Chernobyl Anyone ??

[gogriz91]

There are also some interesting documentaries on Youtube about Chernobyl that fill in some blanks and give better details on certain aspects of the disaster.

[red-beard]

I took a nuke-e course which primarily examined the accident. It was both the actual nuclear physics behind the accident and the ethics of what we do in engineering.

[charlesbahn]

First nuclear reactor was "Pile 1," Built under the football field, Stagg Stadium in Chicago in 1944. No permits, no shielding ( well except for a little graphite).......

[GH85Carrera]

It has been interesting to see the show. I have no idea what the real equipment looked like, but the protective suits they were sure look the part of a Soviet equipment. It is just 100% typical that the only dosimeters or Geiger counters they had were the one that read up to 3.2 and pegged out, so they reported, a 3.2 level. The "good" meters were locked up in a safe, and over a day after the accident, when they finally used one and saw the levels, they knew the issue was really bad. And the leaders kept sending men to "go have a look" and report back. Just getting that close was a fatal does of radiation.

[Clint Lando]

Originally Posted by sc_rufctr

I don't have HBO but Chernobyl was like a war for the Russians. More than 100,000 people died trying to stabilise the site and surrounding area.

bull

Health effects

Twenty-eight of the workers at Chernobyl died in the four months following the accident, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), including some heroic workers who knew they were exposing themselves to deadly levels of radiation in order to secure the facility from further radiation leaks.

The prevailing winds at the time of the accident were from the south and east, so much of the radiation plume traveled northwest toward Belarus. Nonetheless, Soviet authorities were slow to release information about the severity of the disaster to the outside world. But when radiation alarms began to go off at a nuclear plant in Sweden, authorities were forced to reveal the full extent of the crisis.

Within three months of the Chernobyl accident, a total of 31 people died from radiation exposure or other direct effects of the disaster, according to the NRC, UNSCEAR and other sources. More than 6,000 cases of thyroid cancer may eventually be linked to radiation exposure in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, though the precise number of cases that are directly caused by the Chernobyl accident is difficult (if not impossible) to ascertain.


Surprisingly, the overall rate of cancer deaths and other health effects related to Chernobyl's radiation leak is lower than was initially feared. "The majority of the five million residents living in contaminated areas … received very small radiation doses comparable to natural background levels (0.1 rem per year)," according to an NRC report. "Today the available evidence does not strongly connect the accident to radiation-induced increases of leukemia or solid cancer, other than thyroid cancer."

Some experts have claimed that unsubstantiated fear of radiation poisoning led to greater suffering than the actual disaster. For example, many doctors throughout Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union advised pregnant women to undergo abortions to avoid bearing children with birth defects or other disorders, though the actual level of radiation exposure these women experienced were too low to cause any problems. Even the United Nations published a report on the effects of the Chernobyl accident that was so "full of unsubstantiated statements that have no support in scientific assessments," according to the chairman of UNSCEAR, that it was eventually dismissed by most authorities.


Environmental impacts

Shortly after the radiation leaks from Chernobyl occurred, the trees in the woodlands surrounding the plant were killed by high levels of radiation. This region came to be known as the "Red Forest" because the dead trees turned a bright ginger color. The trees were eventually bulldozed and buried in trenches.

The damaged reactor was hastily sealed in a concrete sarcophagus intended to contain the remaining radiation: How effective this sarcophagus has been — and will continue to be into the future — is a subject of intense scientific debate. Plans to construct a safer and more permanent containment structure around the reactor have yet to be implemented.

Despite the contamination of the site — and the inherent risks in operating a reactor with serious design flaws — the Chernobyl nuclear plant continued operation for many years, until its last reactor was shut down in December of 2000. The plant, the ghost towns of Pripyat and Chernobyl, and a large area surrounding the plant known as the "zone of alienation" are largely off-limits to humans.

