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Arnie Gundersen
Nuclear reactor engineer, expert witness, educator, whistle blower, folk hero
Cell phone: pdf | Computer; msword w/pop-ups & search engine
Arnie on CNN: 5 or 6 Cores of Spent Fuel at Fukushima nuclear reactor sites, Fairewinds Energy Education; https://vimeo.com/247838807
Arnie Gundersen & Ben Shulman-Reed; Fairewinds Energy Education; Arnie discusses Three Mile Island (TMI), Chernobyl & Fukshima meltdowns; https://vimeo.com/213779678
Extreme nuclear dangers | Tritium expose | Smokescreen | Hottest hot particle | Hot particles in seattle & boston | Nuclear power makes global warming worse |EPA guts protective action guidelines
Contaminated waste from damaged nuclear plant in Fukushima swept away by Typhoon Hagibis … the city of Tamura in Fukushima Prefecture said Sunday that an unknown number of bags containing contaminated waste from the plant were lost. Officials say heavy rains carried the bags to the nearby Furumichi River. That river connects to another river and flows into the Pacific Ocean. The city retrieved ten bags from the river but they haven't been able to confirm how many went missing out of the more than 2,600 bags kept in a temporary storage.
Radiation Alert: Super Typhoon Hagibis Hits Japan Sweeping Away Radioactive Soil & Waste(story, here)
Fukushima Daiichi’s radioactive waste is on the move again as Hagibis, the worst typhoon to hit Japan since 1958, dropped 30” of rain in 24 hours and millions of people were forced to evacuate due to flooding
From the minute we learned of this Super Typhoon threat, we were gravely concerned for the people of Japan and the tons of highly radioactive debris sitting on the edge of the volatile Pacific Ocean on the former site of the six Fukushima Daiichi atomic power reactors. Three of those nuclear power plants had meltdowns in March 2011 leaving more highly toxic radioactivity than anyone ever anticipated having in one spot. Some of that poisonous debris has been raked up and confined to thousands of giant 1-ton jumbo plastic bags that were right in the path of Hagibis. As we watched the news of the approaching Pacific super typhoon (tropical cyclone) with its 150 mile per hour (mph) winds, we worried for the people of Japan who have already faced the worst nuclear disaster on the planet. Since these events are just beginning to unfold, the amount of radioactive material released into the Pacific Ocean and surrounding environment is unknown as of Monday morning, October 14.
Maggie Gundersen, Chiho Kaneko and Caroline Phillips of Fairewinds Energy Education discuss the nuclear risk concerns for children not only near the nuclear disaster sites of Fukushima-Dai-ichiin Japan and Chernobyl in Ukraine, formerly the Soviet Union, but globally where areas near all nuclear power plants are contaminated with radiation. Since mothers in Japan especially bear the responsibility to protect children, they experience greater hardships in an environment where just expressing one’s concern about radiation is seen as a treasonous act. Even 30 years later, the Belarus government recognizes the merits of relocating children away from radiation contaminated areas but the children of Japan are socially forced to stay put in highly contaminated areas.
Maggie Gundersen, Chiho Kaneko & Caroline Phillips of Fairewinds.org interviewed by Margaret Harrington of CCTV Channel 17 in Burlington, Vermont, June 20, 2016: (here).
Do children suffer worldwide from atomic power? Absolutely. CCTV host Margaret Harrington anchored a panel with Maggie Gundersen, Caroline Phillips, and Chiho Kaneko from Fairewinds Energy Education to discuss the health risks to children around the world from operating nuclear power reactors and their burgeoning waste. In the aftermath of the nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi, mothers in Japan especially bear the responsibility to protect their children. As a result, they experience greater hardships in an environment where just expressing one’s legitimate concerns about radiation contamination is seen as a treasonous act. Meanwhile in Ukraine, 30-years following the atomic disaster at Chernobyl, the repercussions of massive radioactive contamination and government zoning continue to severely impact children living within 50 miles of Chernobyl’s epicenter. The United States is not immune to these worries and contentions as Tritium, Strontium-90, and Cesium 137 are radioactive releases that threaten the health of children living nearby leaky atomic power reactors and nuclear waste dumps. Learn more by watching this episode of Nuclear Free Future as the women of Fairewinds lend their voices to protect the children.
