I saw a video that said that Chernobyl will not be habitable for another 20,000 years. I was curious as to why it takes so long to clean up radioactive contamination? Also for Chernobyl specifically as technology progresses couldn’t we find new methods that significantly reduce the amount it takes for Chernobyl to be habitable again?
Sorry for bad Grammer.
In: Chemistry
Its not that cleanup will take 20000 years, it is that chernobyl will naturally clean its self up in 20000 years.
We are scheduled to finish clean up by 2065, but certain things are not even planned to be cleaned up because doing so isnt profitable, in other words clean up would cost more than the recovered land would be worth plus the cost of containment. containment is really effective in such accidents and so there just isnt a reason to try to clean up the most dangerous places.
Future tech will probiably make it easier, and it might be cleaned up in the future, but “sci-fi may tip the profit calculations leading to eventual cleanup” isnt as good of headline as “This place will be dangerous for 20000 YEARS!”
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