The radiation dispersed into the environment by the three reactor meltdowns at Fukushima-Daiichi in Japan has exceeded that of the April 26, 1986 Chernobyl
Natalia Manzurova, one of the few survivors among those directly involved in the long cleanup of Chernobyl, was a 35-year-old engineer at a nuclear plant in Ozersk, Russia, in April 1986 when she and 13 other scientists were told to report to the wrecked, burning plant in the northern Ukraine.
ANA LUCIC: Voices from Chernobyl is a startling, emotional book. What is the main emotion or effect you were trying to achieve with its readers? SVETLANA...
"AL: What kind of reception do you anticipate in the US?
SA: America is a remarkable country but I have a feeling that it’s a different country after 9/11. America now understands how fragile this world is and how we all depend on one another. If some atomic power station in Australia explodes a radioactive rain may kill people somewhere else. I think after 9/11 Americans may be more receptive to my books than before it. I feel I can find people there for whom this experience is important. In the modern world it is dangerous to neglect the experience of other peoples’ sufferings. We can describe Russia—and Belorussia, for that matter—as a civilization of ordeals and suffering. Very often we can hear people in the West speak of Russia’s plight with haughtiness: there is always something wrong with these Russians. In actual fact, the whole world today is at risk. Fear is a large part of our lives—more, even, than love. Thus, the Russian experience of suffering acquires particular value. We all need courage to live on. I hope we’ll have enough."
In March of 2011, the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan rushed to Japan to help after the disastrous tsunami. Since then, many sailors from that ship have fallen ill, possibly as a result of exposure to radiation from the Fukushima nuclear meltdown. They will soon have their day in court.
"The most detailed estimate of additional deaths was done in Russia by comparing rates in six highly contaminated territories with overall Russian averages and with those of six lesser-contaminated areas, maintaining similar geographical and socioeconomic
The organisation set up to verify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) has a global network of air samplers that monitor and trace the origin of around a dozen radionuclides, the radioactive elements released by atomic bomb blasts – and nuclea
Among the residents of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, there had been up to the year 2005 more than 6,000 cases of thyroid cancer reported in children and adolescents who were exposed at the time of the accident, and more cases can be expecte
Nuclear-promoting regulators inspire even less confidence. The International Atomic Energy Agency's 2005 estimate of about 4,000 Chernobyl deaths contrasts with a rigorous 2009 review of 5,000 mainly Slavic-language scientific papers the IAEA overlooked.
"Liquidators (Russian: ликвида́торы) is the name given in the former USSR to approximately 800,000[citation needed] people who were in charge of the removal of the consequences of the April 26, 1986 Chernobyl disaster on the site of the event."
"L'organisation internationale "Médecins pour la prévention de la guerre nucléaire" (IPPNW) a estimé, jeudi 6 avril, que le bilan et les prévisions de l'ONU sur la catastrophe nucléaire de Tchernobyl étaient "sous-estimés" et a appelé à plus de transparen