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Lengthy, expensive process of new tomb for Chernobyl’s shattered nuclear reactor

flag-UkraineChernobyl copes with nuclear fallout a quarter-century on, Global Post Jakub Parusinski February 25, 2013  As a new structure around the destroyed nuclear reactor goes up, life for locals remains blighted. The so-called exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was once home to some 120,000 people, who were evacuated following the reactor meltdown at in 1986. Trees that sprouted in living rooms are now pushing through rooftops inside this highly contaminated, sealed off area, while wild horses and wolves roam the woods.

However, there are also some 7,000 people working here, including almost 3,000 at the plant itself.

An international fund managed by theEuropean Bank for Reconstruction and Development is spending an estimated $2 billion to build a new confinement shelter to protect the world from Chernobyl’s radioactivity for the next 100 years……

chernobyl_cover 2013

Built by a French-led consortium, the 360-foot giant hangar-like casing is being constructed with modern equipment on infrastructure that’s better maintained than in the capital Kyiv, 70 miles to the south. While hundreds in the Ukrainian capital injure themselves every day slipping on ice-covered sidewalks, roads in the exclusion zone are swept clean for a stream of cement trucks….. Completion of the reactor confinement structure, set for 2015, will calm longstanding fears about a collapse of the current sarcophagus. Those living around the zone face a less certain future. … http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/130221/chernobyl-nuclear-reactor-confinement

August 16, 2013 Posted by | safety, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Chernobyl’s trees show radiation damage

text-radiationChernobyl’s legacy recorded in trees By Mark Kinver Environment reporter, BBC News Exposure to radiation from the 1986 Chernobyl accident had a lasting negative legacy on the area’s trees, a study has suggested.

Researchers said the worst effects were recorded in the “first few years” but surviving trees were left vulnerable to environmental stress, such as drought.

They added that young trees appeared to be particularly affected.

Writing in the journal Trees, the team said it was the first study to look at the impact at a landscape scale.

“Our field results were consistent with previous findings that were based on much smaller sample sizes,” explained co-author Tim Mousseau from the University of South Carolina, US.

“They are also consistent with the many reports of genetic impacts to these trees,” he told BBC News.

“Many of the trees show highly abnormal growth forms reflecting the effects of mutations and cell death resulting from radiation exposure.”…… Prof Mousseau and his team hope to follow up this study by carrying out similar work in the Fukushima region in Japan, where logging also had considerable economic importance and pine trees were widely dispersed. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23619870

August 10, 2013 Posted by | environment, radiation, Reference, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Climate change increases Chernobyl’s risk of radioactive wildfires

Women in their 20s living just outside the zone face the highest risk from exposure to radioactive smoke, the 2011 study found: 170 in 100,000 would have an increased chance of dying of cancer. Among men farther away in Kiev, 18 in 100,000 20 year olds would be at increased risk of dying of cancer.

the greatest danger from forest fire for most people would be consuming foods exposed to smoke. Milk, meat and other products would exceed safe levels, the 2011 study predicts. The Ukrainian government would almost certainly have to ban consumption of foodstuffs produced as far as 150 kilometres from the fire

wildfire-nukeWatching for a radioactive forest fire  JANE BRAXTON LITTLE, ABC Environment 8 JUL 2013  Tinder dry and radioactive: the forests around Chernobyl are an accident waiting to happen. For 27 years, forests around Chernobyl have been absorbing radioactive elements. A fire would send them skyward again – a growing concern as summers grow longer, hotter and drier. “…….Nikolay Ossienko patrols the forests surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant,,,,,,, “Our number one job is to save the forest from fire,”…… It’s a job with international consequences.

For almost three decades the forests around the shuttered nuclear power plant have been absorbing contamination left from the 1986 reactor explosion. Now climate change and lack of management present a troubling predicament: If these forests burn, strontium 90, cesium 137, plutonium 238 and other radioactive elements would be released, according to an analysis of the human health impacts of wildfire in Chernobyl’s exclusion zone conducted by scientists in Germany, Scotland, Ukraine and the United States. Continue reading →

