On Fukushima and Chernobyl

Global Green USA: The Future of Nuclear Energy, Chernobyl and Fukushima – Natalia Manzurova

Nuclear Engineer: “Very huge catastrophe” for melted fuel to burn into ground — Radioactive material “will go all around the world” once in underground water — Chernobyl made cement barrier below reactor, #Fukushima did not

On April 1, 2011 the Global Green USA Security and Sustainability Program held an event titled "The Future of Nuclear Energy: Chernobyl and Fukushima." Presentations were given by three Russian experts with firsthand experience of the Chernobyl reactor tragedy, and other Russian radiological disasters. They discussed the ongoing impact of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe and the implications for the nuclear disaster in Japan.

Natalia Manzurova is a survivor, involved directly in the Chernobyl "liquidation" process for five years. She currently advocates for the rights of victims of radiation exposure internationally. Tatiana Muchamedyarova is an outspoken voice in bringing attention to the consequences of nuclear accidents in her native region of Chelyabinsk. She is the translator in this video.

At 2:00 in

Natalia Manzurova, nuclear engineer called to Chernobyl for 4+ years to study radiation’s effect on the environment and to help cleanup workers:

To cover the burning reactor core, they started dropping bags of sand and cement into the reactor and all this stuff — due to very high temperature — melted, and covered the burning reactor as a lid. And for 24 hours the whole world was on the edge of a very huge catastrophe because from above the reactor was covered, was closed, but it was going to burn down. If the reactor burned through the ground, then all this huge radioactivity will go to underground water, and it will go all around the world.

In Fukushima, now they are cooling the upper part of the reactor, but the center of the reactor has been melted down, and this melted reactor will discharge huge temperature to the bottom of the reactor. If the tragedy that the melted reactors will go through the bottom to the underground, it’s the question.

Russian miners, in order for this not to happen, they had to drill tunnels. Sacrificing their own lives, they put cement into the tunnels on the bottom of the reactor, so the reactor will be closed from beneath.