Brave Nuclear World? Second Of Two Parts

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This year marks the 20th anniversary of the world’s most notorious nuclear disaster. At 1:23 a.m. on April 26, 1986, the Number Four reactor at the Chornobyl* nuclear plant in northern Ukraine exploded and burned uncontrolled for 10 days, releasing over 100 times more radiation into the atmosphere than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs combined. At least 19 million hectares were heavily contaminated in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. Prevailing winds and rain sent radioactive fallout over much of Europe, and it was measured as far away as Alaska. Approximately 7 million people lived in the contaminated zones in the former Soviet Union at the time of the accident (over 5 million still do). More than 350,000 were evacuated, and 2,000 villages were demolished. Radioactive foodstuffs from Belarus and Ukraine continue to show up in the markets of Moscow, and farmers on 375 properties in Wales, Scotland, and England still must grapple with restrictions due to radioactive contamination from Chornobyl.

The operating crew and the 600 men in the plant’s fire service who first responded to the disaster received the highest doses of radiation, between 0.7 and 13 Sieverts (Sv).According to chernobyl.info, a United Nations Internet-based information clearinghouse, this is 700 to 13,000 times more radiation…