Chernobyl

ZLTFUL

Since the topic was broached in the GoT thread, I thought I would crack this sucker open like...well Reactor #4!

Been enjoying it so far. I have always been fascinated but this disaster as it was honestly a herculean task for the Soviets to actually save the continent. And while a good portion of Ukraine got contaminated, it could have been a LOT worse that it was.

warren

WOW ....

adb3da

Agree, the show is well done.

I was very surprised to read recently that the other 3 reactors were still used to produce electricity in the years after the event. One of the reactors operated until 2000.

daddyjt

This is a great video on the containment dome built to contain the remains during disposal. I can’t remember where I saw this - if it was here, I apologize for the uncredited repost....

https://youtu.be/sX-DCIyDeLo

Tony M

I keep thinking about all the reactors around the globe. The one in Japan ON THE WATER FRONT that blew-up or melted the casing.

I think in the beginning, years ago, when Chernobyl blew up, the scientists thought the devastation would be 1000 times worse than it's turned out to be. We can go visit Chernobyl for 1/2 hr. if we want to. I'm sure the reactor itself is off-limits but maybe it's encased in 50 ft. of lead and concrete now.

I didn't know the other 3 reactors were kept running. Crazy.

I missed the VERY beginning ( 1/2 hour I think ) of the Chernobyl series but I'm excited when I see a new episode is on.

codycatalist

I am liking the series so far, didn't watch the new episode last night but will fire it up tonight after my workout routine!

Tony M

It's a good one!

pitdogg2

Sea water in a reactor is no bueno.
Luckly as it may seem the solution to pollution is dilution. There is a lot of Pacific Ocean out there. Yet still I'm pretty sure our detectors detected the fouling here on this side of the globe.
Just hope some of those crazy terrorist do not get ahold of some weapons grade stuff, there will be a place that will be no good for something like 10,000 years and then maybe
Super scary stuff when you look at both the U.S.S.R and USA have enough to kill the world 100x

BlueFox

What station is doing a Chernobyl series? I pay little attention to TV, but this sounds interesting.

daddyjt

BlueFox wrote: »

What station is doing a Chernobyl series? I pay little attention to TV, but this sounds interesting.

HBO

BlueFox

Thanks. I don’t have that.

Tony M

I didn't like the bit of male nudity in the latest episode but it made my wife smile a bit. I guess I'd dress or not the same if it was really THAT HOT down there. Maybe at the least, tighty whiteys for me.

I guess they're showing/saying that's what happened in real life back then. I got the low key point about "sterilization for those nude miners" point that was made since they discarded the recommended protection down below garb.

"At least we're wearing the hats" he proclaimed.

ZLTFUL

A few years back, a motorcycle adventuring acquaintance of mine and his buddy were doing the Sibirski Extreme route to hit up the military portion of the “Trans-Siberian” railroad.
While navigating across the Ukraine, they became lost as they were still using paper maps and only had an emergency SPOT GPS device in case they were injured.

Long story short, Walter’s mate noticed some familiar scenery that he couldn’t place until they came upon the wrong side of a gate for the Chernobyl Exclusion zone. Turns out, his mate recognized the scenery from video games that had featured Pripyat and the surrounding forests prominently in the storyline.

The guards let them out, scolded them profusely and then promptly invited them to their village after their shift to celebrate one of their sister’s nuptials.

Tony M

That's Crazy!

Talk about being on the wrong side of the tracks. Funny ending though!

codycatalist

Good episode. Good mini series thus far. My only wish is that this was done in Russian with subtitles for more immersion but I ain’t complaining.

joecoulson

The series is actually done by Sky network out of the UK hence the English accents all over.
It’s absolutely brilliantly done as far as sets/period pieces go. Between the vehicles, buildings, clothing etc I find myself immersed in it.
I had no idea

that the water tank below could have created an almost nuclear explosion

that’s crazy. I know that have embellished some, but I have to think that the makeup effects are trying to be realistic on the effects of high level radiation.
Very interesting show and I watch it dead nuts on at 9 on Monday. Can’t wait 😊

Tony M

That radiation exposure is no joke!

