Morgan Olsson wrote:
>> Point me to one known death in any part of nuclear power producing
>> industry and maybe I'll take a look.
>
> What planet are you living on?
>
> Tjernobyl is a very known place with a reactor that exploded not terriby 
> far from me.
> Cancer deaths are still counting on large scale

Watched a Russian documentary a couple of days ago ("20th anniversary of 
Chernobyl").

http://russianremote.com/2999.html

It's in Russian only (with no subtitles), but among other things they 
show/talk about:

- The fact that out of 180,000 liquidators, only 134 were diagnosed with 
acute radiation sickness. Out of those, 28 died.
- There are people who still live in the "forbidden zone" -- 30 km radius. 
The 80-year old guy says he feels no ill effects (remember, 20 years 
passed). His grandkids live there, too -- by law, they have to spend a few 
weeks each year in the "clean zone" -- apparently they're healthy, too.
- Today Chernobyl is a popular tourist destination.
- Interview with Oleg Genrikh, one of two reactor operators at the time the 
explosion occurred. He's been treated for acute radiation sickness, and 
according to his testimony has fully recovered (after nine plastic 
surgeries). Oleg says that a traffic cap asked him whether radiation 
sickness leads to impotence. His reply was, "go ask my wife, I don't like to 
brag". According to him, it took him a longer time (9 years) to recover 
psychologically.
- Animal-mutants (two-headed hares, etc) are a myth.
- There is no indication that exposure to radiation leads to
-  Most cancer deaths (thyroid), are due to the criminal actions of the 
government. They could have been avoided, if only people downwind from 
Chernobyl would have been advised to stay at home (radioactive isotope of 
iodine, which causes this specific form of cancer, has a half-life of 8 
days).

Of course, to keep it balanced, they had to find a guy (the angry one with 
the beard) who said that the IAEA report was paid for by the Russian 
government, and that any dose of radiation is harmful ("even as far as India 
1,000,000 were affected!"). "People who live within the zone, have broken 
chromosomes".

>From another source, a story of what happened to Oleg:

"Operators of the CH-4 (Central Hall) Anatoly Kurguz and Oleg Genrikh after 
a check of the central hall went into the operator's room wait for 
Perevozchenko (their supervisor), to get the task list for the shift. About 
six minutes prior to explosion, Oleg told Anatoly that he's tired and will 
go get some sleep. He went into a separate room with a bunk. Oleg shut and 
locked the door, and went to sleep. Meanwhile, Anatoly made an entry in the 
operating journal. He was separated from the central hall by three wide open 
doors. When the explosion happened, radioactive steam went into the 
operator's room. Anatoly's skin was torn, and went in blisters. Anatoly 
yelled to Oleg: "It really burns! It really burns!" Oleg tried to open the 
door, but the heat was so intense, that he postponed the attempt, and 
instinctively lay on the floor. Oleg yelled: "Anatoly! Get down, it's 
cooler!". When the heat began to subside, Oleg and Anatoly went down the 
"clean stairs" [...] Dyatlov (assistant chief engineer) ran to them: "Quick, 
to the hospital!""

According to a forum post by Oleg, Anatoly received 3-4 times the amount of 
radiation considered "incompatible with life". Officially, it is considered 
that Anatoly died not from radiation sickness, but from the burns he 
received.

Vitaliy

PS "Centrall Hall" is the area directly above the reactor.

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