we had a friend of the family that worked in for the state agriculture dept in Czechoslovakia, back in the the late 80s. When CHernobyl happened he was sent out in the fields with a geiger counter.. He said it was all off the scale, and was under strict orders not to say anything, knowing that grass would be fed to cattle and the milk would be consumed by the public.

He didnt live to see velvet revolution only a few years later, he died of leukemia in 1989. Its hard to say what caused the leukemia but considering the time he spent outside one wonders what his radiation exposure was.

Im not particularly an advocate nor anti-nuclear, but an article I read in Home Power yesterday was rather interesting. Its been 34years since a nuclear power plant has been built in the US, and yet the industry receives 13billion $us yearly in funding. The 75 or so nuclear plants in the US were estimated to cost $45 billion but ultimately ended up costing - $175 billion (almost 4times the original estimate). It is expensive. and after 60years we dont seem to enjoy any economies of scale, or cheaper plants that one would expect with a maturing industry.

Implicit in talk about nuclear energy is that its green house gas free..however this doesnt address the mining, processing, transportation of uranium - and the transportation and storage facilities required of it afterwards. There is quite a lot of co2 generated in all those steps. As well as all the concrete involved in the construction.