In 1898 Marie Curie studied strange rays pouring out of some strange metals. She called them radioactivity. Jim Al-Khalili, Atom s1e3: The Illusion of Reality
There is no environmentally acceptable and proven solution for the disposal of high level radioactive wastes and spent fuel. Greenpeace UK February 2010
Radiation’s rising: still, one mustn’t grumble too much. The Bed Sitting Room 1969 starring Peter Cook & Peter Sellers & Spike Milligan & Harry Secombe & Ralph Richardson & Dudley Moore & Rita Tushingham & Arthur Lowe & Roy Kinnear & Jimmy Edwards & Ronald Fraser & Michael Hordern & Marty Feldman et al, director Richard Lester, bloke
The floor of the planet begins to tremble. The 1,200-ton cover of the reactor suddenly blasts into the air. An ultra-powerful stream of radioactive vapour releases uranium and graphite. The Battle of Chernobyl, 2006
For the next seven months 5,500 people will wage hand to hand combat with an invisible enemy. ibid.
43,000 people are evacuated tearfully but peacefully. Buses carry Europe’s first atomic refugees. They have been exposed to doses of radiation that could alter the composition of the blood and engender fatal cancers. ibid.
The initial symptoms of radiation sickness: vomiting, nausea and diarrhoea are followed by a latency period. It’s only later that much more serious symptoms appear, such as deterioration of bone marrow and horrible burns that eat flesh down to the bone. ibid.
The roof of the plant is covered with highly contaminated pieces of graphite. These pieces of graphite enveloped uranium rods. They have blown from the reactor during the explosion. One single piece gives off enough radiation to kill a man in less than one hour. They just have to be got rid of before construction continues. ibid.
Russian soldiers nicknamed bio-robots for the occasion. His battalion of young reservists is preparing to go up on to the roof of the reactor for the first time. They’re between twenty and thirty years old ... No human being has ever worked in zones as radioactive as this. ibid.
As a reward each soldier receives a liquidator certificate from the army. And a hundred rouble bonus. The equivalent today of about $100. They risked their lives. But they’ve only reduced the radiation level on the roof by 35%. ibid.
Today 8,000,000 people live in contaminated areas of the Ukraine, Russia and especially Belarus. ibid.
Meanwhile, beneath the ageing reactor of sarcophagus #4 a poison remains deadly. ibid.
April 26th 1986 ... The Chernobyl power station has four separate nuclear reactors on site. Days That Shook the World s1e9: First Nuclear Reaction/Chernobyl, BBC 2003
The roof blows off rector number four. Five seconds later the core erupts and scatters fifty tons of nuclear fuel, graphite and debris up to three kilometres away. ibid.
It’ll burn for another nine days. ibid.
Chernobyl is the world’s worst nuclear disaster. ibid.
Soviet authorities tried at first to conceal the accident. A cloud of radiation spread across Europe. First reports said five million people were contaminated, and that at least one million would die of cancer. What the Green Movement Got Wrong, 2010
The problem with Chernobyl is that there’s always been this divergence between what scientists know is the impact of Chernobyl and what the public thinks is the impact of Chernobyl. In fact the health effects of Chernobyl are much more mild than anyone has really assumed. Louisa Vinton, coordinator of UN Chernobyl Report
The conclusion is that there was no connection between Chernobyl radiation and birth defects of any sort. No-one was born deformed as a consequence of Chernobyl. ibid.
The biggest public health impact from the Chernobyl accident was psychological. Fear of radiation has proved to be a far more potent threat to health than radiation itself. ibid.
Dear Tourist, for your own safety, opening the windows is prohibited. Chernobyl: A Natural History, opening scene man on bus instructing tourists
On April 26th 1986 at 1:23 a.m. Reactor Number Four in Chernobyl’s Lenin Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine went out of control. ibid.
Contaminating vast areas in numerous countries. ibid.
