forum I lived in Belarus for most of my life

Started October 15, 2019 by Deleted user

tune

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I know a lot about Belarus and I'm always happy to share information about it. i'll also do some surrounding areas but i'd recommend to mostly ask questions about Belarus because I can't guarantee answers for other countries.

How did Chernobyl affect your country? If you don’t mind me asking, did it affect you personally (as in your family..?)

Based on how you worded it, you know what Chernobyl is also the countless times you’ve shown me on discord all your facts of Chernobyl so I won’t have to explain that to you. If anyone else wants the description please ask!

Radiation from the reactor spread across many countries, not just Ukraine and Belarus.

But you’re asking more about Belarus.

It is very easy to see the areas affected are typically near the border. And while it doesn’t seem like much nearly 1/4 of Belarus is uninhabitable even today because of what happened decades ago. In fact the area around Chernobyl will be uninhabitable for around 50,000 years. In order to contain the spread of the fallout a protective dome was built over the reactor that exploded, and it does its job well.

70% of radioactive particles emitted by the plant ended up in Belarus, but 23% was effected by it. Although around 135,000 evacuated their homes and many were effected by the radiation sickness, and long term effects. To this day, cancers such as thyroid have a higher rate in Belarus.
The Belarusian Dead Zone is the most restricted zone around Chernobyl.

If you also noticed there water running right through it, you are correct - the water can be contaminated, but if you ever go to Belarus you won’t have to worry about drinking radioactive water unless you actively seek it out. I’d worry more about the tap water.

Fish is mostly safe to eat, but avoid southern fish. Also avoid certain types of fish, since some say certain types get more radiation compared to others. There is tainted water and livestock, farm produce and land however, but you’d see higher concentrations in the south side. Belarus has many swamps as well, swamps generally retain higher radiation.

In terms of my family, I guess it does effect us. Chernobyl shortened some region’s lifespans by 5 years, and at the time while my relatives lived close to those areas they were able to evacuate to a safer area. But radiation is a mostly silent killer, and I’ve seen a few of my family members have problems with cancers. It looks like it skipped my cousins and maybe me though, so I’ll have to see. It did effect the place we lived, though.

If you see the map I had earlier of Belarus my relatives lived in one of those orange-red areas I think. Maybe a peach colour.

So if most of the red area centers around Chernobyl, then why is there another very large area north of Gomel?

A lot of the lingering radioactivity was spread by wind and heavy rainfall in the days after the catastrophe, which happened to spread in that direction towards Gomel due to the direction wind might've been pointed those days.
Trust me on this, the wind and rainfall that happened was pretty bad for the countries and regions those following days/weeks. They found radiation all the way in Sweden as well, so the radiation can go very big distances.

Damn, I no idea radiation could even spread that far! In terms of general radioactivity, was it like a nuke went off without the massive explosion beforehand?

Basically yeah. Though I think the radiation fallout was 200 times higher than Nagasaki and Hiroshima, so it was definitely bad.