Saturday, July 4, 2009

Why Radioactive Maple Syrup?

Why not?

Did you know that after the Chernobyl Accident, radioactive contamination particulate was found in foods grown in the area of the dust cloud. Radioactive Maple Syrup, is exactly what we could have ended up with, had the accident happen on Canadian soil.

I know, I'm sure you think that the reason why the accident happened in the first place, was due to backward Russian Scientists and unskilled Goat herders fro the Ural Mountains operating nuclear reactor. This could not be further from the truth. In fact the Chernobyl RBMK reactor was an extremely safe design operated by highly paid, skilled and educated nuclear professionals.
In an attempt to test efficiency of it's electrical production the Operations staff of the unit, Ignoring procedure locked out or failed a number of it's safety systems. (coles notes version)
The test the Chernobyl Operators were trying to perform was quite reasonable, in fact on power testing is not unheard of in the Nuclear industry. It was disabling the safety systems and ignoring procedures where the test failed.

One small positive from this incident was, it sent a wake up call through out the entire nuclear industry and made every Reactor Operator question whether they were doing the right thing and were their procedures correct. The creation of watchdog organisations like WANO (World Authorised Nuclear Operators) Group and the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Association).

Did you know?

After the accident to Chernobyl Reactor Unit #4, the other Reactors 1,2 & 3 continued to produce electricity until 15 Dec 2000; that's 14 years after the accident.

Several religious groups thought this was the beginning of the end of days because, in the Bible Revelations speaks of the coming Apocalypse would be heralded by Death, riding on a horse named Wormwood.
The direct translation for Chernobyl is "Wormwood".

1 comment:

  1. I didn't know that. Very informative. I look forward to regular posts .

    ReplyDelete