Never-seen-before shots of Chernobyl nuclear disaster that cost two of

But despite helping the outside world to understand what happened that fateful April 26 day, the pictures have had a devastating human cost.
Of the four photographers chronicling the tragedy, Anatoly Rasskazov and Valery Zufarov have died from radiation-related diseases and Igor Kostin is constantly ill from the exposure.
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The only snapper to have seemingly survived any ill effects is
Volodymyr Repik. Anatoly Rasskazov, as staff photographer for the
plant, was allowed in on the day of the explosion.
On April 26, at 12noon, just hours after the blast, he made a video of
the destroyed reactor and submitted it to a special commission working
in a bunker close to the plant.
Rasskazov’s photos were submitted to the commission by 11pm on the
same day – and were immediately seized by the Soviet secret police.
Only two of his pictures were published in 1987, without mentioning
the author’s name.
Rasskazov died in 2010, aged 66, after suffering for years from cancer
and blood diseases that he blamed on the radiation. Igor Kostin, now
76, was working for the Novosti Press Agency when he was sent to cover
the April 26 accident.
Gaining unauthorised access to the plant, by hitching a lift on a
military lead-covered helicopter flight, he has admitted to
‘foolishly’ opening the window to take pictures.
But, even though he wore a lead protective suit and placed his
equipment in lead boxes, he came back home with nothing to show for
his determination to document the crisis.
The radiation  was so high that all his shots turned out black – and
so he returned, nine days after the blast, to fire off frames as
soldiers frantically shovelled debris over the ruined roof.
Kostin’s work in the days after the blast and in subsequent years on
Chernobyl won him a World Press Photo Prize.
But it also exposed him to heavy levels of radiation.
He has undergone several thyroid operations, with thyroid cancer one
of the most widespread consequences of the blast.
Valery Zufarov died in 1993, aged 52, of Chernobyl-related diseases.
His first pictures were made from a helicopter 25 meters above the
plant. Volodymyr Repik, now 66, last year said that, if he had his
time again, he would not have gone to Chernobyl because the risk of
death was so high.
Pripyat, close to the power plant, has been left a ghost town since
the explosion at the plant caused radiation to leak from a nuclear
reactor.
The 50,000 residents were evacuated in a major government operation
starting the day after the catastrophe, on April 27.
The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater
catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an
estimated 18 billion rubles, crippling the Soviet economy.
Thirty-one reactor staff and emergency workers were killed in the
nuclear disaster, although a report in 2006 estimated the spread of
radiation would eventually lead to between 30,000 and 60,000 cancer
deaths.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142849/Haunting-shots-Chernobyl-nuclear-disaster-revealed-true-scale-catastrophe–cost-photographers-lives.html#ixzz1uh6jx2KZ

Children of Chernobyl Airlifts 97th Group in Advance of 26th Anniversary http://www.chabad.org/blogs/blog_cdo/aid/1838545/jewish/Children-of-Chernobyl-Airlifts-97th-Group-in-Advance-of-26th-Anniversary.htm

“On this significant anniversary, thousands of children every day are still feeling the tragic consequences of the Chernobyl disaster,” said Nancy Spielberg, founding board member of CCOC, in a statement. “They are facing devastating illnesses from radiation contamination –radiation that will be with us for thousands of years. As we’ve seen from the recent Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, the impact from this kind of radioactivity is as devastating today as it was 26 years ago.”

To date, the Chabad-Lubavitch run organization, which was designed to rescue those most vulnerable from the April 26, 1986 meltdown that left thousands of square kilometers uninhabitable, has helped 2,822 children escape the contaminated living conditions surrounding that portion of Ukraine. Most are brought to a sprawling educational and residential complex in the central Israeli village of Kfar Chabad, where they’re provided with medical care and social services.

The organization also provides medicine, equipment and other needed items for those who
cannot leave Europe. Spielberg pointed to World Health Organization statistics, which show the rate of thyroid cancer in the contaminated areas surrounding Chernobyl as more than 200 times the world norm.

VIDEOS   http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/25/world/iyw-chernobyl-children/?hpt=wo_mid  26 years on: helping Chernobyl’s children, By Katie Walmsley, CNN April 25, 2012  Chernobyl refuses to be relegated to the past. Indeed it may still be devastating the lives of millions who continue to live in the fallout zone. Aside from the potential health hazards of living in an area contaminated with radiation, domino socioeconomic effects have caused multiple problems in these regions.

Chernobyl Children International , or CCI, works to help kids in the region whose lives have been impacted by a disaster that happened years before they were born. Many suffer from physical problems such as congenital heart defects. Many kids have chronic illnesses or disabilities, and many live full time in institutions. 
To help them, CCI sends surgical teams who in turn help train local doctors. CCI nurses teach institution staff techniques, and volunteers renovate facilities.

The 26 April, 1986, explosion spewed a cloud of radiation over the northern hemisphere, forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes in Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia.

