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| Caucasus |
| Chernobyl 18 years later |
| 2004-03-06 |
| While this isn’t a WoT site or story, my minds eye sees a devestated and abandoned US town. This is the personal site of some one who rides her Kawi 1100 through the dead zone of Chernobyl and has taken page after page of pictures. Her Dad is a scientist and she shows maps of the area, along with radiation levels as well. It was disturbing to see homes left just the way people left them when they suddenly abandoned them 18 years ago. I found this compeling and somehow appropriate for our times. I don’t think the Islamists have anywhere near the capacity to create a dirty bomb that could create this sort of disaster, but its not hard to imagine after seeing these pictures and knowing they are about nothing more than western civilizations death. |
| Posted by:JerseyMike |
| #11 This is a prime example of Soviet Brute Force science/economics. They needed electricity and weren't too concerned about safety (gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet). The RBMK is one of the world's worst designs. Not only is it bad engineering, it uses the Soviet equivalent of a Sear's Garden Shed for its containment building. When the accident happened, the Sovs were running a test to determine if they could use the coasting down turbine (following the tripped reactor) to supply power for a few more seconds. The shift guys got overconfident and violated a huge amount of procedures. The resulting steam explosion blew the reactor apart and the graphite (what were they thinking - it's cheap!) caught fire. The initial response was by the local firefighters some of who sensibly refused to go into the high rad area. Rumor has it these guys were shot to encourage the others. Then the army arrived and sacrificed their soldiers in two minute suicide runs to toss pieces of graphite back into the smoldering crater of the reactor building. Actually though, things have been improving. The radiation levels have dropped and a lot of the residual stuff is slowly being washed down the Pripyat to the sea. I imagine a lot of people will die from a variety of cancers but this is Russia and a lot of them are going to croak from Vodka/Cigarettes and just plain bad living. It will be difficult determining what event is to blame but I'm sure Chernobyl will be the one most trumpeted. Regards, Dave |
| Posted by: DaveMac 2004-3-6 7:26:50 PM |
| #10 Saw a safty film on Chernobyl while taking Hazmat training.2 things stuck with me the most: 1)While interviewing one of the Russian scientist's who had just finished an inspection of the sarcaphageous this Nuke scientist took off his paperdust ask off and shook the dust out. There wer 3000 voulinter military whose job it was to pick-up 2 graphite blocks(about 30lbs each)and throw them in the hole in the roof of the containment building.10 years later 2000 soldiers were dead from various radiation releated illness. |
| Posted by: Raptor 2004-3-6 5:45:13 PM |
| #9 Jersey - I'd say this is exactly what the WoT is about. Good post. |
| Posted by: Matt 2004-3-6 4:05:16 PM |
| #8 wasn't thier 100 or more tons of this radioactive shit that went boom Actually, I think the major problem was caused by using graphite in the reactor core as a containment. The graphite caught fire and burned for days. Needless to say, it was also highly radioactive at the same time, creating not only a toxic cloud of smoke and dust, but a radioactive one as well. I was in England at the time (RAF Alconbury), and then moved on to central Europe. At both places I worked with units that tried to track the smoke cloud (at one point it stretched from Chernobyl to the North Sea)and radioactive particulates that filtered out of it. Let's just say this is probably the largest manmade disaster of all times, and we won't have the final results for a thousand years or more... |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-3-6 2:41:58 PM |
| #7 wasn't thier 100 or more tons of this radioactive shit that went boom, not sure maybe it was 16 tons but either way thats gonna cause alot of shitty smoke and dust thats not good to be settling on or in you, i can see the chinese having a chernobyl type adventure soon - isn't that big dam they built also cracking up? As Allen is my witness |
| Posted by: Jon Shep U.K 2004-3-6 2:02:57 PM |
| #6 Actually Chernobyl radiation is more akin to very dirty bombs or dud nukes. If you look at the Pak Indian tit for tat tests a few years back you see that claimed yields were much larger for both than the actual very small yields. In addition the Indian H-bomb looked like a fizzled dud. So, at least the Indian bombs would likly leave deadlands like you see around Chernobyl. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2004-3-6 1:56:29 PM |
| #5 The helicopters are mostly MI-10's, NATO codename "HOOK". Each of them can carry up to 70 troops - they're huge. There is one HIP - on the far right. You can see how much smaller it is. The HIP is comparable to our Blackhawk in size (slightly smaller). A suitcase full of anthrax could have the same effect. The anthrax would have the same effect short-term, but in two years the threat would be totally gone. The radiation from Chernobyl will make Pripyat virtually uninhabitable for 5000 years. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-3-6 1:39:41 PM |
| #4 A suitcase full of anthrax could have the same effect. |
| Posted by: Rawsnacks 2004-3-6 12:55:11 PM |
| #3 I was kinda freaked by the shot of the abandoned helicopers Hips (?). I'll bet those were the ones that were used to drop the graphite and cement. That's guts. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-3-6 12:48:01 PM |
| #2 Regarding the brunette: I found this story on Slashdot and followed a copious discussion where I didn't see any one of the geeks taking much note of her. Personally, I'm intrigued by a good looking gal that likes to ride a high spec motorbike at speed through a nuclear wasteland. Good wry sense of humor, too. |
| Posted by: Classic_Liberal 2004-3-6 12:42:23 PM |
| #1 Eerie... It's like the beginning of that movie "28 Days Later", only worse because it's real. Good site and great pix--I just hope that luscious brunette didn't stay there too long! |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-3-6 10:08:55 AM |