There are, however, exceptions: A few hundred former residents of the area have returned to their former homes, despite the risks of radiation exposure. Scientists, government officials and other personnel are allowed on the site for inspections and other purposes. And in 2011, Ukraine opened up the area to tourists who want to see firsthand the after-effects of the disaster.

https://www.livescience.com/39961-chernobyl.html

[sc_rufctr]

Clint, we could do this for weeks...

"How many people died of radiation? No one knows - not even approximately. The official casualty reports range from 300 to 300,000 and many unofficial sources put the toll over 400,000.

The final toll will not be known in our lifetime, and maybe not our childrens either."

Losses

[GH85Carrera]

They have completed the new cover for the containment building. It now has a new sealing building over the reactors.

The alarmists will claim 200,000 plus and have no real evidence, just speculation. The Soviets, or now the Russians will admit to little and somewhere in the lower end is most likely. It will be interesting to study the animals living in the area, and see if they have an increase of mutations or birth defects. No one at all thinks it is a health thing or good for radiation exposure anymore.

Back in 1918 to 1928 in the USA a "medicine" called Radithor was sold commercially. It took a while for people taking massive doses of radiation to die horrible deaths.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radithor

[sc_rufctr]

[Clint Lando]

Originally Posted by sc_rufctr

Clint, we could do this for weeks...

"How many people died of radiation? No one knows - not even approximately. The official casualty reports range from 300 to 300,000 and many unofficial sources put the toll over 400,000.

The final toll will not be known in our lifetime, and maybe not our childrens either."

Losses

me link from live science dot com
you link from kidd of speed dot com?

ok
kidd of speed funny
he rode motorcycle near there
now expert.

who believe?
world health organization?

[rcooled]

From Elena's commentary about the containment structure. Big trouble if this turns out to be true

"I heard with all the concrete they put down, the construction became heavy.. some day it may fall down, get in subterranean waters and leave Europe with no water."

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by Clint Lando

me link from live science dot com
you link from kidd of speed dot com?

ok
kidd of speed funny
he rode motorcycle near there
now expert.

who believe?
world health organization?

[Tervuren]

Originally Posted by rcooled

From Elena's commentary about the containment structure. Big trouble if this turns out to be true

"I heard with all the concrete they put down, the construction became heavy.. some day it may fall down, get in subterranean waters and leave Europe with no water."

You may want to look up some critiques of that website.

[sc_rufctr]

Yea OK but history has taught us... Russian official numbers are not to be trusted.
The video I posted explains why the numbers are all over the place.

IMO Chernobyl is the worst man mad disaster ever.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by sc_rufctr

Yea OK but history has taught us... Russian official numbers are not to be trusted.
The video I posted explains why the numbers are all over the place.

IMO Chernobyl is the worst man mad disaster ever.

In my opinion, it was not the Soviet Union's worst disaster. They dumped radioactive waste into rivers for years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyshtym_disaster

They had a lake where they dumped radioactive waste. It dried up and spread waste everywhere. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Karachay

Chernobyl was a terrible accident. These others were done on purpose.

[Scott R]

Read the book "Midnight in Chernobyl" much better than the series.

[stealthn]

Good episode tonight.

[Sooner or later]

Episode 3 will give you nightmares.

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by red-beard

In my opinion, it was not the Soviet Union's worst disaster. They dumped radioactive waste into rivers for years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyshtym_disaster

They had a lake where they dumped radioactive waste. It dried up and spread waste everywhere. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Karachay

Chernobyl was a terrible accident. These others were done on purpose.

You have to ask.... Why does stuff like this happen in Russia/USSR?

It seems to me that they've always overestimated their abilities and resources.

[pavulon]

Originally Posted by sc_rufctr

It seems to me that they've always overestimated their abilities and resources.

Hmmmm. Something about that rings painfully true today.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by John Rogers

Try to find the book named "We Almost Lost Detroit" if you want some scary stuff. There is an updated version now I think and probably everyone of us Navy nuclear power people read it even though it was "banned"!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident