Vt Yankee Fwd: Apr 26 Chernobyl anniversary

[Leslie Staudinger]

>>> Sally Shaw <acer...@comcast.net> 4/27/2010 12:36 PM >>>

Chernobyl Radiation Killed Nearly One Million People: New Book

NEW YORK, New York, April 26, 2010 (ENS) - Nearly one million people around the world died from exposure to radiation released by the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl reactor, finds a new book from the New York Academy of Sciences published today on the 24th anniversary of the meltdown at the Soviet facility.

The book, "Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment," was compiled by authors Alexey Yablokov of the Center for Russian Environmental Policy in Moscow, and Vassily Nesterenko and Alexey Nesterenko of the Institute of Radiation Safety, in Minsk, Belarus.

The authors examined more than 5,000 published articles and studies, most written in Slavic languages and never before available in English.

The authors said, "For the past 23 years, it has been clear that there is a danger greater than nuclear weapons concealed within nuclear power. Emissions from this one reactor exceeded a hundred-fold the radioactive contamination of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

"No citizen of any country can be assured that he or she can be protected from radioactive contamination. One nuclear reactor can pollute half the globe," they said. "Chernobyl fallout covers the entire Northern Hemisphere." [cont. at http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2010/2010-04-26-01.html]

Hiroshima bomb: 2000 curies

Vermont Yankee "routine" releases of gaseous, liquid and solid radioactive waste 1974 - 2007, not including data from 2000 - 2004 which I can't find, and not including spent fuel:  490,486 Curies

Radioactive Cesium in VT Yankee fuel pool: over 40 million curies