Midnight in Chernobyl

Have been reading Adam Higginbotham's new book on the accident at Chernobyl. It's a great read--it presents a very technical subject but reads like a thriller. Highly recommended.

[stevej37]

I have the book 'Chernobyl- The Forbidden Truth' by Alla Yaroshinskaya
Excellent read also.

Originally Posted by stevej37

I have the book 'Chernobyl- The Forbidden Truth' by Alla Yaroshinskaya
Excellent read also.

Yup--I read that too. Great book.
I'm a disaster buff.

[biosurfer1]

My first supervisor(now retired) at my current job used to be an operator when our nuclear plant was operational and he talked about all the training they had because of Chernobyl. Quite amazing.

It's also interesting that his take was (and obviously he was a nuclear proponent) that every nuclear disaster was created, or at least made worse, by human interaction. From what I have read about known nuclear disasters, he seems to be right.

[shadowjack1]

I wonder if it glows? read in green

[red-beard]

#1. Chernobyl was a generation zero, carbon moderated reactor
#2. It not only had no containment, the building was made of wood
#3. They were running a funky test, to see if they could pull enough energy from the rotational inertia to run the cooling water pumps
#4. Due to daughter particle neutron-poison build up, you need to re-start the reactor in a certain amount of time, or the reactor has to wait about 3 days before it can be re-started.
#5. They waited too long, or really, almost too long. They pulled all of the control rods all the way out to try to get it to re-start. At some point, the reactor went prompt critical, aka became an uncontrolled nuclear reaction.
#6. That blew the reactor apart. Without containment, the building blew apart and the flammable portions became fiery radioactive hell.

[John Rogers]

James pretty much hit all the right points spot on. When I went to basic nuclear power school at Bainbridge MD in 1966 the first week of physics training classes were spent explaining why the US Navy's reactors (shipboard, NOT test) could not have that happen. About the only exception was during a refueling when the cover was off and fuel cells being inserted. That time frame is when the famous melt down happened on the Chalk River reactor in Canada when all the water was allowed to drain out of the transfer vessel instead of working extra time to put the fuel in place.

Not sure about civilian reactor control rods but US Navy reactors have enough spring pressure to seat the rods even if the ship is upside down and I worried about that stuff for over 20 years!

[LakeCleElum]

Thanks Mad, I will put that on my reading list.

I have been following "Elena's" Chernobyl web site for many years. At the bottom of the web page, you can start with Chapter 1 and now up to Chapter 27:

KIDDofSPEED - GHOST TOWN - Chernobyl Pictures - Kidofspeed - Elena

or:

http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Chernobyl is on my bucket list of places to visit

I'm fascinated to see what a town looks like after a few decades of mother earth regrowing back to what it was before humans made a mess of it

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

Chernobyl is on my bucket list of places to visit

I'm fascinated to see what a town looks like after a few decades of mother earth regrowing back to what it was before humans made a mess of it

You can find that stateside at scenic Times Beach, MO. Abandoned after it was contaminated by dioxin. My law firm in St Louis was approached to represent some of the plaintiffs, but we passed because of problems with causation and damages.

[IROC]

I‘m sort of a Chernobyl junkie. Probably the best book I‘ve read on it was called „Chernobyl Notebook“.

Really shocking…but what is more amazing is how few people died as a result.

[Gogar]

I probably won't be able to understand it, I have an arts education.

[stevej37]

Originally Posted by Gogar

I probably won't be able to understand it, I have an arts education.

Maybe someone will write "Chernobyl for Dummies."

[colingreene]

I have been there, it was a trip.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by madcorgi

Maybe someone will write "Chernobyl for Dummies."

I did

[IROC]

I gave a tour of our facility (mostly the remote handling portions which is my expertise) to a Russian guy a few years ago. I didn't think much of it as I work with Russians every day, but this guy was accompanied by someone from the US State Department. Hmm. Odd. I asked where he was from and he replied "Chernobyl".

They were looking into methods for accessing and handling highly radioactive components which is what I deal with.

There is also a really good documentary on youtube (don't remember the name at this point) but it had a lot of footage and interviews with workers, Gorbachev, etc.

[pavulon]

Originally Posted by colingreene

I have been there, it was a trip.

Before or after the meltdown? Elaborate or ban!!