TIL: About the new shield for Chernobyl's damaged reactor
Today I learned about a huge metal sarcophagus that was moved in place over the damaged reactor that caused the Chernobyl disaster. The new enclosure is meant to contain the radiation and begin the process of making the area safe again. The Chernobyl disaster showed the world how dangerous nuclear reactors can be when not handled properly. About six months after the reactor meltdown a steel congregate box was built around the reactor but didn't last very long before it started to break down. This new containment shield should last around 100 years before needing to be replaced and hopefully by then the radiation levels have gone back to safe levels.
In a weird twist of fate nature and life hasn't gone away in Chernobyl it has thrived. Many populations of endangered species now live in the zone without a threat from humans. Marsh lands have returned after being transformed in the late 1920's by Stalin and his plans for mass cooperative farming. It is really interesting to see what will happen to the world we will leave behind especially how nature will reclaim what is rightfully hers.
What do you think about Chernobyl and the new shield?
it wasn't an explosion and it wasn't a melt down.
it was incompetent operation.
they allowed the graphite to catchfire.
I dreamed up a conspiracy theory about it some time back, but I forget it exactly. Something about the date and such maybe. There is something rather appealing about the idea it was related to the woodpecker array down the road and an experiment.
At least, the whole thing how ukrainians quickly connected the event to Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's Roadside Picnic and Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker movie, and then the game.
Regardless of any of these, the trajectory towards total collapse of the USSR was well and truly on course when it happened.
What is more of a concern to me is that they built Fukushima on sand and that thing never has had a sarcophagus. 6 months of meltdown, the nature is mostly recovered, only the condensed uranium on metal and dust inside buildings is dangerous, and the sarcophagus is being replaced. But 5 years and I have still not heard the fire is out in Fukushima.
there never was a fire, it was an actual meltdown cause by loss of coolant due to the tsunami. A forty year old reactor design performed better than expected when it was hit by disaster. No one died.
I think it's pretty killer that they encased the damaged reactor , but even if it truly is safe, I doubt many would risk returning to Chernobyl. In some ways it might be good to make it safe and preserve it more for tourism and historical significance.
Nice article.
I think they are pretty useless avoiding Fukushima radiation and war radiation / chemicals all around the world..