The Next 'Chernobyl' ? ......

The recent discussion thread on some of the hazards associated with the Chernobyl accident prompted me to post a few links on another similar disaster which seems to be looming on the horizon :

By the end of the second World War , the United States Navy had become , arguably , the largest and most powerful in the world . Much larger than the Soviet Navy , a situation deemed unacceptable by the Soviet Union . To counter this imbalance , the Soviet Union initiated an aggressive buildup of their naval military forces . This aggresive construction program continued throughout the Cold War .

Before the former Soviet Union disintegrated into the CIS , it had built a strong and powerful Navy . At one time , there were over 200 nuclear powered naval vessels in service . When the Soviet Union disbanded in 1991 , the Russian military underwent significant changes . The funding , resources , and manpower required to maintain its naval forces was cut drastically . The list of problems associated with these cuts has been growing ever since .

The Soviet Union's track record concerning management of hazardous nuclear and chemical wastes was , to say the least , pretty poor to start with . Environmental concerns and waste management from both industrial and military activities were never a priority . And as time goes by , and these issues become more and more critical ; they have virtually no resources to allocate to support resolution of these increasingly serious problems .

These problems , until recent years , were not widely known or discussed outside the military . While some western nations did recognize the implications fairly soon after the demise of the Soviet Union , little actual forward progress has been made .

This is another 'Chernobyl' in the making ; only it's happening in 'slow motion' . It is only a matter of time before these facilities deteriorate even further . Another ecological disaster on a global scale , a preventable one , is just waiting to happen . While current events in the news focus our attention elsewhere , the clock is ticking................

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,3831277,00.html

http://www.nzz.ch/english/background/background1999/background9909/bg990929russia.html

http://www.bellona.no/en/international/russia/navy/northern_fleet/report_2-1996/11092.html

http://www.bellona.no/en/international/russia/navy/northern_fleet/report_2-1996/11088.html

http://www.bellona.no.en/international/russia/navy/northern_fleet/report_2-1996/11084.html

http://www.bellona.no.en/internationa/russia/navy/northern_fleet/report_2-1996/11087.html

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/agency/mf-north.htm

http://pugwash.org/reports/nw/nw8c.htm

http://nti.org/db/nisprofs/russia/naval/nucflt/norflt/nerpa.htm

http:nti.org/db/nisprofs/russia/naval/nucflt/norflt/norflovr.htm

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/k19/radiation_main.html

http://www.bellona.no/en/international/russia/navy/northern_fleet/report_2-1996/11077.html

Cold Warrior , that website and the photo of Sasha is a sobering sight indeed . What a tragedy , we can not even imagine what such a life must be like .

I think from looking at the other replies , perhaps you were the only one who at least partially understood the point I was trying to make with my original post . I guess I need to try to speak a little more clearly when I write .
It was not about economics , it was not about the shift in the balance of power in the world today .

It was about children like Sasha . Sad and tragic stories like his and the other children of Chernobyl will be repeated again and again in the northern parts of Russia unless something is done about the Northern Fleet .

These ships and submarines are sitting in ports and bases unattended ; simply rusting and rotting away . Waste sites are overflowing . Many of the containers being used to store these highly toxic materials are corroding . Many containers and storage tanks have been compromised ; and the toxic contents have leaked out and are already working their way into the ground water . Some of the sub tenders and fuel storage facilities have already been degraded to the point that they are unnapproachable . The freighter 'Lepse' is so radioactive that any salvage or disposal attempts would have to be carried out with robotics . The Russian Navy has dumped several entire submarine reactors into the Barents Sea . By using the Barents , North , and Arctic seas as their military's toilet , they are in the process of turning yet another sizable chunk of the globe into an uninhabitable wasteland .

We have a chance here , an opportunity , to *PREVENT* more stories like Sasha's from becoming a horrible reality . By containing and cleaning up this huge mess left behind by the Russian military that they seem to be incapable of dealing with . We have a chance to prevent another 'Chernobyl' type disaster from happening . That was the point , though poorly communicated , that I was trying to make .

Thus the real calling card in North America is the mass exodus of companies closing up shop and relocating overseas...mainly to China.

Russia and the FSU countries are being bypassed in favor even cheaper labor in China.  So what kind of a living standard are they going to have in the next 10 years ?

We like to think they are in a 1950's mindset, but in reality, they could be even farther behind in the coming years as even our standards of living will be brought to test.

We're definately due a 1929 style routing, just to get a point of reference for the next generation.  Atleast in the FSU they won't notice a thing.

Who sez the USA will be the powerhouse of the future?

We relinquished the unskilled jobs thinking we had the skilled ones.  But the corporations found out they could do those cheaper overseas too.  So then we took refuge in the so-called Knowledge jobs, secure in our ever expanding "information" economy.  But as it turns out, those jobs can be done very easily by any educated population - and a whole lot of them exist that can work far cheaper than us.

I read one recent analysis that projected that 4 million Information Technology jobs (in this study the definition was rather wide ranging) will be lost to India alone over the next 5-7 years.  China will begin to compete when their English skills improve.

Call customer service today at Dell, Citicorp and any number of other Fortune 500 companies and you are as likely to get someone in Bangalore as Texas or South Dakota.

All together now: "Would you like fries with that?"