nuclear-news

• Many dogs were exterminated following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster to prevent the spread of radiation.
• Those who survived continued to reproduce in the wild. Today, hundreds of their descendants roam the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
• Workers at the Chernobyl power plants have started to adopt the animals, but nuclear experts still warn against petting them, since their fur might contain radiation.
• Not all Chernobyl dogs are unsafe pets. Last year, the US welcomed the first round of puppies to ever be allowed outside the exclusion zone.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

One of the most chilling moments in HBO’s new miniseries, “Chernobyl,” takes place on a sunny day after the evacuation of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, a restricted area in Ukraine. Hours earlier, the core of a nuclear reactor opened at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, releasing plumes of radioactive material into the air.

The zone is quiet (residents have already been loaded onto buses and sent to nearby settlements), but the Soviet “liquidators” tasked with cleaning up the disaster are hard at work.

A young civilian recruit reports for duty, where he’s given his first assignment: to join two other liquidators in shooting stray dogs that patrol the region. Of all the horrors depicted in the series – a fatal helicopter crash, the death of a just-born baby, people’s flesh peeling off due to acute radiation syndrome – the animal killings are perhaps the most visceral.

“I know that was hard,” writer Craig Mazin tweeted after the scene aired. “Just so there’s no confusion – the story of the liquidators is real. It happened. And we actually toned it down from the full story.”……HTTPS://WWW.BUSINESSINSIDER.COM.AU/CHERNOBYL-WORKERS-ADOPTING-RADIOACTIVE-DOGS-2019-6?R=US&IR=T