Rudolph the radioactive reindeer | Beyond Nuclear International

by Linda Pentz Gunter

Fallout from Soviet atomic bomb tests over the Arctic Ocean, compounded by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion, have left reindeer too radioactive to eat, even today. That may be good news for the reindeer, sort of. But it’s bad news for the indigenous Laplanders in Finland and Sami herders in Norway, who carry high levels of radiation in their own bodies as well as in the reindeer on which they depend for sustenance and sales.

Reindeer carry heavy radioactive doses, mainly of cesium-137, because they devour lichen, moss and fungi, which bioaccumulate radioactive deposits from fallout. Norway’s radioactive contamination is primarily from Chernobyl, made worse because it was snowing heavily at the time of the April 26 accident…

more: Rudolph the radioactive reindeer | Beyond Nuclear International

Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster at 32: a Nuclear Hotseat SPECIAL | #NuclearHotseat

LISTEN NOW:
 Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster at 32: a Nuclear Hotseat SPECIAL

This week’s Nuclear Hotseat marks the 32nd Anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disasterwith highlights from past interviews.  It bring Ukraine’s devastating 1986 nuclear accident — and its consequences — into sharp, terrifying focus.

This Week’s Special Interviews:

• Bonnie Kouneva was a 16-year-old living in Bulgaria when the Chernobyl accident started on April 26, 1986.  She was outdoors all day at a rally and got hit with the radiation plume.  Bonnie talks about Chernobyl’s impact on her life and the health of her children.  This former mountaineer and Bulgarian Greenpeace member currently lives in the United States.
• Dr. Timothy Mousseau is an evolutionary biologist and faculty member of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina. Since 1999, Professor Mousseau and his collaborators have explored the ecological, genetic and evolutionary consequences of low-dose radiation in populations of plants, animals and people inhabiting the Chernobyl region of Ukraine and Belarus.
• Dr. Janette Sherman is well known for her work with epidemiologist Joseph Mangano on analyses of data after Fukushima.  Their work indicates that the Japanese nuclear disaster led to a spike in US infant mortality and hypothyroidism.  Dr. Sherman edited the English translation of Alexei Yablokov’s groundbreaking book, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment.
• Dr. Alexei Yablokov was environmental advisor to Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the Gorbachev administration, as well as a co-founder of Greenpeace, Russia.  His book, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment, compiled and translated into English more than 5,000 separate scientific reports on Chernobyl that completely contradict the World Health Organization’s report, which undermined the seriousness of the accident.  Dr. Yablakov died in January, 2017.
• Ryuichi Hirokawa was the first non-Soviet photojournalist to document the Chernobyl disaster. The website on his humanitarian aid work with the children of Fukushima, based upon his experiences at Chernobyl, is at: kuminosato.net.

LISTEN NOW: Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster at 32: a Nuclear Hotseat SPECIAL

Consequences of a Catastrophe: 31 Years of Chernobyl

BELARUS. Novinki Asylum. A young helpless multiple sclerosis victim is carried by an attendant. Photo by Paul Fusco

Today marks the 31st commemoration of the disastrous nuclear meltdown at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, originally located in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The atomic core exploded and then caught fire, burning for 9-days straight and spewing deadly amounts of radiation into the atmosphere over an area covering 58,000 square miles. For those of us living in the United States, that area is larger than the whole State of New York. Now, its radioactive legacy is left to the Ukraine to manage for thousands of years while the world waits for the intense radioactivity to decay away. The USSR official government toll claimed that only 30 people died in the immediate aftermath of the meltdown, but the disasters full impact on the health of the area’s residents is much worse than authorities are willing to admit.