Special Feature: Fairewinds video interviews & transcripts
| Extreme Nuclear Dangers (cell phone: pdf – computer: ms word)
| Tritium Expose, pgs 7-17, Fairewinds interview begins several paragraphs under the heading: 'Let the Games Begin: We Almost Lost Detroit'(cell phone: pdf – computer: ms word)
| EPA Wrecks Protective Action Guidelines (cell phone: pdf – computer: ms word)
Christina RadChick Consolo
Fukushima triggers jump in airline pilot & passenger heart attacks, cancers, rad symptoms
Flight emergencies — we analyze daily ...doors fall off, pipes break, babies have heart attacks — by Christina Consolo (RadChick)
When I did this interview with Alfred in Feb of 2014 I thought I was done with the plane stuff for awhile, and would continue to collect data and maybe revisit this topic in a year or so – and see how flight crews were faring flying another year through fallout. A close friend I have known since childhood (who is a nuclear decommissioning specialist) reviewed my data and told me he would be much more concerned with the planes "falling apart" from Wigner, than the pilots passing out - as that is 'recoverable' in most cases. Shortly after this meeting, MH370 happened.
Then another crash, then MH17...then another crash...and on and on...I recently told my daughter, I feel like I have been cramming for finals since February. I never expected there to be so many crashes, missing planes, planes shot down, ALL the flight emergencies we now analyze on a daily basis, doors falling off, pipes breaking, babies having heart attacks, passengers being out-of-control...but this...THIS newest one... AirAsia flight QZ8501... has my head spinning.
This was very unexpected, and I am very very disturbed by it. Already there is weirdness happening over and above the event itself. I have already been asked "When will you do an interview about AirAsia" and it hasn't been even 24 hours yet. One of the most important things we can do right now is collect every single story, tweet, and post about this, to save for perusal later. Early into events like these there is a LOT of disinfo but there is also a lot of truth, that may be scrubbed later (as in the case of MH370 & MH17). I hope to see Alfred cover this with Leuren Moret, because the work they have done with MH370 & MH17 is some of the most mind-blowing yet sensical stuff ever covered as far as aviation accidents, and the politics behind some of these events. In the meantime, let's hope they find this latest missing plane. I can not even begin to imagine how hard this is for the families of the passengers, and those who are STILL waiting to hear about their loved ones and MH370.
Fukushima triggers jump in airline pilot & passenger heart attacks, cancers, rad symptoms
The affects of airborne radionuclide gallout on pilots & passengers on airliners
NUKED PACIFIC 5: 28 Signs the West Coast is being FRIED
NUKED PACIFIC 6: Fukushima fires create NEW Nanoparticles
NUKED PACIFIC 7: THEY ARE KILLING THE OCEANS (final)
Helen Caldicott
Earnest Sternglass
Ian Fairlee
Joseph Mangano
Marco Kaltofen
Mary Olson
Rosalie Bertell
Lauren Moret
misc
Nuclear Controversies: Video includes presentation by Alexei Yablokov, rebuking IAEA & UN nuclear apologists
Children hurt by nuclear fallout, many with fatal diseases & cancer ...put a face on their health issues.
Children hurt by nuclear fallout, many with fatal diseases & cancer ...put a face on their health issues.
Children hurt by nuclear fallout, many with fatal diseases & cancer ...put a face on their health issues.
Alexei yablokov
russian environmental anti-nuclear activist – greenpeace in russia co-founder
Photo: Nils Bøhmer
(above) Folks can return to the nuclear reactor stricken area in only 20,000 years: Amusement park electric bumper-cars attraction abandoned after Chernobyl nuclear disaster & evacuation of Pripyat, Ukraine on April 27, 1986. Today, over 200 tons of uranium remains inside Chernobyl’s No 4 reactor, which exploded at 1:23 a.m. On the hush-hush, 48,000 residents were evacualted from of the city of Pripyat Ukraine, 3 kilometers from the site of the Chernobyl explosion. It wasn’t until two weeks later that Sweden, noticing mysterious and growing spikes in their own radiation monitors, sounded an alarm – the beginning of a long tradition of Scandinavia alerting the world to Russian nuclear calamity. Communist Party Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev, only two years on the job, finally went live and admitted to the disaster on May 14, two weeks and four days after it happened, something many of the shadowy figures behind him opposed. With the new shelter dome over the site, the surrounding exclusion zone of around 2,600 square kilometers will remain uninhabitable – and it will take another 20,000 years before people can live near the plant again.
