Chernobyl Cleanup Survivor`s Message: 'Run Away as Quickly as Possible'

[Antonio]

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/22/chernobyl-cleanup-survivors-message-for-japan-run-away-as-qui/?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl3%7Csec1_lnk3%7C207001

[Serpo]

But didn't you realize the danger and want to leave?
Yes, I knew the danger. All sorts of things happened. One colleague stepped into a rainwater pool and the soles of his feet burned off inside his boots. But I felt it was my duty to stay. I was like a firefighter. Imagine if your house was burning and the firemen came and then left because they thought it was too dangerous.

[keehah]

Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17571)
by Dr. Rosalie Bertell Global Research, Feb 12, 2010

Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment is wrtitten by Alexey Yablokov, Vassily Nesterenk and Alexey Nesterenko. The senior author, Alexey Yablokov was head of the Russian Academy of Science under Gobachev – since then he receives no support. Vassily Nesterenko, head of the Ukrainian Nuclear establishment at the time of the accident, flew over the burning reactor and took the only measurements. In August 2009, he died as a result of radiation damage, but earlier, with help from Andrei Sakarov, was able to establish BELRAD to help children of the area.

The three scientists who assembled the information in the book from more than 5000 published articles and research findings, mostly available only within the former Soviet Union or Eastern block countries and not accessible in the West, are prestigious scientists who present objective facts clearly nuanced with little or no polemics. They were not encumbered by a desire to promote or excessively blame a failed technology!


Harmless? Chernobyl Radiation Killed Nearly One Million People (http://therealnewsjournal.com/?p=6359)
ENS Newswire The Real News Journal
Thursday, March 17, 2011 (FLASHBACK)
– Nearly one million people around the world died from exposure to radiation released by the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl reactor, finds a new book from the New York Academy of Sciences published today on the 24th anniversary of the meltdown at the Soviet facility.

The book, “Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment,” was compiled by authors Alexey Yablokov of the Center for Russian Environmental Policy in Moscow, and Vassily Nesterenko and Alexey Nesterenko of the Institute of Radiation Safety, in Minsk, Belarus.

The authors examined more than 5,000 published articles and studies, most written in Slavic languages and never before available in English.

The authors said, “For the past 23 years, it has been clear that there is a danger greater than nuclear weapons concealed within nuclear power. Emissions from this one reactor exceeded a hundred-fold the radioactive contamination of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

“No citizen of any country can be assured that he or she can be protected from radioactive contamination. One nuclear reactor can pollute half the globe,” they said. “Chernobyl fallout covers the entire Northern Hemisphere.”

Their findings are in contrast to estimates by the World Health Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency that initially said only 31 people had died among the “liquidators,” those approximately 830,000 people who were in charge of extinguishing the fire at the Chernobyl reactor and deactivation and cleanup of the site.

The book finds that by 2005, between 112,000 and 125,000 liquidators had died.

“On this 24th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, we now realize that the consequences were far worse than many researchers had believed,” says Janette Sherman, MD, the physician and toxicologist who edited the book.

Drawing upon extensive data, the authors estimate the number of deaths worldwide due to Chernobyl fallout from 1986 through 2004 was 985,000, a number that has since increased.

By contrast, WHO and the IAEA estimated 9,000 deaths and some 200,000 people sickened in 2005.

On April 26, 1986, two explosions occured at reactor number four at the Chernobyl plant which tore the top from the reactor and its building and exposed the reactor core. The resulting fire sent a plume of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over large parts of the western Soviet Union, Europe and across the Northern Hemisphere. Large areas in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia had to be evacuated.

Yablokov and his co-authors find that radioactive emissions from the stricken reactor, once believed to be 50 million curies, may have been as great as 10 billion curies, or 200 times greater than the initial estimate, and hundreds of times larger than the fallout from the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Nations outside the former Soviet Union received high doses of radioactive fallout, most notably Norway, Sweden, Finland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Austria, Romania, Greece, and parts of the United Kingdom and Germany.
About 550 million Europeans, and 150 to 230 million others in the Northern Hemisphere received notable contamination. Fallout reached the United States and Canada nine days after the disaster.

The proportion of children considered healthy born to irradiated parents in Belarus, the Ukraine, and European Russia considered healthy fell from about 80 percent to less than 20 percent since 1986.

Numerous reports reviewed for this book document elevated disease rates in the Chernobyl area. These include increased fetal and infant deaths, birth defects, and diseases of the respiratory, digestive, musculoskeletal, nervous, endocrine, reproductive, hematological, urological, cardiovascular, genetic, immune, and other systems, as well as cancers and non-cancerous tumors.

