powerfulChernobyl "dead zone"

[paul e.]

http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/chapter1.html



I have my motorcycle and the absolute freedom to ride it wherever curiosity and the speed demon take me. I have ridden all my life and owned many different bikes. I ended my search for a perfect bike with a big Kawasaki Ninja that boasts a mature 147 horse power, some serious bark, is fast as a bullet and comfortable for a long trips.

I travel a lot and one of my favorite destinations is through the so called Chernobyl "dead zone", which is 130kms from my home. Why my favorite? Because one can ride there for long without encountering a single car or living soul.



i found this site chilling and powerful...after reading this, i must make music

[mosc]

Wow, quite an experience. I wish she wouldn't spend so much time in the dead zone. Is the the shape of things to come?

[seraph]

[paul e.]

[mosc]

Sudden, who is that in your avatar picture? Is that a reactor control room.

[paul e.]

[zynthetix]

wow.

seraph said it best, and sudden second it, so I won't be repetitive.
The last images are the most powerful.

I wish she wouldn't expose herself to radiation in the dead zone either, but her photographs are very captivating and enlightening. It might be worth it for that aside from easing her ambitions and curiousity,

[Michael Chocholak]

Now THAT'S hardcore. Amazing lady, amazing story, amazing photos. Yeah, I think those images will always stay with me and certainly show up somewhere in the music. Roadside Picnic except it's the real thing. Thanks for the post. I'm shotgunning it out in an emu. Probably do a link to it. I hope she gets to stick around.

[mosc]

Hehe, yeah Mez, she would leave both of us in the dust with the Ninja. "It's so easy to fall in love..."

[Michael Chocholak]

Careful Howard, you'll overheat your core!

Elena is def a fox in many more ways than one. On the other hand, I dunno. Like, maybe next weekend it would be hang gliding over an active volcano?

Besides, man, I've got Misha, my Sporty, the spewing Hanford Nuclear site AND the leaky Umatilla Army Depot (national nerve gas depository). I think I'm pretty well covered.

[mosc]

[elektro80]

Hanford? That would be something like the mythological Porton Down in England?

Aren´t there some truly devasted areas in the US? Weren´t there some coalmine fires which kept burning for years?

[mosc]

Yes, pretty new Allentown, a two hour motorcycle trip. I go there almost every year to see what changes.

http://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/centralia.htm

This site is a good one to get a feel for it, but it makes it appear to be a bigger thing than it really is. The entire region up there is quite beautiful. Most of the mining there was underground. The really devastated areas are to the east where the stip mining was big. But they were clever and avoided the view from the main roads. You can travel through the area today on the main roads and never know there was any environmental damage.

[Michael Chocholak]

Hanford was a nuclear research facility from WWII. The plutonium made there was used in the Nagasaki bomb. From 1944 thru 1992 (and some - like the people currently working there - would argue that releases are continuing right up to the present) various radioactive isotopes were released from the stacks at Hanford in varying doses. Some of these were accidental. Some were premeditated to measure effects on the population. The government admits this and has released information about it with the provisions that they would not release the name of the General that ordered the releases and that the government cannot be sued for any effects the releases may have had on the population.

Another major issue is the groundwater problem. The Site is possibly the worst contaminated site in North America. Some of the worst , long-lived nuclear waste products were buried in huge underground tanks... that have been leaking for years. The government acknowledges that 69 of 177 tanks have definitely failed. Much of the waste was simply dumped into the soil. Bad enough to have this waste where it is but even worse is the fact that it is all heading towards the Columbia River and it will probably be impossible to intercept it.

Not to mention the fact that at one point radioactive vitamin supplements were distributed to pregnant women. To further evaluate the effects of radioactivity. Seriously. Right here in the good 'ole US of A. It's in the pile of documentation we got from them.

This all goes a long way to explain the elevated rates of cancer, thyroid disease, fibromyalgia, etc in the area.

But not to worry. There is a chance none of this will ever get a chance to affect the present population thanks to the presence of the Umatilla Army Depot. This is where the Government has stored a major chunk (12%) of the chemical agents created during the cold war - primarily GB, VX, and HD (which of course is prohibited by the Geneva Convention). Bombs, rockets and artillery rounds are stored in bunkers that dot the landscape as far as the eye can see. And they too are leaking. The army has built a facility to slice up the munitions and incinerate them before it all gets out of control. In spite of the high temp incineration technology, even if everything goes as planned (yeah, right - it hasn't so far), significant traces of nerve gas will still be released into the Columbia corridor. Millions have been spent to protect local populations. However, what this actually has translated into is a malfunctioning warning sign over the freeway, emergency radios and a network of warning sirens that don't work, and the fire department has been provided with specialized emergency gear; a box of reflective vests and a hand held stop sign. Local residents have been advised to buy duct tape so that in the event that there is an emergency and the warning systems actually work, they can seal themselves inside their houses. No one seems to know what really happened to the millions of dollars that were spent.

I'm on the other side of a small mountain range from all this. About 50 miles away. If any of it blows it really all depends on wind direction. Just like Mt St Helens. (Although the army has estimated that if just one of those bunkers goes, the dead zone will reach all the way to the Idaho border). And actually Mt Hood is probably a greater potential threat to the northwest. She's shakin & quakin on a regular basis, but nobody wants to acknowledge it. (What could anyone do anyway?). I live at the foothills of a tornado alley - although we've never had a full blown one - yet. I live on one of the largest basaltic shelves in the world, inside the bowl of an ancient volcano (great topsoil) so the quakes are mostly unnoticable. But looking at it another way it's also one of the largest calderas in North America (although much smaller than the one that runs from Yosemite to California).

Something is gonna happen fer sure. But really I'm more concerned about how bad the paper wasps will be this year. Your neighborhood probably has similar aspects whether you know it or not. Looking at things like that, it's easier to see what Elena is all about. That one happened. The rest are on schedule. So I ride, hug my sweetie, pet the laughing dogs... screw it.

But if I occasionally seem cranky...

[mosc]

Sounds so dreamy.

I just noticed I left out the link to the Centralia site, which I just put back in my previous post.