27 years later, Chernobyl still leaking radiation, still dangerous
Chornobyl, 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.
Fears in Ukraine that ageing nuclear reactors will be kept going
Nuclear 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/
Lest we forget – UN prediction of 3 million children’s health affected by Chernobyl nuclear accident
3 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”
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.
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. […]
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
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
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
Death and illness rate in Chernobyl’s fallout area
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
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”.
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
Is Fukushima Worse Than Chernobyl?
Radiation from Fukushima, Food Consumer, 5 Sept 12,
Radiation from Fukushima ukushima nuclear disaster is not the only thing Americans need to be worried about. As many as 14 states have been polluted by the nuclear tests conducted in the U.S. in 50’s, according to some reports. The clean states are only those in the West like Oregon, California, and maybe Washington as well. By Dr. Mercola
“……When the Chernobyl reactor melted down in 1986, approximately 134 plant workers and firefighters were exposed to high doses of radiation – 800 to 16,000 mSv – and developed acute radiation sickness. Of those 134 workers, 28 died within 3 months of exposure.
In total, more than 160,000 children and 146,000 cleanup workers became victims of radiation poisoning as a result of living and working in that radiotoxic environment, raising the incidence of birth defects, leukemia, anemia, cancers, thyroid disease, liver and bonemarrow degeneration, and overall severely compromised immune systems.
These, however, are only estimates, and according to some data, Chernobyl deaths may actually top 1 million.6 Fukushima is the largest nuclear disaster since, but there are many similarities popping up. For one, as the Institute of Science in Society (ISIS) points out:7
“From the beginning, the official nuclear safety experts were at pains to minimize the projected health impacts, as they are doing now for the Fukushima accident.”
According to ISIS, with Chernobyl, they underestimated related deaths by:
- Underestimating the level of radiation by averaging exposure over a large region, such as an entire country, so high exposure doses and health statistics of the most contaminated areas are lumped together with the less and least exposed
- Ignoring internal sources of radiation due to inhalation and ingestion of radioactive material from fallout
- Using an obsolete and erroneous model of linear energy transfer due to external sources of ionizing radiation
- Not counting diseases and conditions other than cancers
- Overestimating the natural background radiation; today’s “background” has been greatly increased by discharges from nuclear activities including tests of nuclear weapons, use of depleted uranium, and uranium mining
- Suppressing and withholding information from the public……. http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Non-food/Environment/radiation_from_fukushima_0904120707.html
VIMEO video TRANSCRIPT on international conference on Chernobyl radiation
NUCLEAR CONTROVERSIES Vivre Tchernobyl , W. Tchertkoff: Script english version
Dr. Michel Fernex, retired, Medical Faculty University of Basle, is part of a campaign denouncing the conflict of interests between two organizations of the UN: the IAEA -International Agency for Atomic Energy- promoter of nuclear industry, and the WHO -World Health Organization-.
An agreement was signed in 1959 between those organizations: the WHO is prevented from undertaking independent medical research on the health effects of radiation, or for informing populations on the consequences of accidents like Chernobyl, when the atomic lobby does not agree.
Here a letter is being delivered for Kofi Annan and Dr. Brundtland, Director General of the WHO, asking for an amendment of this agreement and freedom for the WHO to work freely on the health effects of radiation. ….
In 1995, the Director General of WHO Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima, tried to inform on Chernobyl by organizing in Geneva an international conference with 700 experts and physicians. This tentative was blocked. The International Agency for Atomic Energy blocked the proceedings, which were never published. The truth on the consequences of Chernobyl would have been a disaster for the promotion of the atomic industry.
Fernex The interdiction to publish which fell on the WHO conference will maybe be lifted for the next WHO congress. But the IAEA will also be there, don’t worry : UNSCEAR, IAEA, with fantastic money. To buy scientists in poor countries doesn’t cost a lot. With 10.000 dollars you can buy many persons.
…… Never before, had such an authority admitted, that health institutions are subordinate to the promoters of the atom. The WHO and the IAEA, two UN agencies, when working together, should be free to fulfil their institutional tasks, for peace and the world’s well being.
Contradictions, tensions and conflicts which exist in the UN system, were expressed during this conference, by the protagonists of the 1995 WHO Conference and the physicians and scientists of the civil society.
Zupka english The consequences of Chernobyl do not fade away, but actually grow increasingly uncertain, and in many ways more intense. The United Nations Secretary General, Mister Kofi Annan, put it very clear when he said that: “The legacy of Chernobyl will be with us and with our descendents for generations to come”.
title: D. Zupka – OCHA UN Comment The representative of the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs shares the view of Kofi Annan, who estimates at 9 million the number of victims, and says that tragedy of Chernobyl is only beginning.
