Living with Chernobyl
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By The Fairewinds Crew
Just last week, after the world memorialized the occurrence of the Chernobyl meltdown 35-years ago, a new Chernobyl catastrophe reared its ugly head. For 35-years, Chernobyl’s legacy has been evident in the ongoing migration of its radioactivity around the globe. Parts of Europe were especially hard hit, like farms in Wales, that still cannot sell their vegetable and fruit produce or lambs. Now, a new wrinkle in nuclear radiation may contaminate the planet: the reactivation of the melted core. As the neutron population in the melted atomic core increases, it indicates that a self-sustaining chain reaction may develop and might allow a whole new raft of radiation to foul the air.
According to Science (online magazine):
“It’s like the embers in a barbecue pit… The specter of self-sustaining fission, or criticality, in the nuclear ruins has long haunted Chernobyl.”
For Fairewinds and our analyses of meltdowns, this adds a whole new wrinkle to the world’s meltdown paradigm: Could such a neutron population increase occur at Fukushima?
Two weeks ago, in Fairewinds Energy Education’s post: Chernobyl—35 Years Later, we shared our feelings and thoughts about this ongoing disaster and its impact worldwide. Fairewinds also shared resources to help you feel the magnitude of the Chernobyl meltdown. All of us on Planet Earth live with Chernobyl’s radioactive legacy every day. And, Chernobyl’s radioactive legacy will be with us for the remainder of our lives, the lives of our children, their children, and for many generations to come.
To have you understand the magnitude of the Chernobyl catastrophe and its impact on people in proximity to the disaster, Fairewinds shares a webinar event entitled Living With Chernobyl: Personal Stories From The World’s Worst Nuclear Disaster.
“A lived experience; a lyrical novel; a page-turning historical record; and a humanitarian response. What was it like to live through the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, or to deal with its health and environmental legacy 35 years on? We look at how these stories are told — as documentary testimonials, as imagined through a novel, as investigated historically, and as lived by children and their families in Belarus.”
Co-hosted by our colleagues at Beyond Nuclear, Chernobyl Children’s Project (U.K.), Greater Manchester & District CND, and Nuclear Free Local Authorities, this is the 11th installment in our Nuclear Spring Series. Filmed entirely online last week on April 25th, the panel discussion was led by Linda Pentz Gunter of Beyond Nuclear and moderated by Jacqui Burke of Greater Manchester & District CND (U.K.). In addition, this event features Kate Brown, Darragh McKeon, and Linda Walker – see details and bios below the embedded video.
We believe that as you watch this video, you will come away as moved and inspired as we are! We all are members of the human race—this panel event focuses on the human perspective. It's time we moved beyond allowing the atomic power industry to tell us in jargoned Nukespeak how radiation and meltdowns have not and will not hurt us.
Please listen to the stories and facts about the meltdown in the collected words of those who lived it. As you do, imagine how such an event might impact your community, family, and friends! The U.S. currently has 93 operating reactors and a dozen more being decommissioned. A legacy of more than 80,000 tons of waste and no place to put it coupled with operating reactors only engineered and designed to run for 40-years given licenses to operate for 60, 80, and now possibly 100 years longer!
Nuclear Energy Conference 2021
Ten days ago, Arnie Gundersen and Linda Pentz Gunter from Beyond Nuclear were part of the 7th International Nuclear Energy Conference (NEC2021) held online in Austria on April 29th. We will post the film footage here in our Nuclear Spring Series as soon as the videos and materials are available.
Remember: Radiation Knows No Borders
Fairewinds Will Keep You Informed!
Bios & Background
Linda Pentz Gunter of Beyond Nuclear specializes in international nuclear issues. The central focus of her work is on organizing and collaboration within the international anti-nuclear movement. She also works on nuclear weapons and their link with nuclear power development. She is a member of the jury of the Nuclear-Free Future Awards and a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
Kate Brown is a researcher, historian, and MIT professor and has had access to former Soviet government archives, which revealed far broader health impacts than publicly reported. That access allowed Brown to write Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future.
Linda Walker, who leads Chernobyl Children’s Project (U.K.), has witnessed the on-the-ground health and societal impacts of the Chernobyl disaster in Belarus.
Darragh McKeon is an Irish writer and theatre director based in County Clare, Ireland. In his novel, All that is Solid Melts into Air, McKeon brought imagined characters to life as they dealt with Chernobyl and the fall of the Soviet Union.
Jacqui Burke has been the Regional Development Worker for Greater Manchester & District CND for 15 years. She first got involved with anti-nuclear campaigning at 17, when she spotted a poster looking to set up a new CND group taped to a tree on the way to school. Jacqui went along and became a founder member of the Telford Anti-Nuclear Group.
Header image: A girl's doll left in debris in Pripyat. Photo by Michał Lis
