The piglet was born after the accident in the vicinity of the factory with a deformity called dipygus. His body, on screen, is forked on the torso and has too many legs.
"The amount of mutations in humans and animals has increased sharply after the disaster," said the explanation accompanying the display. "Among the latter, during the first four years were some 350 animals found with severe defects."
What is the true nature of the destruction caused by the radioactive contamination in the Exclusion Zone of Chernobyl, an area that extends into a 31 kilometre radius of the factory? And what can we expect to find in a similar area in Fukushima prefecture? After all, it was estimated that the nuclear accident in the Ukraine made uninhabitable in the impossible area since 20,000 years. Will be also ordered Fukushima Earth?
For answers, I turned to Timothy Mousseau, Professor of biological sciences at the University of South Carolina. Mousseau made 30 trips to Belarus and Ukraine since 1999, spending about 230 days in the field, study of organisms living areas clean and contaminated in and around the area and comparing them to those in other parts of Europe.
Anders M?ller, writing in "Biology Letters" in March 2009, he and his colleague, biologist at the University of Paris Sud, reported on their study of bumblebees, butterflies, grasshoppers, dragonflies and cobwebs in the forests around the plant.
They found that "the invertebrate abundance decreased with increasing radiation," concluding that "the ecological effects of the Chernobyl radiation on animals are more than expected." A more recent study area exclusion and published in may 2012 by Prof. Mousseau and colleagues States that "there were many a few pollinators in areas with high levels of radiation... (with) a significant reduction in species richness and abundance of breeding birds..."
They croiseent validation measures against reliable data of previous Russian studies.
The Chernobyl accident spread highly radioactive substances from regions as far away as South of the Germany, Great Britain and the Sweden. In fact, it is the largest release of radioactive material into the environment on the folder, about 400 times the amount released by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
These studies are the pioneering work because Mousseau, "surprisingly, there few data on the abundance of animals with regard to radiation." ".
What we know is that the popular press, both in the Soviet and post-Soviet eras, created a propaganda curtain around the factual information. The absence of data implied that, as many animals were freely roaming in the zone of exclusion as before the accident.
The Japanese media have been a little better with Fukushima. They tend to give this impression, too, to alleviate the disastrous effects of the disaster of the Fukushima nuclear power plant No. 1 and moisten the cause of compensation to the victims.
NHK even gave this impression on a press article released last month. They reported that the number of wild boars has increased by 4 or 5 times since March 2011. Well, if the wild boar are doing very well, then what is so much noise?
At the same time, however, representatives of Fukushima prefecture revealed a reading of 33 000 becquerels of radioactive caesium in a kilogram of captured wild boar near Iwaki City, the highest level ever recorded in a wild animal in the prefecture.
At a conference, I attended the Sophia University, Tokyo, November 20, Prof. Mousseau spoke of his work in Fukushima in a team of researchers who spent approximately 6 weeks to Fukushima from July 2011, conducting research on the abundance of insects and birds and biodiversity, plant productivity, studies to evaluate the dose received by certain bird species and measures of genetic DNA damage.
"A very large part of Fukushima prefecture is contaminated to some extent," Mousseau said. "By that I mean, more than background radiation levels five natural time. Essentially, most parts of the town of Fukushima, Koriyama eastward have measurable levels of radiocaesium. A broadband — 15-20 km wide, extending from the site of the reactor at 50 km northwest, is highly contaminated with levels that are certain to have ecological consequences in the long term. In fact, we have already demonstrated impacts on birds, cicadas and moths.
"Reading about our Geiger counter in front of our hotel in Koriyama in July 2011 was greater than 2 microsieverts per hour and rising. It was a great shock for us because we had not expected these levels in the centre of this vast metropolitan area with more than 300 000 inhabitants".
He concluded: "based on our work in Chernobyl, a chronic exposure to this level of contamination is associated with many adverse consequences for wildlife, including high rates of mutations, developmental abnormalities, tumors, neurological disorders, reduced fertility and longevity."
"Highly contaminated areas are limited to Fukushima prefecture, but the contamination was detected in the prefectures of Tochigi, Ibaraki, Chiba, Tokyo, Miyagi, Yamagata, Niigata, Gunma and Nagano, among others. ... With respect to deposits on the Mainland, the Chernobyl event was much more than 200,000 sq km area... However, very large amounts of contaminants have been released into the ocean around Fukushima, and the size and the impacts on marine systems are still largely unknown. »
As someone who studied Russian Affairs for 50 years, after making my first trip there in 1964, I believe strongly that the after-effects, ecological, economic, political and psychological - Chernobyl accident was a main factor in the downfall of the Soviet regime.
The liberal democratic party, ahead in the polls for the election on 16 December, is dedicated to the restoration of nuclear energy. Attempts to whitewash the possible harmful effects of radiation on the Earth and the sea is an essential tool in the strategy to reduce the anti-nuclear feelings in this country.
Prof. Mousseau said to me, 'our second year of sampling in Fukushima in July 2012 suggests an increase in adverse effects on the animals living in highly contaminated areas, it is imperative that these studies are continuing."
I would like to than the politicians extolling the virtues of nuclear energy to watch the piglet congenitally deformed in Kiev. This little pig brought down a corrupt regime.
Something similar could happen here. If I was a member of the nuclear lobby or a politician in his greedy grip, I fear the wild boar roaming the land of Fukushima more than anything.
If we give leaders bent Frank in this, we who live here will be sold a cat in a bag and a mortal.
Posts
