'Constant reminder of real threat:' World marks 40th anniversary of Chornobyl disaster
Source: Kyiv Independent
As the world marks the 40th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster, Ukrainian and foreign leaders have been commemorating the tragedy, while Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine continues to threaten nuclear safety across the country.
"We remember everyone who gave their lives while dealing with the aftermath of this tragedy. May all the victims of the Chornobyl disaster rest in peace," President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X on April 26.
The Chornobyl nuclear accident occurred on April 26, 1986, when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union.
In the early hours of that morning, the fourth reactor of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant exploded, initiating a meltdown of the reactor's core while tearing through the roof and spewing radioactive material across Ukraine, Belarus, and much of Europe.
Read more: https://kyivindependent.com/world-marks-40th-anniversary-of-chornobyl-disaster/
Turbineguy
(40,158 posts)blue-wave
(5,420 posts)thought crime
(1,725 posts)From NPR:
The sweeping changes were made to accelerate development of a new generation of nuclear reactor designs.
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/28/nx-s1-5677187/nuclear-safety-rules-rewritten-trump
The DOE is boosting the development of Small Modular Reactors (SMR) that will allow most of the reactor construction to be done in a manufacturing plant, then shipped to an operating site. This will drastically lower overall cost. A small reactor could power a single facility like a data center. Many more reactors means many more potential points of failure, and the potential is raised if safety rules are relaxed.
twodogsbarking
(19,109 posts)LudwigPastorius
(14,888 posts)Avoid the rush. Book your vacation in the exclusion zone today!
Rhiannon12866
(257,369 posts)blue-wave
(5,420 posts)Thanks!!
Rhiannon12866
(257,369 posts)As I said in a reply, when I joined my grandmother and her peace group in the late '80s on the initial trip to visit her town's "sister town" high in the Caucasus Mountains in the USSR, we were scheduled to visit Kiev, but then Chernobyl happened and we visited Tbilisi, the capital of then-Soviet Georgia, instead. And knowing what I know now, I'm sorry that we never made it to Kiev.
hunter
(40,787 posts)... is that humans living their ordinary lives do more damage to the natural environment than fallout from the worst possible sort of nuclear accident.