Would you give your kids a nuclear power plant for Christmas this year?

"The number of people killed by radiation as a result of the Chernobyl disaster, the world's worst nuclear accident, is so far 56... the U.N. said on Monday." - Chernobyl Forum press release, Vienna, September 2005.

With the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster coming up next year, it's interesting to see what's being said about it and that there still hasn't been a recognition of the true impact that the nuclear melt-down had not only on Chernobyl, but also on many other countries in Eastern and Western Europe. A lot of people died, not just 56. A lot of people were effected - displaced, lives chopped up, relatives lost, livelihoods gone, all that sort of thing. Oh, and then health problems, birth defects, genetic mutations, etc.

Nuclear scientists say that the radiation will be a problem for 600 (optimistic end of the range) to 900 (more realistic end of the range) years in the area. The sarcophagus over the reactor, which covers 95% of the core, is in need of replacement. 70% of the radiation was carried by the wind to other countries, including Russia and Belorussia, immediate neighbours to the Ukraine, and it also drifted over the rest of Europe. My friend Toby still remembers that as children in Germany, they were not allowed to go and play outside when the wind was blowing from the East.

Radiation levels in the area are still high, although they may have decreased somewhat with the years passing and absorbtion into the soil of alpha and beta particles. Yes, the decay cycle is happening, but that doesn't make it any safer. For example, there were some areas polluted with Plutonium-241, which isn't all that radioactive for the first 14 or so years of its life. However, it breaks down into more dangerous components, including Americium-241, which produces alpha particles and gamma rays. The half-life of Americium is around 433 years. Following that, you get Neptunium-237 (the most "stable" Neptunium isotope), with another rather large half-life.

And if the gamma rays haven't gotten you, then you might have problems with particles of alpha and beta radiation. These are the cancer-causing things. Cancer takes time to develop, so how can we know just how many people exactly have died because of cancer they developed due to the Chernobyl explosion?

Organic organisms are also effected by the radiation in the soil. This can mean that plant matter can actually be more radioactive than man-made structures in the area, including buildings and roads and whatnot. To suggest that people could start moving back into the outer reaches of the area is rather stupid. Many of the towns in the far reaches of the Wolves Land did have residents stay there, but not in any great numbers - perhaps 10 - 20 people. Now many of those towns are deserted as people have died or left.

These ghost towns should be warnings to us about the dangers of nuclear energy and its power for silent destruction that makes it not worth the risk.

Of course the levels of radiation vary from place to place in the Chernobyl and surrounding area. A typical city in Europe will register around 10-12 microroentgens per hour. 1000 microroentgens make up a milliroentgen and 1000 milliroentgens make up one roentgen. Maths was never my strong point, but it's safe to say that one roentgen is 100,000 times what you'll find sitting around being nuclear in any typical European city. When the Chernobyl reactor went into meltdown, in the following days it emitted between 3000 and 30,000 roentgens.

People were sent in without proper protective gear to "fix" the area... instead they just got to make intimate friends with gamma rays. These people were called "Liquidators," and there were literally thousands of them sent in over the period of a year to work on Reactor #4. These included firemen, police, members of the army, etc. People who lived in the area estimate that around 10,000 liquidators died from their exposure to the radiation. Perhaps it's just rumour, but how can you be sure? I mean, most people die in the days, weeks, months and even years following exposure to radiation like that, so it's hard to pin their deaths directly onto that, but then why would so many die so soon in ways "unrelated" to the nuclear exposure?

Considering that benefits, pensions and special allowances are extended to some 7 million people classed as "victims" of the Chernobyl disaster, maybe it's time that we got over the era of Soviet silence about mistakes and have a serious look at just how many people have died or been permanently effected by the meltdown.