Russian troops spotted in Chernobyl zone

[Boats]

Russian troops spotted in Chernobyl zone
By: UAWIRE - 7-22-19
RE: http://uawire.org/russian-troops-spo...hernobyl-zone#

There is currently a large number of Russian soldiers and military equipment in the Belarusian portion of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine’s 61st Jager Infantry Brigade announced on Facebook.

“… the fact of the presence of Russian troops near Ukraine’s northern border in the Belarusian part of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is already being verified,” the brigade’s press service stated.

Information is being distributed on Facebook that there are Russian troops in the Belarusian part of the exclusion zone, close to the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. The information has already been brought to the attention of all levels of command.

“If this is confirmed, the 61st Jager Infantry Brigade will be ready in moments to defend Ukraine on the said portion of the Ukrainian-Belarusian border and to properly fight back against the aggressor,” the brigade promised.

The brigade noted that the information is currently being verified by “the relevant intelligence organs”.

Recently the volunteer and activist Volodymyr Martyniuk wrote on Facebook that Russian soldiers have told locals that their objective is to rapidly capture Kyiv.

“I just spoke to a local from the Ivankivskyi district who lives near the border with Belarus. He claims that the Belarusian part of the Chernobyl Zone is currently full of Russian soldiers and military equipment. When talking to the Ukrainians who traditionally cross the border to Belarus, these soldiers have said that their objective is to rapidly capture Kyiv,” he wrote.

According to Martyniuk, the locals say that the soldiers are always practicing breaching the Ukrainian border. However, they are mostly Yakuts or Buryats, and should not be confused with Belarusians.

“Batu’s horde is once again outside the walls of Kyiv, waiting for the gates to be opened for it,” the volunteer remarked.

[Boats]

IS CHERNOBYL SAFE? CAN YOU LIVE THERE NOW? EXPERTS EXPLAIN THE RISKS
IT'S HARD TO DEFINE WHAT "SAFE" MEANS
By: Cristina Maza - Newsweek
RE: https://www.newsweek.com/chernobyl-s...n-will-1414489

The 1986 Chernobyl power plant accident is often referred to as the world's worst nuclear disaster. When one of the four reactors at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded early in the morning of April 26, 1986, a cloud of radioactive material rained down on the nearby towns and villages in what are today Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

Firefighters, many of whom later died from radiation exposure, were dispatched to pour water on the reactor. Nevertheless, the fire burned for nine days. All of the 50,000 people living in the nearby town of Pripyat, which had been constructed in the 1970s to house power-plant workers and their families, were immediately evacuated. An estimated 350,000 people were evacuated from the area around the plant. Eventually an area of around 1,000 square miles was designated the Exclusion Zone. Travel to the area was prohibited. In the years that followed, nature took over the abandoned area.

Now, as Chernobyl becomes a popular destination for people interested in extreme tourism or the history of nuclear disaster, one major question remains: Is Chernobyl safe?

Is Chernobyl safe?

"People say it's not that dangerous. Even about living there, they say that the people living there are healthy," said Franka Hummels, a Dutch author and journalist who spent years traveling to the exclusion zone in Belarus to conduct research for a book on Chernobyl. "The people who are not living there have either died or moved away to somewhere with good health care, so yes, the people who remain are healthy; that's how it works. But that doesn't mean it is healthy to live there."

Officially, 31 people died in the Chernobyl disaster. But researchers estimate that thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, may have died or fallen ill from exposure to radiation after the accident. Ukraine and Belarus both have a high percentage of the population that suffers from thyroid cancer, one of the only illnesses that can be traced directly back to radiation.

How long until Chernobyl will be completely safe?

It depends on which part of Chernobyl you're talking about. The highly publicized number is 20,000 years, but that refers specifically to the Elephant's Foot, the highly radioactive remains of the reactor itself. In a broader sense, it's harder to pin down how long it will be until Chernobyl is completely safe. Experts estimate anywhere from 20 years to several hundred years, because the contamination levels are not consistent in the surrounding area.

It is also tempting to compare Chernobyl to Hiroshima, which was the site of an atomic bomb attack but is safe today. However, the radioactivity is completely different. A nuclear bomb is designed to release all its energy in a massive burst, and the radiation disperses quickly. In the case of Chernobyl, radioactive elements were scattered in an explosion. That means highly radioactive pieces of the reactor, for example, are embedded in the soil and continue to leak radiation into the surrounding environment.

Can you live in Chernobyl now?

Some elderly people from the area have moved back home. At least 100 people are estimated to be in Ukraine's Chernobyl exclusion zone today. In neighboring Belarus, the number may be higher.

"Belarus has this strange relationship with Chernobyl and the Exclusion Zone because of the dictatorship, because it's a propaganda dictatorship," Hummels added, describing the Belarusian government of Alexander Lukashenko, who is often described as Europe's last dictator. "So if the government says it's safe, your life is easier if you just go along with it. So people just choose to believe the government that it's safe."

Meanwhile, people living in the Exclusion Zone in Belarus get access to free health care and electricity, among other perks, a fact that has encouraged low-income people and other vulnerable communities to move there. Russian tourists take advantage of the empty space and pristine nature to camp and fish, and sometimes they temporarily occupy an abandoned house as a summer residence.

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How much radiation is dangerous?
RE: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...72E79Z20110315

(Reuters) - Health experts urged governments in the Asia Pacific to monitor radioactivity levels after Japan’s quake-damaged nuclear power plant exploded and sent radiation into the air.

Radiation is measured using the unit sievert, which quantifies the amount of radiation absorbed by human tissues.

One sievert is 1,000 millisieverts (mSv). One millisievert is 1,000 microsieverts.

Below are some facts about the health dangers posed by higher radiation levels:

* Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano had, at one point, said radiation levels near the stricken plant on the northeast coast reached as high as 400 millisieverts (mSv) an hour. That figure would be would be 20 times the annual exposure for some nuclear-industry employees and uranium miners.

* People are exposed to natural radiation of 2-3 mSv a year.

* In a CT scan, the organ being studied typically receives a radiation dose of 15 mSv in an adult to 30 mSv in a newborn infant.

A typical chest X-ray involves exposure of about 0.02 mSv, while a dental one can be 0.01 mSv.

* Exposure to 100 mSv a year is the lowest level at which any increase in cancer risk is clearly evident. A cumulative 1,000 mSv (1 sievert) would probably cause a fatal cancer many years later in five out of every 100 persons exposed to it.

* There is documented evidence associating an accumulated dose of 90 mSv from two or three CT scans with an increased risk of cancer. The evidence is reasonably convincing for adults and very convincing for children.

* Large doses of radiation or acute radiation exposure destroys the central nervous system, red and white blood cells, which compromises the immune system, leaving the victim unable to fight off infections.

For example, a single one sievert (1,000 mSv) dose causes radiation sickness such as nausea, vomiting, hemorrhaging, but not death. A single dose of 5 sieverts would kill about half of those exposed to it within a month.

* Exposure to 350 mSv was the criterion for relocating people after the Chernobyl accident, according to the World Nuclear Association.

*”Very acute radiation, like that which happened in Chernobyl and to the Japanese workers at the nuclear power station, is unlikely for the population,” said Lam Ching-wan, a chemical pathologist at the university of Hong Kong.

Sources: the New England Journal of Medicine, World Nuclear Association and Taiwan’s Atomic Energy Council