Work begins on ‘mausoleum’ for worst nuclear disaster, 26 years on, scotsman.com   27 April 2012   TWENTY-SIX years to the day after the world’s worst nuclear disaster, Ukraine yesterday began construction of a vast new metal shelter to contain the stricken Chernobyl reactor.

The 20,000-tonne structure, big enough to enclose the Statue of Liberty, is due to be completed by 2015, allowing the delicate and dangerous job of dismantling the reactor and cleaning vast amounts of radioactive waste still around it to begin.

“The Chernobyl disaster underscored that mankind must be extra careful in using nuclear technologies,” president Viktor Yanukovych said at the commencement ceremony. “Nuclear accidents lead to global consequences. They are not a problem of just one country, they affect the life of entire regions.”

The 26 April, 1986, explosion spewed a cloud of radiation over the northern hemisphere, forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes in Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia. The Soviet government initially
tried to hush up the explosion and resisted evacuation of neighbouring
settlements, as well as failing to tell citizens how to protect
themselves against radiation.

A concrete “sarcophagus” was hastily erected over the wrecked reactor,
but it has been crumbling and leaking radiation in recent years and a
new confinement structure is necessary.

Mr Yanukovych said two million people have been hurt by the tragedy
and it was the state’s obligation to protect and treat them. But his
reassurances fell flat with Chernobyl clean-up workers and victims.
About 2,000 protesters rallied yesterday outside parliament in Kiev,
demanding more compensation and pensions.

Mr Yanukovych also thanked international donors for pledging €740
million (£615m) to build the new shelter and a nuclear fuel waste
facility. The biggest donors are the G8 industrial nations, including
Japan, itself still recovering from last year’s Fukushima nuclear
meltdown….. 1,000 workers are now beginning to piece together the
giant arch from French steel on an assembly site 200 metres away from
the exploded reactor. After it is assembled in the coming months,
workers will begin to lift it to slide it over the reactor. The
contours of the new confinement building should become visible by the
year’s end. Then a front and back section will be built.

Preparatory work has been under way since 2008. That included cleaning
up the assembly site, replacing contaminated soil, and then putting it
in concrete, which now enables employees to work without special
radiation protection.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/international/work-begins-on-mausoleum-for-worst-nuclear-disaster-26-years-on-1-2258655

The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Is Far From Over   HUFFINGTON POST, Robert Alvarez, Senior Scholar, Institute for Policy Studies, 22 April 12,

What both accidents have in common is widespread environmental contamination from cesium-137. With a half-life of 30, years, Cs-137 gives off penetrating radiation, as it decays and can remain dangerous for hundreds of years. Once in the environment, it mimics potassium as it accumulates in the food chain. When it enters the human body, about 75 percent lodges in muscle tissue, with, perhaps, the most important muscle being the heart.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-alvarez/the-fukushima-nuclear-dis_b_1444146.html

Female barn swallows suffer differentially from the mortality costs of radiation, with male adult survival being reduced by 24%, while female survival is reduced by 57% in contaminated areas compared to controls 

Elevated Mortality among Birds in Chernobyl as Judged from Skewed Age and Sex Ratios PLoS One 13 April 12, “….Radiation has negative effects on survival of animals including humans, although the generality of this claim is poorly documented under low-dose field conditions.

Because females may suffer disproportionately from the effects of radiation on survival due to differences in sex roles during reproduction, radiation-induced mortality may result in
male-skewed adult sex ratios.

Methodology/Principal Finding
We estimated the effects of low-dose radiation on adult survival rates
in birds by determining age ratios of adults captured in mist nets
during the breeding season in relation to background radiation levels
around Chernobyl and in nearby uncontaminated control areas. Age
ratios were skewed towards yearlings, especially in the most
contaminated areas, implying that adult survival rates were reduced in
contaminated areas, and that populations in such areas could only be
maintained through immigration from nearby uncontaminated areas.
Differential mortality in females resulted in a strongly male-skewed
sex ratio in the most contaminated areas. In addition, males sang
disproportionately commonly in the most contaminated areas where the
sex ratio was male skewed presumably because males had difficulty
finding and acquiring mates when females were rare. The results were
not caused by permanent emigration by females from the most
contaminated areas because none of the recaptured birds had changed
breeding site, and the proportion of individuals with morphological
abnormalities did not differ significantly between the sexes for areas
with normal and higher levels of contamination.

Conclusions/Significance
These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the adult survival rate of female birds is particularly susceptible to the effects of low-dose radiation, resulting in male skewed sex ratios at high levels of radiation.

Such skewed age ratios towards yearlings in
contaminated areas are consistent with the hypothesis that an area
exceeding 30,000 km2 in Chernobyl’s surroundings constitutes an
ecological trap that causes dramatic excess mortality……..

the tertiary sex ratio (here defined as the proportion of males among adults) was skewed towards an excess of males across 48 different bird species. This finding is in accordance with lower adult survival rates in females compared to males previously reported for barn swallows in contaminated areas around Chernobyl …..

