request for help with Wikipedia article - some comments

[Franz Schönhofer <franz.schoenhofer@CHELLO.AT>]

Franz Schoenhofer

PhD, MR iR

Habicherg. 31/7

A-1160 Vienna

AUSTRIA

phone -43-0699-1168-1319







I read the Wikipedia article, for which I have some comments - but I

will write them later. As a reliable source of numbers and facts I would

highly recommend IAEA sources.





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As promised before - here are some comments on the article.





Introduction:



"... a plume of radioactive debris that drifted over parts of the

western USSR, Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia."



My comment: There were various plumes, because the emission of

radionuclides went on for ten days and was varying in intensity. These

emissions were transported on different pathways due to varying

meteorological conditions. Contamination by deposition and inhalation

depended heavily on weather conditions - rain causing heavy deposition.

Even in our small Austria with 82 000 square kilometres there are

differences of the order of several magnitudes. Hungary - an Eastern

country - suffered very little contamination, Southern and Middle

Finland were heavily contaminated, Northern Finland practically not. The

plumes did not stop, but extended to nearly all Western European

countries, contaminating for instance Switzerland, parts of Germany and

parts of England heavily. Austria was the most affected country in

Western Europe, in some parts reaching deposition comparable to

Byelorussia and Ukraine. For instance Spain, Portugal, the

Benelux-countries and Danmark were practically not affected. Traces of

radionuclides were found in Canada and the USA. 





"...resulting in the evacuation and resettlement...."



My comment: Evacuation and resettlement occurred only in the 30 km zone

around the Chernobyl reactor and neither in Byelorussia or Russia.







The accident:



Para 8: "... and not to operator error."



My comment: I do not know, which IAEA analysis is stated that, but it is

simply wrong. There is not the slightest doubt that the attempts of the

operators to bring an already unstable reactor from low power to high

power by bypassing safety instrumentation, neglecting and violating

basic safety rules caused the accident. They were not tired, because

this happened during their normal shift, which they must have been

accustomed to. The best proof, that this type of reactor can be run

without exploding is, that still a number of the Chernobyl type reactors

are operating in the former Sovjetunion. 







Short-term impact:



Para 2: "... from contaminated local milk."



My comment: The main pathway for incorporation of I-131 of not only

children, but also adults was inhalation. (Also adults suffered thyroid

cancer.) The authorities banned the use of locally produced milk very

soon after the accident. (Inhalation of I-131 by cows which were kept

inside stables in Southern Sweden caused contamination of milk!)







Longer-term impact:



Para 1: ".... contamination of soil with strontium-90..."



My comment: Sr-90 was released to a small percentage and is of concern

only in the vicinity of the power plant. I mentioned this in another

posting already. In Austria we had very little Sr-90 deposition. We

found it in cheese, where it is accumulated from milk, and traces in

bone. Anyway the Sr-90 from Chernobyl was neglectable compared to the

Sr-90 which is still present in the Austrian environment from the

atmospheric nuclear bomb tests and "vanished" after a short time from

e.g. cheese.



Para 3: "...trees glowed red..."



My comment: This wording means in my understanding that the trees were

emitting red light. This would refer to the opinion of some people that

everything highly radioactive would glow. The only visible glow I know

is water which surrounds highly radioactive nuclear fuel and this light

(Cherenkow radiation) is blue. I read reports, that the needles or

leaves changed color to red, because they were killed by radiation. As

we know, leaves turn to yellow and red, depending on the species, in

fall, when they die. It might be the same for pine needles under

radiation impact.







Chernobyl and the Bible:



My comment: In my opinion this is a "nice" story, which has nothing to

do with the Chernobyl accident. My knowledge of the Apocalypsis is

mostly with regard to Albrecht Duerers master wood-cuts, but in German

the word "Wermut" for the star refers in my opinion to the drink Wermut

or the extract from Artemisia absinthum than to the plant itself and

anyway to a bitter drink which would poison the water and not

necessarily to "Wermut", which might only be used as a metaphor, like

the bible uses a lot of other words (like the seven days for the

creation of the universe).





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