Chernobyl Reactor Before The Explosion
Photo Source: US Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Sometimes people as a whole, forget about important things. The things that I am referring to are things that are so monumental that they can change the course of the life on earth. I know this is a pretty strong statement, but unfortunately it is true. It sometimes goes in one ear and out the other. If it were an incident, it might be remembered by most of us for a little while, like a year or two, but eventually it fades into oblivion.

A recent survey showed that there are many people today who do not even know what year it was that the World Trade Center was destroyed. This is not the event that I am referring to however. I am talking about Chernobyl, the worst peace time nuclear disaster that ever happened. There is nary a person today who even thinks about it. Here is a simple recap of the situation that I am talking about . Chernobyl was the area in Russia that contained a large nuclear generating plant with several reactors that were not housed in a safety dome as we did in this country. The year was 1986 and the Chernobyl plant was located only 80 miles from Kiev, a very large Russian city. During testing of the plants four reactors, safety precautions were overridden. One of the reactors exploded, number 4 and spread radiation around the world. Some people in the immediate vicinity were killed right away. It is believed that at least thirty people died immediately and many thousands received large doses of radiation. The reactor building has been covered in a huge cement shroud in a superhuman effort to contain the radiation. It was believed that this cement tomb would contain all radiation for hundreds of years.

Chernobyl Reactor Building After Explosion
Photo Source: FAA

Now we move to the current time. I know that the Russian workers at the time, did their heroic best to build the containment block of cement. It is said that some even sacrificed themselves, knowing that they were receiving radiation while they worked. Unfortunately things are not what they seem. The building, sometimes referred to as a Sarcophagus, has been found to be full of holes. Another study shows that if an earthquake hits of magnitude six or higher, the building will collapse and a huge cloud of radiation will sail around the world. The conclusion is that Chernobyl is still a disaster waiting to happen. You would think that the lesson would have been learned, but apparently the Sarcophagus will stand on shaky ground waiting to be hit by an earthquake that is predicted to hit this area at least once every century.

There is another point about Chernobyl that you don't hear much about and it seems to me that it is an extremely important one. In this world where terrorists are dying to create a nuclear weapon and doing everything that they can to acquire nuclear material, what I am about to tell you is a chilling thought. Some say that between ten and fifty tons of nuclear fuel is missing. This amount was calculated after deducting the amount lost into the atmosphere by the explosion. Scientists admit that the missing fuel might be under the rubble that was covered by the cement. This too presents a terrible problem. If the fuel is indeed under the wreckage of the reactor, this would also be a terrible problem. The cement housing is beginning to fill with water.

Why would water seeping into the cement shell worry scientists? Unfortunately this phenomenon can also cause a massive explosion. Here we have a no win situation. If the fuel is lost then it could have fallen into unfriendly hands. If the fuel isn't missing and laying at the bottom of the reactor then we have the chance of another explosion. Chernobyl still presents us with one of the most dangerous situations we can imagine.

Because of the explosion, over 25% of the fertile land in Belarus was closed off. The reactor explosion not only caused radiation sickness but also caused all sorts of socioeconomic problems. Think of it this way, what businesses are going to open up in an area that is believed to be contaminated? Take this a step further and you can say what businesses would stay in such an area? Because of this you have an area where the wages are low and jobs are hard to find, thus depressing the population and causing all sorts of psychological problems on top of physical ones.

Are we so dumb that we are going to allow this condition to exist at Chernobyl? This is not only a Russian problem, it is a world problem. If there is another explosion there or an earthquake knocks down the shroud, people will realize what they allowed to happed pretty quickly. Lets hope that this situation is remedied soon and we can get back to worrying about other things.