June 18, 2005, The Antidote to Civilization
This week's visit to Pravda (it's been a while!) gives us this discussion of what appears to be a growing tourist Mecca in the former Soviet Republic of Ukraine... I'm talking about Chernobyl. It's been near 20 years since the world's most devastating nuclear power plant accident killed thousands (or was it tens of thousands... given Soviet era obfuscations, no one can be sure...), and resulted in the abandonment of this city of nearly 50,000...
An apparent natural paradise (albeit one with lethal radiation in all directions) appears to have sprouted up, amidest abandoned apartment blocks and government buildings. Some inveterate tourists (the article notes a group of young Finns) finds the place fascinating; local guides seem to make good money shuttling people around on one day excursions around the place.
I'm not sure of the specifics, but I'm pretty sure that, given our current technological abilities to "de-tox" this much released nuclear material, Chernobyl will not be inhabitable for decades... or is it millenia?
Just something else to consider as our own energy thirsts and other (arguably myopic) wants may lead us to go on a blitz of building more nuclear plants... a cautionary tale quite literally from The Twilight Zone...
Comments
TD, there is a tour group based in Harrisburg that take people to Chernobyl. They are called "Rad for Rads."
Posted by Anonymous at June 18, 2005 6:41 PM
More than anything else, the differences between the accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl point out the differences between the Soviet Union and the US.
At Three Mile Island, there may or may not have been a release of some possibly radioactive gas.
At Chernobyl, now...
I am given to understand by those who ought to know that a Chernobyl-style meltdown is pretty much impossible in any western reactor. The Soviets, corrupt and nearing bankruptcy as they were, went for fast and cheap, and paid the price.
Posted by Dean at June 19, 2005 8:59 AM
It's the waste, people. Where are we to put it where it will be safe for millennia? Sure, it won't melt down, but it will leak or spill. Besides, GWB can't even pronounce "nuclear" yet he's the one to decide? I'm convinced he mispronounces it because he hasn't a clue WHAT IT IS. An atom has a nucleus, not a nucule, whatever that's supposed to be. :-0
Posted by Jeremiad Screamer at June 23, 2005 2:39 PM