So I don’t always post info about books I read that I think are groovy. I also read a lot of magazines, and when I come across an article I think is cool/provocative, I’ll post a link to it. And that’s exactly what I’m doing now!
Here’s a link to Henry Shukman’s “Chernobyl: My Primeval, Teeming, Irradiated Eden,” published in the March, 2011 edition of Outside Magazine.
Here’s the intro:
Twenty-five years after the Soviet-era meltdown drove 60,000 people from their homes in the Ukraine, a rebirth is taking place inside the exclusion zone. With Geiger counter in hand, the author explores Europe’s strangest wildlife refuge, an enchanted postapocalyptic forest from which entirely new species may soon emerge.
This is a fascinating journey through an area that nature is slowly reclaiming, but we still don’t know the price we’ve paid for that. Shukman’s narrative style sucks you right into the story and his descriptions are superb. He really captures the weird vibe that this off-limits area exudes, and the questions that linger about it. For those of us who remember the meltdown, it’s a reminder about the impact it still has, and what could ultimately come of it. Give it a read, and see what kinds of comments it generated.
Andi Marquette 
Oh, cool, I’ll definitely have to check this out. I’ll also show the post to one of my nuke geek friends, a guy who’s particularly critical of the conventional wisdom, i.e. the studies claiming that the toll wasn’t all that great. One of those studies was funded by the US DoE, so… uh, I wouldn’t trust that either.
Thank you for the post. I am also loving your blog in general. 🙂