As many as one million people are projected to die from cancer and other radiation induced illnesses according to Dr. Alexy Yablakov, originally the science advisor to former Russian President/Premier Boris Yeltsin. Dr. Yablakov analyzed existing scientific data to make these projections; see his book entitled Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment, published by the New York Academy of Sciences. If you would like a copy, please contact us. We can put copies on special order.*

Because most forms of cancer take years to develop after exposure to radiation and paired with uncooperative governments hindering scientific research, we may never know the full extent of Chernobyl’s carnage, but we do know that the damage is very high…

more: Consequences of a Catastrophe: 31 Years of Chernobyl — Nuclear Energy Education

* for a free PDF download, please visit this page: whats up: PDF DOWNLOAD: #Chernobyl – Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment by Alexey V. YABLOKOV, Vassily B. NESTERENKO, and Alexey V. NESTERENKO

UN’s Chernobyl Health Cover-Up Exposed: Alison Katz, Independent WHO – #305

Chernobyl "liquidators"

LISTEN NOW

This Week’s Featured Interview:
Alison Katz, a psychologist and sociologist heads Independent WHO, the international watchdog group drawing attention to the World Health Organization’s failure in its duty to protect those populations who are victims of radioactive contamination.  The group has held a vigil in front of WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, five days a week, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., since April 26, 2007 – the 21st anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.  Originally recorded for Nuclear Hotseat #118, September 17, 2013.

UPDATES to this week’s interview:

• Dr. Margaret Chan is still Director General of the WHO.
• In 2014, UN Special Reporteur on the Right to Health Anand Grover, referenced in the interview, was replaced by Dr. Dainius Pūras, whose specialty is mental health and, to date, has not published anything on nuclear matters.
• The 2013 Arnie Gunderson interview for Nuclear Hotseat #117 on what he’d do if he were in charge at Fukushima is available HERE.

LISTEN NOW: UN’s Chernobyl Health Cover-Up Exposed: Alison Katz, Independent WHO – #305

Magical Thinking — Demystifing Nuclear Power | Fairewinds Nuclear Energy Education

The oxymoronic term “alternative facts” has recently taken root in American political conversation, but the alleged magical thinking by the nuclear power industry is nothing new to informed energy sector critics.

The nuclear power meltdowns at Three Mile Island (TMI) in the US, Chernobyl, now the contaminated legacy of the Ukraine, originally part of the USSR – now Russia, and the triple meltdowns in Japan at the Fukushima Daiichi atomic reactor site show that the various atomic power disaster scenarios created by the nuclear industry are far from what actually occurred during the last 38-years.

Inaptly named “maximum credible accidents” by the atomic power industry, these actual meltdowns are really more of the industry’s alleged magical thinking based on the projected maximum cash available in each country hosting the reactor.  Not surprisingly, nuclear reactors are simply incapable of withstanding the worst disaster imaginable. The proclamations made by nuclear power and nuclear weapon fixated governments have been designed to reduce costs to reactor owners, which are either corporations or governments, and then passing on the radioactive remains to local communities to sort out and protect for the next 25-mellenniums – until all the radioactivity decays away.

Before TMI, the magical thinking in the nuclear power industry assumed that failures would only occur one at a time: according to industry calculations, there was essentially a zero percent likelihood of multiple systems failing at once…

more: Magical Thinking — Nuclear Energy Education

Demystifing Nuclear Power

Chernobyl +31 Telebriefing From Nuclear Disaster to Renewable Energy Revolution | NIRS

The next major day of action for climate justice is happening in just four days – the People's Climate March on April 29! NIRS and grassroots groups across the country are organizing to bring the Nuclear-Free, Carbon-Free message to the forefront. 

But first – join us for a live national briefing tomorrow about why the climate crisis demands Nuclear-Free, Carbon-Free solutions:

Chernobyl +31: From Nuclear Disaster to Renewable Energy Revolution
Wednesday, April 26
8pm Eastern (5pm Pacific)

Click here to RSVP and receive all of the details!

This year’s Climate March is just three days after the 31st anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. So there is no better time to talk about why we need to raise our voices for a Nuclear-Free AND Carbon-Free World. 

The briefing is hosted by NIRS and Beyond Nuclear, and will include presenters with first-hand experience of Chernobyl's impact on Ukraine, as well as Germany energy expert Max Gruenig, of the Ecologic Institute US, on the way Chernobyl inspired Germany to begin the transition to renewable energies, laying the foundation for the global clean energy revolution. 

We hope you can join us tomorrow night – and then march with us in the streets on Saturday!

We urge you to join us in DC or a Climate March near you – find all of the details for Saturday and in cities around the U.S. on our Nuclear-Free, Carbon-Free page on the People’s Climate March website. And organize with us on our Facebook page. 

