Cracks in Decaying Shell of Chernobyl reactor threaten disaster

[donsu]

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=633671


Cracks in decaying shell of Chernobyl reactor threaten second disaster

A leading Russian scientist has claimed that the sarcophagus entombing Chernobyl's broken nuclear reactor is dangerously degraded and he warned that its collapse could cause a catastrophe on the same scale as the original accident almost 20 years ago.

Professor Alexei Yablokov, President of the Centre for Russian Environmental Policy, said the concrete and metal sarcophagus was riven with cracks, already leaking radiation and at risk of collapse unless repairs were undertaken and work on a replacement urgently begun.

"If it collapses, there will be no explosion, as this is not a bomb, but a pillar of dust containing irradiated particles will shoot 1.5 kilometres into the air and will be spread by the wind." Depending on how the wind is blowing, Russia or Belarus would bear the brunt of such a dust cloud. Ukraine, where Chernobyl is located, would also be affected.

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He said experts had "seen a luminescence characteristic of chain reactions inside the giant building". adding: "Who could predict what might happen if hundreds of thousands of tons of concrete, which was hastily poured 19 years ago, tumbled down on the ruined nuclear reactor?"
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being an ostrich just won't work

[gratuitous]

1. But Stupidhead said . . .

It's a damn shame we haven't built any new nucular reactors since the late 1970s! I can't imagine why not.

{Insert screen shot of Three Mile Island headlines}

Oh yeah. The Accident. Shit, our fucking administration of dumbasses can't even manage things with an eye toward six months down the line. They're trying to convince us that they can put together a workable strategy to handle nuclear power and its attendant waste, which is radioactive for thousands of years?

Get these ignoramuses out of office!