Svenja Borgwardt

TU Dortmund
WS 2014/2015

Translation 4
Dierich

Nuclides in the Peat

Sometimes, when the sky clears up, it feels at the Conwy River like
being in a picture book world. Today the idyll is not long lasting. A sharp
gust whips clouds from the Irish Sea towards the shore; a wet and grey veil
5is spreading over the hillsides. Glyn Roberts has experienced many of such
rainy days for the last 25 years. But none of them has stuck in his memory
than the last days of April in 1986, which has turned his picture book world
into a disaster area.
Back then the winds exceptionally came from East, namely from
10Chernobyl. When we heard about the reactor accident, we had no idea
what this was going to mean to us, Roberts says. The winds also
transported radioactive particles towards Great Britain. Rain has washed
radioactivity into the soil, where it is still present and still harms the
environment.
15

Until today Glyn Roberts is obligated to certify his sheep by the Welsh
authorities, in order to proof that they are not improprietously contaminated.
Here in the northern parts of Wales, two thousand kilometers far from the
Ukrainian border, there are still 180,000 sheep that are obligated for
compulsory examination. The sale of lambs, that are supposed to be

20slaughtered, requires particular tests.

Glyn Roberts remembers that there was a lot of uproar and even
physical harm in the weeks after the Chernobyl accident, when scientists
explained to the farmers that cesium 137 has a 30-year disintegration halftime.
25

That summer the farmers were not allowed to sell any lamb. The
animals were accumulated at the farms; unencumbered foot was rare.
Several farmers had gotten into financial difficulties.
(340 words)

Nuklide im Torf

Svenja Borgwardt
TU Dortmund
WS 2014/2015

Translation 4
Dierich

Meanwhile, shepherds can decontaminate their radioactive lambs with

one simple trick: The lambs get marked with red color by the ministry and
30are transported to exposure-free fields. After four weeks the lambs are
going to be tested again. Glyn Roberts points to the positive aspect of the
radiation measuring: That way our customers have always known that the
Wales lamb was the most thoroughly tested meat throughout the whole
world. For him personally, the radioactive sheep increasingly provided food
35for his thought, says the farmer. He did not feel comfortable that Great
Britain still runs nuclear power stations and keeps building new ones.

10(340 words)

Nuklide im Torf