To wonder why no iodine was given after Chernobyl blew up!

[Abbazed]

That really to wonder why no iodine was given to people after Chernobyl? Cost? To avoid fear? Lack of knowledge of the benefits?

I think it was mostly because they tried to keep the fact that it happened a secret. The government at the time was very much in denial that it had happened!

In the context of a release of radiation, Iodine 131 is a gas with a half life of around 8 days.

This means it is has gone after approx 2 months.

Combined with the release occurring in Ukraine, the gas would be incredibly diluted in the atmosphere.

The main hazard from the Chernobyl incident was Caesium, which was lifted into the atmosphere during the fire. This was deposited by rain action in the UK. Grazing animals then ate grass with the caesium on top, and when we ate the animal products it ends up in our body. From memory Caesium ends up in bone marrow, which has means you get a persistent dose.

Iodine tablets target a specific risk in the area immediately surrounding an incident, and would offer nothing to Brits.

Belarus got the worst of the radiation, worse than Ukraine.

We are in Austria and when your child goes to kindergarten you sign a consent form for iodine to be given in case of nuclear incident.

irateninja

Yes Cesium 137 is a bone seeker.

We are in Austria and when your child goes to kindergarten you sign a consent form for iodine to be given in case of nuclear incident.

You guys REALLY don't trust Temelin, do you? 😮😂

This is why I love MN. Every day is a school day! I was born in 81, so knew very little about the disaster until I was older. I never knew anything about iodine being given etc.

This is a real eye opener for me. I stay in Ayrshire so I'm wondering if we should have some iodine tablets at home in case of a disaster at Hunterston. Our local hospitals have kits that will be deployed in this event (I'm a hospital pharmacist) but not sure if I should get some for our home anyway. What dose should be taken in this event?

The rainfall transfer of Caseium was a reason we couldn't eat Welsh lamb here in the UK for decades.

There were also whisperings around the time of how it would affect the future fertility of the children in the UK around the time, especially those who were still in the womb and those recently born who were formula fed (because of the tap water).

There was also more girls born than boys after btw

@wellhellothere101 the same thing will never happen at Hunterston. My dad worked their for over 30 years and my friends dad practically designed most of it (he worked there as an apprentice and be some an engineer). In Chernobyl the part that was meant to shut down were a set of rods that slot into chambers to close everything off. They had it designed so that the rods had to move upwards and as they did the mechanism twisted and couldn’t close together properly. In Hunterston the mechanism is the other way round and the rods come down via gravity. I’ve probably not explained it very well but my dad worked in safety there.! They also have additional ways to shut everything down. He was more worried about ICI in Ardeer.

Nice story about Hunterston, the station are built on the coast and the use turbines to pull in seawater for cooling (that’s what the bubbling in outside of there in the sea, expelled seawater. One time a seal got sucked in by accident. Not injured etc it was really friendly and all the workers were bringing in fish to feed him until the SSPCA could remove him. They had to turn off the turbines so he didn’t get chopped up.

My DH works in Hunterston currently. He's happy with the safety of it so so am I. Chernobyl was a fucking mess of human error and the station director not believing it was happening until it was too late.

My mum mentioned the other day that some of the parents at my primary school stopped their kids from drinking milk in the aftermath of Chernobyl (I would be 6 at the time; central belt of Scotland). She didn’t bother cancelling mine. No idea how much substance there was to the fear of dairy products.

Started watching that Chernobyl drama, just horrendous

@themobilesitemademesignup the same thing would be impossible out there. My dad worked in health physics for decades and use to wear the ‘space suits’ to actually go into radiated zones.

The hospital system in the ussr was very different to what we are used to. A lot of hospitals were specific to one area of medicine (e.g. maternity services were usually segregated) and medicine was hard to come by in the ussr (many people got theirs through the black market imported or because they had friends in dispensaries that would keep the good stuff aside for them). And then of course there is the general lack of giving a shit about human life that is common to communist regimes. I doubt that the government would have bothered to Male the provision for a nuclear response outside of important centres/important classes of people.

Don't forget that some people are allergic to iodine .

I doubt that the government would have bothered to Male the provision for a nuclear response outside of important centres/important classes of people.

Because that would be basically an admission that even the good old USSR can make mistakes so they make precautions.
They admitted what happened just because other countries started being loud about extra radiation. I think it was Swedes who said it first, but can't be sure atm.

Don't forget that some people are allergic to iodine

I don’t think that makes much difference in this situation.

I see your point, although it might if you suffered an immediate anaphylactic shock. That tends to happen if you have that allergy.

We were living in Germany at the time, apparently the hospitals couldn't cope with the incidences of iodine over-dosing! The population had gone a bit mad.

I seem to remember they were also worried about the Ignalina plant in Lithuania, because it was the same model as Chernobyl? If that had gone up then Scandanavia would have been in the shit.

I have a couple of traditional flower pictures in my home painted by Chernobyl children - my Russian teacher organised a fundraising event.

Don't forget that some people are allergic to iodine

I know someone in Germany who lives near a power plant (near Lueneburg, fairly close to Hamburg) and they have iodine tablets.

In Chernobyl the part that was meant to shut down were a set of rods that slot into chambers to close everything off. They had it designed so that the rods had to move upwards and as they did the mechanism twisted and couldn’t close together properly

and the staff on duty didn't know what they were doing. I read a book about it at Christmas and I think there was supposed to be some sort of training exercise and it was cancelled or changed and the staff who should have been there weren't - I can't quite remember the detail now. And also because everything was run from Moscow there was no local decision-making, even from Kiev.

It must be a very interesting place to visit, a friend went a couple of years ago.

The villages closest to the Hinkley Point nuclear power station are all provided with iodine tablets in case of emergency, it's quite scary when they test the sirens. I didn't realise this wasn't standard around other nuclear stations in the UK!