We march for a Nuclear-Free, Carbon-Free world to protect communities from the ravages of climate change … end the threats of radioactive contamination and nuclear catastrophe … to demand environmental and climate justice … promote a just and equitable transition to clean energy … break the dominance of dirty energy corporations … and build the sustainable, renewable, nuclear-free and carbon-free world we want and need.

Please invite your friends and spread the word on social media. You will find graphics and posts to share on our Facebook page, and signs, banners, and images you can print on our hub page. 

Thanks for all you do!

The NIRS Team

Chernobyl +31 Telebriefing From Nuclear Disaster to Renewable Energy Revolution | NIRS

NIRS Telebriefing APRIL 5 – "Spring:The Season of Nuclear Disaster--Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima."

Register below to join NIRS's next national telebriefing:

Spring:The Season of Nuclear Disaster--Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima. 

Wednesday, April 5th at 8:00pm EDT/7:00pm CDT

The program will focus on the major nuclear disasters that have had global impact: Three Mile Island (March 1979), Chernobyl (April 1986) and Fukushima (March 2011). 

The briefing will include the following presenters, and will be followed by questions and answers with the audience:

• Arnie Gunderson, Fairewinds Energy Education
• Moderator: Mary Olson, Director, NIRS Southeast Office 

Arnie Gundersen has more than 45-years of nuclear power experience. He holds a nuclear safety patent, was a licensed reactor operator who taught reactor physics, and was a senior vice president for the nuclear power industry. As Chief Engineer for Fairewinds Associates, Mr. Gundersen is an expert witness who testifies to federal agencies including the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regarding nuclear design defects, safety flaws, and decommissioning. His testimony provided valuable insight into the Three Mile Island atomic meltdown, Vermont Yankee (VY) underground pipe failures, and steam generator flaws at San Onofre in California. Concerned about the triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi, Mr. Gundersen has presented to Japanese universities, the National Press Club, and to members of the Diet. He, his wife Maggie, and Reiko Okazaki authored the Japanese bestselling book,Fukushima Daiichi: The Truth and The Way Forward published by Shueisha Publishing (2012).

The Fairewinds Crew created this special 2-minute animation to show you why building new nukes is a lost opportunity for humankind with precious time and money wasted on the wrong choice. Check out CO2 Smokescreen here. 

REGISTER – NIRS Telebriefing APRIL 5 – "Spring:The Season of Nuclear Disaster--Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima."

Nuclear Hotseat #292: Chernobyl/Fukushima Mutations – Mousseau + Small Modular Reactors w/Don Safer

Womens March, 2017 | Sheila-Parks

Chernobyl/Fukushima on-the-ground research into radiation mutations completely contradicts nuke industry's "official" line: Dr. Timothy Mousseau is there and shares it all. Plus: Why does TVA/Oak Ridge push so hard for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs)? Don Safer of Tenn. Enviro. Council explains the possibilities. Libbe HaLevy's Nuclear Hotseat 292.

LISTEN

#NuclearHotseat 284: CHERNOBYL EXCLUSIVE / Fukushima / EPA’s Gina McCarthy’s “Protective” Action Guides for radioactivity in water

Nuclear Hotseat #284: CHERNOBYL EXCLUSIVE!

New Arch Not “the End;” It’s the Beginning –
On-The-Ground Report w/Lucas Hixon

Up Close and Personal w/Chernobyl: nuclear researcher Lucas Hixon on his work at site in Ukraine, possible problems, need for ongoing monitoring – will spring rains soften underlying marsh, compromise the structure? Will the international community continue to support the decommissioning work or will they forget? And what has Chernobyl taught us about Fukushima? Details you won’t get on mainstream media! Plus EPA’s Gina McCarthy’s “Protective” Action Guides for radioactivity in water get her in the ultimate hot water: Numnutz of the Week – again!

LISTEN NOW > Nuclear Hotseat #284: CHERNOBYL EXCLUSIVE! – New Arch Not “the End;” It’s the Beginning – On-The-Ground Report w/Lucas Hixon

The #NuclearIsDirty! Presentation Series – environmental problems #nuclear power creates from cradle to grave

As part of the #NuclearIsDirty campaign, NIRS has hosted a series of public events and presentations detailing the massive environmental problems nuclear power creates: from cradle to grave.

