Abandoned Ferris wheel in Pripyat, Ukraine
Image: The Planet
Today is another sad anniversary. Yes, we are talking the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
So I think it is time to share some thoughts.
It was a massive disaster. There is still a 30 km zone of abandonment. In it, during the ongoing war, some Russian soldiers decided to dig trenches in the so-called Orange Forrest (Рыжий лес in Russian, radioactive forest where nothing has grown since that time in 1986). Rumor has it a number of those soldiers have come down with radiation sickness and some have already died.
Chernobyl was in a way an epitome of the Soviet dysfunction. Built with most if not all safety standards violated, only to report on its opening as soon as possible, it was a disaster waiting to happen. And on 26 April 1986 the disaster did strike. The heroes who died responding to this disaster will forever be remembered for their sacrifice as will hundreds of thousands who had sacrificed their health. But, most likely, if it weren't for the system that built the power plant none of that would likely have happened.
500,000 people responded to the disaster. Most of them were young people. Best I can tell, within about 20-25 years about 200,000 of them were dead. This shows the scale of the disaster.
However, even with the casualties of this and other nuclear power plant disasters, nuclear power is still one of the safest power technologies. It is dictatorship and command economy that almost without fail brings deception, misery and death.
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