Chernobyl could be reinvented as a solar farm, says Ukraine

[OKIsItJustMe]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/29/chernobyl-could-be-reinvented-as-a-solar-farm-says-ukraine

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Chernobyl could be reinvented as a solar farm, says Ukraine[/font]

[font size=4]Ministers create presentation to show how idle land around nuclear disaster site can be used to produce renewable energy[/font]

John Vidal
Friday 29 July 2016 06.04 EDT

[font size=3]The contaminated nuclear wasteland around Chernobyl could be turned into one of the world’s largest solar farms, producing nearly a third of the electricity that the stricken plant generated at its height 30 years ago, according to the Ukrainian government.

In a presentation sent to major banks and seen by the Guardian, 6,000 hectares of “idle” land in Chernobyl’s 1,000 square km exclusion zone, which is considered too dangerous for people to live in or farm, could be turned to solar, biogas and heat and power generation.

…

The Ukrainian government said more than 1,000MW of solar and 400MW of other renewable energy could be generated. The nuclear plant had an installed capacity of around 4,000MW.

The advantage of generating renewable power at the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident is that the land is cheap and plentiful, and the sunshine is as strong as in southern Germany. In addition, the grid infrastructure and high-voltage power lines needed to transmit electricity to the national grid remain intact, the presentation added.

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[asiliveandbreathe]

1. Soooo - who is going to build this solar farm - Robots????

I'm all for renewables...but come on?? - My nephew works for BP and does logistics throughout the US - infrastructure needed to bring equipment to site..etc etc...

The contaminated nuclear wasteland around Chernobyl could be turned into one of the world’s largest solar farms...

I ask again, Robots??

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. No, people will

Meanwhile in Belarus, just 20 miles from Chernobyl, a 22.3MW solar plant is already under construction in Brahin district, around 20 miles from Chernobyl. The district was one of the most contaminated by Chernobyl’s fallout and the land where the plant is to be built is not suitable for agriculture.

[asiliveandbreathe]

3. Hot damn - Iodine pills for everyone..yea!!!!

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Just because radiation levels are too high to live there 24/7/365…

…does not mean they’re too high to visit.

http://chernobylgallery.com/chernobyl-disaster/radiation-levels/

[font face=Serif]…

[font size=5]Risk[/font]

[font size=3]Generally the levels of radiation in Pripyat and the surrounding area, although far higher than the norm, are safe for the time you will be exposed to them (just don’t go licking stuff).

Those who work within the zone typically work 3 weeks on, 3 weeks off. The “off” period must be spent outside of the zone.

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[asiliveandbreathe]

5. Okay - Just too cynical in my ol' age I guess - I do

remember the air was just fine in nyc after 911, too! NOT!!! Oh, and Fukushima?? - so sad....

Who did they get to do the work??? Must be a lot of unsuspecting people...just sayin' - Desperate people do desperate thinks..

Nope - ain't buyin' it...not good...

[FBaggins]

7. Or even work

Most people don't realize that the plant didn't close after the accident. The three remaining units closed 5, 10, and 14 years later.

[NNadir]

6. It has already reinvented itself as a viridian Park.

The argument has been made that excluding humans from the Chernobyl has easily outweighed the environmental cost of the reactor failure.

Nature: Radioactive Wolves

Comparing the capacity of the nuclear reactors with those of solar and wind facility's peak capacity is furthering the very stupid lie that solar and wind capacity is reliable.

Under the best conditions a solar plant operates at 20% capacity utilization, and thus a "1000MW" solar plant has the average continuous power of a 200 MW gas plant, the caveat it being that a solar plant cannot operate without a gas plant.

The situation involving natural gas in Ukraine is appalling, and places Ukraine at the mercy of Trump's pal Putin.

Ukraine has a very tragic history associated, beyond Putin, with dangerous fossil fuels, coal mine collapses, air pollution etc, not that the dumb anti-nukes in the world give a rat's ass about any of these deaths, being perfectly willing to burn coal, gas and oil to prattle on endlessly about Chernobyl, even though the entire incident didn't kill as many people as will die in the next five hours from air pollution.

Ukraine should build more nuclear plants, although obviously those of a different design than the Chernobyl reactors. This would save Ukranian lives.

[hunter]

8. There's no such thing as "idle land."

There is, however, plenty of land humans have stripped of any natural biodiversity.

A field of GMO feed corn is a dead zone, an extreme biological desert.

The lands contaminated by the Chernobyl accident are now recovering from human occupation. They are very much alive, places of increasing biodiversity.

It would be a shame to crap all over this land with solar panels.

There's plenty of room for solar over lands already destroyed by humans; over parking lots, on the rooftops of factories and warehouses, etc..

I would oppose solar panels over land contaminated by the Chernobyl accident just as I oppose solar developments on undisturbed desert lands.