Radiation Will Plague Chernobyl for Hundreds of Years

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/08/radiation-will-pollute-area-around.html

The radioactive half life of cesium 137 is usually 30 years.

But scientists at the Savannah River National Laboratory say that the cesium at Chernobyl will persist in the environment between 5 and 10 times longer - between 180 and 320 years.

As Wired notes:

Cesium 137’s half-life — the time it takes for half of a given amount of material to decay — is 30 years. In addition to that, cesium-137’s total ecological half-life — the time for half the cesium to disappear from the local environment through processes such as migration, weathering, and removal by organisms is also typically 30 years or less, but the amount of cesium in soil near Chernobyl isn’t decreasing nearly that fast. And scientists don’t know why.

More at the link --

[slackmaster]

1. We cannot allow a Doomsday Gap!

[texastoast]

2. Move along, nothing to see here

Everything will be fine.

[Gold Metal Flake]

3. Safe, clean, too cheap to meter.

[RC]

4. Let's replace it with coal. It's carbon rich and radio active too.

[Gold Metal Flake]

5. Aren't you adorable.