Wiki isn’t a lot of help. Can anyone tell me what is going to happen to the areas affected by the meltdown in Cherobyl over the next hundred or so years?
I saw a photo collection, maybe at mental_floss, of the area. It seems that nature is reclaiming it, with plants growing all over the buildings, ripping up concrete, etc. I also heard a story on NPR (Science Friday) about fungi in the power plant itself that absorb the radiation much like plants absorb sunlight.
Your question is too vague. A huge area was affected by the accident, to varying degrees. The last I read, wildlife was making a comeback in the most heavily contaminated areas.
I don’t have an answer to your question, but I have always found this site fascinating, and if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth it, even with the poor english (the writer is Ukrainian).
It’s essentially a park, with tours, and a gate. You’re allowed to go through it, and it’s suggested that you limit the duration and frequency. Some lady made a website called “Kid of Speed”, where she implied that it was a village frozen in time, and that only she was brave enough to go in. Some other web sources have countered that she’s not being entirely truthful. So yeah, there are bus tours. And nature is reclaiming the area, birds, deer, and the forest. Maybe those animals are a little more prone to cancer or birth defects, but they don’t get quite as hung up on it as humans do. When I was in college, some of the secretary’s were saying they’d heard that plants were growing deformed and gigantic there. That is, at least a little bit, illogical – onions can endure 80,000 rads without being affected.
Well, Deerzilla could emerge from the place. His antlers will glow green when he spreads his radioactive breath on the populace!
She does make it sound that way. I just find the pictures fascinating. Here is another similar page by an American visitor which gives a better sense of the tours through the area: http://nikongear.com/Chernobyl/Chernobyl_1.php
This is what I remember. **Coldfire **or someone else posted this a few years ago in a thread…
Thanks for the websites and such. It’s very interesting to see how quickly nature has taken over what’s left of the cities. Doesn’t take long, does it?
This site documents a town in the exclusion zone, and also contains details of the Chernobyl nuclear power station itself.
Someone who claimed to have been on the same tour as the kiddofspeed girl says that she staged many of the photos (ISTR a gas mask in a baby crib, in particular). Also, kiddofspeed claimed to have ridden her motorcycle through the zone, which is untrue.
Still a fun site, though.
I watched the documentary, Pripyat a while back, and it was interesting. A surprising number of people live and work within the exclusion zone. I didn’t know that the other reactor at the Chernobyl plant was still operating until 2000, and technicians went to work there every day.
Seems like the radiation is very unevenly distributed, and many places are relatively safe.
Elena’s motorcycling trips are fraudulent. Here is some discussion of it by some folks who really do go into places where they aren’t allowed.
And you might want to check this book, Wormwood Forest for answers to your natural history questions.
I have not read the book, and cannot vouch for its accuracy.
It’s a fascinating read, but I’ve not yet finished it, so I don’t know if there’s much about what the future holds…
I saw a very good BBC Horizon documentary called Nuclear Nightmares. I can’t argue how factual correct it is, but in general, I trust the Beeb.
One thing they looked into was how many deaths directly attributable to radiation from Chernobyl has occured. The answer might surprise you:
56. Yes fiftysix.
If you can find the documentary online, it’s well worth watching.
There was a TV program [IIRC on Discovery, but it might’ve been The History Channel] awhile back on the pace of nature’s reclamation of civilization, should humanity suddenly vanish. There was a segment on that process in the deserted city nearest Chernobyl.
According to that post, she didn’t take her motorcycle into the exclusion zone, but it’s quite clearly visible in several of the pictures.
An additional 4,000 are predicted over time, though.
My buddy visited there last summer. While walking around the site he stepped off the concrete and onto some grass. The guide yelled at him. Showing him the geiger counter and holding in over the concrete “beep, beep, beep”, holding it over the grass, “BEEEEEEEEEEEEP!”
This was actually at the actual site. I’m sure further from the site it varies differently.
If I recall correctly, in an Economist article from a few years ago it talked about how the new fad in the Ukraine was to purchase “cottage” land adjacent to the exclusion zone.
Your buddy was able to go actually to the actual site? :dubious:
With a tour guide, no less? :dubious::dubious:
The bike is visible in two pictures, both of them taken outside the exclusion zone.