Chernobyl, 20 Years Later

Remember April 26, 1986

Hundreds of thousands of people across Europe will today commemorate the 20th anniversary of the world's worst human-made disaster - when Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power complex exploded during a routine safety test and sent a plume of radioactivity a mile high to drift over 40% of Europe and as far away as Japan. Between 50 and 250 million curies of radiation, approximately equal to 100 medium-sized atomic bombs, was unleashed.

Chernobyl

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Updated On: 4/25/06 at 09:45 PM

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NPR has had a number of good segments on Chernobyl. One, in particular, focuses on what people who were there remember twenty years later.


Chernobyl voices

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We've learned that waiting to act on issues in the making now means that we will be forced to opt between undesirable options in the future.

I was thinking about that over coffee this morning when I read that Bush is relaxing the "clear air" additive to gasoline in hopes of reducing gas prices. Yes, he is responding to a crisis and doing what people want and need in order to maintain our current way of life. But ultimately it contributes to the downfall of the environment. And to be fair, this is one of those damned if you do and damned if you don't situations.

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My father-in-law was a Way-Leftist AND a nuclear engineer...way back when...

It's the relaxation of safeguards in the inevitable times of crisis that scare me the most.

It's too late for prevention, now we are left with choosing the best of the objectionable, but realistic, solutions. And yet, we'll continue to dig ourselves in deeper every time it gets painful.

I'm very depressed.

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