Chernobyl gets a facelift
The meltdown at Chernobyl destroyed much of the world's confidence in nuclear energy and sent up a clouds of poisonous dust that have been blamed for thousands of deaths. After 22 years of crumbling and leaking radioactive materials, the site of the world's wost nuclear accident is about to get a new steel cover. Originally, it was sealed off with a hastily-built steel and concrete "sarcophagus" that has been quickly eroding on account of the intense radiation. If the structure were to collapse, it would send up a huge radioactive dust cloud -- a whole new disaster.It's hard to imagine how the USSR, and now the Ukrainian governments have procrastinated this long over putting up a better protective shell. Even now, the project is being financed in part by a group of international donors who are footing the bill for the new construction and monitoring of the site. A giant 20,000-ton steel cover -- big enough to house the Statue of Liberty -- will be constructed next to the reactor and then transported on top of it using train tracks.
The fact that the Chernobyl disaster almost stopped the growth of the nuclear power industry in its tracks, makes it extremely relevant to our energy situation today. Had Chernobyl and Three Mile Island not happened as they did, we might be less dependent on oil today. Ironically, many nuke-proponents like Bob Geldof are proposing a nuclear renaissance to combat global warming that's partly a result of jumping off the nuclear bandwagon decades ago.
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