Hemp Hollow

Claudia Himmelreich / McClatchy Before the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis off the coast of Japan, there was Chernobyl, "the worlds worst civil nuclear accident." Unlike Fukushima which was caused by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami, the 1986 Chernobyl power plant disaster was caused by human error. Damaged by a series of blasts, the Ukrainian plant’s reactor released a cloud of radioactive dust across northern and western Europe, reaching as far as the eastern United States. The radiation poisoned millions of acres of agricultural land in Ukraine and Belarus, with economic damage totaling over 235 billion dollars. The death toll estimates vary with present numbers reaching 734,000, plus an additional 70,000 who have been left with various disabilities.  A 19 mile (30-km) exclusion zone surrounds the disaster site and it could take up to 100 years for environmental remediation to effectively decontaminate the soil. Industrial hemp brings hope. A