July 12, 2013 Posted by | climate change, Reference, safety, Ukraine | 1 Comment

Radiation stored in forests of Chernobyl: the fire danger

text ionising27 Years Later, Radiation Still Hides Out in Chernobyl’s Trees (Fukushima’s Too) The April 26, 1986, meltdown of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power flag-UkrainePlant scattered radioactive material across 58,000 square miles of eastern Europe. In a ring 18 miles from the destroyed plant, authorities set up the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone—a place where no one is supposed to live (though of course some do.) Scientific American has the story of how, though the disaster took place decades ago, radiation persists in a huge area around the defunct power plant—ready to be re-released to the environment. http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/06/27-years-later-radiation-still-hides-out-in-chernobyls-trees-fukushimas-too/ 30 June 13

In the forests around Chernobyl, the trees have absorbed some of the radioactive fall-out. Washed from the air by the rain, radionuclides are taken up by trees and stored for long periods. The worry, says Scientific American, is that a forest fire could loose this radiation back to the environment.

For almost three decades the forests around the shuttered nuclear power plant have been absorbing contamination left from the 1986 reactor explosion. Now climate change and lack of management present a troubling predicament: If these forests burn, strontium 90, cesium 137, plutonium 238 and other radioactive elements would be released, according to an analysis of the human health impacts of wildfire in Chernobyl’s exclusion zone conducted by scientists in Germany, Scotland, Ukraine and the United States. Continue reading →

July 1, 2013 Posted by | environment, radiation, Ukraine | Leave a comment

27 years later, Chernobyl still leaking radiation, still dangerous

chernobylChornobyl, 27 years later, still dangerous http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/chornobyl-27-years-later-still-dangerous-323760.html April 26, 2013,   Ukraine — by Katya Gorchinskaya, Svitlana Tuchynska CHORNOBYL, Ukraine – A turbine hall adjoining Chornobyl’s destroyed fourth reactor has a gaping 600-square meter opening where the roof collapsed in February. The roof has not been fixed yet, letting in rainwater that mingles with radioactive dust and elements inside and oozes out.

April 26, 2013 Posted by | safety, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Fears in Ukraine that ageing nuclear reactors will be kept going

flag-UkraineNuclear Safety Plan Has Ukrainians Worried   By Pavol Stracansky KIEV, Mar 27 2013 (IPS) – A 300 million euro loan to improve nuclear safety in the Ukraine has been attacked by environmental groups who say it will instead be used to keep ageing reactors working well beyond their planned lifespans – increasing the risks of a nuclear accident – while doing nothing to address serious issues with the country’s energy intensity.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which approved the loan earlier this month, has said that the money will be used to upgrade safety at nuclear plants to international standards.

But environmentalists say it will instead be used by state energy company Energoatom to keep open or restart ageing reactors and that the EBRD should be helping the Ukraine move away from nuclear power and support renewable energy projects.

Iryna Holovko of the pan-European Bankwatch NGO, which together with other environmental groups has opposed the loan, told IPS: “Energoatom and the Ukrainian government is imposing another 20 years of additional nuclear risk – because of the increased risks associated with ageing of reactors – on the people of Ukraine without developing or offering an alternative option.”….

Environmental groups in the Ukraine point to an accident at the Rivne nuclear power plant’s Reactor 1. Its original lifespan had expired at the end of 2010 but it was given an extension for 20 years. One month later there was an accident, although no radiation leaked…… http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/03/nuclear-safety-plan-has-ukrainians-worried/

March 29, 2013 Posted by | safety, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Lest we forget – UN prediction of 3 million children’s health affected by Chernobyl nuclear accident

chernobyl3 million children require treatment because of Chernobyl, many will die prematurely -U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in 2000 http://enenews.com/3-million-children-require-treatment-because-chernobyl-many-will-die-prematurely-secretary-general-kofi-annan-2000
February 28th, 2013
AP, April 26, 2000:
The United Nations released a new assessment of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear meltdown Tuesday, saying the worst health consequences for millions or people may be yet to come. […]
“Chernobyl is a word we would all like to erase from our memory,” said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a foreword.

But, Annan added, “more than 7 million of our fellow human beings do not have die luxury of forgetting. They are still suffering, everyday, as a result of what happened.” He said the exact number of victims may never be known, but that 3 million children require treatment and “many will die prematurely.”

“Not until 2016, at the earliest, will be known the full number of those likely to develop serious medical conditions” because of delayed reactions to radiation exposure, he said.

