We wanted to write about Elena Filatova, an explorer at heart and creator of a 10-year online journal documenting her explorations by Motorcycle in the dead zone of (and beyond) Chernobyl. We highly recommend her website consisting of 10 years of intimate photojournalism into the behind the scenes story of what has really happened since the nuclear reaction at Chernobyl in 1986.
Her journals and photos are poignant while weaving political history, scientific antidotes, her personal impressions and true life stories of the abandoned people and animals, not only within the dead zone but in hundreds of ghost towns 40 to 80 kms away from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site.
Elena Filatova has made exploring these areas and ghost towns a life long hobby and this year at the 10th anniversary of her website published Chernobyl Photobook ' Ghost Town.'The proceeds go toward the author buying food supplies and essentials for all those still remaining in the irradiated and abandoned ghost towns and villages to this day.
We are also fond of the authors journal 'Land of the Wolves.' And recently, her concerns are for the recent nuclear disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plants in Japan:
"Nowadays, we are moving from catastrophe to catastrophe so fast that no
one has time to learn from what is happening, thus we are doomed to
repeat it all again and again. Each time history repeats itself the
price goes up.
My aim is to take hold of important events I have witnessed and rescue
from oblivion deeds that have been forgotten or chosen to have been
forgotten. With time, cities perish and the memory of things is lost, so
the sole purpose of my work is to preserve memories on the internet
forever.
Since the Ghost Town site first went on the Internet in 2003, tens of
millions visitors have viewed the Chernobyl information which it
provides. This site is maintained by me, the author, and is completely
free of all popup ads and spyware. There are no copyright issues.
Work on this site is my hobby, which I pursue in my free time.""
We can't say enough good things about the authors courageous explorations into contaminated areas, her insights and obvious passion for her cause. In our mind's, Elena Filatova is the epitomy of what it means to be an explorer who explores the abandoned.
We are sorry. We were posting about the environmental tragedy of the
Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan for some time, and then things came
up, and we thought Japan was onto things quicker in regards to cleanup
as they suggested (We recollect the cold shut down was to commence no
later than 2012). We and Tepco were wrong.
We are back.
Never in our lives did we think we would ever be posting on our blog
about abandoned places, people and ultimately about our potentially
abandoned earth in the future.
But as explorers of the
abandoned, we explore everything, sometimes by leaving only foot prints
behind, and sometimes in our arm chairs looking onto events we cannot
control, about complete abandoned civilizations as per 'Ecocide'.
At
the root of all abandoned phenomenon, as we have believed right from
the start, is the abandonment of our civilization, history and common
sense. We have abandoned ourselves and one another, as depicted in the
history of all abandoned places and people on this planet, including the
ultimate extinction of so many great civilizations before ours, all
overcome by various outcomes of ecocide.
After recently discussing the plutonium and MOX fuel situation in Japan's nuclear reactors, in particular to Fukushima's reactor no. 3, I thought this next topic interesting. It regards the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility almost due to commence in the Savannah River Site near Aiken, South Carolina.
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) states on their website that "Operations are set to begin at the MOX facility in 2016. The MOX facility will help provide a pathway out of South Carolina for the surplus plutonium brought to SRS for disposition."
What is MOX Fuel?
Now MOX stands for a mixed oxide fuel. It is a lethal cocktail of plutonium and uranium oxides. Actually nuclear plants and nuclear weapons produce and use the isotope plutonium - 239 (pu-239), which has a half-life of approximately 24,000 years. Others say 240,000. Actually one pu isotope has a half-life of 6 million years. It's a good thing we can't put THAT in reactors or weapons.
Unlike other radioactive isotopes, it is understood that plutonium and MOX fuel is extremely toxic in smaller dosages over other commonly known nuclear isotope varieties. For instance, if Fukushima had a complete meltdown, the consequences would be far worse than Chernobyl ever was due its reactor no.3 MOX potentiality. Of course, this is an educated guess based merely on scientific theory, because we've yet had a major meltdown of this magnitude with a MOX fuel.
Mox Fuel Does Not Get Rid of the Problem
Understandably, the gestalt of the huge facility known as the Savannah River Site was premised on nuclear security by way of getting rid/processing nuclear weapon waste, which is a noble cause. However, you cannot get rid of nuclear waste. These facilities are merely recycling the waste into a toxic oxide fuel (MOX), which will then be generated within nuclear plants like Fukushima, and the waste continues. More waste is generated and this new waste byproduct needs to be released somewhere, except preferably into the environment. So in fact, nothing is resolved pertaining to the nuclear lifespan.
Today, I read several journalistic reports stating there is no such facility in the USA, and that plants don't use MOX fuel in the USA either. Maybe they just forgot to mention the Savannah River Site Facility scheduled to commence 2016? Maybe not ...It will be interesting which direction this facility will go in in the months ahead.
MOX Fuel is Not a Commodity
However,as I stated already, the goal was to destabilize these waste products from ever being utilized as nuclear weapons ever again. The problem is, especially after Fukushima, the road paved in good intentions isn't always what it seems to be. And, as I mentioned in previous postings the last few days, nuclear waste is not a commodity. But it's about to become such in the USA, in 2016 situated in South Carolina.
Not only is the proliferation of MOX fuel condoning the myth that nuclear waste is a commodity, but the facility has taken years to build, has employed thousands and will guarantee 10's of thousands more work in the coming days. I call that a commodity of gigantic proportions.
Take a look at this huge facility in this video. I was watching it and the sinking of the 'TITANIC" just kept coming to mind.
Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.
-Henri Cartier-Bresson-
Public Commons
We see the beauty in decay and the shadowed dreams of the forgotten.