….. tle: A. Gonzales – IAEA UN
CommentThe representative of the International Agency for Atomic Energy, maintains that the Chernobyl catastrophe caused 31 deaths, a few hundred highly irradiated individuals and 2000 thyroid cancers in children. This UN agency recognizes only validated data, validated by the laboratories of Los Alamos and the French Atomic Energy Commissariat -CEA-, two atomic bomb makers. ……. http://vivretchernobyl.blogspot.com.au/2008/06/w-tchertkof-nuclear-controversies.html
Continuing danger and ever escalating costs at the Chernobyl and Fukushima cleanups
It will be especially dangerous to remove the remaining nuclear fuel because of the high levels of radiation that such substances emit.
conditions [at the Chernobyl plant] are still dangerous for the 3,500 workers now cleaning up the site. And some 200 tons of nuclear fuel still remain at the bottom of the reactor.
When reactors die, costs keep climbing. Fukushima Diiachi costs to go through the roof.http://nuclearhistory.wordpress.com/2012/09/03/when-reactors-die-costs-keep-climbing-fukushima-diiachi-costs-to-go-through-the-roof/ 4 Sept 12
http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20120815D15HH187.htm Decommissioning Of Fukushima To Be Long, Costly Process FUKUSHIMA (Nikkei)–-The government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) have made the first revisions to a plan to decommission the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, but the details remain uncertain.
At the Chernobyl plant, efforts are now in full swing to build a massive shelter to stop the site from releasing radiation into the environment.
Among other matters, the revisions involve adding measures to prevent radioactive water from leaking into the environment. But it is still unclear how much time and money this will actually entail. Continue reading
The true scale of Chernobyl’s radioactive disaster
Chernobyl, Insight from the Inside by Vladimir M. Chernousenko, Scientific Director of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Institute of Physics in Kiev’s Task Force for the Rectification of the Consequences of the Chernobyl Accident
Foreward, pp. XVI-XVII, From the Publisher:
The author’s chief motivation for writing this book is that he considers it vitally important that the world should be told the unvarnished truth about the scale and consequences of the disaster, the legacy of which will remain with us for many generations. He presents realistic estimates and new unpublished hard data from various reliable sources about the radiation pollution caused by the accident. The figures prove to be much higher than anyone dared assume up to now. We are confronted with horrendous numbers regarding the radiation pollution of the soil and aquifers in the Soviet Union. On the basis of these data, it is estimated that a territory of a least 100,000 km^2 is so polluted as to be uninhabitable. There are even estimates of an amount three times as high.
The author’s greatest concern is the well-being of the people still living in this huge territory. Many of those who are still living in the polluted areas want to leave, but the problems posed by local administration and bureaucracy do not allow them to do so. For lack of precedence, the effects on their health in the long-term can only be guessed at, at the present time. But those effects are already beginning to become evident. The health statistics included in this book are a matter of serious concern and urgently call for further investigations. Continue reading
1 This Month
10 June – Assessing Canada’s Investments in Small Modular Nuclear Reactors – https://zoom.us/meeting/register/IiqHA5feRhaEBycOLNTJlA#/registration
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
-
Archives
- June 2026 (89)
- May 2026 (306)
- April 2026 (356)
- March 2026 (251)
- February 2026 (268)
- January 2026 (308)
- December 2025 (358)
- November 2025 (359)
- October 2025 (376)
- September 2025 (257)
- August 2025 (319)
- July 2025 (230)
-
Categories
- 1
- 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES
- business and costs
- climate change
- culture and arts
- ENERGY
- environment
- health
- history
- indigenous issues
- Legal
- marketing of nuclear
- media
- opposition to nuclear
- PERSONAL STORIES
- politics
- politics international
- Religion and ethics
- safety
- secrets,lies and civil liberties
- spinbuster
- technology
- Uranium
- wastes
- weapons and war
- Women
- 2 WORLD
- ACTION
- AFRICA
- Atrocities
- AUSTRALIA
- Christina's notes
- Christina's themes
- culture and arts
- Events
- Fuk 2022
- Fuk 2023
- Fukushima 2017
- Fukushima 2018
- fukushima 2019
- Fukushima 2020
- Fukushima 2021
- general
- global warming
- Humour (God we need it)
- Nuclear
- RARE EARTHS
- Reference
- resources – print
- Resources -audiovicual
- Weekly Newsletter
- World
- World Nuclear
- YouTube
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
nuclear-news 