Chernobyl trees aren't decaying

[low_48]

Read this article about the forest around Chernobyl. The dead trees are basically the same since the blast 28 years ago. Few if any microbes to break down the material on the forest floor, nor the trees. The other fact that surprised me was a statement about "except for a few ants...." No wonder we have trouble getting ants out of our kitchen!

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/forests-around-chernobyl-arent-decaying-properly-180950075/

[Gary_C]

Something doesn't seem right about that claim. Are all the insects that normally process all that litter now dead and lying preserved on the forest floor? Is radiation a means of preservation?

That brings up lots of questions.

[clww]

Who's going to cut or use that wood?

[SPIKER]

Having grown up and was well alive when it happened there are some interesting facts on it.    There are some Discovery Channel type shows going over it and that After Humans show both used it as a special case to what happens when we are not in the picture anymore.   There is a pretty good wolves population and the BIG CATFISH (many living right in the containment pool off the river that was used to cool the place prior to the meltdown.   The Discovery channel show River Monsters did a hour show there and guy was catching a LOT of fish in shadow of the cooling towers.   

The first days of the Ionizing Gamma & X-Ray Radiation coming out was most damaging & what killed the trees and pretty much everything close by.  The soil is pretty dead as far as the problems with the bacteria living all around us normally.   But there is a LOT of life in the area and farther away you get the more the LIFE has become hardy to the radiation but in the end it damages the living cells and the critters do not live as long as same species elsewhere...

M

[luvmexfood]

Might be interesting to have some to use for camping. You could have a campfire that would glow in the dark even if it was not lit. Ha.

[Wick]

So, no roaches? I recall hearing the myth or guess, the only thing that would survive nuclear holocaust would be the roaches.

[Autocar]

That discovery channel show was very interesting the animals seem to be doing better then whats suppose to be normal. I remember wolves bears and moose the birds were having four babys and were surviving. Is it as bad as they want us to think or would we live longer and fell better  ;D. I don't know anyting about this stuff but was a good show about it.

[clww]

Jeremy Wade did one episode of his show, "River Monsters" at the cooling ponds catching some BIG catfish. The area is still contaminated, and will remain that way for centuries to come.

[Den Socling]

Nuclear power from bombs or power plants is scary stuff.

[SPIKER]

Jeremy Wade did one episode of his show, "River Monsters" at the cooling ponds catching some BIG catfish. The area is still contaminated, and will remain that way for centuries to come.

Ya was good show, was interesting they used his catches for study to see how much radiation was in them fishes...   Even some of the Dead ones (caught by Russian Eagles of some type) that were just scales/bones that they tested.

Fukushima accident is probably as bad or worse as the leaking is going out freely into the Pacific From BELOW GROUND/WATER level and coming into Alaska and down the west coast.   Much of the Russian Chernobyl accident was burning down, too bad it didn't have a better containment vessel to CAP the nuclear fires and keep the plume from drifting so far.   :(
mark
Mark

[oros35]

Nuclear power from bombs or power plants is scary stuff.

It's only scary if you don't understand it. 

I'm sitting about 300 feet from 2 nuclear reactors right now.  (work at a power plant) And a few weeks ago I was standing on top of the reactor about 15' from the fuel.  You will get more radiation with an x-ray than I did working with the reactor for a month. 

Yes it is really bad when there is a significant accident, but that is with any risky industry.  Take the oil well in the gulf for an example.  The damage is nearly permanent either way. 

Nuclear radiation is scary because people don't understand it and the media exploits it. 


On topic:  It is very interesting to see what the long term effects are, both positive and negative have been found.  It's hard to distinguish other factors like air pollution though. 

[jueston]

radiation is definitely hard for the average person to understand, i watched a documentry on it on netflix, and he had a radiation meter and went around the world to places that naturally have high levels of radiation, i don't remember where, but he went to a beach where the sands have a higher level of radiation then the majority of the exclusion zone in russia. and people there will bury each other in the sand because they believe it can help cure them of decease.

obviously something is going on in russia, but i think its more complicated then most people really think, the eco system is so complicated, and the radiation in russia messed with it, it might be hundreds of years till we can really understand the long term effects....

very interesting, thanks for sharing.

[jrose1970]

That is amazing that the trees are not rotting.  It has to be that the radiation killed all of the little varmits that eat wood. Which really means it broke the balance of nature and destroyed the ecosystem.  If you have food in your refrigerator that will not decay, don't eat it. It has so many preservatives that it isn't natural. If preservatives kill the natural fungi and molds, what else will they kill. 
  I agree that ignorance leads to fear and fear leads to hatred. Mayor Andrew Young said that, but radiation is spooky stuff.  Just wanted to weigh in. Dees be my thoughts.

[Cedarman]

One of the ways to preserve food is to irradiate it.  But the public is scared of this means of preservation and think it will make the food radioactive, which it won't. Would eliminate a lot of the salmonella problem we have.
Fungus eats wood and the spores travel on the wind everywhere.  Why wouldn't they start gnawing on the wood when they land on a tree? 

[jrose1970]

Hmmm. I'm not sure.   There is something in the wood that keeps the fungus out.
I could be way off base here, but someone said that Chernobyl translates to "wormwood", and when the scripture refers to bitter it means radiation.  "Her end shall be 'bitter' as 'wormwood'." Just food for thought.

[jorelp]

interesting stuff.  anyone else here about fungi growing at the reactor site? http://www.zmescience.com/ecology/chernobyl-fungus-radiotrophic-08122011/
and this is also worth a watch
http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world

[Ljohnsaw]

Interesting. 

Back around 1970, my dad was working on San Onfre nuclear power plant in southern California.  I think it's owned by So. Cal. Edison - they issued a LP record (remember those?) touting the benefits.  Was an interesting listen - electricity so safe and cheap that no one would need meters anymore!  IMO, there is a lot we don't know about it and when money makes for poor engineering decisions, we sometimes get a mess on our hands.