Getting teeth X-rays just got a little more serious!
I'm getting the neck cover along with the body shield next time. Heck, do they make a face shield?

(spoiler info)
I didn't know that either.

Just think about the other 3 reactors nearby. would they have been safe?

RobbyKY

Been watching this for the past three weeks. Excellent mini-series but I think strays from historical reality here and there for dramatic purposes. For example, the helicopter crash in the series was implied to have occurred because it flew directly over the exposed core on day 1. In reality, a crash did occur but only because a rotor hit a cable from a crane many days after the initial explosion. The actual crash footage is available on YouTube.

The radiation was real. The poor guys who actually looked down into the exposed, burning core are thought to have been hit with at least 300 Sieverts/hour which is what the helicopters measured later from a much higher altitude. 8 is considered fatal and they probably were hit with something above the measured 300 dose being so close to the core. Likewise for the firefighters who handled the graphite.

For a reality check, search out Hisashi Ouchi, a Japanese engineer exposed to just 17 Sieverts during a criticality accident back in 1999. He was kept alive against his will to study the effects of his exposure and be warned, the pictures on the web are way worse than what were disturbing, to say the least, during last night's episode. It's something you can't "unsee".

Fukushima measured 530 inside reactor 2 recently and has actually melted down into the ground. I grew up in the coal business and now I'm all for alternative energy sources but maybe solar is a little less insane......

codycatalist

RobbyKY wrote: »

Been watching this for the past three weeks. Excellent mini-series but I think strays from historical reality here and there for dramatic purposes. For example, the helicopter crash in the series was implied to have occurred because it flew directly over the exposed core on day 1. In reality, a crash did occur but only because a rotor hit a cable from a crane many days after the initial explosion. The actual crash footage is available on YouTube.

The radiation was real. The poor guys who actually looked down into the exposed, burning core are thought to have been hit with at least 300 Sieverts/hour which is what the helicopters measured later from a much higher altitude. 8 is considered fatal and they probably were hit with something above the measured 300 dose being so close to the core. Likewise for the firefighters who handled the graphite.

For a reality check, search out Hisashi Ouchi, a Japanese engineer exposed to just 17 Sieverts during a criticality accident back in 1999. He was kept alive against his will to study the effects of his exposure and be warned, the pictures on the web are way worse than what were disturbing, to say the least, during last night's episode. It's something you can't "unsee".

Fukushima measured 530 inside reactor 2 recently and has actually melted down into the ground. I grew up in the coal business and now I'm all for alternative energy sources but maybe solar is a little less insane......

I believe there is a video from the director who explains his deviations from reality for TV purposes. At least he admits it and gives reasoning behind it. Plus how do you get people emotionally invested without the experience of being there...dramatic effect.

ZLTFUL

That's the crux of it really. Nuclear energy has been advertised as a safe alternative to coal fired plants. And on a day to day basis, they actually are infinitely better for the environment than coal fired plants.

*BUT* the reality is, when things go bad with a coal fired plant, the impact is marginal and pretty localized.
When a nuclear plant goes sideways, **** gets real and the impacts are much wider reaching.

RBMK reactors were *supposed* to be fairly safe. But numerous design flaws were involved and could lead to the type of failure that was seen in Chernobyl in a "perfect storm" situation. In fact, the plant staff did exactly what they were supposed to do to prevent disaster but is what ultimately lead to the explosion.

There was a spike in energy output...more than doubled, and their protocol was to reinsert the control rods to slow/stop the reaction.
The problem is, the power surge was caused by the reactor going super critical in the lower portion of the core and when the control rods were inserted, it created a "void" in the chamber (steam/water vapor) which allowed the reaction to runaway and thus caused the explosion. (Thermal feedback loop).

There are something like 9 or 10 RBMK reactors still in use today but after the accident at Chernobyl and Legasov's subsequent suicide and recordings were made public, there were substantial improvements made to the control systems...not the least of which was to eliminate all manually operated control rod installations.

mikeyb128

And this guy personally took a picture of the elephants foot.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-illicit-spelunker-capturing-underground-scenes-at-chernobyl

pitdogg2

Great article Mikeyb. That guy has (had) stones the size of Jupiter.

mikeyb128

chumlie

codycatalist wrote: »

RobbyKY wrote: »

Been watching this for the past three weeks. Excellent mini-series but I think strays from historical reality here and there for dramatic purposes. For example, the helicopter crash in the series was implied to have occurred because it flew directly over the exposed core on day 1. In reality, a crash did occur but only because a rotor hit a cable from a crane many days after the initial explosion. The actual crash footage is available on YouTube.

The radiation was real. The poor guys who actually looked down into the exposed, burning core are thought to have been hit with at least 300 Sieverts/hour which is what the helicopters measured later from a much higher altitude. 8 is considered fatal and they probably were hit with something above the measured 300 dose being so close to the core. Likewise for the firefighters who handled the graphite.

For a reality check, search out Hisashi Ouchi, a Japanese engineer exposed to just 17 Sieverts during a criticality accident back in 1999. He was kept alive against his will to study the effects of his exposure and be warned, the pictures on the web are way worse than what were disturbing, to say the least, during last night's episode. It's something you can't "unsee".

Fukushima measured 530 inside reactor 2 recently and has actually melted down into the ground. I grew up in the coal business and now I'm all for alternative energy sources but maybe solar is a little less insane......

I believe there is a video from the director who explains his deviations from reality for TV purposes. At least he admits it and gives reasoning behind it. Plus how do you get people emotionally invested without the experience of being there...dramatic effect.

I believe your thinking of the Podcast the showrunners put out to explain the writing vs reality. Very interesting I thought. One for every episode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUeHPCYtWYQ

Tony M

Wouldn't his face skin fall off in a week or less?

RobbyKY

I believe if you read detailed accounts, the first guys to discover the foot didn't survive and suffered the same fate as the guys who looked down into the exposed core. Faces did in fact fall off.

In the secretive Soviet Union, the pics of men close to the foot were released without dates and are still very speculative regardless of what is claimed on various websites. They are assumed to have been shot in the '90's after radiation levels had fallen off to some degree but they still could have only been there for seconds. Stupid and probably forced to be there in the name of science to collect specimens since we know corium samples have been studied in outside labs. The only recorded date for a visit was in 1996 by a project director (per Wiki). Apparently corium is very corrosive and the foot is still on a slow creep down into the concrete and may yet find its way into the water table.

They guy sneaking in and out probably never got that close for the high res pics in the linked story from mikeyb.

Still, the thing was measured at 10,000 roentgens when discovered or about 95 Sieverts. The core guys were hit with 300+ Sieverts. There has to be three of these things in Japan.

joecoulson

Yeah and I believe the Japanese ones are burying their way into the earth much faster than the Chernobyl one is. Scary stuff.

westmassguy

Great Series. Never knew so many Brits lived in the Ukraine.

joecoulson

Lol

Mr_Hz

I'm watching the series with great fascination and dread. I was stationed over in (West) Germany when this accident transpired, and it was a little too close for comfort. I happened to be an Army Russian translator back at that time. Returning to civilian life in my home town of Seattle, WA.. I was surprised to find out a few years later that a local cancer research center, Fred Hutchinson, was treating one of the helicopter pilots for leukemia, which was a direct result of his missions flying over reactor #4 to drop payloads to block the radiation disbursement. He passed away from a secondary issue - an infection - that his weakened immune system couldn't overcome.

RIP Anatoly Grishchenko. Thank you.

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19900703&slug=1080355&fbclid=IwAR1Ifj5LUmmgGoH7hbpTdTGtT8g-q1dzG7BhQnd6SfuaYXT85FEwc_Idgvc

Anatoly died on July 2nd, 1990. And while not covered in this article, all government flags in Seattle were flown at half-staff on July 4th in honor of this man.

scubalab

Here is a great documentary done in 2012 on the bio-robots who volunteered to clean the "M" roof... The HBO mini-series is almost exact to this documentary in the latest episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfDa8tR25dk