Twenty years ago today, the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl killed 10,000 people... or maybe it was 50,000... no, no, I'm pretty sure that 100,000 lives were lost... trust me, it was, hmmm, it was 1,000,000 people who died, yeah that's it. You can take that number to the bank.
No nuclear power plants have been built in North America since the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster that occured on April 26, 1986. That's a shame, the disaster and the retardation of the nuclear power industry.
When Chernobyl occured Time magazine estimated as many as 2,000 deaths. Five years later, USA today contended the accident may have killed as many as 10,000. Nearly fifteen years after the worst nuclear accident, the BBC gave credence to an estimate of 15,000 dead. Like many a nostalgic former high school athlete, Chernobyl statistics grow more impressive as memories of it grow fainter. Now, on the twentieth anniversary of the event, media outlets are peddling such wildly innaccurate numbers as 9,300 dead, and even 93,00 dead. But just last year, the United Nations offered a reality check to the phony numbers: 56 people, by their count, have perished as a result of Chernobyl. That's no small figure, but it's smaller, and less scary, than the numbers pushed by activist groups, and repeated by the media.
In an age of increasing oil prices and obsessive concern with global warming, nuclear power can make a positive difference. It creates energy more cleanly, and in some instances more cheaply, than fossil fuels. Nuclear power isn't the solution to energy problems. But neither is riding a bicycle, putting a windmill in your backyard, or installing solar panels on your roof. Though not a cure-all, nuclear power will ameliorate energy problems. India knows this, which is why it is building ten nuclear power plants. Iran and North Korea know this, which is, part of the reason at least, why evil and eviler have have sought nuclear power. But the United States of America, the most technologically advanced nation on Earth, is going backward. The U.S. irrationally eschews nuclear power, while nations where automobiles and televisions are a luxury embrace it.
The people who exaggerate Chernobyl's death count are the same people who protest nuclear power. Might the Luddite agenda influence the inflated estimates? Saying 100,000 people died as a result of Chernobyl is what's called a useful, or a needful, or a noble lie. Whatever modifier one uses, it's still a lie.
I am no nuclear scientist or engineer. However, it seems to me that nuclear power can be safe so long as the plant is vigilantly maintained. Chernobyl won't happen again if a nuclear power plant's operators make sure that everything is in proper working order.
It matters little how many died. Perhaps they were the "lucky" ones. Words can be amnipulated but the pictures I saw this morning on the site:
http://todayspictures.slate.com/inmotion/essay%5Fchernobyl/?GT1=8019, shows the true tragedy 20 years later. This type of thing happens when the communist/socialist governments, who do not value human life, build but provide no or little safeguards in their use of nuclear power.
An aside from this, maybe if the Russians advise the Iranians on their nuclear pursuits, things will take care of themselves, if you get my drift.
I agree that Nuclear Power is generally unfairly demonized, and the US would be greatly served by switching over.
However, the obvious problem is that if someone screws up, then the consequences are terrible and greatly outweigh the benefits. Now, I agree that among first world nations like the US, I think there are enough safeguards to ensure that the chances of anything terrible happening are beyond miniscule.
However, in socialist or third world nations, I'm less confident, which is why I'm not enthusiastic about India making plants.
Who's exaggerating? The media when they report Greenpeace's estimate that there will be 93,000 deaths due to cancer? Or the book author who makes it sound as if they were claiming that many people died in the explosion, or that they didn't restate the estimate by the UN of 4,000-9,000 death.
It's right there in the BBC article, under Chernobyl toll:
30 killed immediately
15,000 relief workers killed
50,000 relief workers invalid
5 million exposed to radiation
52,000 fled the area around Chernobyl
By this source, 30 people died immediately. And you claim 56? You sensationalist!
