Sunday, May 01, 2005
Chernobyl - Some Final(?) Thoughts
This will mark the third day in a row I have posted on my visit to Chernobyl in 1991, some seven years after the accident. Unless there is a huge clamor from commentors and friends, I intend this to be the last of those posts.
Why was I there? I was invited to participate in an "Environmental Technology Exchange Delegation" to the Soviet Union by People-to-People International. This organization, originally a part of the U.S. State department, was set up to foster cultural exchange between nations, particularly antagonistic nations. We were a group of environmental professionals that toured throughout the Soviet Union and engaged in exchanges of professional information. Given that Chernobyl is perhaps the worst environmental disaster in human history, it was a natural place for us to go. I say "perhaps" because due to the international concern about Chernobyl it has received far more attention and is likely far cleaner than other nuclear sites in the former Soviet, located farther from, and therefore less detectable by, the rest of the world. This brief from the USDOE gives you some idea.
I mentioned in yesterday's post the relative normalcy of the place. I want to make a couple more comments on that note.
First, mutation was noted in the local flora and fauna, but it was not the monstrous sort of thing you might expect from old movies. For example, animals that were in gestation during the time of the accident and the very high radiation levels just following, were mutated - sometimes quite severely. However, the very few that were even capable of reproduction produced normal offspring, and their parents produced further litters of normal offspring. The growth cycle of plants during the high radiation period was quite bizarre, but the next year, the same tree would look quite normal. In the case of annuals, seeds under production by parent plants during the high radiation periods produced some amazing things when planted, but their seeds were quite normal. The resilience of nature in this circumstance was one of the most amazing things I found. I learned an important lesson at Chernobyl -- despite all the raw power we think we have, God's creation can withstand our onslaughts quite well. We give ourselves far too much credit when we think otherwise.
Secondly, most people do not realize that there were many who refused relocation from within the exclusion zone. They were mostly older people living in ancient villages, in houses sometimes hundreds of years old. An apartment in Kiev would have killed these people much sooner than any health risk from the accident. They continued their life of sustenance farming quite happily. Visiting them was one of the great treats of my entire trip in the Soviet Union. I do not have pictures of them out of respect for the privacy they preserved by staying. They were; however, marvelous and generous hosts.
I learned two important lessons from these people. The first was that oppression can only reach so far. In a nation that had actively sought to squelch faith for nearly 100 years, these people still had icon stands in their homes, prayed on a daily basis and proudly told us they had done so when Stalin was in charge. Which leads to the other lesson I learned. Theology has its limits. Orthodoxy, by American protestant standards, is heretical. But after watching these people and people of faith throughout the Soviet Union, I am convinced that their prayers and their faith, even in a form I cannot begin to agree with did more to bring down that State than Reagan ever dreamed of. The Holy Spirit is not constrained by our meager understanding and will work has He sees fit -- we eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil if we dare think He will work only as we think He should.
So now some links if you wish to continue your education on Chernobyl. I went looking for places to send money to help maintain the sarcophagus and could not find any. This site has a database of organizations that are doing charitable work in the wake of the accident, but I cannot and do not recommend any of these. If you wish to make donations to any of these organizations, please check them out very carefully. There are many, many who have surrounded this situation to con, bilk, and steal.
This site contains a great deal of technical information about the accident and the mitigation.
Of important note, the mitigation has, to date, been superb. The current state of the science is that there has been very little long term chronic health impact from the accident. This site has great details. The site does not let me cut and past a pull quote, but read it carefully, the studies conclude that the damage is far more psychosomatic than physical -- no less real, but there is great comfort in that conclusion.
The greatest harm now is in the condition of the sarcophagus; should it fail the nightmare within will be once again released. The acute and immediate consequences, which were severe, from the accident could begin anew. I'll keep looking and let you know.
UPDATE
Here are parts one and two in my series on my visit to Chernobyl.
Why was I there? I was invited to participate in an "Environmental Technology Exchange Delegation" to the Soviet Union by People-to-People International. This organization, originally a part of the U.S. State department, was set up to foster cultural exchange between nations, particularly antagonistic nations. We were a group of environmental professionals that toured throughout the Soviet Union and engaged in exchanges of professional information. Given that Chernobyl is perhaps the worst environmental disaster in human history, it was a natural place for us to go. I say "perhaps" because due to the international concern about Chernobyl it has received far more attention and is likely far cleaner than other nuclear sites in the former Soviet, located farther from, and therefore less detectable by, the rest of the world. This brief from the USDOE gives you some idea.
I mentioned in yesterday's post the relative normalcy of the place. I want to make a couple more comments on that note.
First, mutation was noted in the local flora and fauna, but it was not the monstrous sort of thing you might expect from old movies. For example, animals that were in gestation during the time of the accident and the very high radiation levels just following, were mutated - sometimes quite severely. However, the very few that were even capable of reproduction produced normal offspring, and their parents produced further litters of normal offspring. The growth cycle of plants during the high radiation period was quite bizarre, but the next year, the same tree would look quite normal. In the case of annuals, seeds under production by parent plants during the high radiation periods produced some amazing things when planted, but their seeds were quite normal. The resilience of nature in this circumstance was one of the most amazing things I found. I learned an important lesson at Chernobyl -- despite all the raw power we think we have, God's creation can withstand our onslaughts quite well. We give ourselves far too much credit when we think otherwise.
Secondly, most people do not realize that there were many who refused relocation from within the exclusion zone. They were mostly older people living in ancient villages, in houses sometimes hundreds of years old. An apartment in Kiev would have killed these people much sooner than any health risk from the accident. They continued their life of sustenance farming quite happily. Visiting them was one of the great treats of my entire trip in the Soviet Union. I do not have pictures of them out of respect for the privacy they preserved by staying. They were; however, marvelous and generous hosts.
I learned two important lessons from these people. The first was that oppression can only reach so far. In a nation that had actively sought to squelch faith for nearly 100 years, these people still had icon stands in their homes, prayed on a daily basis and proudly told us they had done so when Stalin was in charge. Which leads to the other lesson I learned. Theology has its limits. Orthodoxy, by American protestant standards, is heretical. But after watching these people and people of faith throughout the Soviet Union, I am convinced that their prayers and their faith, even in a form I cannot begin to agree with did more to bring down that State than Reagan ever dreamed of. The Holy Spirit is not constrained by our meager understanding and will work has He sees fit -- we eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil if we dare think He will work only as we think He should.
So now some links if you wish to continue your education on Chernobyl. I went looking for places to send money to help maintain the sarcophagus and could not find any. This site has a database of organizations that are doing charitable work in the wake of the accident, but I cannot and do not recommend any of these. If you wish to make donations to any of these organizations, please check them out very carefully. There are many, many who have surrounded this situation to con, bilk, and steal.
This site contains a great deal of technical information about the accident and the mitigation.
Of important note, the mitigation has, to date, been superb. The current state of the science is that there has been very little long term chronic health impact from the accident. This site has great details. The site does not let me cut and past a pull quote, but read it carefully, the studies conclude that the damage is far more psychosomatic than physical -- no less real, but there is great comfort in that conclusion.
The greatest harm now is in the condition of the sarcophagus; should it fail the nightmare within will be once again released. The acute and immediate consequences, which were severe, from the accident could begin anew. I'll keep looking and let you know.
UPDATE
Here are parts one and two in my series on my visit to Chernobyl.
