Chernobyl

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FlyingPenguin
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Chernobyl

Post by FlyingPenguin »

Binge watched first three episodes last night. I must say, they've done an excellent job. Disturbingly realistic depiction of the results of severe radiation exposure.

A lot of the history and most of the physics is pretty much dead on, with a little allowance for "Hollywood" aspects - after all they needed to make it an entertaining drama for television.

BTW: The miners really did dig a tunnel and room under the core for a cooling system - a bit of forgotten history. It wasn't ultimately used because the core never did burn through the concrete shield. At that time they were assuming the core was pretty much one large lump in one location. Eventually it was discovered that the molten core had mixed with sand and leaked down pipes and channels and split into many different flows, which was fortunate. This prevented the core from going super critical and exploding, creating an even greater disaster (the original explosion was a steam explosion).

Some good analysis on historical accuracy here: https://screenrant.com/chernobyl-hbo-tr ... explained/
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FlyingPenguin
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Re: Chernobyl

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BTW: I have posted a copy of a 1991 episode of PBS Nova called "Suicide Mission to Chernobyl" on YouTube. Hopefully I won't get a take down notice. I also have a copy on my DC shares.

You can't find this video anywhere. It was never digitized. Mine is from a VHS recording I made when the episode premiered. I kid you not: I watch this episode once a year because it's insane and tragic.

An American cameraman (actually three cameramen if I remember, each taking turns to avoid accumulating high radiation exposure), follow Russian scientists who crawl around inside the extremely dangerous, crumbling reactor building. They have to move quickly and follow home made maps they'd developed showing radiation levels. They voluntarily were trying to determine the location of the majority of the core. At this time no one knew if the core was all in one giant lump and could potentially go super critical. They had little to no support from the government, because this was about the time the Soviet Union fell, and there was little attention - even from the rest of the world - about what was going on at Chernobyl, and little awareness of the continuing danger.

The American cameramen are using a state of the art western radiation suit, while the Russian scientists are just wearing paper filter masks, latex gloves, and jumpsuits. They know damn well the amount of radiation they are being exposed to.

They even show some chilling footage of the "human robots", Russian soldiers that were used to clean the radioative debris off the roof. They were only allowed to spend a few minutes on the roof before they accumulated well beyond the maximum recommended lifetime radiation exposure. Basically they grabbed a few pieces of debris, tossed it into the core, and ran back inside, after which they were given a medal.

I highly recommend this. It's a true testament to REAL bravery and self-sacrifice. It's also a great companion piece to the miniseries:

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FlyingPenguin
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Re: Chernobyl

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Oh well, BBC blocked it. They actually worked with PBS jointly to film it.

Best you can find is the BBC's documentary from 1996 that was made from the same footage, and has a lot of the same interviews (subtitles instead of the dubbed interviews Nova used) although I think the Nova version is more dramatic.

You can watch the BBC Horizons episode here:

BBC - Horizon - 1996 - Inside Chernobyl's Sarcophagus
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x223h9r
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Pugsley
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Re: Chernobyl

Post by Pugsley »

I remember watching this and the new one about the new "dome" they built off site and then moved over the existing dome.
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Re: Chernobyl

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I followed this thru the daughter of one of the engineers who would ride her motorcyle through the area and take pics in the "safer" zones. her pics from inside the apt buildings, etc. are chilling, because it took them a while to evacuate people evern though they knew the radiation was off the scale. I used to have a DVD compiling a lot of the amateur vids, and I remember there were a couple that showed the reactor core lighting up.
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Re: Chernobyl

Post by Losbot »

I remember watching that video of the girl on her motorcycle and she'd have her meter with her. Very eerie to see the town, abandoned with no signs of life. Everything just how it was left.
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Re: Chernobyl

Post by FlyingPenguin »

Heh. The Alt-Text from today's xkcd cartoon:
You know when you can't hear your speakers, and you keep turning various volume controls up higher and higher in confusion, and then someone hits the mute button and there's a deafening blast of sound? That's basically what happened at Chernobyl.
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HBO's Chernobyl vs Reality - Footage Comparison

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Re: Chernobyl

Post by normalicy »

Finally watched this this week. Having read and seen everything on this event, I was surprised that there were still a few tidbits that they surprised me with. Excellent show in every way.
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