chernobyl fact and opinions please

[Kapitan]

the saftey fetures should never have been shut down never and the total lack of comunication in the control room well speaks for itself.

better communication and if the saftey fetures were in place chernobyl might never have happend

i also read some where that if all saftey fetures fail the reactors automaticaly scramble (shut down) as they do on nuclear submarines but this just didnt happen

[Happy Times]

I was 7 and living in Israel.Remember my parents were worried.

[Kapitan]

i doubt they were the only ones think every one in the entire world was worried lol

[McBeck]

Updated story with a few new pics from 2004

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chernobyl-revisited/

[The Avon Lady]

Make sure to view her sister site, The Serpent's Wall.

[Polak]

Chernobyl once belonged to Poland...
My brother got sick in cancer a couple of months after the disaster...

[Kapitan]

that is bad polak i have been near chernobyl well i say near same country kiev is where i went nice city

[tycho102]

Just so everyone is clear on that "motorcycle" woman:

That website and story are old news. It turns out she went on one of the tours available, and they didn't stray off the trail (road). So, she sure as hell wasn't "riding her motorcycle" through the area. The pictures from the ghost towns are from someone else's camera, who was documenting the area with authorization from the Russian government. The tours don't go through that area, and she wasn't authorized to do any kind of research or monitoring of radiation levels.

So, that is to say, she lied. It's still completely valid information, and a wonderful read...in the "quasi-non-fiction" section of the intarweb library. It's much more exciting the way she tells it, in a Fallout (Interplay) kind of post-apocalyptic kind of way.




And the Chernobyl reactor was incredibly unique in it's design. No other reactor in the entire world has it's capabilities, and it was actually quite safe. The problem was that it was being used as a test reactor. The engineers were testing if the reactor could be run without pumps, relying on fluid convection to cool the reactor core. The problem was exacerbated by two things:

A.) A nuclear power plant requires engineers from all manner of disciplines. Mechanical, electrical, chemical, civil, industrial, computer, nuclear, petroleum. It was a weekend, and since the test wasn't being performed on the actual reactor core, rather it's turbines, the core engineer (nuclear) was sent home.

B.) They were running behind schedule. To speed things up, they dropped the plant's output below 10%. This led to an increase in radeon gas, which "poisons" the reaction. When they went to do the plant test, they had the control rods completely inserted to "accelerate" the reactor core to normal power production levels; it simply would not go above 10% power output (because of the gas). Once they got all the fuel rods inserted, it suddenly jumped to critical power levels, and the rod retraction mechanism failed under the heat (thermal expansion). They slammed the control rods in (keep in mind this plant operated completely different than any other reactor in the world), and the graphite tips on the control rods immediately caused the entire pile to go fully critical. Nuclear reactors are designed to run at 98% critical, which leaves them controllable but still producing heat.

Had they not been running behind schedule from Moscow (the Government) telling them to keep producing power for several hours, they would not have tried to rush the test. Had the reactor core engineer been there, he would have immediately told them of the radeon gas danger, and the plant would have been shut down cold before being restarted. If they hadn't been doing a bloody research experiment on an actual line plant, then it would never had it's safety backup systems disabled to attempt a power increase.

Coupled with the fact the reactor was an extra-ordinary "breeder" reactor. It produced plutonium for weapons (or for other reactors!!!), it didn't have to be taken off-line to change out fuel rods (unique!), and it produced the same amount of power that a depleting reactor does (1000MW!!), the design was absolutely awesome.





The problem was the Russian government. Have a core engineer for each shift instead of sending him home for the weekend, and don't run experiments on line production plants.

For obvious reasons, no one in Europe, America, Japan, Israel, or Canada would make either of these two mistakes. Although Israel has had a couple problems with irradiation plants.

[Kapitan]

i was wondering that one cause some picture ive seen arnt from that area and dont show the radiation moniters

[XabbaRus]

Originally Posted by tycho102

Just so everyone is clear on that "motorcycle" woman:

That website and story are old news. It turns out she went on one of the tours available, and they didn't stray off the trail (road). So, she sure as hell wasn't "riding her motorcycle" through the area. The pictures from the ghost towns are from someone else's camera, who was documenting the area with authorization from the Russian government. The tours don't go through that area, and she wasn't authorized to do any kind of research or monitoring of radiation levels.

Where did you find out about her going on one of the tours and using someone elses photos?

I did wonder if she went alone as some of the pictures had to be taken by someone else ie the ones where she is in them, and from the way she is standing and the angle I doubt they were taken on auto-timer.

BTW would love to do the "drive"

[Kapitan]

id doubt authorities would allow anyone to go in alone like that the just about let small coach tours go in so one woman on a motor bike i not to sure.

only people that go in alone well in pairs are inspection teams so its puzzeling

[XabbaRus]

I remember when I first saw it in the Guardian Weekend's magazine I went to her site and she said her dad works in the Atomic Energy Ministry. Now depending how high up he is it might not be entirely unfeasible that she got a pass to drive through the area.

Ukraine like Russia is very much a case of who you know and how your daddy is....

[Kapitan]

yeah but still i mean i wouldnt go in there even if my father was president of ukrain id like to stear clear of that area

[Type941]

Originally Posted by XabbaRus

Ukraine like Russia is very much a case of who you know and how your daddy is....

In some ways, networking is important in every single country, but in Russia and former soviet republics this is indeed much more important.


Reading that report I had goose bumps, not at least due to her narrative style of writing. The details are downright scary, like staying in middle of asphault, glowing trees, people watching the radioactive glow like deers in headlights and the mail still left in the mailbox. So sad. And I feel ashamed that neither Russia mainly nor even the rest of the neighbours are helping Ukraine to rebuild the sarcophagus. It's like noone cares about it before it opens up again. I can't imagine what kind of animals live there now, but I've seen some photos and pics on TV back a few years which showed pigs with few heads and worse. Next year, it will be a 20 year aniversary. With 300 or so more to go before the area will be safer.

I still don't buy any juices or sugar produced in Ukraine.

There is going to be a PC game released, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The Shadow of Chernobyl by THQ, next year based on a russian novel about the 'zone' and the developers have actually filmed and modelled the whole 30sq meters of the area of the reactor and around it and recreated it in a game. Could be as close as I ever want to get to the place, but if you ever followed that game's progress, it looks photorealistic. Just a shame takes so long to get it released.




this is their website: http://www.stalker-game.com/index_eng.htm

[Kapitan]

not you aswell type 941 my friend is always on about stalker

as for rebuild the sarchophicause america and britain has jointly pledged $740 million to do such a project