Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Ukraine Wants to ‘Revitalize’ Chernobyl Area

Ukraine's Prime Minister Azarov wants to bring back residents to "abandoned homes, cities and residential areas" in "the contaminated territories adjacent to the crippled Chernobyl nuclear power plant".

Well at least he waited for 26 years, unlike the Japanese national government.

From RIA Novosti (4/23/2012):

Ukraine is currently working on an expanded governmental program aimed at sprucing up the contaminated territories adjacent to the crippled Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said on Monday.

According to experts, the radiation level in Chernobyl’s exclusion zone has significantly decreased in recent years, Azarov said, adding that outside the exclusion zone there are no inhabited areas in Kiev Region with elevated radiation levels.

“There are good reasons to revitalize, ‘give a second breath’ to these abandoned homes, cities and residential areas. These are additional work places and additional revenue for our budget,” Azarov said.

In late March, Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych said the country would begin the construction of a new sarcophagus at the Chernobyl nuclear plant on April 26, the 26th anniversary of the nuclear disaster.

The Chernobyl sarcophagus will cost 935 million euro ($1.2 billion) to build. Most of the money was raised through a donation drive among the world’s governments held last year, with Ukraine only contributing 6 percent of the total.

Construction of the confinement chamber, a metal facility 105 meters tall and 260 meters long that will cover the reactor, is to be finished by 2015, Ukrainian officials said earlier.

The destroyed reactor was covered by a concrete confinement chamber months after the disaster in 1986 but the facility has since decayed and now threatens to leak radiation.


(H/T anon reader)

12 comments:

kintaman said...

So of course Azarov will lead by example and move there with his family....right?

This should be a requirement for anyone trying to do such a thing.

Anonymous said...

So the site is totally safe? No possible additional radiation? Not from what is mentioned about building a new "cover"..if all okay..why need a cover? Its a timebomb! Waiting 26 Million years is more appropriate..

Anonymous said...

I'm sure he got the idea from Japan. He can say, look, they're doing it. He should move his residence and the entire capital there and see how that sits with his citizens.

Dennis Riches said...

1.2 billion is not so much these days. The cost of the new Chernobyl sarcophagus is exactly the same as what the Canadian government is now spending to clean up Port Hope, Ontario - a town contaminated by uranium processing for decades.
http://nf2045.blogspot.jp/2012/04/hope-is-last-to-die.html

Anonymous said...

The younger generation post Chernobyl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Ts18dxuH0&feature=related

I wonder what kind of film the children who wear dosimeters to school will make 25 years from now.

Anonymous said...

They should revitalize their brains!

Anonymous said...

26, the 26th -> 13 13 13 13, death, death, death, death. They just recently cancelled their extreme vacations package to pripyat b/c of unforeseeable effects of radiation.

Anonymous said...

"Look! People aren't dying instantly! It must be safe!"

Greyhawk said...

There is no cure for stupidity.

Anonymous said...

@ anon at 5:42 - Thank you for posting the link. A movie very worthwhile watching.

A sentence at the end of the movie drove home a point I view as seriously important in the discussion of nuclear power and its consequences:

"Man may have a short memory, but the life of an atom is long - very long."

*mscharisma*

Karen Sherry Brackett said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Karen Sherry Brackett said...

April 26TH, 2012 marks 25 years since Chernobyl. This is a great documentary on its current status. It is shocking to realize that 7 million people were affected and over 2 million have died as a result of this accident. The survivors and their children are faced with a life expectancy that has dropped from 75 years to 55 years in ten years. It is even more alarming that Fukushima is so much worse than Chernobyl. I am pro-nuclear but I am not pro-stupidity. The nuclear industry has to change. This issue of constantly passing the buck to the next generation has to end. Sweeping dirt under a rug never cleaned up anything! These covers of deception are nothing more than fake window dressings that offer no additional protection to the public what so ever! While working in the nuclear industry I witnessed Senator Phil Roe and his staff come into my work area on a plant tour. They stood right in front of an issue I had been addressing safety concerns on. While Timothy Lindstrom walked around the area to my position to ask permission to introduce Senator Roe to me LOL we both surprised to walk around the corner and see Senator Roe’s shirt
Tail quickly exiting the building. Senator Roe never addressed the issue he stood in front of that day but I did and I saw it fixed. I am running for the position of U.S. Representative for the 1ST District of Tennessee. Under my authority this passing the buck and tucking ones tail and running for cover while leaving others in unsafe work conditions will end. Please share this vote with all your friends even those not in Tennessee because what happens in Chernobyl happens to us all.

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