Friday, April 29, 2005

Chernobyl "dead zone"

I ran across this site today and its really interesting. It has lots of pictures from this girl that rides her motorcycle into the Chernobyl dead zone. For those of you that don't know Chernobyl is a city where a nuclear power plant melted down and the Soviet government didn't tell anybody about it until it was far too late. Don't read this site if you are in a good mood.
"The readings on the asphalt paving is 500 -3000 microroentgens, depending upon where you stand. That is 50 to 300 times the radiation of a normal environment. If I step 10 meters forward, geiger counter will run off the scale. If I walk a few hundred meters towards the reactor, the radiation is 3 roentgens per hour - which is 300,000 times normal. If I was to keep walking all the way to the reactor, I would glow in the dark tonight. Maybe this is why they call it magic wood. It is sort of magical when one walks in with biker's leather and walks out like a knight in a shining armor.

There are many places that not structurally safe, or have collected pockets of intense radiation. There are places where no one dares to go, not even scientists with protective gear. One such place is the Red Wood forest and another is the Ghost Town Cemetary. The relatives of the people who are buried there can not visit, because in addition to people, much of the radioctive graphite nuclear core is buried there. It is one of the most toxic places on earth."
- www.kiddofspeed.com

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was really sad to read wasn't it. I came across it the other day too. Whilst looking at some of Yann Arthus Bertrand's photos at an exhibition today I saw one of that city that was evacuated. I can't find the picture online but it just showed the scale of it. And that was only one of the cities affected. I also didn't realise that they kept one of the reactors there running till 2000 to supply 9% of Russia's energy! Does that mean they made people work there for a whole 14 years afterwards?

Anonymous said...

Recent documentary in USA from National Geographic explaining the causes and such said they made them ride a train from kiev everyday to the powerstation and back again. Pretty rediculous.