Nearly 13 years  later: “Shameless”: U.N. agency’s report shockingly downplays health risks after Fukushima — “WHO and other organisations must stop hiding the impact”

March 2, 2013 Posted by | health, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Official data now estimates Chernobyl death toll at 1.5 million

Death toll estimate from Chernobyl now around 1.5 Million -Expert (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/expert-death-toll-estimate-chernobyl-around-15-million-people-video
December 22nd, 2012 
 Title: Pr A.Yablokov and Pr C.Busby on Fukushima victim estimations 
Uploaded by: radioactivebsr
Date: April 6-8, 2011
Description: Interview by an unidentified Austrian radio reporter
h/t Nuclear_Problem

Prof. Alexey Yablokow, PhD, Centre for Russian Environmental Policy, N. K. Koltzoff Institute of Developmental Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences:

9,000 additional deaths from cancer, nothing more – This is official data from so called Chernobyl Forum, by International Atomic Energy Agency and World Health Organization. […]

And when I calculate this, of course it’s not precise. But level of death toll was more than 1 million. If you not only for 15 years, but for 25 years, maybe to close one and a half million – than 9,000 deaths which I mentioned before.

December 24, 2012 Posted by | health, Reference, Ukraine | 2 Comments

Giant new tomb for Chernobyl’s nuclear wreck

Footage of new giant sarcophagus at Chernobyl — Still nowhere near dealing with corium over 25 years later — Storage area for fuel debris not yet built (VIDEO)
http://enenews.com/fukushima-woman-people-are-talking-about-nose-bleeds-and-coughing-that-wont-end-nurses-warn-patients-stay-quiet-dont-mention-radiation-to-doctor-video

Title: Giant 100-meter sarcophagus constructed at Chernobyl nuclear

plant (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
Source: RT
Date: Nov. 28, 2012

The milestone first stage of the new sarcophagus for Chernobyl’s
nuclear power station has been completed. The unique construction to
safely contain the radioactive emissions of Chernobyl for the next 100
years will be ready by October 2015.

The unprecedented new shelter will be 108m high (equivalent to a
30-story apartment building), 257m wide, and 150m long (almost two
football fields). The approximate weight of the structure will be
29,000 tons. […]

“Construction of the new confinement is the very first stage to reach
the main goal – stabilization of the installation inside the
installation and extraction of the debris containing nuclear fuel,”
Igor Gramotkin, director-general of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
said at a media briefing. […]

Dr Carlo Mancini, the chairman of the International Advisory Group
(IAG), the scientific supervisor of the NSC project, says a nuclear
waste site for safely stocking thousands of tonnes of the radioactive
debris from Chernobyl is yet to be constructed. […]

December 1, 2012 Posted by | Reference, Ukraine | Leave a comment

New Chernobyl cover – a race against time

Engineers race to contain Chernobyl radiation Roger Boyes Moscow
The Times,  , November 28 2012
Racing against time, Ukrainian engineers have started erecting a huge
igloo-like structure to stop radioactive contamination leaking in the
future from the abandoned Chernobyl power station.
At present the crippled plant — which, after the 1986 meltdown, sent a
plume of radioactive fallout billowing across Europe — is covered by a
concrete sarcophagus.
But experts believe that it will contain radioactivity for only 30
years, or until 2016…subscribers only,
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/europe/article3614151.ece

December 1, 2012 Posted by | Ukraine | Leave a comment

Low level radiation increased leukaemia risk for nuclear cleanup workers

Chernobyl study shows need for caution in Fukushima
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20121114f2.html# UKO27Xhzxqg.twitter Kyodo A study released Thursday by a U.S. research team links protracted exposure to low-level radiation to a higher risk of leukemia among workers engaged in the cleanup of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and points to the need to protect those involved in dealing with the Fukushima crisis.
Continue reading →

November 16, 2012 Posted by | employment, health, Japan, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Low dose radiation increases risk of leukaemia, new research shows

LEUKEMIA RISK INCREASED BY LOW DOSE RADIATION: CHERNOBYL STUDY
http://www.omglobe.com/2012/11/08/leukemia-risk-increased-by-low-dose-radiation-chernobyl-study/  Lydia Zablotska, MD, PhD 11/8/2012 A 20-year study following 110,645 workers who helped clean up after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident in the former Soviet territory of Ukraine shows that the workers share a significant increased risk of developing leukemia.

The results may help scientists better define cancer risk associated with low doses of radiation from medical diagnostic radiation procedures such as computed tomography scans and other sources.

