Chernobyl 20 years on

[Kapitan]

Just had a read of national geographic book talking about the chernobyl nuclear power plant for those who dont know.

20 years ago this month, The worlds worst nuclear disaster took place in the Ukrain in a town called chernobyl.
During routine saftey test reactor number 4 went critical over heated and melted down.
The affects of the disaster are still with us to this day.

Chernobyl is situated around 50 miles from Kiev in the Ukrain, during the 1980's it was the main plant for supplying power to the ukrain and part of russia, plans were drawn up for a fourth then 5th and 6th reactor, it would have ment if these plans went ahead that chernobyl would be the worlds largest and most powerfullest nuclear plant ever built.

In mind april 1986 at around 1am the suporvisior for the night shift conducted a saftey test dropping the power levels in the reactor, but then he made the mistake of raising the rods completly which caused the rod liners to warp and so the control rods couldnt drop.

The reactor heated up fast, water began turning into steam at an alarming rate, the temprature inside the reactor getting hotter and hotter ever second till finaly it blew the 2,000 tonne reactor line through the cealing (which is 23 feet above the floor).

Radioactive debris was found a mile away from the reactor, and it took 10 days to bring the now destroyed reactor under control.
Many men died just trying to shovel debris back into the reactor from the roof.
After this the soviet commisioned that a sarcophigus be built over the reactor and it was.

But now it threatens to collapse and fears are growing that the new one will not be built quick enough and so we are exposed once again to its leathl radiation.

Scientist's have said the area around chernobyl will be inhabitable around 2161 when radioative levels drop to acceptable levels.

[CCIP]

I do hope everyone knows.

A friend of our family was involved in the cleanup effort; he later committed suicide. I myself have been suffering from relatively minor (so far) but noticable health issues since taking a walk (as a young child with my parents) during a typical spring shower in late April 1986. And that was in Leningrad...

What are the latest estimates on the numbers of people affected by this, anyways?

[Kapitan]

Estimates put dead at: between 300 and 375,000 by 2050 they have estimated more than 980,000

[STEED]

Chernobyl was an accident waiting to happen and unfortunately it did. :nope:

[Kapitan]

Yup and the west is now picking up those shatterd pieces.

Chernobyls design was radicaly diffrent to any other western design, infact america wanted plans of chernobyl, but what they didnt know was the reactor itself was flawed.

Between 1973 and 1986 14 accidents took place over the soviet union all from power plants identicle to chernobyl, chernobyl was the 15th and worst accident that took place.

Another note is even after this disaster chernobyl operated for some 14 years after reactor 4 melted down the three remaining reactors closing down for good in 2000.

[tycho102]

Chernobyl was an accident waiting to happen and unfortunately it did. :nope:

Not really.

Soviet Russia was an accident waiting to happen. Don't run experiments on a full-scale nuclear power plant, even *IF* you are Soviet Russia.



Also, in the same category:

Don't pee off the top of live power-transmission pylons.

Don't walk through Harlem yelling racial slurs.

Don't stand on the beach when there is a tidal wave approaching.

Don't leave your car running while the garage doors are closed.

Don't light a match next to your bung-hole when you toot.

[Bubblehead Nuke]

Chernobyl was a far more complex accident than you stated. It was a required study in the nuclear training I underwent. When we were SHOWN what happened and the timeline that was involved we were all HORRORFIED. We could SEE what they were trying to do, but the lack of attention on the operators part was the REALLY scary part. That more than anything scared us silly and re-enforced the professionalism and diligance that we KNEW we had to have when doing our jobs.

The details of what REALLY happened and the physics of what caused the accident are FAR beyond the scope of any discussion here.

Chernobyls design was radicaly diffrent to any other western design, infact america wanted plans of chernobyl, but what they didnt know was the reactor itself was flawed.

We HAD that design of plants going back into the 50's. Heck, we blew a few of them up just testing the things. Yes, they were intentional and used to test transient power conditions and thermal characteristics.

Check out: http://www.anlw.anl.gov/anlw_history/reactors/borax_i.html

Please note that one thing they do NOT tell you on that site is that they use a different kind of uranium than was used in Chernobyl. You nukes out there I am sure will know the difference. To the rest, yes, there are differenct kinds of fissionable uranium. They have VERY different nuclear properties.

Chernobyl was a tragedy. One that NEVER happens again I hope. It is like a timelapse megaton nuclear bomb going off. The WORLD is still facing the consequences of that day. The REAL effects are still some time away I fear.

[TLAM Strike]

Don't walk through Harlem yelling racial slurs.

Well… unless they are about “Whitey” :hmm:

[Fish]

The REAL effects are still some time away I fear.

You can't expect we will not ask for further explanation. :roll:

[Kapitan]

Be intresting to know what realy went on in that control room but its something we will never know they all died didnt they?

[Bubblehead Nuke]

I found this after looking around for a bit on the internet. It will give you a good idea of what happened and what the consequences are.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase/nucene/cherno.html#c4

[micky1up]

the story and statments of what happened are we documented they didn't all die straight away , an accident that could have been prevented


the event had nothing to do with design of the reactor but the disabliing of the saftey systems in a test of weather they could extract residual power from the turbines whilst the reactor was shutting down big ****up i'am afraid

[Kapitan]

You dont say :o

I think a hand ful of trained chimps could have done a better job and they get paid peanuts.

[STEED]

Short cuts, radical thinking and crap pay along with slack safety measures no wonder. :nope:

[Chris Bate]

if you havn't seen this before, its quite intresting. Its modern photos from a woman who works around the station.

Just keep clicking on Next Page

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chapter1.html

[STEED]

Haunting pictures, Chris.

[Kapitan]

i have seen them, they are good pictures.

Im wondering if they will ever demolish chernobyl in our life time, because if they dont it will just fall down and then make this situation 20 times worse.

Chernobyl is already falling apart.

[CCIP]

I know this might be out of place, but those pictures make me really want to get the Stalker game when it's finished :88)

[Kapitan]

My friend has been going on and on and on about that so please dont start or my head is going to explode.