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Wednesday, October 4th, 2023

Inside West Virginia’s Chernobyl

Author:     JUSTIN NOBEL
Source:     truthdig
Publication Date:     SEP 18, 2023
 Link: Inside West Virginia’s Chernobyl
Stephan:  

As we exit the carbon era expect lots of Congressional and state legislature corruption produced by the corporations that profit from nuclear energy. Nuclear is, and always has been, an extremely dangerous technology. Think Chernobyl. Think Fukushima. Think of all the costs and dangers of nuclear’s multi-century waste issues. Now think West Virginia. We do not want to go down the nuclear path when we have so many other options.

Dr. Yuri Gorby tests the odd brownish dirt just outside the burnt out frack waste processing building with a Ludlum 3000 Digital Survey Meter, a type of Geiger counter. Readings in this area “maxed out” the unit. Beside him is Jill Hunkler, director of Ohio Valley Allies, a grassroots group active in communities threatened by fracking across the Marcellus-Utica.
Credit: Justin Nobel

It’s around 4 p.m. one fine summer afternoon on a West Virginia hilltop when Dr. Yuri Gorby, a former Department of Energy scientist, gets the first clicks on his Geiger counter. He is wearing a full-body plastic protective suit, and using the device to survey a span of odd brownish dirt near the dilapidated main building of Fairmont Brine Processing, a fracking waste treatment plant that ceased operations in 2017. 

“These are the highest readings I’ve ever seen!” he shouts. “You want to come over here!”

I follow Ohio organizer Jill Hunkler past a graffiti-covered security shack and a vaguely Satanic-looking circle of busted up furniture to find the 62-year-old scientist wearing a look of deep […]

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