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https://theconversation.com/chernobyl-at-40-the-lies-the-loss-and-why-we-cant-let-go-280369>
"Some historical events are so catastrophic they resist comprehension. And yet
they compel us to try to understand them, again and again.
Chernobyl is one of them.
On April 26, 1986, at 1:23am, Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power
Plant in Soviet Ukraine exploded, releasing a cloud of radioactive material
that drifted across Europe and contaminated land inhabited by around five
million people in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
Although it is impossible to calculate the total number of deaths attributable
to the explosion and its after-effects, 31 people were killed immediately or
died due to Acute Radiation Syndrome in the following months, while deaths in
the years since could be as high as 10,000. Around 116,000 people were
evacuated from the 30-kilometre exclusion zone in the two weeks following the
accident.
As the radioactive dust settled on forests and rivers, poisoning water and food
supplies, flora and fauna, it also embedded itself, indelibly, in the cultural
imagination.
Forty years on, we are still working out what happened – and what it means."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