In addition to adverse effects in humans, numerous other species have been contaminated, based upon studies of livestock, voles, birds, fish, plants, trees, bacteria, viruses, and other species.

Foods produced in highly contaminated areas in the former Soviet Union were shipped, and consumed worldwide, affecting persons in many other nations. Some, but not all, contamination was detected and contaminated foods not shipped.

The authors warn that the soil, foliage, and water in highly contaminated areas still contain substantial levels of radioactive chemicals, and will continue to harm humans for decades to come.

The book explores effects of Chernobyl fallout that arrived above the United States nine days after the disaster. Fallout entered the U.S. environment and food chain through rainfall. Levels of iodine-131 in milk, for example, were seven to 28 times above normal in May and June 1986. The authors found that the highest U.S. radiation levels were recorded in the Pacific Northwest.

Americans also consumed contaminated food imported from nations affected by the disaster. Four years later, 25 percent of imported food was found to be still contaminated.

Little research on Chernobyl health effects in the United States has been conducted, the authors found, but one study by the Radiation and Public Health Project found that in the early 1990s, a few years after the meltdown, thyroid cancer in Connecticut children had nearly doubled.

This occurred at the same time that childhood thyroid cancer rates in the former Soviet Union were surging, as the thyroid gland is highly sensitive to radioactive iodine exposures.

The world now has 435 nuclear reactors and of these, 104 are in the United States.

The authors of the study say not enough attention has been paid to Eastern European research studies on the effects of Chernobyl at a time when corporations in several nations, including the United States, are attempting to build more nuclear reactors and to extend the years of operation of aging reactors.

The authors said in a statement, “Official discussions from the International Atomic Energy Agency and associated United Nations’ agencies (e.g. the Chernobyl Forum reports) have largely downplayed or ignored many of the findings reported in the Eastern European scientific literature and consequently have erred by not including these assessments.”

[keehah]

This information comes fromChristopher Busby,-1:49 of this radio broadcast: http://www.thealexjonesshow.com/2011/03/25/christopher-busby-friday-march-25/


Contamination on the ground out to 32km is 5Megabecquerel per square metre. Ten times higher than Chernobal exclusion zone of same distance.

Contamination on the ground at 78km is 1Megabecquerel per square metre. Twice as high as the Chernobal exclusion zone that was evacuated within three days. It has not yet been evacuated in Japan.


In addition it is worth noting that 'allowable radiation doses' are based on exposure outside the body. Such as working with chemicals in a lab, radiation from a distance outside one's body. Not eating and breathing them! Safe rates then can be orders of magnitude lower!

[Twisted Titan]

The reason why chernoblyn was so well covered was because it was middle of no where and there was no internet

This is reactor meltdown is a stones throw from Tokyo and information now travels at the speed of light via social media

[keehah]

Shows what happened to the fuel after the meltdown and problems at the site today being ignored or underfunded.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Via4hxEIeD4

http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney03282011.html

MIKE WHITNEY March 28, 2011

... According to the same group of scientists "the Fukushima plant has around 1760 tonnes of fresh and used nuclear fuel on site" (while) "the Chernobyl reactor had only 180 tonnes."

...This from CNN:

"Authorities in Japan raised the prospect Friday of a likely breach in the all-important containment vessel of the No. 3 reactor at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a potentially ominous development in the race to prevent a large-scale release of radiation."

And this from the New York Times:

"A senior nuclear executive who insisted on anonymity but has broad contacts in Japan said that there was a long vertical crack running down the side of the reactor vessel itself. The crack runs down below the water level in the reactor and has been leaking fluids and gases, he said....

"There is a definite, definite crack in the vessel — it's up and down and it's large," he said. "The problem with cracks is they do not get smaller." (Thanks to Washington's Blog)

So, there's a breach in the containment vessel and radioactive material is being released into the sea killing fish and marine life and turning the coastal waters into a nuclear wasteland. This is from the Kyodo News:

"Adding to the woes is the increasing level of contamination in the sea near the plant....Radioactive iodine-131 at a concentration 1,850.5 times the legal limit was detected in a seawater sample taken Saturday around 330 meters south of the plant, near a drainage outlet of the four troubled reactors, compared with 1,250.8 times the limit found Friday, the agency said.

...Predictably, the media has switched into full "BP Oil Spill-mode", making every effort to minimize the disaster and to soothe the public with half-truths and disinformation. The goal is to conceal the scale of the catastrophe and protect the nuclear industry. It's another case of profits over people. Still, the truth is available for those who are willing to sift through the lies. Radiation has turned up in the Tokyo water supply, imports of milk, vegetable and fruit from four prefectures in the vicinity of Fukushima have been banned, and the evacuation zone around the plant has widened to an 18 mile radius.