In the journal Environmental Health Perspectives this week, an international team led by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the Chernobyl Research Unit at the Radiation Epidemiology Branch of the National Cancer Institute describes the increased risks of leukemia among these workers between 1986 and 2006.

The risk included a greater-than-expected number of cases of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, which many experts did not consider to be associated with radiation exposure in the past.
The new work is the largest and longest study to date involving Chernobyl cleanup workers who worked at or near the nuclear complex in the aftermath of the accident. Continue reading →

November 9, 2012 Posted by | employment, health, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Death and illness rate in Chernobyl’s fallout area

Chernobyl Children Fukushima Children  1995 “At a press conference on Tuesday, April 25, acting Health Minister Andriy Serdiuk told reporters that the total number of deaths among victims of the Chornobyl accident in the period between 1988 and 1994 is more than 125,000.” The ministry also released the sobering results of research it had conducted among 1 million residents in the three regions most affected by Chornobyl’s fallout. In the Kyyiv, Zhytomyr and Rivne oblasts, the incidence of thyroid cancer has increased 200 percent; heart disease by 75 percent; respiratory diseases by 130 percent; and gastrointestinal ailments by 280 percent. In addition, the ministry noted that the death rate among inhabitants of the three-oblast region had increased by 15.7 percent since the 1986 catastrophe.”http://tekknorg.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/ukraines-ministry-of-health-125000-chernobyl-deaths-between-1988-and-1994/

November 6, 2012 Posted by | health, history, Reference, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Caesium-137 – toxic decay products underground,a Chernobyl hazard

Chernobyl zone in Belarus reduced, Charter 97 Mirror,  “……….Meanwhile, according to the head of Kyiv coordination and analytical centre of Ecology and Health, Professor Yury Bandazheuski,
in case a radioactive counter do not trace radiocaesium on the surface of the ground, it simply means that radioactive elements had migrated into the earth stratum and are at the level of the root system. The expert says that transformation of radioactive elements into the ones more dangerous for human health occurs.

For instance, Caesium-137 decays into barium, and barium is very toxic for a human being. People at “conditionally clean” territories get it with plants and animals’ meat.
http://charter97.mirror.tengu.ch/en/news/2010/8/3/31033/index.html

September 21, 2012 Posted by | environment, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Truth about health effects of low dose radiation is now coming out

From Nuclear Information and Resource Service, 13 Sept 12,   The debate on the effects of low-dose radiation, confined until the first decade of the 21st century to narrow circles in which a few independent scientists stood opposed to national and international specialized nuclear energy agencies (among others the International Commission on Radiation Protection or ICRP and the International Atomic Energy Agency or IAEA), entered the public arena by way of three recent events, events which made it clear that the reference model for effects of ionizing radiation on health was beginning to be called into question.

The first of these, in 1999, was the sudden interruption of the research work of Yuri Bendazhevsky, and his arrest and imprisonment for “activities threatening state security”.

Bendazhevsky was studying the multiple effects of Chernobyl radioactive contamination on the health of Belarusan children (Bendazhevsky 2005).

The event provoked an international movement of support and call for his release, which paradoxically gave world visibility to his research results—results that contradict the optimistic appraisals of the health consequences of the Chernobyl accident published by international organizations.

The nuclear industry understands the impact of nuclear disasters to be the effect of a single event like an explosion of a reactor. Only those who die or are effected during that time frame are categorized as attributable to the disaster.

However, other scientists, citing fundamental scientific knowledge about the genesis of cancer, understand the disease as a multi-stage process. If not merely external irradiation but also internal contamination at the level of a given organ is taken into account as relevant to the cancer process, it becomes necessary to attend to the effects of two types of exposure: extremely brief exposure of the entire body – termed acute exposure – and extremely low doses from point sources that hit very near target organs over a long period of time – chronic exposure -but vary in terms of internal movements and whether the organism responds by retaining or purging itself of inhaled or ingested radioactive particles.

This video does a great job of explaining the different sides to the argument. Which side do you believe?
http://vimeo.com/33724891

Text citation: http://www.lit.kobe-u.ac.jp/philosophy/images/pdf/Paul_JOBIN/ThebaudMony-PrefaceEnglishEd.pdf

PHOTO OF YURI BENDAZHEVSKY: From this article that can be translated into any language with a click http://ciaramc.org/ciar/boletines/cr_bol152.htm

September 14, 2012 Posted by | health, history, Ukraine | Leave a comment

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