Chernobyl on TV

There was a great show last night on the discovery channel. It was about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster that took place in 1986. I'd never thought about nuclear energy before this show, at least not in a significant way. The main thing I thought, well I guess it was that I knew that Homer Simpson worked in a nuclear power plant, section 7-G if I recall correctly. And Homer seemed to walk the razor's edge, barely avoiding disaster after disaster. Yes, a nuclear disaster seemed like a funny thing, I mean, at least in the Simpson world.

Anyways, I learned quite a bit from this show, but my paranoia increased exponentially with each extra minute I watched about this event. My mind kept focusing on the fact that there's a nuclear power plant not too far away from Phoenix, and the more imagery I saw from the Chernobyl disaster, a disaster which could have been much much worse, I got more and more freaked out. The most admirable yet tragic part of this whole incident were all the people that worked to stave off a more terrible disaster. Many of the workers sacrificed their lives, or destroyed their health in their attempt to curb a far more terrible fate for their country, western Europe, and possibly the rest of the world.

Ultimately, the show has forced me to reconsider my stance on nuclear energy. I am more leery of it than ever, and find the fact that many people are so quick to embrace it as an enviromentally friendly alternative energy source a bit frightening. Here's a link on Chernobyl.