Fukushima is rated at 100's or even 1,000's of times worse that Chernobyl, but pregnant women and others are forced to return to dangerously contaminated areas in order to get government recovery help ...and farmers are forced to grow radioactive crops like rice & vegetables & feed in contaminated farmlands covered with 30 million 1-ton rotting plastic bags of radioactive waste.
Alexei Yablokov, the towering grandfather of Russian ecology who worked with Bellona to unmask Cold War nuclear dumping practices in the Arctic, has died in Moscow after a long illness. He was 83.
...a person on whom the authorities had no influence
Nuclear environmental pollution issues, Nuclear Russia Environmental Pollution at Sea & the Artic
Cold War nuclear dumping practices in the Arctic
Arctic: Dumped military reactors, scuttled nuclear subs
The Russian Northern Fleet: Source of Radioactive Contamination (document, here)
Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment (pdf, here)
Dumped Russian nuclear sub shows no radioactive leaks, but still presents chain reaction dangers(here)
Russia announces decades of Russian nuclear reactors & radioactive waste & nuclear reactors dumped into Kara Sea in Arctic ocean north of Siberia(here)
Russia to resume subcritical nuclear bomb tests in Arctic? – Beefs up military security at old Arctic nuclear test archipelago of Novaya Zemlya for so-called subcritical nuclear tests of old nuclear weapons(here)
Russia’s aging Kola Nuclear Power Plant - 2 reactors past engineered life spans - negotiates with Gazprom to build 2 more reactors for underwater Arctic Shtokman oil & gas reserves (here)
Floating nuclear power plants attracting interest of the oil industry in Russia and abroad: Kaliningrad – The extremely hazardous use of floating and underwater atomic energy stations to supply power to tap remote oil and gas reserves is gaining currency among not only Russian gas giants but their Norwegian counterparts as well, despite vociferous environmental criticism (here)
The book presented the conclusion that the 1986 Chernobyl disaster was responsible for 985,000 premature deaths – the boldest mortality tally to date – by analyzing 6,000 source materials on the accident.
Bellona President Frederic Hauge Tuesday remembered Yablokov as a friend of three decades standing. “He was an inspiration, a great friend and a great scientist, one of the world’s most significant environmental heroes,” said Hauge. “To know him and to work with him, someone of such cool and keen intellect is a memory we should all take care of and treasure.”
Yablokov commanded a broad environmental and political mandate in Russia, and published over 500 papers on biology, ecology, natural conservation and numerous textbooks on each of these subjects. He founded Russia’s branch of Greenpeace and was the leader of the Green Russia faction of the Yabloko opposition party.
While serving as environmental advisor to President Boris Yeltsin’s from 1989 to 1992, Yablokov published a searing white paper that detailed the gravity of the radiological threat posed by dumped military reactors and scuttled nuclear submarines in the Arctic. The catalogue of waste dumped at sea by the Soviets, includes some 17,000 containers of radioactive waste, 19 ships containing radioactive waste, 14 nuclear reactors, including five that still contain spent nuclear fuel; 735 other pieces of radioactively contaminated heavy machinery, and the K-27 nuclear submarine with its two reactors loaded with nuclear fuel.
U.S. is probably #1: Catalogue of nuclear waste dumped at sea by the Soviets: 17,000 containers of radioactive waste, 19 ships containing radioactive waste, 14 nuclear reactors, including five that still contain spent nuclear fuel; 735 other pieces of radioactively contaminated heavy machinery, and the K-27 nuclear submarine with its two reactors loaded with nuclear fuel.
Yablokov’s white paper spearheaded an epoch of environmental openness that led to more than $3 billion in international aid to Russia to clean up 200 decommissioned submarines and to secure decades of military nuclear waste.
The paper’s findings dovetailed an early Bellona report in 1992 on radioactive waste dumped by the Russian Navy in the Kara Sea.
Hauge said that Yablokov was “the first person in a position of power in Russia who was brave enough to step forward and support our conclusions.”
