my journey into the dead zone Chernobyl 2017 (pic heavy)

[Commander Wallace]

Originally Posted by Catfish

Sorry to correct you, but what you write is the exact replication of what official russian propaganda spilled out in the last decades.
Caesium is and will be strong and present in muhrooms and vegetables of all kinds e.g. in Germany, but also in other european countries which happened to lie in the path of the cloud emerging back then. And it of course accumulates in the body.

While it is true that a lot of the heavy plutonium was washed down from the lower atmosphere by rain, it stays in the ground and is not only radioactive in the smallest doses (speaking of one millionth gram here), but is also highly toxic. For some million years to come.

They first said about 50 to 60 kilograms of plutonium evaporated in the first blast, while in the last decade the fallout being mentioned in official reports shrunk to about 50 kilograms, and ten kg of other (lighter) nucleotides like Caesium etc..
I guess it will shrink to 20 kg in a year or so in official reports, until everybody forgets about it entirely
But you can then add 700 kilograms of also radioactive graphite, spreading all over the area and up to Iceland.

Maybe you find it assuring that especially the plutonium is not in atmosphere or on the ground anymore, but to know it's a centimeter deeper does not really convince me, of it all being so harmless. It is already in the food chain, and it will accumulate.

That was an excellent breakdown and explanation of the degree of radioactive poisoning of the soil and how far the radioactive fallout had traveled, Kai. It helped bring into focus the excellent thread, narrative and pictures by Kapitan / Blair and the long lasting effects.

[AVGWarhawk]

WOW! That must have been some experience. I can only imagine the feeling of walking through such a place. Thank you for sharing.

[Schroeder]

Thanks for sharing.
A very tragic event indeed. I for one am glad that Germany has decided to abandon nuclear power after Fukoshima.

[Kapitan]

Thanks guys for the responses and thanks Jimbuna for the nomination.

just to clear a few things up Ikalugin is correct there are people living within the 30km zone, illegally they get no support from the Ukrainian government, however when i was stating no one lives here i was being specific to the villages i was visiting.

Caesium 137 after 30 years decays to Barium 137 Iodine 131 lasts around 8 or 9 days if memory serves, Strontium 90 has a half life of around 30 years and decays down to Yttrium 90.

The biggest issue and this makes the 10km zone so dangerous is the amount of deposited Thorium (which can be found in household smoke alarms and TIG welders) it has a half life of 14 billion years (no joke!) and will decay down to Radium, the amount that is your house hold smoke alarm is enough to seriously damage your insides if not kill you if ingested.

The other main elements found in the 10km zone will be Plutonium which is the spent fuel from the original Uranium rods it has half life of around 90 years, the other main element found in the 10km zone is Uranium which was the fuel for the reactor however only 16 ton is accounted for out of around 120 tons that is meant to be there, 200 tons of corium is known to still be in the sarcophagus this is a mixture of basically everything that also contains the fuel the most famous deposit of corium is the elephants foot.

Uranium 235 has a half life of 705 million years and is found around the site still today, its weapons grade 238 has a half life of 4.5 billion years and counting which is why the element is used to date things on the earth by carbon dating methods.

I don't the only people to come off worse was the Belarussians a good chunk around 20% of their entire country is uninhabitable and not able to be cultivated.

Traces of Uranium can still be found in the ice caps or the artic and in siberia and northern america

[ikalugin]

You should consider the:
-active
-quantity
-toxicity
If you stay outside of the known dangerous areas in general you are fine, as far as you do not inject (or inhale) anything, but b/c of low quantity of such dangerous materials this is unlikely, especially during winter (when snow covers the dust).

The problem occurs when you try farming - crops accumulate radiotoxins. So shrooms are a no-no, as are berries but you sort of can farm potatoes, depending on the specific plot and it's contamination.

[Eichhörnchen]

Hear that, Catfish? Shrooms are a no-no, so that's bad news for you...

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

My nomination for 2017 SubSim Post of the Year http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...95&postcount=5

Second that motion.

[Catfish]

Originally Posted by Eichhörnchen

[...]Hear that, Catfish? Shrooms are a no-no, so that's bad news for you...

What do you think deer eats?
It is in the food chain, believe me. Consuming contaminated stuff and getting cancer from it by Caesium has a latency time of appx. 30 years, also genetic defects are being passed on to the next generation if fertility is not entirely stopped at once or later, in the process.

Ploughing under plutonium is not what i consider a safe disposal. As is the disposal of reactors near the coast of Nowaja Semlja by just cutting open the hull, and dumping. And then leasing the area to norwegian fishery. Hope you do not eat too much salmon

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

My nomination for 2017 SubSim Post of the Year http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...95&postcount=5

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

Second that motion.

Thanks Jason

[Fubar2Niner]

Top nomination on a great and worrying post.

Kapitan, hats off mate, great post.

[Kapitan]

Thanks guys i have a few more trips left in me before i have to settle it down but this is the pinnicle trip i do want to go back and also see the bits i missed.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by inesw

OMG Radiation. < sneaky way to hide "effects of radiation" site under .

Originally Posted by AktungBBY

...as several hundred conscript-cannonfodder Russians R currently finding out;..having dug trenches in and around Chernobyl's highly toxic Red Forest, where even Ukraine powerplant workers are not permitted in the current re-Stalinization attempt ongoing in Eastern Europe. They are reported under treatment in Gorpet, Bylorussian hospitals for acute radiation sickness.

https://nypost.com/2022/03/31/russia...ckness-report/

Several hundred Russian troops have been withdrawn from the Chernobyl nuclear facility in Ukraine after suffering from “acute radiation sickness” and are being treated in Belarus, according to reports.
The Pentagon confirmed earlier that the Russian forces began to pull out from the defunct facility, which was taken on the first day of the invasion, after a pledge by the Kremlin to scale back its offensive.
But an employee at the Public Council at the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone management said the soldiers had fled while “irradiated” and bused to a medical facility in Gomel, Belarus, the Mirror reported.
“Another batch of irradiated terrorists who seized the Chernobyl zone was brought to the Belarusian Radiation Medicine Center in Gomel today,” Yaroslav Yemelianenko wrote on Facebook.
“Have you dug trenches in the Red Forest, b—hes? Now live the rest of your short life with this. There are rules for handling this area. They are mandatory because radiation is physics — it works regardless of status or shoulder ranks,” he wrote.

Bottom Line: the Russian onslaught is not only criminal but a horrific waste of young conscript human cannonfodder under the Soviet WWII quip: " numbers have a cachet of their own" ie: we have more to waste than our opponents <Several hundred Russian soldiers, seen here being bused to a medical facility, were forced to hastily withdraw from the Chernobyl power plant.