Thirty-six years ago, in 1986, poor planning and defective Soviet technology led to global disaster. That’s when the number four nuclear reactor at Chernobyl exploded. Once again, poor planning on the part of the Russians is putting everyone in danger. Putin went and ordered his troops to dig up a whole bunch of ghostly radiation which had been slumbering peacefully, buried in a shallow grave.
Putin stirs up trouble
Vladimir Putin stirred up a whole lot more radioactive trouble than he was expecting in Ukraine. The consequences of what he uncovered near Chernobyl will have a really long half-life in the Kremlin.
They’re stuck dealing with the health fallout of Russian troops subjected to lethal doses of invisible toxic radiation. Ukrainian citizens are shaking their fists and shouting, “now look what you’ve done!”
When Chernobyl exploded it “killed hundreds of people and poisoned food and water supplies throughout much of Europe.” Even today there are “huge swaths of the rolling wheat fields of Ukraine now left fallow and untenable.”
Everyone calls it “an unmistakable reminder of everything wrong with Soviet communism.” The Russians forgot about it. Putin and his troops unwittingly “unearthed radiation that will kill hundreds, if not thousands, of his soldiers.”
When reactor 4 went foom, a whole bunch of radioactive poison was released. Specifically, strontium 90 and cesium 137. When the fallout fell, most of it landed within 10 kilometers of the plant, a little more than 6 miles. Every radioactive element has it’s own rate of “decay” measured as “half-life.” Both these elements have “half-lives of about 30 years.”
After the math gets done, the contaminants are still around “35% as poisonous as they were the night the plant exploded.” Putin ordered his troops to dig trenches and foxholes to defend their position. It probably killed them even if they haven’t stopped moving yet. They’re just now beginning to figure that out.
Firemen dead within hours
When Chernobyl exploded, firemen who responded to the plant were dead within a few hours but the situation hasn’t been that grim for decades. Above ground, the radiation level before the Russians invaded was “not exceptionally hazardous.” That’s because year after year of seasonal rain and snow “carried the fallout deep into the soil.” Then Putin came along.
Just digging up a little dirt around there can be huge trouble, as a crew found out in 1996. Back then, “workers at the plant were building a new barbed wire fence.” That required 2-foot-deep post holes. Big mistake. “The dirt extracted from the post holes measured anywhere from 5000 to 7500 counts per minute.” That’s a lot.
The experts say the deeper you go the worse the radiation gets, and the progression is quick. Putin wasn’t considering the safety of his own forces when he ordered them to defend the power plant. To do that, they brought in heavy equipment and did some serious excavating.
The Russians “dug foxholes, 6-foot-deep trenches, and revetment for tanks and artillery pieces into the earth south and west of the plant.” With bulldozers. They used the earth-movers to push highly radioactive soil up into “protective berms.” Instead of protecting them, it killed them. Most just don’t know that yet because they think they’re still alive.
Experts can only make a guess about how much radiation was in those piles and trenches but “estimates predict radiation levels between 5000 and 10,000 counts per minute.” The foxholes protecting them from Ukrainian lead were killing them with radioactive poison. More than a couple minutes in an environment that hot causes health problems.
“The Russian soldiers lived and slept in their foxholes and trenches 24 hours a day.” For a month. All the experts agree, “extended exposures at that 5000-10,000 counts level are not survivable.” Putin needs to say I’m sorry to Russian soldiers surrounding the plant who already have symptoms indicating “their fatally high level of accumulated exposure.“
