That is not dead, which can eternal lie

"I am aware of that this blog may be dying" read the beginning of a sentence in a comment recently posted as a response to my previous blog entry. 

  Yes, the speed of my project slowed down from that of a cheetah, to that of a sleeping tortoise, but no - it cannot die, not until it reaches its end and I am not done by far. 

It's not the first time I receive positive comments about my blog and research, but recent events have finally made me realize the importance of this project, not only for those who are interested in learning more about the disaster, its factors, aspects and consequences, but also for those who were there, fighting the battle against an invisible enemy and who are still fighting, now to be acknowledged as human beings. We need to make them aware of that they are not forgotten and I want to help by telling their story, for more people to gain knowledge on a closer level, not only limited to the pictures painted by mass media. I'm not after romance or tragedy - I need the truth to be told and and spread, and before that has been achieved I will not be able to rest. Even if I wanted to, I would not possibly be able to: Chernobyl doesn't leave me. It's always there, hiding in the background, even if I do not think about it; even during the long time during which my project was slumbering, never further away than just around the corner. 

Thus, I can reassure you all that neither the blog nor the project are dying. You can not be expecting me to write here every day, or even several times a week, but you can be sure that I will write. This far, this blog has had over 45 000 views since its start. This means that over 45 000 times people have had a reason to read my writings and I want that number to increase, because for every time it (hopefully) means that someone has become a little more aware.

Finally: I'm not a musician, but last summer I recorded the following track, about that dreadful morning of April 26th, 1986:  

How To Dismantle An Atomic Disaster

Photo: SSE ChNPP

Whenever looking at a photo from Chernobyl, it's there - the 75,5 meters tall, 9 meters wide stack of the fourth reactor's block, and constant reminder of the perhaps biggest distaster of human kind. But very soon it will be gone.

In the end of October the dismantling procedure, carried out by the Ukrtransbud Corporation, was initiated and the parts separated from the stack were temporarily resting in the turbine hall of block 3,  before  being transported to a specially prepared site where they will be taken apart. 

The reason behind this operation is the New Safe Confinement. The arch formed outer construction, under which the dismantling of the entire fourth block will take place, is being built on the side of the reactor building and will on railway tracks eventually be slid over said building and encase its radioactive content, and in order for that to work out, the stack naturally has to be removed. 

For those of you out there, who against most odds may not know about the New Safe Confinement (NSC, previously known as "The Shelter Project") it is being constructed to cover up the leaking Sarcophagus which started breaking apart only 10 years after having been built. Within the no longer overly protective walls of the Sarcophagus hides several tens of tons of radioactive waste being the result of the active fuel of the fourth reactor decaying. If the 2000 tons heavy reactor lid, now resting as a half closed eyelid on top of the reactor, would crash down as a consequence of not only the decaying of the Sarcophagus, but also the very building it contains, it would most likely lead to a collapse of the entire structures and those tens of tons of radioactive waste would all of the sudden lay open to be swept away by the winds in all possible directions. However, the NSF can not do anything about the radioactivity other than preventing it from being spread further. 

Dismantled stack parts. Photo: SSE ChNPP.

During the dismantling of the stack of the fourth unit, frequent monitoring of radiation levels are performed and the entire dismantling work is calculated to be done by the 10th of December this year.

The news concerning the initiated dismantling have been greeted in different ways. Many draws a sigh of relieve, reassured that there will be something covering up all that radioactive matter, whilst others belive that it's all just a curtain to cover up the disaster itself, but the question is whether it at all is possible to forget, or even ignore, such a breakdown as that of Chernobyl; one that will affect parts of the world for hundreds, even thousands (Plutonium-239 has a half life of 24,100 years, remember) of years to come?

No it isn't. It's easier to forget those who helped preventing it becoming an even greater disaster ...isn't it?