[keehah]

http://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2009/04/27/sheep-in-scotland-still-contain-chernobyl-radiation-903/

By Cara Sulieman

SHEEP in Scotland still carry traces of radiation from Chernobyl – over 20 years since the catastrophic explosion.

A huge cloud of radioactivity spread across Europe after the nuclear reactor in the Ukraine overheated and blew up – and five farms across Scotland are still suffering from the mistakes made in 1986.

The affected farms are in Stirling and Ayrshire and are thought to cover around 7000 hectares of land.

Almost 3000 sheep are still contaminated by the radiation, and are subject to restrictions from the Food Standard Agency (FSA).

Radioactive caesium-137 released by the accident mixed with rain and landed on peat and grass in upland areas across the country. The sheep eat the grass and pick up traces of the caesium.

If the concentration of caesium is more than 1000 becquerels per kilogram then the animals must be marked with indelible paint and can’t be slaughtered for food until the levels fall below the limit.

Every summer the FSA carries out tests to see whether the controls can be relaxed at the effected farms.
The restrictions were first past in 1987 on 73 farms across the country, but it was thought they would be lifted by now.

“Protect public safety”

However, the contamination has lasted longer than anyone thought it would.

An FSA spokeswoman said: “The restrictions will remain so long as they are required to protect public food safety.”


http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/eu-secretly-ups-cesium-safety-level-in-food-20-fold/

Food Watch is quoted [using Google translator]:

These rules now to bring into force is absurd, because in Europe there are no nuclear emergency, and certainly no shortage of food.

The European Union has authorized radioactive load in foods in Japan has increased substantially. Until now, a maximum of 600 becquerels of radioactivity (cesium 134 and cesium 137) per kilogram allowed, but since last weekend for example oil or herbal suddenly 12,500 becquerels per kilogram, more than 20 times as high. The increase was recorded in Emergency Ordinance 297/2011 on March 27 and was in force.

These documents show that the EU will allow the higher levels till at least July 1.
http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/poaoni2011001.pdf

Official Journal of the European Union Commission Regulation (Euratom): COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) No 297/2011 of 25 March 2011 imposing special conditions governing the import of feed and food originating in or consigned from Japan following the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power station [pdf] (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2011:080:0005:0008:EN:PDF)


No 944/89 of 12 April 1989 laying down maximum
permitted levels of radioactive contamination in minor
foodstuffs following a nuclear accident or any other case
of radiological emergency (3) and Commission Regulation
(Euratom) No 770/90 of 29 March 1990 laying down
maximum permitted levels of radioactive contamination
of feedingstuffs following a nuclear accident or any other
case of radiological emergency (4.(

(4) These maximum levels can be rendered applicable after
the Commission is informed of a nuclear accident
substantiating that the maximum permitted levels of
radioactive contamination of foodstuffs and feedingstuffs
are likely to be reached or have been reached pursuant to
Council Decision 87/600/Euratom of 14 December 1987
on Community arrangements for the early exchange of
information in the event of radiological emergency (5) or
under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
Convention on early notification of a nuclear accident
of 26 September 1986. In the meantime it is appropriate
to use these pre–established maximum levels as reference
values to judge the acceptability to place feed and food
on the market.

[keehah]

Some interesting well explained info and a detailed radiation map.

Biological consequences of Chernobyl: 20 years on (http://www.bio-nica.info/Biblioteca/Moller2006BiologicalConsequences.pdf)
Anders Pape Møller and Timothy A. Mousseau Laboratoire de Parasitologie Evolutive, France

Chernobyl constitutes the most extensive ‘natural’ field laboratory for studies of effects of radiation and research during the past 20 years has revealed important insights into the consequences of low- and high-level radiation. However, this ‘facility’ has yet to be fully exploited. It is surprising that there are only a few studies of mutation rates in a small number of species, and that the ecological and evolutionary consequences of low-level radiation remain poorly known. No study has, to our knowledge, investigated whether the disaster has had any effects on population densities of common plants or animals. Likewise, no study has, to our knowledge, attempted to determine whether slightly deleterious mutations arising from Chernobyl are migrating out of the contaminated zone.

This lack of progress is likely to be a result of the low level of investment in research at Chernobyl. Consider the 11 September 2001 event in New York, which resulted in OUS$100 billion in funding for all kinds of research, including military research. By contrast, the Chernobyl disaster has attracted ! US$10 million over the past 20 years. This lack of funding is far from what one might expect given the non-negligible threat of a ‘dirty’ bomb, the use of nuclear weapons and possible further accidents at nuclear power plants.