Chernobyl

France Predict Cost of Nuclear Disaster to be Over Three Times their GDP

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Catastrophic nuclear accidents, like Chernobyl in 1986 or Fukushima No. 1 in 2011, are very rare, we’re incessantly told, and their probability of occurring infinitesimal. But when they do occur, they get costly. So costly that the French government, when it came up with cost estimates, kept them secret.

But now the report was leaked to the French magazine, Le Journal de Dimanche. Turns out, the upper end of the cost spectrum of an accident at a single reactor at the plant chosen for the study, the plant at Dampierre in the Department of Loiret in north-central France, would amount to over three times the country’s GDP. Financially, France would cease to exist as we know it.

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Russia combats wildfires in Chernobyl radiation zone

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Russia is mounting extra patrols to fight wildfires in a region hit by nuclear fallout from Chernobyl, amid fears that radiation could spread.

Crews put out several fires in Bryansk, the emergencies ministry said, amid concern that wind or fire could whip up radioactive particles in the soil.

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Two decades after Chernobyl, Scottish sheep get all-clear

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

NEARLY a quarter of a century after the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in the Ukraine
exploded and spewed radioactivity across the world, it has finally stopped making Scottish
sheep too "hot" to eat.

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Does Radiation Cause Malignant Diseases?

Friday, November 28, 2008

Russian roentgenologists studied what caused death of liquidators of Chernobyl nuclear accident. Scientists analyzed 1466 death cases.

Researchers tried to find out whether diseases and death of Chernobyl liquidators depended on the year they participated in the clean-up. Chernobyl liquidators most often died of blood circulation dysfunctions (48%) and malignant growths (30%). More than half of first group deaths (55%) happened due to coronary heart disease. Lung (27.8 %) and stomach (17.1 %) cancers were predominant among oncological death causes. Average death age was 51 years.

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Police office 'highlight' of trip

Sunday, November 16, 2008

A visit to a police station was the highlight of a month-long trip to Scotland for youngsters affected by the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster.

Children from Gomel in Belarus, one of the countries impacted by the reactor explosion in 1986, were hosted on the station visit by Northern Constabulary.

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General Notes from the wilds of Chornobyl

Friday, October 17, 2008

Ecologists Timothy Mousseau and Anders Pape Moller have been studying long-term effects of radioactive contamination on nature since 1999 in the closed area surrounding Chornobyl, the site of world’s worst nuclear disaster on April 26, 1986.

Their work is taking place in the exclusion zone, a 30-kilometer radius around the nuclear power plant. It provides a perfect ground for the study of biodiversity and survival of animals living in the conditions of irradiated environment. The team has documented many consequences of radiation, including dramatically increased rates of genetic mutation, lower life spans and lower reproduction rates of some species.

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The Nordic Council debate about nuclear power

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

"No more Chernobyl disasters," Kristen Touborg MP writes in Jyllands-Posten. A member of Denmark's Socialist People's Party, Touborg is also deputy chair of the Nordic Council Environment and Natural Resources Committee. The committee visited Chernobyl and the surrounding areas of Ukraine and Belarus during the summer and the impression made by field trip has not diminished her opposition to nuclear power.

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Chernobyl Fallout? Plutonium Found In Swedish Soil

Thursday, October 2, 2008

ScienceDaily (Oct. 1, 2008) — When a reactor in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded in 1986 in what was then the Soviet republic of Ukraine, radioactive elements were released in the air and dispersed over the Soviet Union, Europe and even eastern portions of North America.

More than 20 years later, researchers from Case Western Reserve University traveled to Sweden and Poland to gain insight into the downward migration of Chernobyl-derived radionuclides in the soil. Among the team's findings was the fact that much more plutonium was found in the Swedish soil at a depth that corresponded with the nuclear explosion than that of Poland.

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Russia to contribute $17 mln to Chernobyl cleanup

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

VIENNA, September 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will provide $17 million to help improve safety at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the site of the world's worst civilian nuclear disaster, and fully decommission it, a top Russian nuclear official said on Monday.

Three reactors of the Chernobyl plant continued to operate for several years after reactor number four exploded in 1986, the last reactor shutting down in 2000. The reactors still contain nuclear fuel rods, and require constant monitoring. The fourth reactor is housed in a Soviet-era sarcophagus set to be replaced by a $1.4 bln metal structure.

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Study Shows Significant Impact of Chernobyl Nuclear Accident on Bone Development in Russian Women

Friday, September 19, 2008

This study of bone density compares BMD development in 2854 women affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident with two non-contaminated control groups using the DXL Calscan portable bone densitometer device. By Prof. S.S. Rodionova, CITO (Moscow).

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