“He helped open serious discussion about what was a Chernobyl in slow motion,” said Hauge.
The partnership became critical. In 1995, Bellona’s Alexander Nikitin was charged with treason for his contribution to a report expanding on Bellona’s conclusions about nuclear dangers in the Arctic. The report was called “The Russian Northern Fleet: Source of Radioactive Contamination (pdf download, here).”
Throughout the endless hearings leading up to Nikitin’s eventual acquittal, Hauge said Yablokov’s “calm, collected” knowledge of the Russian constitution helped guide the defense.
“His coolness during the Nikitin case was remarkable,” said Hauge on Tuesday. “He really emphasized that the constitution was the way to Nikitin’s acquittal.”
In 2000, Russia’s Supreme Court agreed, and acquitted Nikitin on all counts, making him the first person to ever fight a treason charge in Russia and win.
Yablokov was a constant luminary at Bellona presentations in Russia, the European Union, the United States and Norway, most recently presenting his 2007 book in Oslo on the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.
He was also a tireless defender of environmental activists in Russia, suggesting at a 2014 Bellona conference in St. Petersburgthat ecological groups should publish a list of those government officials who harass them.
“We must constantly support our comrades who have been forced to leave the country or who have ended up in jail on account of their environmental activism,” he told the conference.
That same year, Yablokov championed the presentation of a report on environmental violations that took place at Russia’s showcase Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Yablokov arranged for activists from the Environmental Watch on the Northern Caucasus – many of whom were jailed, exiled or otherwise harassed into silence – to present their shocking report on Olympic environmental corruption in Moscow when every other venue had turned them away.
“He was a friend and advisor to us from the beginning and in a large part we owe the success of our Russian work to his steady advice and guidance,” said Hauge.
Yablokov’s death was mourned across the spectrum in Moscow. Igor Chestin, head of the WWF called Yablokov Russia’s “environmental knight.”
Valery Borschsev, Yablokov’s colleague in the human rights faction of the Yabloko party said of him that “he was a person on whom the authorities had no influence.”
Charles Digges charles@bellona.no
Janet sherman
Janette Sherman, M.D. specializes in internal medicine & toxicology with an emphasis on chemicals & nuclear radiation that cause illness, including cancer & birth defects. she graduated from western michigan university with majors in biology & chemistry & from wayne state university college of medicine. prior to medical school, she worked for atomic energy commission (forerunner of nuclear regulatory commission) at university of california in berkeley, & u.s. navy radiation defense laboratory in san francisco.thus began her long-time involvement with the subject of nuclear radiation. from 1976–1982 dr. sherman served on the advisory board for the environmental protection agency (epa) toxic substances control act. she has been an advisor to the national cancer institute on breast cancer and to the epa on pesticide.
Life's Delicate Balance: Causes & Prevention of Breast Cancerhere
Elevated Childhood Cancer Incidence Proximate to U.S. Nuclear Power Plants
by Joseph J. Mangano , Janette Sherman , Carolyn Chang , Amie Dave , Elyssa Feinberg & Marina Frimer
Abstract: Numerous reports document elevated cancer rates among children living near nuclear facilities in various nations. Little research has examined U.S. rates near the nation's 103 operating reactors. This study determined that cancer incidence for children <10 yr of age who live within 30 mi (48 km) of each of 14 nuclear plants in the eastern United States (49 counties with a population >16.8 million) exceeds the national average. The excess 12.4% risk suggests that 1 in 9 cancers among children who reside near nuclear reactors is linked to radioactive emissions. If cancer incidence in 5 western states is used as a baseline, the ratio is closer to 1 in 5. Incidence is particularly elevated for leukemia. Childhood cancer mortality exceeds the national average in 7 of the 14 study areas.(more, here) (here) (here)
Women & pregnant women, babies-to-be, infants & girls within 25 miles of a nuclear reactor get more cancer than men or boys or those living farther away
“A 2012 study of all nuclear plants in France found elevated levels of child leukemia in the vicinity of the plants. A 2008 study in Germany came to a similar conclusion regarding child leukemia and Germany’s nuclear generating facilities. A study in, Archives of Environmental Health, in 2003 found cancer rates in children were 12.4 percent higher (than nationwide occurrences) in 49 counties surrounding 14 nuclear plants in the eastern United States.” - Excerpted from, Washington Spectator, (project of Public Concern Foundation), Watching the Nuclear Watchdog, February 1, 2015, by Janet Sherman.
