Pics from inside the Fukushima exclusion zone.

[Casper]

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/12/fukushima-inside-the-exclusion-zone/100202/

[Cheech]

In about 10 years this is going to be the next Chernobyl, with the guided tours and wildlife reclamation. Sucks for Japan that they can't really afford to lose all that land to reclamation, but the only thing you can do with radiation is wait it out.

I watched a documentary somewhere about the state of the Red Forest and Pripyat in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone that extends from southern Belarus to northern Ukraine, almost up to the northern tip of Kiev, 30km wide. They said the wolf population is stable with no adverse mutations, and that there are more wolves in the Zone than anyplace else on earth. Nature finds a way, and a hell of a lot faster than you'd think. Here's the PBS documentary: http://video.pbs.org/video/2157025070/ and some pictures of Pripyat:

http://abandonedkansai.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/the-red-forest-pripyat-in-general/

[Cdubyah]

Wow

[serpentracer]

you think that's interesting, have a look at stuff about chernobyl.

http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/chernobyl

[20thGix]

Here is a story of a guy that takes a motorcycle ride thru Chernobyl's "dead zone". Its alot of reading with pics. I think it was in 2004.

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chapter1.html

And serpentracer that link you put up is a sad story. Sucks a whole lot for the people in that area.

[Beegreenstrings]

craziness right there.

Its kind of eery looking at some of those pics... Zombie apocolypse.

[Casper]

you think that's interesting, have a look at stuff about chernobyl.

http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/chernobyl

Everyone knew Chernobyl was bad. With Fukushima, however, we were led to believe it wasn't that bad. It's just as bad as Chernobyl if not worse. They're saying now that reactor two experienced a complete meltdown, and is leaking radioactive water into the Pacific.

[Cheech]

Everyone knew Chernobyl was bad. With Fukushima, however, we were led to believe it wasn't that bad. It's just as bad as Chernobyl if not worse. They're saying now that reactor two experienced a complete meltdown, and is leaking radioactive water into the Pacific.

That's possibly true, and TEPCO certainly did their share of what-the-fuckery by downplaying the scope of the meltdown as they have. However, in my layman, Internet-educated opinion, Chernobyl was ecologically bad on a completely different level. With Fukushima, the fuel melted due to heat decay from the newly shutdown reactors (1, 2, and 3) which were unable to get coolant to flow through. The building explosions were a result of the fuel rods getting so hot that they strip the hydrogen from the steam, once enough hydrogen accumulates all you need is a spark to set it off. Chernobyl, however, was a result of the Soviets removing some of the safety features of the reactor, then not making sure there was enough water to act as a moderator to the reaction taking place. A feedback loop was generated which caused the water to start boiling off, creating steam which allowed the reactor to gain power, boiling off water faster, and so on. This created a massive steam explosion which not only blew apart the building (like Fukushima) but the CORE as well, exposing the graphite moderators to air which caused THEM to burn, releasing more radiation into the air, not to mention scattering pieces of the core all over the countryside.

So from a ecological disaster standpoint, I'd much rather have a contained core meltdown that's leaking than try and pick up bits of still-fissile uranium from a 5km radius.

[ReconRat]

There is a group on Google+ over there doing GPS mapping of hazard zones. Mostly driving around, but some walking. Multiple radiation frequencies, since it does vary. They find hot spots where people wouldn't suspect them. Not to mention that nearly everywhere, when checking a few inches off the ground, the readings can go way up. I'll try to post a map they developed.

The volunteer group is called Safecast.

Safecast: Global sensor network collects and shares radiation data via CC0

http://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Safecast-radiation-image.jpg

http://blog.safecast.org/maps/

Edited December 6, 2011 by ReconRat

[Kritz]

Amazing!