# 20 years ago today: the worst accident ever. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 27, 2006, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-years-ago-today-the-worst-accident-ever/354408 "2006-04-27T02:58:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-years-ago-today-the-worst-accident-ever/354408/21 "2006-04-27T20:30:58Z")
I was particularly struck by a quote in [this CNN article](http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/04/26/chernobyl.anniversary/index.html): > [@](#): > > “Let God not allow this to be repeated, let God not make our grandsons relive this,” said Valentyna Mashina, 55, standing near the Chernobyl monument. We don’t have to rely on God’s forbearance. We can seek out some energy source with a shorter half-life, or live with reduced energy use. If this disater is repeated, it will be our fault. Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-years-ago-today-the-worst-accident-ever/354408/22 "2006-04-27T22:21:54Z")
[QUOTE=yBeayf] [Interesting series of photos](http://www.pixelpress.org/chernobyl/) that someone linked me to a few days ago, regarding health aspects of the Chernobyl disaster. Warning: disturbing and depressing. [/QUOTE] Christ Jesus, those poor children . . . ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-years-ago-today-the-worst-accident-ever/354408/23 "2006-04-27T22:48:35Z")
How much of the really nasty isotopes have decayed away by now? Yes Chernobyl was a disaster, but by now, most of the higly radioctive fallout has decayed. As for the dangerous alpha-radiation emitters-how bad is that in the Chernobyl area? I also understand that the RMBK reactor design is not especially dangerous-the massive graphite mass can absorb a lot of heat. The problem was that the reactor operators had turned off the safety systems, and diabled the cooling pumps. they then throttled down the reactor, to the point where the power output became unstable. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-years-ago-today-the-worst-accident-ever/354408/24 "2006-04-28T01:29:04Z")
**ralph124c** if [this](http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/chapter40.html) page is correct in what it says, it is worse in places now than it was just after the disaster. [This](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation) page gives explanations of the various kinds of radiation. Here is a Wikipedia article on [Americium 241](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americium). ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-years-ago-today-the-worst-accident-ever/354408/25 "2006-04-28T01:37:33Z")
Adding to be clear, Americium 241 [emits](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonly_used_gamma_emitting_isotopes) gamma radiation. ---
**Author:** ![Cowgirl\_Jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@Cowgirl\_Jules](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowgirl_Jules)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-years-ago-today-the-worst-accident-ever/354408/26 "2006-04-28T01:57:52Z")
[Here’s](http://todayspictures.slate.com/inmotion/essay_chernobyl/?GT1=8019) an interesting photo essay. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-years-ago-today-the-worst-accident-ever/354408/27 "2006-04-28T02:05:45Z")
**Cowgirl Jules** , there are some excerpts from that book in the NPR link I put in my OP, which I linked to in my first post in this topic. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-years-ago-today-the-worst-accident-ever/354408/28 "2006-04-28T02:20:35Z")
[QUOTE=Rayne Man] The sheep farmers in North Wales ( no jokes please!) are still feeling the effects of this accident. Because of the rocky nature of the soil, the radioactive contamination is still high. They have to check every animal with a geiger counter. If the reading is too high they send these sheep to somewhere that has “clean” pasture . After a few weeks of feeding on this non-radioactive grass , the contamination is disappears from their bodies. [/QUOTE] Are you sure this is because of Chernobyl? Why would North Wales be contaminated from Chernobyl? Can you give a link to where you got this from? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-years-ago-today-the-worst-accident-ever/354408/29 "2006-04-28T02:29:48Z")
[QUOTE=Zabali\_Clawbane] Adding to be clear, Americium 241 [emits](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonly_used_gamma_emitting_isotopes) gamma radiation. [/QUOTE] Now all you have to do is provide some scholarly links that show the gamma rays released by the Americium 241 involved are worse than the Americium 241 in my smoke detector. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-years-ago-today-the-worst-accident-ever/354408/30 "2006-04-28T02:50:38Z")
**Samclem** the link **Cowgirl Jules** provides backs up what **Rayne Man** says. The poison winds went far, and affected several parts of Europe. The U.S. was able to detect radiation from Chernobyl, though I am not certain at this point in time as to when. (I am thinking it was May 1st, but the date might have been May 9th.) ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-years-ago-today-the-worst-accident-ever/354408/31 "2006-04-28T02:59:22Z")
[QUOTE=samclem] Now all you have to do is provide some scholarly links that show the gamma rays released by the Americium 241 involved are worse than the Americium 241 in my smoke detector. [/QUOTE] Well, even you must grant that the miniscule amount found in your smoke detector is not the same as the amounts in the soil and plants of the areas that got the heaviest fall out, and that now are saturated with Americium 241. I think your analogy is flawed. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-years-ago-today-the-worst-accident-ever/354408/32 "2006-04-28T03:03:25Z")
[QUOTE=Cowgirl Jules] [Here’s](http://todayspictures.slate.com/inmotion/essay_chernobyl/?GT1=8019) an interesting photo essay. [/QUOTE] That´s depressing, it makes you want to scream and curse those idiots and their stupid “experiment”; what were they thinking! It was like causing a gas leak and saying, “Now I´ll light a match and see what happens”. And they did it on an uncontained reactor of all places, what were they thinking… Now the blight of their incompetence will lay on the land for centuries and children will be born without hope for a life for generations. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-years-ago-today-the-worst-accident-ever/354408/33 "2006-04-28T03:17:39Z")
Pulling up the contamination map (found on the menu) on the site **Cowgirl Jules** linked I see that it was on May 5/6 that the U.S. detected radation from Chernobyl, so I was mistaken as to precisely when that was earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-years-ago-today-the-worst-accident-ever/354408/34 "2006-04-28T03:20:46Z")
I remember exactly where I was when I heard about Chernobyl blowing up, and that’s because I was working in a trailer at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant at the time. I remember looking out the trailer window at the plant’s cooling towers and wishing I was anywhere else but there. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-years-ago-today-the-worst-accident-ever/354408/35 "2006-04-28T06:20:32Z")
[QUOTE=samclem] Are you sure this is because of Chernobyl? Why would North Wales be contaminated from Chernobyl? Can you give a link to where you got this from? [/QUOTE] This was certainly because of Chernobyl. The radiation cloud drifted that far. As for the link , try [this](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/3049759.stm) . Although that article dates from 2003 it is still relevant. BBC TV ran a similar news-feature just this week. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-years-ago-today-the-worst-accident-ever/354408/36 "2006-04-28T06:31:18Z")
I have now found a more up-to-date article :- [Farmers Weekly](http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2006/04/18/93902/Chernobyl+compensation+in+need+of+review+as+Welsh+farmers.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/20-years-ago-today-the-worst-accident-ever/354408.md?page=1)