Radioactivity?
Hello! I go out walking with my dogs twice daily along a small path on the edge of a small river here nortlh-central Switzerland. On the south side of the path is a field that is used to grow wheat, and on the north side is the river after only a few meters of wildlands and brush. The location is just outside of our village, and there is not much wild life there, although two pairs of mallard ducks and a pair of Eurasian coots are nesting along the river, and there are fish in the river.
The greenery along the path is cut back once a year, usually in the early fall to reduce the danger of fire, and to keep the wild growth from intruding too much into the field. That means that the area along the path is mostly wild grasses, various kinds of clover, wild flowers, etc.
Local Clover Territory
There are some clover patches along the path, and they are growing out now with the warmer weather and longer days. I looked (but I did not “search”) for four-leaf clovers earlier in the spring. That is not so unusual, I think you will agree, but I found it a little unusual that I did not see any. But then, I’m not there to look for four-leaf clovers, I’m there to walk with the dogs! 
Three-Leaf Clover for Comparison
Four-Leaf Clover
Then this past week, I found a five-leaf clover! I have never seen one before, although I assumed that they must exist. I started thinking about why I was finding a five-leaf clover here in Switzerland, and I remembered that this area had some radioactive fallout in the days following the Chernobyl disaster almost exactly 25 years ago (26 April 1986). Enough fallout that the local people were warned not to eat the fruits and vegetables from their own gardens that summer. That started me worrying a little – nothing panicy – but a growing concern about the long-lasting results of radioactive contamination.
5-Leaf Cover
Pseudo-Six-Leaf Clover
Six-Leaf Clover
“Yes, the 5-leaf clover is a mutation like the 4-leaf clover that does appear occasionally, but less common than the 4-leaf clover. There are 6, 7 and other multiple leaf clovers that sometimes occur.” [http://www.fourleafclover.com/vshop/facts_about_5-leaf_clovers.html]
I do know that I have never found anything more exciting than the four-leaf versions before in my life, and I have worked and lived on five continents and visited the sixth! Is this the result of radioactive fall-out from Chernobyl? Or from the active nuclear power plants in Switzerland today? I am convinced that it is not from the developing Fukushima disaster (it is too soon), but I do not know what the reason is, and I don’t feel very comfortable with the situation!
May 17th: Further to the situation, I am still finding four-leaf clovers relatively routinely, but I’m not picking them any more – that seems to be superflous at this point. However, I made one exception: I found this giant four-leaf clover this morning, and I just felt that it belonged to the collection!
The Giant 4-Leaf-Clover
Craig Hesser
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Here is a reference for the problems from Chernobyl that are just not “going away!” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-alvarez/chernobylthe-gift-that-ne_b_681285.html
Hi again,
As expected, the farmer cut back the wild vegetation (that was as much as 2 meters = 6′ 6″ tall) about a month ago. Now, after a series of rainy days and sunny days, the plants that survived the mowing are slowly growing back. The most obvious (for various reasons) are the clovers. However, there are other flowers as well. Most of the flowers are ones that we saw earlier and took pictures of then. But there are two that are new – one is a medium-small purple single flower on a ground-hugging vine, and the other is a white flower that grows above most of the surrounding vegetation (now that’s about 30 cm = 1 foot high. It is difficult to get pictures because I am there at the wrong time of day, and my telephone camera does not focus on the flower, but on the background.
The last two days, the farmer spread what is called “Gulle” around here in the field – that is natural fertilizer that comes from the cow stables. For me it stinks (except that I’m used to it), and for my Labradors, it is the most exquisite perfume there is! Juck!!
Oh, by the way, there are still some 4-leaf clovers – my average sightings are about 1-2 per week.
Ciao,
Jimmy Craig
Hi again,
I saw in the news today that the Japanese environmental officials are estimating that the volume of contaminated waste from the Fukushima disaster – consisting of soil, vegetation, pieces of structures and other equpment, and other waste from miscellaneous sources – amounts to 90 million cubic meters. I couldn’t imagine how much that was, so I did a simple calculation – 90 mio m3 is equivalent to a cube measuring about 450 meters (1500 feet) on each edge, or 450m x 450m x 450m. That is just about the same length as five American footbal fields placed end-to-end.
It is difficult to imagine that much waste of any kind, much less waste contaminated with radioactivity!
On the other hand, I expect that the 90 mio m3 is only about 1% of the contaminated waste from Tchernobyl, but most of that was never collected – it was left in place to endanger future lives – human, animal, and vegetable.
Jimmy Craig