08:44 AM Jan 12, 2012 -2242- Child leukemia doubles near French nuclear plants
09:57 AM Jun 2, 2011 -0642- International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says no such thing as safe levels of radiation – standard based on ‘cost-benefit’, not safety – 06/02/11, National Academy of Science: 1 in 5 workers get cancer from IAEA safety standard
09:56 AM Apr 25, 2012 -3163- Epidemiology Scientist: Slower you spread radiation dose, more effectively it produces cancer and inherited defects – Japan is going the very best way in the world for destroying the human race (1993 VIDEO)
08:31 AM Apr 25, 2012 -3162- Mom speaks out about brain cancers around San Onofre nuclear plant
03:53 PM Feb 27, 2013 -5443- We have seen how it’s affecting children already, and no one knows exactly what’s going on – can only rely on nuclear experts in Germany, France, U.S.
03:32 PM Aug 8, 2012 -3975- Global public sentiment vehemently anti-nuclear – Extreme public resistance in Japan, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland
08:48 AM May 31, 2012 -3468- Germany produces 50% of energy from solar during mid-day – ‘Equivalent to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity – without any radioactive waste
05:21 PM Mar 18, 2012 -2875- U.S. to burn 100s of tons of radioactive waste from Germany in Tennessee (also see, Human & Uranium Trafficking)
06:40 AM May 13, 2012 -3310.a- Japanese not allowed to get on bus in Germany because people from Tokyo are contaminated
02:36 PM Feb 15, 2012 -2612- Evidence links nuclear plants to ill health – UK blames unidentified virus for childhood leukemia rise
03:53 PM Aug 26, 2015 -8702- California Coast: Many baby seals dying of leukemia-linked disorder- 1/3 of recent deaths at San Francisco Bay rescue center (CHART)
-8702.1- also see: Physics and Radiobiology of Nuclear Medicine (Springer), Jun 29, 2013: Leukemia is one of the most common cancers induced by radiation in humans, accounting for one in five mortalities from radio-carcinogenesis. Risk of leukemia varies with age, younger persons more prone to radio-carcinogenesis - Leukemia appears as early as 2-3 years after exposure, average latent period of 5 to 10 years.
-8702.2- also see: California sea lions dying from organs falling out of place, tumors, accumulation of pus inside bodies (PHOTO)
Normal nuclear reactors spew fallout every day same as nuclear bombs
Sustained low levels of everyday nuclear emission-fallout add up in you – can be more harmful than a nuclear bomb
Every day, low yield nuclear reactor fallout from cancer-causing releases from 'normal' reactors, mishaps, facility-obsolescence leaks, nuclear dump leakage and mishaps, uranium mining, tailing operations, shipping nuclear materials and waste by plane, ship, train, truck and container mishaps …produces the same fallout that detonating a nuclear bomb produces – and is considered by the nuclear indus try as 'business-as-usual'. The (pink pregnant woman) chart link tells how normal reactors contaminate our food, water, earth, sky ...and you.
09:10 AM Apr 12, 2013 -5738- U.S. Experiments: Hundreds of pregnant women fed nuclear material – infants & children fed radioactive lemonade, here
Women & girls, especially pregnant women, infants & unborn within 20-25 miles of a nuclear reactor get more cancer than men, boys or those farther away, —(cell phone pdf) - or - (MS Word w/ search engine & pop-ups)
nuclear radiation: new & mysterious diseases
Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People & the Environment
Written by Alexey V. Yablokov, Vassily B. Nesterenko & Alexey V. Nesterenko
Edited by Janette Sherman-Nevinger
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences – Vol 1181
(Webmaster's note: I read published abstracts of scientific research studies, written by Chernobyl scientists, and learned exposure to radionuclides causes bacteria and viruses to mutate, causing new and mysterious diseases. It took you less than ten seconds to read the previous sentence …now, you know more than all the apologist bad science perps will admit.)
