{"id":20167,"date":"2022-03-07T09:00:08","date_gmt":"2022-03-07T14:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=20167"},"modified":"2022-03-07T09:01:24","modified_gmt":"2022-03-07T14:01:24","slug":"episode-544-a-chill-spreads-around-the-world-consider-the-nuclear-reactorsthree-mile-island-disaster-fukishima-chernobyl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=20167","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 544 A CHILL SPREADS AROUND THE WORLD: CONSIDER THE NUCLEAR REACTORSTHREE MILE ISLAND DISASTER. FUKISHIMA , CHERNOBYL"},"content":{"rendered":"
Note:  I considered this story too frightening to send initially and replied it with a nice<\/p>\n
story about horses.  Now I have changed my mind.  Sorry to scare you as much as<\/div>\n
I am scared.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan
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EPISODE 544:    A CHILL SPREADS AROUND THE WORLD:  CONSIDER THE NUCLEAR REACTORS<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
March 2022<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n
Marjorie and I\u2026SITE OF THREE MILE ISLAND NUCLEAR DISASTER,<\/div>\n


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“WHAT CAN HAPPEN, WILL HAPPEN\u201d<\/div>\n

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Nuclear power plants are constructed with provision for things to go wrong. SAFETY CHECKS. We need their power. We cannot <\/div>\n
survive without electricity.  It powers everything we do.   Electricity is wonderful..  But<\/div>\n
getting electricity is dangerous.  Dangerous indeed.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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<\/div>\n
THREE MILE ISLAND, 1979<\/div>\n

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ON MARCH 28, 1979, a human error occurred at Unit 2, Three Mile Island nuclear power<\/p><\/div>\n

plant.   A valve was open allowing a huge amount of radioactive water to escape.  This event<\/div>\n
remains the worst nuclear accident to happen in the United States.  No one was killed<\/div>\n
fortunately but the resultant radiation will remain forever.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
That worried me in 1979.  And it worries me to this day.  When we took a busload of music<\/div>\n
students from Parkdale Collegiate to perform in Boston we arranged a short side trip<\/div>\n
to Three Mile Island.  Around 1985.  Purpose?  To spread fear?  Partly, I suppose.  Our reasoning was<\/div>\n
that these students would shortly be adults.  Soon running our country.  They should be<\/div>\n
aware of the danger of nuclear accidents.  Cheap electricity could come at a terrible cost<\/div>\n
if future managers of nuclear sites were unaware of Three Mile Island, Unit 2.

CHERNOBYL, 1986

Such a disaster must never happen again.  But it did.  The Chernobyl meltdown in Ukraine<\/div>\n
happened just seven years after Three Mile Island.   On April 26, 1986 nuclear reactor Number 4<\/div>\n
exploded.  The site will remain radioactive for thousands of years.  The immediate site was <\/div>\n
evacuated so hastily that the local carnival rides stand there today as do the apartment buildings<\/div>\n
where people once lived.   335,000 people were evacuated and a wide belt of land was no longer livable.<\/div>\n
Wild animals returned and now wander through Chernobyl.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
“The explosion at Chernobyl sent radiation as far away as the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union’s delayed response to the events is considered by some to be a contributing factor to the fall of the Soviet Union<\/a>. \u201c<\/div>\n

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As a direct result of Chernobyl nuclear power plants were redesigned so that accidents were thought to be less likely.<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/div>\n
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\"A<\/figure>\n
Wild horses wander through the ruins of Chernobyl on Oct. 18, 2018<\/div>\n

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FUKISHIMA, 2011<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Then there were decades of quiet.  Nuclear power plants multiplied.  Safety systems<\/div>\n
were put in place.  Extra holding tanks for nuclear coolant.  Burials of nuclear waste.<\/div>\n
Comfort.   An earthquake off the coast of Japan shook the Fukishama reactor on March 11, 2011<\/div>\n
A huge tidal wave, Tsunami, swept inland.  Radiosctivity increased to Level 7 on the International <\/div>\n
Nuclear Event Scale\u2026Fukishama and Chernobyl were similar disasters.  154,000 Japanese residents<\/div>\n
were evacuated.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
ZAPOREZHSKAYA,  LARGEST PPWER PLANT IN EROPE WITH SIX REACTORS<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Today, March 2022 we face the possibility of s grave nuclear accident in Ukraine where the largest<\/div>\n
nuclear power station in Europe has become a war zone.  War zones are places of unimaginable<\/div>\n
insecurity. The Zaporezhskaya nuclear power plant has 6 reactors.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"RT\"<\/div>\n

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\"Zaporizhia<\/div>\n
\"U.S.<\/div>\n

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\"Zaporizhye<\/div>\n

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“March 2, 2022<\/div>\n

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6:05 a.m.: <\/span>Russia claims its military has taken control of the area around Ukraine\u2019s largest nuclear power plant.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.<\/p>\n

It said Wednesday it had received a letter from Russia saying personnel at the Zaporizhzhia plant continued their \u201cwork on providing nuclear safety and monitoring radiation in normal mode of operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter added: \u201cThe radiation levels remain normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zaporizhzhia is the largest of Ukraine\u2019s nuclear sites, with six out of the country\u2019s 15 reactors.<\/p>\n

Already, Russia has seized control of the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, scene of the world\u2019s worst nuclear disaster in 1986.”<\/p>\n

alan skeoch<\/p>\n

March 7, 2022<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Let us hope and pray this is not the end result of this terrible war.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note:  I considered this story too frightening to send initially and replied it with a nice story about horses.  Now I have changed my mind.  Sorry to scare you as much as I am scared. alan EPISODE 544:    A CHILL SPREADS AROUND THE WORLD:  CONSIDER THE NUCLEAR REACTORS alan skeoch March 2022 Marjorie and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}