The Aral Sea

Although a disaster at the time, just like Fukishima there have been no real long-term radiological problems from the event. The few problems that did arise from radioactive iodine around Chernoble could have easily been avoided by taking potassium iodide pills, but the Soviet culture of secrecy stopped that happening. Other than the Germans sending in about a quarter of a million dollars worth  of firefighting equipment , I do not remember ‘the World’ doing very much, certainly the US did very little except to try and learn lessons from the incident.

I agree the Aral Sea was very much a Soviet issue. NASA has some facts on the causes of the problem, but the real cure (restoring river routes and abandoning desert cotton) is unlikely to happen due to the geopolitics of the area (Uzbeks versus the rest). Currently the real measures seem aimed at stabilising the dried-up basin through tree planting.

Most of the $200 million funding came from EU with fears that the old containment dome would release nuclear radiation which would spread over Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. There was probably a bit of politics in all this as the Ukraine/Russia situation in 2015 was very much centre-stage.

I’m personally very blasé over these sorts of radiation levels, if I wasn’t I would never go near Cornwall or Scotland!