TSJERNOBYL AND FUKUSJIMA

TSJERNOBYL AND FUKUSJIMA

The damaged reactor nr. 4 at Fukusjima is slowly sinking. About half a meter, untill now, predicting a possible collapse in the nearby future. A collapse followed by the melt-down of the reactor. Up to now, the reactor has to been cooled by enormous amounts of water. Regularly this radio-active water is stored in tanks on the site of the nuclear plant. Suggestions have been made to store the water in oiltankers! Still, radio-activ water is leaking out of the reactor into the sea. Fish has been caught, with dangerous levels of cesium. To dangerous to consume now, but also in the far future.

The Fukusjima-50 is the name used for the firefighters and workers, that entered the site. Oficially the radiation level was so high, that no humans were allowed. The Japanese government lowered the numbers (but not the dangers) and set these “heroes” to work. They were doomed from the beginning.

So were the workers and the soldiers at Tsjernobyl. In 1986 disaster struck, the nuclear reactor exploded and a meltdown took place. Under enormous difficult and extremely dangerous circumstances, engineers constructed a “sarcophagus”, to isolate the site and keep the radio-activity in.

Some say it was the most complex and dangerous engeneering undertaking in the 20^th century.

Tsjernobyl is a “no-go”-area now. In a radius of 30 kilometers, people have been moved and nature has taken over. Like the “Fukusjima”-50, the workers and soldiers at Tsjernobyl were doomed from the beginning. Many died or are still dying. Newborn are deformed and many people developed cancer. And the problem is not over yet. The “Sarcophagus” could collapse and conditions are changing. First it seemed, that the nuclear fuel, was safely embedded in “lava”, molten debris, a result of the meltdown. This situation is changing. Many parts of the “sarcophagus” have not been researched and the whole (enormous!) structure is crumbling down. Covering it all in concrete will cost about 2 billion dollars. Money, the Ucraine does not have. Radio-active memories of this disaster are accumulating and we all carry parts of this with us. For the rest of our life!

Japan is silent about Fukusjima, like the Ucraine is about . Tsjernobyl. No inspections to be expected on these sites.. We need nuclear power for our economy and wealth. So the media, politics and electricity-companies keep silent. We are all waiting till the shit hits the fan. That will be soon.