The next day the 135,000 inhabitants living in this zone were evacuated. They would never return. Within this zone, now prohibited to human life, the wild fauna and flora were left on their own. What has happened to them in all these years? ibid.
For the past twenty years of all of the scientists it is Sergei Gaschak who has without a doubt has participated in the most studies behind the exclusion zone. ibid.
The exclusion zone is inhabited by numerous species of wild animals, some of which were not there before the accident. Several bears have moved in; you often see wild dear ... All the animals seem to be perfectly healthy. ibid.
Each village has become a true jungle ... Does Nature not care about radiation? ibid.
The famous Chernobyl cloud was born – and it didn’t care about borders drawn by men. ibid.
3% of the radiation to which we are exposed to daily comes from the Chernobyl cloud. ibid.
Thousands of pines near the power plant reddened over a few weeks and died. The scientists then named this sinister forest the red forest – the stigmata of this battle are still visible. The red forest was soon to become one of the most astonishing laboratories on the planet in which there would be a series of mysteries and paradoxes. ibid.
Life in this city that has such a strange atmosphere where you sometimes come across a few people in military fatigues, and it is forbidden for children and pregnant women is very strange. It is a privilege to be employed in the exclusion zone: because employees get double wages for just fifteen days working a month. ibid.
It is very tempting to attribute everything that doesn’t appear normal to radiation. ibid.
At my age, the radiation will probably do me good. Norman Wisdom
The spectral density of black body radiation ... represents something absolute, and since the search for the absolutes has always appeared to me to be the highest form of research, I applied myself vigorously to its solution. Max Planck
Probably if half a kilogram [of radium] were in a bottle on that table it would kill us all. It would almost certainly destroy our sight and burn our skins to such an extent that we could not survive. The smallest bit placed on one’s arm would produce a blister which it would need months to heal. William Crookes, The New York Times February 1903
My name is Nadezhda Kutepova and I’m a native of Ozersk. I was born here. My mother used to warn me, ‘Darling, never say where you are from or a Black Maria will take us away and you’ll never see your parents again.’ We were told we lived in a secret place. City 40, Netflix 2016
During WWII the Soviet Union and the United States both launched top-secret nuclear weapons programs. In 1944 the US built the secret city of Richland, Washington, around the Hanford nuclear plant that produced plutonium for the atomic bomb. One year later, with plans stolen from Richland and Hanford, the Soviet Union began construction of their own secret atomic city: City 40. ibid. caption
These people could visit us but we could never see the place where they lived. ibid. dude living nearby
To keep their location hidden from the enemy, Mayak and City 40 were not placed on any map. ibid. caption
Now, nobody cares any more. Radiation self-control skills are lost. The new authorities do not do anything. ibid. nuclear worker
‘Plutonium lake’ feeds into the Techa river, which is the region’s main water source and one of the most contaminated places on Earth. ibid. caption
Half a million people living in the Ozersk region have been exposed to five times the amount of radiation as those affected by Chernobyl. ibid.
Today, Mayak stores an estimated 50 tons of weapons-grade plutonium and 38 tons of highly enriched uranium. ibid.
A daring expedition makes its way to one of the most remote places on Earth: Bikini Atoll. It’s here to explore the world’s most extraordinary ship graveyard: giant Japanese and American warships rest side by side on the ocean floor. These once proud ships were sacrificed in one of the most spectacular experiments of all time. Ghost Fleet of Bikini Atoll, 2009
The Bikinians had barely left in 1946 when Operation Crossroads Taskforce One descended on their Atoll. ibid.
Goats, sheep, rats and pigs were placed aboard the target vessels. ibid.
The first [Bikini] atomic test codenamed Able ... It would be the first atomic bomb to explode in peacetime. ibid.
But few of the large ships … had sunk. The disappointment was enormous. Especially for the Air Force who had hoped for much more spectacular results. ibid.
The military finally had their spectacle. ibid.
What impact did this have on marine and island life? ibid.
Banished from their home a second time. ibid.