The photo was created by the Soviet Union. It shows the Sarcophogus being build around what remained of Chernobyl's reactor 4. The primary goal of the Sarcophogus is to keep all the radioactive materials (fuel, equipment, dust, etc..) contained.


In Part 1 I asked:

Why are Ukrainian adoption experiences are all unique? And why does a translator's job seem to be more then translation?

Then I discussed "institutional uncertainty" but didn't directly define it. You cannot google it or find it in a dictionary. But it a phrase found in Economics and is easily understood.


Just a reminder, an institution can be a bank, insurance company, school, church, Red Cross, electric company, government, etc... Institutions are basic blocks of society that provide community services and continuity. They are the glue.


Today is the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. The "V.I. Lenin Memorial Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station" is in Pripyat, Ukraine. It is 10 miles from the Russian border and 68 miles north of Kyiv. Pripyat is in the Kyiv Oblast.

On Saturday April 26, 1986, at 1:23:58 a.m. local time, the unit 4 reactor of the Chernobyl power plant—known as Chernobyl-4—suffered a catastrophic steam explosion that resulted in a fire, a series of additional explosions, and a nuclear meltdown.


From: Wikipedia's Chernobyl disaster

My memories.....

• 
  The Soviet Union lied about the accident and keep on lying.



• 80% of Belarus's top soil was destroyed. The wind was blowing North from Pripyat and toward Belarus.


• The Soviet Union couldn't afford to destroy the contaminated food crops. Ukraine was the breadbasket (provided a lot of food) for the Soviet Union. Solution was to spread the food around so everyone got equal amounts of radioactive food.

Click here for a map that shows the radiation hotspots caused by the accident.


Did you know?

• The Chernobyl Plant remained open and operational until November 2000? Ukraine had a energy shortage and really couldn't afford to shutdown the other reactors. I was in Ukraine during November 2000 to December 2000. I noticed a power shortage. I was in Kharkiv and there were frequent power outages.



• There are 4,000 men and women who live (for short periods of time) and work in the Chernobyl Plant now. The Sarcophogus was badly build and there are major concerns that it could fail. There is a project underway to fix this.



• When I adopted in 2000, everything that I read communicated that unhealthy levels of radiation were no longer found in the food or water.



• Elena's Motorcyle Ride through Chernobyl is generally considered a fraud. Here is one blog on this.

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Institutional Uncertainty
Chernobyl
Ukraine's Government from 1991 to 1994
Ukraine's Government from 2000 to 2006
Why is everyone's adoption experience unique?
Corruption