Chernobyl: Consequences of the catastrophe for people and the environment
written by scientists who used health data from 1986 to 2004; edited by Janet Sherman
excerpt: Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment
chapter 11
Chernobyl’s Radioactive Impact on Microbial Biota
by Alexey V. Yablokov
Abstract: Of the few microorganisms that have been studied, all underwent rapid changes in the areas heavily contaminated by Chernobyl. Organisms such as tuberculosis bacilli; hepatitis, herpes, and tobacco mosaic viruses; cytomegalovirus; and soil micromycetes and bacteria were activated in various ways. The ultimate long-term consequences for the Chernobyl microbiologic biota may be worse than what we know today. Compared to humans and other mammals, the profound changes that take place among these small live organisms with rapid reproductive turnover do not bode well for the health and survival of other species.
One gram of soil contains some 2,500,000,000 microorganisms (bacteria, micro-fungi, and protozoa). Up to 3 kg of the mass of an adult human body is made up of bacteria, viruses, and micro-fungi. In spite of the fact that these represent such important and fundamentally live ecosystems there are only scarce data on the various microbiological consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe.
Several incidences of increased morbidity owing to certain infectious diseases may be due to increased virulence of microbial populations as a result of Chernobyl irradiation … … …
All microorganisms (viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa) and microbiological communities as a whole undergo rapid changes after any additional irradiation. The mechanism of such changes is well known: inclusion and increase in the frequency of mutations by natural selection and preservation of beneficial novel genes that for whatever reason appear more viable under the new conditions. This micro-evolutionary mechanism has been activated in all radioactively contaminated areas and leads to activation of old and the occurrence of new forms of viruses and bacteria.
All but a few microorganisms that have been studied in Chernobyl-affected territories underwent rapid changes in heavily contaminated areas.
Our contemporary knowledge is too limited to understand even the main consequences of the inevitable radioactive-induced genetic changes among the myriad of viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and fungi that inhabit the intestines, lungs, blood, organs, and cells of human beings.
The strong association between carcinogenesis and viruses (papilloma virus, hepatitis virus, Helicobacter pylori, Epstein-Barr virus, Kaposi’s sarcoma, and herpes virus) provides another reason why the cancer rate increased in areas contaminated by Chernobyl irradiation (for a review, see Sreelekha et al., 2003).
Not only cancer, but also many other illnesses are connected with viruses and bacteria. Radiologically induced pathologic changes in the microflora in humans can increase susceptibility to infections, inflammatory diseases of bacterial and viral origin (influenza, chronic intestinal diseases, pyelonephritis, cystitis, vaginitis, endocolitis, asthma, dermatitis, and ischemia), and various pathologies of pregnancy. The long-term consequences for microbial biota may be worse than what we understand today.
This micro-evolutionary mechanism has been activated in virtually all radioactively contaminated areas and leads to activation of old and the occurrence of new forms of viruses and bacteria.
[Editor's note:] Mainstream science, the nuclear energy industry and theirapologists remain dumbfounded and swear on the bible there is more danger from natural radiation in eating bananas or potato chips or taking a walk in the park than eating or breathing in manmade ionizing fallout …from Fukushima or daily nuclear energy industry legal discharges, or accidents like Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima.
Pacific Ocean: Chunks missing from bodies of salmon from Pacific — lesions in over 50% of fish — 04:18 PM Aug 31, 2014 -8399- Pacific Ocean: Chunks missing from bodies of salmon from Pacific - lesions in over 50% of fish being reported ... followed by bacterial invasions (PHOTO)
Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment, here
Book - Published by New York Academy of Sciences, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment was written by scientists who used health data from 1986 to 2004; edited by Janet Sherman.
Chapter 11 — Chernobyl’s Radioactive Impact on Microbial Biota — by Alexey V. Yablokov
[Abstract] Of the few microorganisms that have been studied, all underwent rapid changes in the areas heavily contaminated by Chernobyl. Organisms such as tuberculosis bacilli; hepatitis, herpes, and tobacco mosaic viruses; cytomegalovirus; and soil micromycetes and bacteria were activated in various ways. The ultimate long-term consequences for the Chernobyl microbiologic biota may be worse than what we know today.Compared to humans and other mammals, the profound changes that take place among these small live organisms with rapid reproductive turnover do not bode well for the health and survival of other species.
