So as to avoid hijacking the thread on the Russian invasion of Ukraine:
Russian soldiers occupied Chernobyl. There are now reports of entire busloads of Russian soldiers being transported out of the area who are suffering from acute Radiation sickness:
https://twitter.com/raging545/status/1509289458310410242
My impression? The area is not nearly radioactive enough to cause Acute Radiation Sickness (ARS), at least not outside a few locations inside the containment structure. During the worst of the meltdown and cleanup, only something like 140 people got enough exposure to show symptoms, and most of them survived.
That said, the Russian soldiers seem to have been digging trenches in the area (including the red forest) and were probably also burning firewood from the area, eating meat from game they might have shot in the area, or fish caught in the waters. That's going to result in ingestion of enough material to pretty much guarantee cancer down the road.
There are reports that many of the soldiers sent to Chernobyl had not heard of it, not heard what had happened there. Full state control of the press can make that happen, especially if you're talking about 18-19 year old kids from small rural towns in the east.
Chernobyl employees say Russian soldiers had no idea what the plant was and call their behavior ‘suicidal’
And, back in the day, even as the USSR was fumbling along and avoiding any international discussion of the event, the scientists in the area were having some impact on how the emergency response and containment was handled. (even if it were far below western safety standards). So they wore respirators, showered soon after potential exposure, rotated staff to reduce time spent in the zone, all that.
This time around, it seems as if the Russian military viewed the staff on the site as if they were the enemy, or were naïve children to be ignored. No respirators, nothing. So there might be hundreds or even thousands of young Russian men who breathed in radioactive particles in dust or smoke, or consumed radioactive particles in water or meat or fish. These poor guys are pretty well doomed to get cancer in a decade or two or three or five.
ISF has some pretty science savvy people, I'm curious to know what others here think.
Is it plausible for these poor recruits to get enough exposure to get ARS?
Russian soldiers occupied Chernobyl. There are now reports of entire busloads of Russian soldiers being transported out of the area who are suffering from acute Radiation sickness:
https://twitter.com/raging545/status/1509289458310410242
My impression? The area is not nearly radioactive enough to cause Acute Radiation Sickness (ARS), at least not outside a few locations inside the containment structure. During the worst of the meltdown and cleanup, only something like 140 people got enough exposure to show symptoms, and most of them survived.
That said, the Russian soldiers seem to have been digging trenches in the area (including the red forest) and were probably also burning firewood from the area, eating meat from game they might have shot in the area, or fish caught in the waters. That's going to result in ingestion of enough material to pretty much guarantee cancer down the road.
There are reports that many of the soldiers sent to Chernobyl had not heard of it, not heard what had happened there. Full state control of the press can make that happen, especially if you're talking about 18-19 year old kids from small rural towns in the east.
Chernobyl employees say Russian soldiers had no idea what the plant was and call their behavior ‘suicidal’
And, back in the day, even as the USSR was fumbling along and avoiding any international discussion of the event, the scientists in the area were having some impact on how the emergency response and containment was handled. (even if it were far below western safety standards). So they wore respirators, showered soon after potential exposure, rotated staff to reduce time spent in the zone, all that.
This time around, it seems as if the Russian military viewed the staff on the site as if they were the enemy, or were naïve children to be ignored. No respirators, nothing. So there might be hundreds or even thousands of young Russian men who breathed in radioactive particles in dust or smoke, or consumed radioactive particles in water or meat or fish. These poor guys are pretty well doomed to get cancer in a decade or two or three or five.
ISF has some pretty science savvy people, I'm curious to know what others here think.
Is it plausible for these poor recruits to get enough exposure to get ARS?
