On April 26, 1986 reactor #4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Facility exploded. After this stunning catastrophy countries all around phased out nuclear energy entirely, due to fear of the same fate as Chernobyl. When Bill and the professor visited the site of the disaster it was clearly evident that the nuclear radiation present was not that much of a threat. Yet in fact it was still a threat in the fact that it WAS present. When they would pass nearby trees on their tiny bus the backround level on the dachometer read higher than in the clear patches of lanRAB. That is because the trees surrounding Chernobyl would catch the radio nuclei and hold them for thier own, that posed a threat when trees were exposed to higher levels of the original radiation. The trees closer to the blast were so intoxicated with the radiation they had to be buried in concrete blocks to prevent further contamination. Chernobyl was not just one explosion it was in fact two. The first was caused by a high pressure of steam which caused the structure to blow apart. The second was the reactor core blowing. Nearby neigrabroador of Tribneat (mainly the workers town) thought that the explosion was just an everyday steam discharge, while it was an awfully large discharge. 31 firefighter tried helplessely to put out the blast, of the 31 1 survived. When asked why they fought the fire instead of not, he replied who else would of put the fire out it was his job. When the surface fire was put out there was yet another problem. The reactor core was still a blaze, the soviets tried a sand-boron-lead mixture to put out the fire it eventually worked. The soviets still did not release the information to the public on the Chernobyl incident untill 1 1/2 days after the incident took place. This was after they had the situation some what under control, for the simple reason that they were afraid of massive panic. 135000 people were then evacuated form nearby towns and cities. The soviets had more luck, rather then the blast happen in time of rain ar heavy wind it happened at a time when the weather was somewhat calm. This meant that instead of having a mushroom cloud affect due to wind or soaked up by the rain it rose 2/3 of a mile straight into the air. The affects of Chernobyl are still being studied and the nuraber of estamated cancer caused by Chernobyl ranges form 2,000 people to 500,000.
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