Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Chernobyl today

[Machjo]

Interesting video series starting here:

YouTube - Chernobyl disaster incident PART 1

We don't hear much on the news about Chernobyl anymore, yet as it turns out, it's still causing problems today even in France where cancer rates have arisen. It's interesting to note that in the series it's mentioned that in Hiroshima and Nagasaki today the impact continues to be felt!

Absolutely amazing. There are still people living in radioactive zones today, and it's expected they will remain so for at least another 800 years before the radioactive material sinks deep enough underground to become a reduced risk. Yet we still have thousands of years before it all finally breaks down. Incredible.

 

[Sаbine]

Months and months of radionuclide deactivation ordered in the first hours after the Chernobyl accident helped a lot to reduce contamination. Still, this tragedy does and will continue to have impact on Ukraine and other countries in Europe. So sad.

 

[Machjo]

Watching these videos really hits home. The impact was multi-fold. Obviously the lives lost, slow slow death, with some still alive today and frequenting hospitals regularly.

It also refers to the economic impact on Russia and Perestroika. It was a devastating blow into the billions of dollars, with health care costs still being hit today. Russia will take a long time to recover. And of course with cancer rates rising across Europe because of this even today, the European health care system feels greater strain, only compounded by the lower birth rates in those countries.

And seeing how many soldiers died, it must have had quite an impact on the Soviet military, more so that even the Soviet-Afghan war.

 

[Sаbine]

And seeing how many soldiers died, it must have had quite an impact on the Soviet military, more so that even the Soviet-Afghan war.

Not only soldiers, hundreds of scientists from Russia - radiophysicists, radiobiologists, chemists were also sent to Pripyat and Chernobyl, as were hundreds of medical doctors. Some willingly went there to help, but most of them were ordered to go. People were leaving their families, children and they didn't know if they'll see them ever again.

 

[Machjo]

Never thought of that. you have a point there. With so many expert struck from radiation sickness, that must certainly have an impact on Russian science, research and technology for years to come.

Meanwhile thousands in Japan continue to suffer from the effects of radiation today:

YouTube - Atomic wounds: Survivors of Hiroshima nightmare (part 1)

What's particularly sickening about this last video is how the US was so quick to send in researches after Hiroshima. Was it intended as a science experiment?

I'd never heard of ABCC before. I'd never realized the Americans were essentially using victims of Hiroshima as guinea pigs and generally refused them treatment but wanted them only for scientific experimentation.

It's amazing that the US occupiers had confiscated all Japanese research on the impact of the radiation, and that all media reports of the ABCC were prohibited under US occupation, totally censored, and that the ABCC's research was kept secret until 1951, so as a result until then Japanese physicians could not understand what was happening to their patients.

Really good video. It turns out that cancer rates are higher in towns around nuclear plants in general. Not entirely surprising except that we would have expected that governments would expect towns to be built farther away, or buid power plants in more isolated locations than they do even now.