The #NuclearIsDirty! Presentation Series

• Church Rock, 1979: The story of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history • Canaries in the Uranium Mine The Abandoned Uranium Mine Crisis and the Campaign to Clean them Up • Fukushima+5 - Report on Life on the Ground in Japan• Chernobyl +30: A Look from the Inside • Abusing our Waters: Nuclear Power Threats to Water and Ecosystems

Risk of another Chernobyl or Fukushima type accident plausible, experts say : Broadcast: News items : University of Sussex

“The next nuclear accident may be much sooner or more severe than the public realizes.”

Biggest-ever statistical analysis of historical accidents suggests that nuclear power is an underappreciated extreme risk and that major changes will be needed to prevent future disasters

A team of risk experts who have carried out the biggest-ever analysis of nuclear accidents warn that the next disaster on the scale of Chernobyl or Fukushima may happen much sooner than the public realizes.

Researchers at the University of Sussex, in England, and ETH Zurich, in Switzerland, have analysed more than 200 nuclear accidents, and – estimating and controlling for effects of industry responses to previous disasters – provide a grim assessment of the risk of nuclear power.

Their worrying conclusion is that, while nuclear accidents have substantially decreased in frequency, this has been accomplished by the suppression of moderate-to-large events.  They estimate that Fukushima- and Chernobyl-scale disasters are still more likely than not once or twice per century, and that accidents on the scale of the 1979 meltdown at Three Mile Island in the USA (a damage cost of about 10 Billion USD) are more likely than not to occur every 10-20 years.

As Dr Spencer Wheatley, the lead author, explains: “We have found that the risk level for nuclear power is extremely high.

“Although we were able to detect the positive impact of the industry responses to accidents such as Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, these did not sufficiently remove the possibility of extreme disasters such as Fukushima. To remove such a possibility would likely require enormous changes to the current fleet of reactors, which is predominantly second-generation technology.”

The studies, published in two papers in the journals Energy Research & Social Science and Risk Analysis, put fresh pressure on the nuclear industry to be more transparent with data on incidents.

“Flawed and woefully incomplete” public data from the nuclear industry is leading to an over-confident attitude to risk, the study warns.  The research team points to the fact that their own independent analysis contains three times as much data as that provided publicly by the industry itself. This is probably because the International Atomic Energy Agency, which compiles the reports, has a dual role of regulating the sector and promoting it...

more: Risk of another Chernobyl or Fukushima type accident plausible, experts say : Broadcast: News items : University of Sussex

whats up: #BustTheMyth – nukes are NOT carbon-free, clean, safe, green, or affordable!

Do Nuclear Accidents Generate a "Garden of Eden" for Wildlife?

no, radiation is NOT good for you, or wildlife!


Do Nuclear Accidents Generate a "Garden of Eden" for Wildlife? - YouTube

Published on May 21, 2016

This lecture was recorded May 19th,. 2016 at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California
----------------------------------------­----------------------------
Given increasing energy needs related to global development, and the specter of climate change related to CO2 emissions from fossil fuels, there is an urgent need for large scale energy production that does not involve the production of greenhouse gasses. Nuclear energy is one possible solution that has been embraced by many developing countries (e.g. China). But the accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and most recently Fukushima, Japan, have demonstrated the vulnerability of this technology to human error, design flaws and natural disasters and these accidents have resulted in enormous health, environmental and economic costs that must be factored into any energy policy that includes nuclear as an option. Studies of natural systems are essential since they provide a bellwether for the potential long-term consequences for human populations that by necessity and policy continue to inhabit contaminated regions. Professor Mousseau, discusses his studies of plants and animals living in Chernobyl and Fukushima. Extensive research on birds, insects, rodents and trees has demonstrated significant injury to individuals, species and ecosystem functioning related to radiation exposure He presents an overview of the effects of radiation on DNA, birth defects, infertility, cancer, and longevity, and its consequences for the health and long-term prospects of wildlife living in radioactive regions of the world.


