The Aral Sea

[keith with the teef]

So, the Russians are responsible for the worlds biggest disasters out side of war,being: Chernobyl and The Aral Sea.

So, the world came together to fix Chernobyl?

It really needs to come together to fix the Aral Sea.

I don’t think the Usbekistans know their asre from their elbow when it comes to science or farming cotton. Fishing, yes! Opps, no fish!

The world needs to go in there with the latest tech in irrigation and water management and get back the Aral to its former glory. They also need to get the Usbeks off cotton and onto some other crop which requires less water for clothing materials like flak or something.

 

[Ed P]

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.

[Drezha]

Keith might be referring to the most recent sarcophagus at Chernobyl that has been built by international firms (not sure on who funded it). Still some very nasty radioactive debris within the reactor building. I think it’s mainly to keep it all in one place, as whilst I say it can’t be that bad, as they were running the other reactors until recently and you can visit the control room!

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Ed P]

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!

[keith with the teef]

@EDP

Quote:by taking potassium iodide pills, of firefighting equipment.

He he, there is a strong tangent to metro exodus Sam’s story there. A funny stealth game well worth a visit.

But, yeah, I also find out that the worlds Aquifers are drying out at an alarming rate.

So it looks like no lessons have been learned from the Aral sea.

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