Chernobyl is NOT a thriving wilderness area, with prospering wildlife!

Beyond Nuclear has had to push back, time and time again, against the dangerous myth that Chernobyl has supposedly resulted in a thriving wilderness, filled with prospering wildlife. For example, on a recent installment of our weekly half-hour radio show on Sputnik News's "Loud & Clear" (from the 24 minute 30 second mark, to the 28 minute 10 second mark), we criticized National Public Radio -- infamous for its pro-nuclear power bias, even in the face of catastrophic reactor meltdowns -- for concluding a recent interview with the executive producer of a major wildlife documentary focused on the impacts of climate catastrophe, by portraying Chernobyl as somehow hopeful, a wildlife resilience good news/happy ending/success story. The NPR host failed to challenge the filmmaker's claim that wild wolf populations in the Chernobyl region (out to a radius of tens of miles, largely to entirely free of human habitation, a.k.a. the "Dead Zone") are a sign that the underlying ecosystem must be healthy. To the contrary, Belarussian wildlife biologists, all too familiar with the formerly rural areas surrounding now-abandoned villages, have been warning for more than three decades that rare, threatened, and endangered species inhabiting the Chernobyl exclusion zones are, tragically, awash in hazardous ionizing radioactivity, contaminating their food supply -- bad news for precious, threatened gene pools.

HBO Miniseries ‘Chernobyl’ Is As “Close To Reality” As Possible Within Five Hours – TCA

As reported by Deadline.

HBO features not only nuclear-themed historical dramas, but also documentaries, such as "Atomic Homefront" about radioactive waste crises in St. Louis, MO, and "Indian Point: Imaging the Unimaginable," about reactor security risks very near New York City.

God's River, by filmmakers Gabriela Bulisova and Mark Isaac

GOD’S RIVER is a short documentary film created by Mark Isaac and Gabriela Bulisova as part of their work in Ukraine supported by a Fulbright grant. Energy producers and environmentalists agree that climate change has significantly reduced the flow of the Southern Bug River, the longest river entirely within Ukraine. But the two camps differ dramatically on how to respond. The state-operated nuclear conglomerate, EnergoAtom, proposes to raise water levels behind Alexandrivsky Dam, flooding a portion of Buszky Gard National Park. But a unique coalition of veterans, academics, environmentalists and Ukrainian nationalists opposes the plan because it will threaten endangered plants and animals, submerge archaeological digs, and destroy Gardove Island, a place that is sacred to Cossack heritage. While some urge compromise, others claim concessions could permanently kill the river. Returning soldiers from the Donbas region forthrightly embrace the struggle as an extension of the war effort. If the Ukrainian Parliament approves the plan, they have pledged — along with their allies — to occupy Gardove Island, where a Cossack church once stood, and protect it “by all means necessary, including radical ones.”

New Chernobyl Arch at long last installed

The new Chernobyl Arch, shown here under construction a number of years ago. The old Chernobyl Sarcophagus is shown in the background.As reported by the London Guardian, the largest movable structure in human history has finally been installed at Chernobyl. The Arch, as it is called, was decades in the planning, and many years under construction (see photo, left). It had to be built some distance from the radioactive remains of Chernobyl Unit 4, which exploded and burned beginning on April 26, 1986. There even had to be radiation shielding in between what's left of Unit 4, and the new Arch construction site, to protect the workers. This is because Unit 4 is still dangerously radioactive, even though it is within a hastily built containment structure, called the Sarcophagus.

The new Arch has cost a whopping $1.6 billion. The air-tight Arch is intended to suppress radioactive dust, as the old Sarcophagus, at risk of collapse, is dismantled within, by remote control cranes and other high-tech equipment. In that sense, the Arch represents a $1.6 billion, high-tech dust cover, or tarp!

The Arch is only intended to last for a century. It could well need replacement at that point, in order to continue to contain the radioactive hazards within, which will persist for a million years or more into the future.

Given the old Sarcophagus, the new Arch, and the likely need for a replacement high-tech, astronomically expensive dust cover in the year 2116, this situation can be likened to Russian dolls, with a monster-load of hazardous radioactivity that must be contained within.

Experts present startling findings around Fukushima and Chernobyl at commemorative event

Beyond Nuclear held a stimulating afternoon and evening of presentations, panel discussions and short films to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the 5th anniversary of the still on-going Fukushima nuclear catastrophe.  The event took place on May 3rd at the Goethe-Institut in Washington DC and was also supported by the Heinrich Böll Foundation North America.  Beyond Nuclear is also very grateful to our member cosponsors: James Cromwell, Alice and Lincoln Day, Dr. Ian Fairlie, Judi and Lou Friedman, Jay Hormel, Redwood Alliance, and Carolyn and Roy Treadway. Learn more.