One gram of soil contains some 2,500,000,000 microorganisms (bacteria, microfungi, and protozoa). Up to 3 kg of the mass of an adult human body is made up of bacteria, viruses, and microfungi. In spite of the fact that these represent such important and fundamentally live ecosystems there are only scarce data on the various microbiological consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe.
Several incidences of increased morbidity owing to certain infectious diseases may be due to increased virulence of microbial populations as a result of Chernobyl irradiation.
1.-Soon after the catastrophe studies observed activation of retroviruses(Kavsan et al., 1992).
2.-There is evidence of increased susceptibility to Pneumocystis carinii and cytomegalovirus in children whose immune systems were suppressed in the contaminated territories of Novozybkov District, Bryansk Province (Lysenko et al., 1996).
3.-Tuberculosis became more virulent in the more contaminated areas of Belarus(Chernetsky and Osynovsky, 1993; Belookaya, 1993; Borschevsky et al., 1996). Address for correspondence: (Editor’s note: omitted.)
4.-In some heavily contaminated areas of Belarus and Russia there was a markedly higher level of cryptosporidium infestation(Lavdovskaya et al., 1996).
5.-From 1993 to 1997 the hepatitis viruses B, C, D, and G became noticeably activated in the heavily contaminated areas of Belarus (Zhavoronok et al., 1998 a, b).
6.-Herpes viruses were activated in the heavily contaminated territories of Belarus 6 to 7 years after the catastrophe (Matveev, 1993; Matveev et al., 1995; Voropaev et al., 1996).
7.-Activation of cytomegalovirus was found in the heavily contaminated districts of Gomel and Mogilev provinces, Belarus (Matveev, 1993).
8.-Prevalence of Pneumocystis was noticeably higher in the heavily contaminated territories of Bryansk Province (Lavdovskaya et al., 1996).
9.-The prevalence and severity of Gruby’s disease (ringworm), caused by the fungus microsporia Microsporum sp., was significantly higher in the heavily contaminated areas of Bryansk Province (Rudnitsky et al., 2003).
10.-The number of saprophytic bacteria in Belarussian sod-podzolic soils is at maximum with radioactivity levels of 15 Ci/km2 or less and minimal in areas 281 282 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences with up to 40 Ci/km2 (Zymenko et al., 1995).
11.-There is a wide range of radionuclide bioaccumulations in soil micromycetes. The accumulation factor of Cs-137 in Stemphylium (family Dematiaceae) is 348 and in Verticillium (family Muctdinaceae) 28 (Zymenko et al., 1995).
12.-Since the catastrophe, the prevalence of black microfungi has dramatically increased in contaminated soil surrounding Chernobyl (Zhdanova et al., 1991, 1994).
13.-Among soil bacteria that most actively accumulate Cs-137 are Agrobacterium sp. (accumulation factor 587), Enterobacter sp. (60–288), and Klebsiella sp. (256; Zymenko et al., 1995).
14.-In all soil samples from the 10-km Chernobyl zone the abundance of soil bacteria (nitrifying, sulfate-reducing, nitrogen-fixing, and cellulose-fermenting bacteria, and heterotrophic iron-oxidizing bacteria) was reduced by up to two orders of magnitude as compared to control areas (Romanovskaya et al., 1998).
15.-In contaminated areas several new variants of tobacco mosaic virus appeared that affect plants other than Solanaceous species, and their virulence is most likely correlated with the level of radioactive contamination in the areas. Infection of tobacco plants with tobacco mosaic virus and oilseed rape mosaic virus was shown to induce a threefold increase in homologous DNA recombination in non-infected tissues (Boyko et al., 2007; Kovalchuk et al., 2003).
16.-All the strains of microfungi species that were studied (Alternaria alternata, Mucorhiemalis, and Paecilomyces lilacinus) from the heavily contaminated Chernobyl areas have aggregated growth of threadlike hyphae, whereas the same species from soil with low radionuclide contamination show normal growth. Only slowly growing Cladosporium cladosporioides has aggregated growth both in contaminated and TABLE 11.1. Characteristics of Oocysts of Coccidia (Eimeria cerna) in Voles (Clethrionomys glareolus) from Two Differently Contaminated Sites, Bryansk Province (Pel’gunov, 1996) Level of contamination 20μ R/h 180–220 ΜR/h Normal 94.5 76.6 Anomalous 06.3 Nonsporulated 5.2 12.2 lightly contaminated soils(Ivanova et al., 2006).