****************

Tim Mousseau (PhD '88, McGill) is a Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina. Past positions include Dean of the Graduate School and Associate Vice President for Research at USC, and as a Program Officer for Population Biology at the National Science Foundation. His research is concerned with the ecology and evolution of animals and plants with special interests in how adaptations to changing environments evolve in natural populations and the evolution of adaptive maternal effects. He has authored or edited 10 volumes and published more than 190 scientific papers. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, The American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Explorers Club. Tim Mousseau full bio: http://cricket.biol.sc.edu/Mousseau

Video editing by Ace Hoffman
www.acehoffman.org

#NuclearIsDirty: Chernobyl 30 -- A Look from the Inside, with Lucas Hixson - YouTube

#NuclearIsDirty: Chernobyl 30 -- A Look from the Inside, with Lucas Hixson - YouTube

Published on May 2, 2016 by nirsnet

In this installment in our #NuclearIsDirty * series, we provide an inside view from nuclear field technician Lucas Hixson on the impacts of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and the ongoing efforts to manage the site.

Lucas recently traveled to Ukraine and spent ten days with people who work at the Chernobyl reactor site today, 30 years after the consequential release of radioactivity from this site began. He takes us from the moment the Unit 4 reactor failed on April 26, 1986, the aftermath, and the ongoing mitigation work, up to his own recent experiences living with today’s workers at the site of one of the largest man-made radioactive releases on the planet. Chernobyl today.

Lucas shared his insights about the radiological impacts and consequences that could reframe our understanding of major reactor disasters.

* link is changed to hashtag on twitter instead of youtube

#‎NuclearIsDirty‬: MAY 2 NIRS WEBINAR: “Chernobyl +30: A Look from the Inside, with Lucas Hixson”

Join us for our next #NuclearIsDirty series webinar on Monday, May 2 at 2pm Eastern. We will get an inside view on the impacts and ongoing mitigation efforts at Chernobyl.

Lucas recently traveled to Ukraine and spent time with people who work at the Chernobyl reactor site today, 30 years since the consequential release of radioactivity from this site began. He will take us from the moment reactor Unit 4 failed on April 26, the aftermath, and the ongoing mitigation work, up to his own recent experiences living with today’s workers at the site of one of the largest man-made radioactive releases on the planet. Chernobyl today.

Luke will share his insights about the radiological impacts and consequences that could reframe our understanding of major reactor accidents.

UPDATE – video of the Webinar: #NuclearIsDirty: Chernobyl 30 -- A Look from the Inside, with Lucas Hixson - YouTube

PDF DOWNLOAD: #Chernobyl – Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment by Alexey V. YABLOKOV, Vassily B. NESTERENKO, and Alexey V. NESTERENKO

Chernobyl 
Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment

Alexey V. YABLOKOV Vassily B. NESTERENKO Alexey V. NESTERENKO 
Consulting Editor Janette D. Sherman-Nevinger 

Annals of the New york Academy of Sciences VOLUME 1181 

DOWNLOAD PDF

thanks to Imagine a world without nuclear power... | Wise International

#OccupyNuclear

A somber 30th anniversary – Chernobyl’s legacy | CleanEnergy Footprints

The 30th anniversary of the devastating accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the former Soviet Union in the town of Pripyat is not something to celebrate, especially given that the site is still struggling with properly containing the destroyed Unit 4 reactor that exploded on that fateful day. This anniversary date is especially somber given that the populaces here in the West were told that our reactor designs couldn’t suffer such a fate, which was proven false just five years ago when a GE reactor design used here in the U.S. also experienced a triple reactor meltdown at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear facility in Japan.

more: A somber 30th anniversary – Chernobyl’s legacy | CleanEnergy Footprints 

includes these links:

• “A look at the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in numbers” in the Washington Post. Such as, More than 2 billion euros ($2.25 billion): The amount of money being spent by an internationally funded project to build a long-term shelter over the building containing Chernobyl’s exploded reactor.
• 
  
• “15 Things You Didn’t Know About Chernobyl” by Greenpeace International’s Celine Mergan in EcoWatch. For instance, did you know that Chernobyl caused what the United Nations has called “the greatest environmental catastrophe in the history of humanity.”
• 
  
• “30 Ways Chernobyl and Dying Nuke Industry Threaten Our Survival” by Harvey Wasserman in EcoWatch.
• Register here for the next #NuclearIsDirty series webinar from the Nuclear Information Resource Service (NIRS): “Chernobyl +30: A Look from the Inside, with Lucas Hixson” on Monday, May 2 at 2pm Eastern – get an inside view on the impacts and ongoing mitigation efforts at Chernobyl.

