Chernobyl Anniversary

I will be brief. This day, April 26, 1986, one out of four blocks of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant went up in smoke.

Not smoke alone. Smoke and radiation. There are different theories as to what happened but it doesn't matter as much at this point. What does matter is that four days later Communists had their annual Labor Day (May 1) parade and put on smiling faces. Bastards, you will burn in hell for this. Of course, they kept if hush-hush until they couldn't hide it any more.

Some people compare it to Hiroshima but the comparison is inaccurate. Very innacurate. I'm no physics guru, but what happened in Hiroshima was an explosion, a nuclear reaction when particles split and release energy to destroy everything on its way. There was no explosion of this kind in Chernobyl. It was severe contamination. A leak of gigantic proportions. It will take much longer for radiation to wear out than it did for Hiroshima.

That spring of 1986 the winds blew north, i.e. to Belorussia and Russia. They suffered the most, but then again—radiation doesn't have a sense of direction. Had the winds reversed who knows what would've happened to Kiev, a beautiful ancient city with 4M people. Ever wondered if radiation had a taste? Yes, it tastes like aluminum.

It was weird to see how hi-tech Japanese robots would seize functioning under high levels of radiation. Those of you with engineering degrees know that transistors, essential components of every modern device these days, don't function well or don't function at all in radiation. The good old Russian robots built with lamp amplifiers where immune to the radiation and worked fine.

This is the kind of anniversary you never wish for. May this never happen again.

Anyone who would like to learn more about Chernobyl should try to catch the film "Chernobyl Heart." It will be available on the HBO on Demand channel now through March 13, 2005. It depicts the work of Chernobyl Children's Project International (http://www.chernobyl-international.org) and specifically is focused on Belarus, where as the original post points out, 70% of the radiation happened to blow. The film shows the impact of the disaster 17 years after the fact.

A very sad day indeed and no doubt worth remembering for the rest of the worlds time.