6/15/2023 0 Comments When does chernobylite come out![]() Yet, for the animals here, this seems a small price to pay for living a place that is relatively free of humans. We as humans wouldn’t stand for even a 1% rate of abnormality in our own species. The radiation causes odd growths and birth defects in the animals there. This is a relative statement – obviously. 7 – The animals are radioactive but doing well It was more time than I thought it would take, but it’s nothing to mess around with. Essentially, our safety personnel told me that I could probably stand about 4 hours laying in that spot before succumbing to the dangerous radiation and then slowly dying because of it. On three occasions, my geiger counter went off the charts. They’re also in areas of the red forest where a lot of the main fallout happened as was buried. These hot spots are usually found in cracks in and around Pripyat where the radioactive particles accumulated. Truth be told, there are some pretty hot spots. If you already knew that radiation wasn’t too bad in Chernobyl, you might think it’s not bad. Also, in the Life After: Chernobyl documentary that we did, we found more people that live “unofficially” in the area – like this 90 year old guy.Ħ – You can still die from radiation in Chernobyl However, the town of Chernobyl, which is just over 10km from the reactor, has residents that cycle in and out on regular intervals. The ghost town that you see in most pictures is the feeder city of Pripyat. There are lots of people that live in Chernobyl at different times. For a whole video just about the relative nature of radiation, I suggest this video. In fact, standing in the parking lot looking at the melted down reactor gave us dosimeter readings similar to flying high in an airplane over the poles. Surprisingly, even very close to the main reactor, your levels of radiation can be very low. Of course, these rays exist all around us all the time. They can penetrate your cells and destroy your DNA. Small lengths like alpha, beta and gamma rays are emitted from radioactive isotopes. Long wavelengths are things like radio waves. In science, radiation falls on a spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. Only about half of the radioactive material has decayed right now, hence an exclusion zone for safety. The relatively long half-life of both these isotopes still makes them a huge problem today. All of this causes serious health issues and death at various rates. Cesium-137 parallels potassium chemistry, so it is readily taken into the blood and may be incorporated into tissues of people and animals. Strontium-90 follows calcium chemistry, so that it is readily incorporated into the bones and teeth – particularly of young children who have received milk from cows consuming contaminated forage. ![]() The real threat with these two is in their ingestion. They have half lives of 30 and 28 years respectively. Probably the most serious threat is cesium-137 and strontium-90. 3 – Strontium-90 and Cesium-137 are the long term killers Fortunately Iodine-131 has a half-life of only 8 days, so the threat does not pose a long-term problem. This is why relief efforts begin by giving iodine pills to people in affected areas – trying to prevent accumulation of radioactive iodine in their bodies. But if people are starved of natural iodine (like those who live in areas of iodine poor soils) they are particularly at risk. If you have enough natural iodine stored in your thyroid, then radioactive iodine won’t accumulate. ![]() Radioactive iodine is one of the most dangerous because it can quickly be accumulated in the thyroid gland, leading to thyroid cancer and death. 2 – Radioactive Iodine is the first KillerĪfter the blast, the real killers come in the form of radioactive isotopes- transmitted by dust particles floating in the air and falling to the ground. It wasn’t until the world pointed their satellites towards what is now northern Ukraine, that we realized what had happened. Sweden sent out the first alert that something was happening. After the explosion, the first westerners to know were Swedish Nuclear plant workers whose sensor’s read high levels of radiation. In fact, it took them days to tell their own people to evacuate nearby areas. The Soviet Union didn’t tell the west what was happening right when it happened. You have to remember 1986 was still during the cold war.
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