Crossroads Digest

he Chernobyl disaster has given rise to numerous analyses and reports, both scientiic and journalistic, as well as to ilms and documentaries.1 It has been the subject of widespread and unresolved debate as to the number of victims, current medical efects, and the impact of low-level radiation on people’s health. Above all perhaps it has relected a rit between what one might term “the scientiic community” and popular writing and inquiries. It has receded from world attention over time – indeed it is only commemorated on signiicant anniversaries in the western world – but its efects are still with us. In some respects, partly as a result of natural decomposition of radio-nuclides and partly as a consequence of economic factors, they have worsened rather than improved over time. In Belarus, for example, the contaminated lands have mostly been re-cultivated; in truth, farmers have lived of the land since the 1986 accident withscant attention to what they are eating.