Female barn swallows suffer differentially from the mortality costs of radiation, with male adult survival being reduced by 24%, while female survival is reduced by 57% in contaminated areas compared to controls
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0035223

VIDEO included   http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=worlds-largest-movable-structure-seal-chernobyl-reactor   Nuclear Cover Up: World’s Largest Movable Structure to Seal the Wrecked Chernobyl Reactor To safely enclose and robotically dismantle the 25-year-old makeshift confinement sarcophagus at Chernobyl, contractors are now erecting a massive steel structure weighing more than 29,000 metric tons

Scientific American, By Charles Q. Choi  | March 17, 2011 CHERNOBYL

After reactor No. 4  exploded at Chernobyl in 1986 due to errors in both design and operation it sent plumes of radioactive dust as far away as Japan and the U.S. To contain the fallout, the Soviet Union constructed a metal and concrete structure commonly known as the sarcophagus over the wreckage.

“It was really quite a remarkable feat, but after 25 years, it’s in danger of collapse,” civil and environmental engineer Eric Schmieman of Battelle Memorial Institute explains in an interview in Kiev.

The sarcophagus, technically known as the Shelter Object, was made of more than 7,000 metric tons of metal and 400,000 cubic meters of concrete. It was erected as quickly as possible to limit worker exposure to radiation, and was never meant to last forever. In many ways it was designed “like a house of cards,” Schmieman says, with pieces of metal essentially leaning against each other and hooked together. “There are no welded joints or bolted joints—it wouldn’t take much of a seismic event to knock it down.”
At the same time, when the sarcophagus was completed, “there were over 1,000 square meters of openings in the roof where joints didn’t match up,” Schmieman says. These holes allowed water in, resulting in corrosion that is hastening the structure’s decline. Since then, workers have patched many of these holes, but 100 square meters of gaps remain. To help keep radioactive matter from leaking , a dust- suppression system inside relies on sprinklers that periodically spray a watery solution to prevent it from becoming airborne.

Now, to safely enclose the ailing sarcophagus, the French consortium Novarka is working on a replacement: the New Safe Confinement, a steel structure 110 meters high at its tallest point, 164 meters wide, spanning across 257 meters and weighing more than 29,000 metric tons. In comparison, the Statue of Liberty from the ground to the tip of its torch is about 93 meters high, says Schmieman, who helped lead New Safe Confinement’s conceptual design .

Because the destroyed reactor is still   highly radioactive,  , to protect workers, the arch will not be constructed over the sarcophagus. R ather, it will be assembled nearby from prefabricated segments each about 25 meters high and weighing an average of 300 metric tons. Once complete, hydraulic jacks will then slide the arch approximately 300 meters on Teflon bearings during the course of a week to enclose the sarcophagus. Walls on either side  of the structure, making it resemble an aircraft hangar, will help isolate debris. “All told, it has a design life of 100 years,” Schmieman says.

The 1986 Chernobyl disaster caused 6,000-8,000 deaths due to cancer and other radiation-related illnesses, another 15,000 suffering related diseases since 1992, along with 32 deaths from the explosion itself, according to a story in the Press-Gazette story in 1992.
Cleanup costs were estimated to hit $400 billion. It caused a lethal cloud that drifted over Europe, risking the health of millions and contaminating water, livestock, milk, hay and food crops. It left 1,000 square miles highly contaminated and nearly 3 million acres of
agricultural land considered lost for a century. It was estimated there could be 1 million extra cancers worldwide within 70 years of Chernobyl.
As for our nation developing the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada
for waste disposal, reducing the risks of spills and terrorists
access, aren’t the nuclear plants themselves as much of a target?
Surely you can’t believe a couple chain-link fences make these
facilities secure, including the two right here in our own back yard
of Northeastern Wisconsin. Even a simple human error could cause
enormous potential damages.

As Linssen states, there are a dozen new reactor designs in various
stages of development and “new energy technologies often bring new
hazards.” We are arrogant, indeed, if we think that even with all our
present technology, we are fully prepared to handle nuclear crisis.

The NRC is questioning how hot nuclear fuel rods could become in the
event of a loss of coolant in our own Kewaunee Power Station, along
with 10 others nationwide that have pressurized water reactors
designed by Westinghouse Electric Co. NRC regulations say the
temperatures must be 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit or less to keep from
damaging fuel rod insulation that keeps radiation from escaping. The
11 plants in question have computer models that estimate peak
temperatures of 2,000 degrees or more in such an event. That’s too
close to the limit, the NRC said.

I am not alone in my belief that our delicate earth is in peril. I
have seen how cancer has ravaged so many families these days, ours
included, and the potential man has at his fingertips to cause such
enormous damage to our planet. We cannot afford to take such risks.

Mary Tordeur is an Ashwaubenon resident who tracks the impact of
nuclear accidents.
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/comments/article/20120224/GPG0706/202240527/Guest-column-Nuclear-plant-risks-not-worth-it