GHOST TOWN - KiddofSpeed - Chernobyl Pictures What Japan may Face in the Future

GHOST TOWN - KiddofSpeed - Chernobyl Pictures 

See comments here

Some years ago I stumbled on a site that I found at the time to be fascinating, educational and generally informative.  The site dealt with the meltdown at Chernobyl or rather the aftermath of that event.  It is the records of a Russian girl named “Elena” who loves to ride motorcycles and loves to make bike trips into the “Dead Zone” in and around Chernobyl. 

This is not just some biker chick the girl has a background in physics and especially nuclear physics.  She understands the dangers and where not to go.  Her father is a nuclear physicist and she has absorbed lots of knowledge on the subject so she seems to know what’s going on. Because of her father’s position as a nuclear physicist she was able to obtain permission to enter the area and has made many trips into the area taking many photos and documenting her trips. 

Chernobyl and the area in a radius of about 50 Km will be affected by this accident for about 48,000 years.  It will likely be uninhabitable for approximately 600 years and it may be possible with massive cleanup effort to repopulate after 300 years.  Them’s the facts.

I found the site fascinating and forgot about it because at some point it disappeared several years back and I just found her again using a different server.  The reason apparently was the many hits the site received and the bandwidth was inadequate in the former place.  Now she has her own web address and I include it here http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

There was a lot of dispute when the site was first put online years ago claiming her to be a hoax, BS artist, and you name it but I never doubted anything the girl wrote because I think she honestly and simply wants to tell the story and there is no real profit motive. 

With the Japanese now considering the accident at their nuclear facility at level 7, the highest level of damage and danger I think it reasonable to go to Elena’s site and get an education.  It will give even the most unknowledgeable individuals much insight into what this accident may mean to the people of Japan and the rest of the world in a reasonably presented and rational story of another accident.

As she says radiation doesn’t get absorbed by the asphalt so as long as she stays on the road surface there is no real danger.  But step 1 meter off the surface and the radiation level goes wildly up. In her words there are  “various levels of radiation on asphalt - usually on the middle of road - because at edge of the road it is twice as high. If you step 1 meter off the road it is 4 or 5 times higher. Radiation sits on the soil, on the grass, in apples and mushrooms. It is not retained by asphalt, which makes rides through this area possible.

All in all this is a very informative site and I’m sure worth bookmarking and passing on to friends.  There are 27 chapters and I suggest you begin with 1 and go through the site in order to get the feel of the entire story.

I was interested in Elena's view on the Japanese issue and went to her sites to see if she had made any comments.  Well, I found this and from the perspective of someone close to a similar event and its aftermath I find her comments interesting.  This link is the meat of the questions I have.