Anyone remeber Chernobyl? (sp)

[Guest]

Here is a link to a site of a lady who recently went on a motorcycle tour of this nuclear ghost town.

http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/

[Adrian Kuiper]

Thanks for the URL. What a fascinating tour.

Adrian

[Richard Kaufman]

Sobering and frightening, indeed.

[opie]

My son-in-law is a nuclear safety tech. He was asked to go to Russia to help with the investigation, very soon after the "accident", and he refused to go anywhere near the place.

We probably will never know how many died or are still dying.

What was it Nostrodamus (sp?) said? "The last man will expire in the year 3024...with a whimper."

I have an 85-year old aunt whose favorite saying is, "What we don't tear up, we sxxx on."

opie

[Guest]

Very interesting, thanks for the link. On a side note, I was born just three days after the Chernobyl incident - 7 weeks premature at that. My dad always jokingly swore that Chernobyl had something to do with it.

Zach

[Guest]

I was in New York City meeting with magazine editors with Chernobyl hit.

New Yorkers are so blase about everything, but there were worries that the nuclear cloud might float all the way around the world and land on New York City. I remember being in the subway and hearing Chernobyl jokes a day after the disaster--and people still pushing and shoving their way through the city with a stonefaced look on their faces.

[CHRIS]

This brings back memories of quite an akward experience I made.

It was a sunny spring day in Vienna, Austria. I had my 'straw slippers' on and was outdoors. On this day it had a refreshing spring rain, and I got soaked wet.

A few days later we heard about Chernobyl and our Physics teacher in Highschool took us to the research nuclear reactor in Vienna - an educational field trip. We learned a lot and saw how a reactor looks from the inside. The final highlight of the trip was to place ones hands and feet on a dosimeter. This was one which had a Geiger counter for each foot and each hand. So everybody steps on this device and one hears the usual click-----click-----click----- about a second appart each click.

Now was my turn. The moment I stepped on this thing it went wild like a machine gun click-click-click-click.... in rapid succession. It was like an alarm of the worst kind had been issued. Everybody looked at me like I am some contaminated freak.

What has happened? On the day I got soaked with rain, the rain had washed out radioactive dust from a Chernobyl cloud hanging over Vienna, of which of course we weren't informed. This rain soaked my straw slippers which I had also used for this field trip. My teacher and our guide assured me that this was all harmless alpha radiation no need to worry.

When I told my mom what had happened, she took my straw slippers and drove them to a dump several miles from our home. Then she ordered me to take a shower for what must have been an hour or so. I think she overreacted. But it is an akward feeling to run around in radioactive sandals.

Chris....
Lybrary.com preserving magic one book at a time.

[Guest]

Hey Chris, I too was out playing at that time in Finland. My friend, who told me this several years later, had a Geiger meter at their house and sure enough it clicked way too rapidly. Significantly over the limit. But what can you do? If the government would have informed us we would have only panicked, there's very little cure for mass contamination.

But there are ongoing studies on cancer and radiation from Chernobyl so let's see, should get some answers in a few years.

[Ian Kendall]

I was studying for my Physics A level at the time, so we took Geiger readings of the background radiation for a month or so after the fact. The good thing is that there was no discernable increase in background radiation in Edinburgh, so I think it missed us...

Take care, Ian

[Guest]

I was drunk and chasing women around bars at the time. Isn't it interesting that coal burning power plants produce more radioactive material than the nuke plants? For those wondering the only plant in the US simular to that in Chernobyl is in Eastern Washington where I'm from (my dad is a retired nuc engineer).
Steve V

[Guest]

Originally posted by Steve V':
Isn't it interesting that coal burning power plants produce more radioactive material than the nuke plants? Steve V

Oh Steve, let's not get into an argument about the relative dangers of nuclear power v. coal power. We all know that nuclear power is more dangerous than coal power. This is a magic board, not Fox News....

[Guest]

I've never seen Fox news... and we all don't know that nuc power is evil, cuz it isn't.
Steve V

[Bill Mullins]

My grandfather was killed mining coal. Other members of my family on my mother's side have had problems with emphysema, black lung, etc.

I don't know, and have never met, anyone who has had any health problems resulting from the nuclear industry.

[CHRIS]

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:
I don't know, and have never met, anyone who has had any health problems resulting from the nuclear industry.

I guess the people in and around Chernobyl have a different opinion. Dead 5 hours after your clean up duty in Chernobyl looks to me like a serious health problem.

I hope that eventually we can rid ourselves from coal as well as nuclear.

Chris Wasshuber
Lybrary.com preserving magic one book at a time.

[Guest]

Yeah...hydro electric! Remember, Chernobyl was an open fuel reactor, just like Hanford. Not the same as the power plants elsewhere. Wind power kills birds!
Steve V

[Dustin Stinett]

Human error and negligence can make any "safe" technology deadly. However, this is not the place to debate these things. We're done here.

Dustin