Falling Fall-Out
From Novosti today:
The latest radiation measurements in the area surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in Ukraine, indicate that the levels of radioactive contamination are falling, Ukraine's Emergency Situations Ministry reported Wednesday.
Sergei Parshin, head of the Ukrainian government's agency for Chernobyl evacuation and resettlement, said the officially designated evacuation zone of 2,800 square kilometers (1,100 square miles), from where all the inhabitants were relocated after the 1986 nuclear accident, may now be partly reopened for settlement. In this case, some of the evacuees will be able to return home, but will lose the welfare benefits they have been getting until now, he said.
Plutonium has a half life of 24,000 years, Cesium has a half-life of 30 years, but suddenly radiation levels are dropping enough to send people back to their homes. Homes, by the way, from which they were evactuated nearly twenty years ago. I think it's terribly convenient that some of the exclusion zone is suddenly habitable again. As you may know, the Ukraine doesn't have the best economy. Apparently it's economy is on the rise, but they still owe millions of dollars promised to Chernobyl victims. And each year they pay out close to a million. However, if they can start sending people back to their homes, then they can cross those funds off their IOU.
At the same time, they’ll be showing that perhaps the accident wasn’t as terrible as everyone thought. I mean, sure, they still want the rest of the world to pitch in to fix the shoddily-built sarcophagus that covers up the shoddily-built reactor, but that doesn’t mean people can’t live there. Just think…they can go home. They thought they’d never get to see their homes again, but it turns out they get to go live in them. Hooray! I bet they can’t wait to return to their beloved houses. Houses that have been abandoned for almost two decades. I bet they’re in great shape.
Animal and vegetable life around Chernobyl is flourishing. There are actually more species of animals living there now than there were before the accident. And, no, I don’t mean eight-headed cows and birds without wings. I mean real animals that usually inhabit other places have branched out to live in the exclusion zone. Plants grow beautifully there, too. The problem is, you can’t judge a book by its cover. The plants and animals should never become consumable produce and meat because they’re radioactive. No one should be eating them. Markets in Moscow and other large cities are monitored daily to ensure that no highly radioactive consumables are being sold. So if people move back, nearer to Chernobyl, they can’t grow crops or raise animals to make a living and they shouldn’t do so even for their own sustenance.
The Ukranian government clearly has ulterior motives for re-opening these zones for human habitation. The areas nearest the Chernobyl plant are inhabitable neither economically nor environmentally. It may look like a beautiful, picture-postcard place to live. But it isn’t. It’s deadly and no humans should be living there.
The latest radiation measurements in the area surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in Ukraine, indicate that the levels of radioactive contamination are falling, Ukraine's Emergency Situations Ministry reported Wednesday.
Sergei Parshin, head of the Ukrainian government's agency for Chernobyl evacuation and resettlement, said the officially designated evacuation zone of 2,800 square kilometers (1,100 square miles), from where all the inhabitants were relocated after the 1986 nuclear accident, may now be partly reopened for settlement. In this case, some of the evacuees will be able to return home, but will lose the welfare benefits they have been getting until now, he said.
Plutonium has a half life of 24,000 years, Cesium has a half-life of 30 years, but suddenly radiation levels are dropping enough to send people back to their homes. Homes, by the way, from which they were evactuated nearly twenty years ago. I think it's terribly convenient that some of the exclusion zone is suddenly habitable again. As you may know, the Ukraine doesn't have the best economy. Apparently it's economy is on the rise, but they still owe millions of dollars promised to Chernobyl victims. And each year they pay out close to a million. However, if they can start sending people back to their homes, then they can cross those funds off their IOU.
At the same time, they’ll be showing that perhaps the accident wasn’t as terrible as everyone thought. I mean, sure, they still want the rest of the world to pitch in to fix the shoddily-built sarcophagus that covers up the shoddily-built reactor, but that doesn’t mean people can’t live there. Just think…they can go home. They thought they’d never get to see their homes again, but it turns out they get to go live in them. Hooray! I bet they can’t wait to return to their beloved houses. Houses that have been abandoned for almost two decades. I bet they’re in great shape.
Animal and vegetable life around Chernobyl is flourishing. There are actually more species of animals living there now than there were before the accident. And, no, I don’t mean eight-headed cows and birds without wings. I mean real animals that usually inhabit other places have branched out to live in the exclusion zone. Plants grow beautifully there, too. The problem is, you can’t judge a book by its cover. The plants and animals should never become consumable produce and meat because they’re radioactive. No one should be eating them. Markets in Moscow and other large cities are monitored daily to ensure that no highly radioactive consumables are being sold. So if people move back, nearer to Chernobyl, they can’t grow crops or raise animals to make a living and they shouldn’t do so even for their own sustenance.
The Ukranian government clearly has ulterior motives for re-opening these zones for human habitation. The areas nearest the Chernobyl plant are inhabitable neither economically nor environmentally. It may look like a beautiful, picture-postcard place to live. But it isn’t. It’s deadly and no humans should be living there.
posted by Sara Ch. at 2:13 PM
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