernobyl, 30 years