17.-Sharp reduction in the abundance of bifidus bacteria and the prevalence of microbes of the class Escherichia; in particular, a sharp increase in E. coli has been noted in the intestines of evacuee children living in Ukraine(Luk’yanova et al., 1995).
18.-In a long-term study (1954 to 1994—before and after the catastrophe) in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia it was revealed that in areas with a high level of radioactive contamination (740–1,480 kBq/m2 and higher) in Bryansk, Mogilev, Gomel, Chernygov, Sumy, Kaluga, Oryol, Smolensk, and Kursk provinces, practically no cases of rabies in wild animals have been reported since the catastrophe (Adamovich, 1998). This suggests that the rabies virus has either disappeared or become inactivate.
19.-Rodents in the heavily contaminated territories of Belarus have been extensively invaded by coccids (obligate intracellular protozoan parasites from the phylum Apicomplexa; Sutchenya et al., 1995).
20.-There are fewer than normal, more anomalous, and no sporulated oocysts of coccidian Eimeria cerna in voles (Clethrionomys glareolus) in Bryansk Province (Table 11.1).
21.-Six years after the catastrophe a population of Eimeria cernae From Clethrionomys Glareolus living in heavily contaminated soil (up to 7.3 k Bq/kg of Cs-134, Cs-137, Sr-90, and Pu-106) in Kiev Province Yablokov: Radioactive Impact on Microbial Biota 283 had anomalous oocysts (Soshkin and Pel’gunov, 1994).
22. -There was a significant decline in the Shannon diversity index of infusoria species and a concomitant increase in their abundance in the Pripyat River mouth from 1986 to 1988 (Nebrat, 1992).
All microorganisms (viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa) and microbiological communities as a whole undergo rapid changes after any additional irradiation. The mechanism of such changes is well known: inclusion and increase in the frequency of mutations by natural selection and preservation of beneficial novel genes that for whatever reason appear more viable under the new conditions. This micro-evolutionary mechanism has been activated in all radioactively contaminated areas and leads to activation of old and the occurrence of new forms of viruses and bacteria.All but a few microorganisms that have been studied in Chernobyl-affected territories underwent rapid changes in heavily contaminated areas.
Our contemporary knowledge is too limited to understand even the main consequences of the inevitable radioactive-induced genetic changes among the myriad of viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and fungi that inhabit the intestines, lungs, blood, organs, and cells of human beings.
The strong association between carcinogenesis and viruses (papilloma virus, hepatitis virus, Helicobacter pylori, Epstein–Barr virus, Kaposi’s sarcoma, and herpes virus) provides another reason why the cancer rate increased in areas contaminated by Chernobyl irradiation(for a review, see Sreelekha et al., 2003).
Not only cancer, but also many other illnesses are connected with viruses and bacteria. Radiologically induced pathologic changes in the microflora in humans can increase susceptibility to infections, inflammatory diseases of bacterial and viral origin (influenza, chronic intestinal diseases, pyelonephritis, cystitis, vaginitis, endocolitis, asthma, dermatitis, and ischemia), and various pathologies of pregnancy. The long-term consequences for microbial biota may be worse than what we understand today.
Published by New York Academy of Sciences, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment was written by scientists who used health data from 1986 to 2004; edited by Janet Sherman
Chapter I. Chernobyl Contamination: An Overview —1. Chernobyl Contamination through Time and Space — Chapter II. Consequences for Public Health — 2. Public Health Consequences: Methodological Problems — 3. General Morbidity, Impairment, and Disability — 4. Accelerated Aging — 5. Nonmalignant Diseases — 6. Oncological Diseases — 7. Mortality — Chapter III. Consequences for the Environment — 8. Atmospheric, Water & Soil Contamination — 9. Flora — 10. Fauna — 11. Microbial Biota — Chapter IV. Radiation Protection after the Catastrophe — 12. Radioactive Contamination of Food and People — 13. Decorporation of Radionuclides — 14. Protective Measures for Activities in Radioactively Contaminated Territories —15. Consequences for Public Health & the Environment, 23 Years Later
