CHERNOBYL

By

Phil Meinhardt

I became more interested in Chernobyl after the CIA Symposium at the Reagan Library where it was disclosed that the Russians had 45,000 nuclear weapons twenty-five years ago when the Chernobyl accident occurred. The Russians were shocked at the damage caused by the nuclear accident and subsequently came to their senses and started reducing their nuclear inventory. At the time, the Russians were very secretive. They did not announce the accident to the world until the radiation was detected by a nuclear power plant in Sweden. Medical personnel were subsequently forbidden to name cause of death as radiation, or ailments stemming from radiation.

So yesterday, I saw the movie Chernobyl Diaries where six young Americans (three men and three women), plus their Ukranian guide, visit Prypiat where 50,000 workers who worked at Chernobyl were housed. Prypiat was evacuated on short notice and everything left behind. Indeed, 350,000 people were evacuated from the general area. Since then, scavengers have stripped everything of value from the area and sold numerous items on the black market which made some of the buyers sick. The movie was filmed at Chernobyl and Prypiat. In the movie, there are predators in the ruins--packs of wild dogs, bears, and the most dangerous of all--humans. The guide and the tourists all die. There is a 19 mile exclusion zone in all directions from Chernobyl, but the Ukranians have been allowing tours to Prypiat and within a couple of hundred yards of the reactors since 2008. Some scientists actually get into the parts of the Chernobyl complex. Radiation varies but levels are relatively low in Prypiat and surrounding areas, if you are careful.

The reactor which exploded was covered by a scarcophogus, which has detoriated and is now being covered with another scarcophogus. Even today, radiation levels are so high that the workers responsible for building the new sarcophogus are only allowed to work five hours a day for one month before taking 15 days of rest. Ukrainian officials estimate the area will not be safe for human life again for another 20,000 years, even though some older people have returned to the exclusion zone.

San Diego's San Onofre plant has (temporarily?) been shut down for safety concerns. Apparently, it has a poor track record for safety. Probably, the bigger concern is three pools of spent fuel--much more fuel than in the reactors. If the water drains for whatever reason (earthquake), I understand the fuel will heat up and their is danger of explosion. San Onofre is built near the water, like Fukushima, and uses salt water for cooling purposes. But you have to pump it in and contain it. Some say that San Onofre is not an accident waiting to happen; it is an accident in progress. A Chernobyl type accident at San Onofre would require the evacuation of seven million people. After all this time, the United States has not taken action for the permanent disposal of nuclear fuel/waste. President Jimmy Carter, encased nuclear waste in concrete and it sits in the open in places like Savannah, Georgia. It will eventually leak and was supposed to be relocated to a mountain in Nevada, but Nevada is afraid it will leak there and doesn't want it. Further, no one wants it on the roads. The French reprocess their spent fuel into weapons grade. It vastly reduces the volume and weapons grade fuel is already being stored under much safer conditions. The French have the best safety record in the world and supply excess electricity to England and Germany. Germany and Italy have shutdown all their reactors.