30th Anniversary For Chernobyl

This April is the 50th anniversary of the is only accident in the history of commercial nuclear power to cause fatalities from radiation, the Chernobyl meltdown of 1986. I bet you didn't realize that. Though few talk about it anymore, the Chernobyl incident cannot be directly compared to atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons through a single number, with one being simply many more times larger than the other. Because the size of contamination the isotopes released at Chernobyl tended to be longer lived than those released by the detonation of atomic bombs, they produced far different results for the contaminated that a single nuclear explosion.

The good news is that Chernobyl was the result of inferior technology and incompetent maintenance and operation of the facility. It was the product of a severely flawed Soviet era reactor design combined with human error, something unlikely to happen with most reactors today. Key differences in U.S., European and Asian reactor design, regulation and emergency preparedness make it unlikely that a Chernobyl type accident could occur in those places using the better design.
 
But the problem of Chernobyl is not finished, it has only just begun. In one or two generations from now, the descendants of the population of Belarus and Ukraine that were affected by Chernobyl will vanish and the world may forget about it all together. That would be a loss to our understanding of nuclear contamination effects. The health effects of the Chernobyl accident have been the subject of much study by health professionals, scientists. But what we have now is only unprecedented speculation and exaggeration by parts of the media about what damage to humans and to the environment has been done by Chernobyl.

And the one time great "fear" of nuclear energy is all but gone from popular culture. Nations like France, which generates about 80% of its energy from nuclear reactors swears by the safety and economy of nuclear energy. But here in the U.S. it has been many decades since any nuclear reactor has been built. When those who believe in man made climate change are asked about nuclear energy many different answers come forth, from liking to hating the process. What do we know about and what have we learned from Chernobyl?

Given the secrecy of of the governments of the accident area and the inconclusive reports generated by those who tests to find the answer we know little? We are "in the dark" despite the accident and studies of the effects of it. We may never know. But we can hope on this 30th anniversary that Chernobyl was a one time event. It better be.