April 26: 30th anniversary of #Chernobyl Catastrophe

> "Chernobyl" search tag on this blog

30 Ways Chernobyl and Dying Nuke Industry Threaten Our Survival

April 26 marks the 30th anniversary of the catastrophic explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Greenpeace action at the Bohunice nuclear power plant in Czechoslovakia, near the Austrian border. Activists erected 5,000 wooden crosses on April 25, 1991 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, and appealed to the Czech government to close the outdated Soviet-built plant. Photo credit: © Greenpeace / Veronika Leitinger

April 26 marks the 30th anniversary of the catastrophic explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

It comes as Germany, which is phasing out all its reactors, has asked Belgium to shut two of its nukes because of the threat of terrorism.

It also comes as advancing efficiencies and plunging prices in renewable energy remind us that nukes stand in the way of solving our climate crisis.

read: 30 Ways Chernobyl and Dying Nuke Industry Threaten Our Survival

Blind mice and bird brains: the silent spring of Chernobyl and Fukushima - The Ecologist

Evolutionary biologist Timothy Mousseau and his colleagues have published 90 studies that prove beyond all doubt the deleterious genetic and developmental effects on wildlife of exposure to radiation from both the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters, writes Linda Pentz Gunter. But all that peer-reviewed science has done little to dampen the 'official' perception of Chernobyl's silent forests as a thriving nature reserve.

Although it's too early to assess the long term impact on abundance and diversity around Fukushima, there are very few butterflies and many birds have declined in the more contaminated areas. If abundance is compressed, biodiversity will follow.

Dr Timothy Mousseau has published more than 90 peer reviewed articles in scientific journals, related to the effects of radiation in natural populations (and more than 200 publications in total).

He has spent 16 years looking at the effects on wildlife and the ecosystem of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

He and his colleagues have also spent the last five years studying how non-human biota is faring in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdowns in Japan.

But none of this work has received anything like the high profile publicity afforded the 'findings' in the 2006 Chernobyl Forum reportwhich claimed the Chernobyl zone "has become a wildlife sanctuary", and a subsequent article published in Current Biology in 2015 that said wildlife was "thriving"around Chernobyl.

"I suppose everyone loves a Cinderella story", speculated Mousseau, an evolutionary biologist based at the University of South Carolina. "They want that happy ending." But Mousseau felt sure the moment he read the Forum report, which, he noted, "contained few scientific citations", that the findings "could not possibly be true."

Ninety articles later, Mousseau and his research partners from around the world are able to demonstrate definitively and scientifically that non-human biota in both the Chernobyl zone and around Fukushima, are very far indeed from flourishing.

Far from flourishing around Chernobyl, birds and animals are fading

READ: Blind mice and bird brains: the silent spring of Chernobyl and Fukushima - The Ecologist

see also: At Chernobyl and Fukushima, radioactivity has seriously harmed wildlife

15 things you didn't know about Chernobyl | Greenpeace International

the abandoned city of Pripyat / Chernobyl nuclear plant in the back
(Greenpeace)

In the early morning of April 26th, 1986, reactor four of the Chernobyl nuclear station exploded. It caused what the United Nations has called "the greatest environmental catastrophe in the history of humanity."

Chernobyl was the accident that the nuclear industry said would never happen.

Twenty-five years later the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan reminded us that the risk of another Chernobyl remains wherever nuclear power is used.

The long-lived radionuclides released by Chernobyl means the disaster continues 30 years later. It still affects the lives of millions of people. Here are 15 facts you may not know about the disaster

more: 15 things you didn't know about Chernobyl | Greenpeace International

Please speak out in solidarity with Chernobyl survivors and join us for a twitter thunderclap.