33 years later--Russia, in the guise of Putin..still denies..the official death count is still 31! Even though 10's of thousands died. We were all lied to..and the lies continue..or, to be more truthful..no-one gives a damn.
The truth about Chernobyl? I saw it with my own eyes…
"The plume of deadly radioactive dust was just a harmless steam discharge, residents were told. It was 36 hours before the city was evacuated, by which time some were already showing signs of radiation sickness.
Even as radiation spewed out of the plant from the burning reactor core, local people told John and me how they had seen Communist apparatchiks in the area spirit their families to safety in Moscow while the residents were being urged to carry on as if nothing had happened. In Pripyat, the satellite city built for Chernobyl workers, windows were left open, children played outside, and gardeners dug their allotments.n the TV news on 29 April – more than three days after the catastrophe, with the reactor fire still burning – Chernobyl was the sixth item. “There has been an accident” the female presenter stated. “Two people have died”. Schoolchildren in Byelorussia and Ukraine – the worst hit by fallout – were instructed to continue with their May Day celebrations and parades, even as the rain brought radioactive particles down on them.
As we drove through the 30km exclusion zone, where, in 1990, 20,000 people still lived and worked, into the “dead zone” – a 10km circle around the plant – we stopped at checkpoints to be scanned for radioactive particles. Every time the scanner either failed to work and was given a good kicking – and still didn’t work – or it would wail alarmingly and be swiftly unplugged. There were no explanations except for: “It’s safe”.
If John or I put a toe off the designated path, the scientist accompanying us would drop the “it’s safe” line and scream “no, no, no … not there. There’s not safe.” Scientists estimate the contaminated area will not be safe for 24,000 years, give or take a thousand.
At the entrance to Reactor 3, next to the concrete sarcophagus hastily thrown over Reactor 4, the scanners were equally silent as we pressed our hands into the vertical pads. (An executive from the UK company that supplied the machines later called me to claim the Soviets had turned up the dose levels to avoid triggering an alert.)
Now my photographer friend John Downing has terminal lung cancer. “I often wonder if Chernobyl had anything to do with it,” he told me. Like many others, he will never know. John reminded me of a scientist we met in Moscow. The man had spent some time in Chernobyl. “I’ll never forget. He took a notebook out of his desk and ran a Geiger counter over it, which started crackling like mad. Four years on, and it was still highly radioactive,” John said.
Today, 33 years on, Vladimir Putin has dismissed the TV miniseries as US misinformation and reportedly said Russia will make its own “version” blaming the CIA. Like radiation, Kremlin propaganda has a long half-life"
The truth about Chernobyl? I saw it with my own eyes…
"The plume of deadly radioactive dust was just a harmless steam discharge, residents were told. It was 36 hours before the city was evacuated, by which time some were already showing signs of radiation sickness.
Even as radiation spewed out of the plant from the burning reactor core, local people told John and me how they had seen Communist apparatchiks in the area spirit their families to safety in Moscow while the residents were being urged to carry on as if nothing had happened. In Pripyat, the satellite city built for Chernobyl workers, windows were left open, children played outside, and gardeners dug their allotments.n the TV news on 29 April – more than three days after the catastrophe, with the reactor fire still burning – Chernobyl was the sixth item. “There has been an accident” the female presenter stated. “Two people have died”. Schoolchildren in Byelorussia and Ukraine – the worst hit by fallout – were instructed to continue with their May Day celebrations and parades, even as the rain brought radioactive particles down on them.
As we drove through the 30km exclusion zone, where, in 1990, 20,000 people still lived and worked, into the “dead zone” – a 10km circle around the plant – we stopped at checkpoints to be scanned for radioactive particles. Every time the scanner either failed to work and was given a good kicking – and still didn’t work – or it would wail alarmingly and be swiftly unplugged. There were no explanations except for: “It’s safe”.
If John or I put a toe off the designated path, the scientist accompanying us would drop the “it’s safe” line and scream “no, no, no … not there. There’s not safe.” Scientists estimate the contaminated area will not be safe for 24,000 years, give or take a thousand.
At the entrance to Reactor 3, next to the concrete sarcophagus hastily thrown over Reactor 4, the scanners were equally silent as we pressed our hands into the vertical pads. (An executive from the UK company that supplied the machines later called me to claim the Soviets had turned up the dose levels to avoid triggering an alert.)
Now my photographer friend John Downing has terminal lung cancer. “I often wonder if Chernobyl had anything to do with it,” he told me. Like many others, he will never know. John reminded me of a scientist we met in Moscow. The man had spent some time in Chernobyl. “I’ll never forget. He took a notebook out of his desk and ran a Geiger counter over it, which started crackling like mad. Four years on, and it was still highly radioactive,” John said.
Today, 33 years on, Vladimir Putin has dismissed the TV miniseries as US misinformation and reportedly said Russia will make its own “version” blaming the CIA. Like radiation, Kremlin propaganda has a long half-life"
