Chernobyl

[TT350]

I'm sure some of you have seen part one of HBO's Chernobyl. 

 

I've been interested in stuff like this for over a decade. Things to do with radiation and nuclear materials. Fascinating how something we can't even see and to some extent feel (initially) so when people describe ionizing radiation as tasting like metal, it's very interesting to me to procrastinate and wonder why. 

 

There have been so many horrendous nuclear accidents on a smaller scale, mostly from criticality events where someone has not intended to trigger a self sustaining chain reaction yet it's occured anyway. The worst one I can think of is the TokaiMura criticlity event where one man was decanting a mixture with uranium in, into a larger container with another solution in and it gave enough mass (critical mass) to cause an event. Even the shape of the container has to be taken into account when mixing. The mixing tank is stirred mechanically and it creates a vortex, pulling everything into the centre where the mass meets and....big blue flash (cherenkov radiation registers in the fluid in your eyeballs) (which you can observe emitting from fuel rods pulled from the core of a reactor) and the two workers got a massive dose of radiation, of gamma ray's.

 

Hisashi Ouchi was kept alive for nearly 3 months, despite losing all his skin, his muscles falling off his bones, losing all his white blood cells, the whole of the lining of his intestines, multiple organ failure, infections, multiple heart attacks. He was losing 10 litres of fluids per day, his bone marrow turned clear (he underwent multiple bone marrow transplants)

 

Rumour has it, the Japanese took it as a perfect opportunity to study and learn about the effects of radiation poisoning in humans.

 

There are pictures of him online in his state of decay. I wouldn't advise looking at them.

 

Anyway. 

 

I've thought about visiting Chernobyl and Pripyat for a few years now on the guides tours they have of the surrounding are and inside the new sarcophagus. 

 

Would it be of interest to anyone as, I have to book a group rather than individuals.

 

I've asked friends but they look at me like I've just asked them to poo in a box and hand it to me.

 

I think it would be interesting. 

 

Up to you guys. 

 

 

[evilscorp]

Your local power station might do tours and probably more to see and learn.

[evilscorp]

But yeah the program is very good and big budget, the Russian's and America (I think) use a different scale to dose rates than Europe and most of the world so its good when they use a reference like medical x-rays where you can compare.

How many episodes are there?

[TT350]

2 hours ago, evilscorp said:

Your local power station might do tours and probably more to see and learn.

I've already had a tour of Heysham power plant. Interesting indeed but, fortunately for the planet there's been no ecological disaster there. 

[Andy_Muxlow]

I watched it, thought it was good slow starter but good none the less. I am also interested in this type of thing. Not sure about visiting it, although I was there or there abouts in modern warfare iirc sniping through the undergrowth lol. But seriously it's very interesting really. 

[TT350]

2 hours ago, evilscorp said:

But yeah the program is very good and big budget, the Russian's and America (I think) use a different scale to dose rates than Europe and most of the world so its good when they use a reference like medical x-rays where you can compare.

How many episodes are there?

There's a few different ways that we've measured radiation over the years and it depends on whether you're measuring radioactivity in the air/environment or if you're measuring a dose equivalent absorbed its Rads or Greys.

 

There's also Roentgens, sieverts, Currie, Becquerels. I may be wrong the absorbed/radioactivity given off but it's just off the top of my head. 

 

A CT scan gives a dose of about 8 years worth of background radiation, about 20 milisieverts. An X ray of teeth is about 0.001Ms. So dont get too many CT scans.

 

In the 2nd episode it says the radiation near the exposed core where the firemen were, was 15,000 roentgens an hour which is about 13000 rads. A single dose of 1000 rads will kill you. 

 

Then there were the "liquidators" who had to go on the roof and shovel off all the graphite and other debris. All died. 

 

And to think it all started from one man's pride.

 

I may not be fully accurate with my info above. It's just bits and pieces I've learned over the years.

 

 

Edited May 14, 2019 by TT350

[TT350]

24 minutes ago, Andy_Muxlow said:

I watched it, thought it was good slow starter but good none the less. I am also interested in this type of thing. Not sure about visiting it, although I was there or there abouts in modern warfare iirc sniping through the undergrowth lol. But seriously it's very interesting really. 

 

Lol yes. I've been there, but I was too busy shooting at Imran Zakhiev. 

 

It is all very interesting. Unless you're my mates then they're like "wtf are you interested in that for!! Beer, t1ts, more beer, more t1ts!! Football, t1ts, beer!, that's all you need to be interested in!"

Edited May 14, 2019 by TT350

[TT350]

48 minutes ago, Andy_Muxlow said:

I watched it, thought it was good slow starter but good none the less. I am also interested in this type of thing. Not sure about visiting it, although I was there or there abouts in modern warfare iirc sniping through the undergrowth lol. But seriously it's very interesting really. 

Have a look at these.

 

 

 

This one is quite cool too from around 1:35

 

 

Edited May 14, 2019 by TT350

[Andy_Muxlow]

[TT350]

Enjoyed the 2nd episode. Eerie cliffhanger. 

 

 

[evilscorp]

Wow, never paid much attention to PWR reactors but that second video. . . Is interesting how they load and unload their reactor.

Also shocked I never knew how much a dose you get from CT scans, that’s a crazy amount to get at one time. 

 

[coldel]

4 hours ago, evilscorp said:

Wow, never paid much attention to PWR reactors but that second video. . . Is interesting how they load and unload their reactor.

Also shocked I never knew how much a dose you get from CT scans, that’s a crazy amount to get at one time. 

 

 

From webmd, sounds like its more likely to be around 1/3rd of a years worth up to around 3 years worth depending on what is being scanned.

 

These scans expose you to more radiation than other imaging tests, like X-rays and mammograms. For example, one chest CT scan delivers the amount in 100 to 200 X-rays. That might sound like a lot, but the total amount you get is still very small. It’s important to know that everyone is exposed to ionizing radiation every day, just from natural radioactive material in their surroundings. In a year, the average person gets about 3 millisieverts (mSv), the units that scientists use to measure radiation. Each CT scan delivers 1 to 10 mSv, depending on the dose of radiation and the part of your body that's getting the test. A low-dose chest CT scan is about 1.5 mSv. The same test at a regular dose is about 7 mSv.

[evilscorp]

Still lower than airline pilots or people who live in Aberdeen. 

Someone mentioned a guy martin documentary was good when he visited Chernobyl and acted like a tit not realising the lasting damage he could be doing to himself because he wasn’t ‘feeling the radiation’ lol. Need to find it, bbc maybe?

[scobie140]

Its amazing how a tv series can generate and spur on peoples interest in this, lots of people talking about it now and more aware of it  

[Kev T]

1 hour ago, evilscorp said:

Still lower than airline pilots or people who live in Aberdeen. 

Someone mentioned a guy martin documentary was good when he visited Chernobyl and acted like a tit not realising the lasting damage he could be doing to himself because he wasn’t ‘feeling the radiation’ lol. Need to find it, bbc maybe?

I think Guy Martin is Channel 4

[TT350]

I don't recall guy Martin acting up. A bit of bravado maybe, which is his style and has to be really, being a manx tt racer. I suppose he's more afraid of involuntary dismounts at 200mph. 

 

There are better videos on YouTube of Chernobyl especially by bionerd23. In one of her videos she finds a fragment of graphite moderator on the ground. And proceeds to handle it. 

 

Incidentally, the guys at the end of episode 2, aren't dead, they're still alive today except for one who died of a heart attack. 

 

The Soviets really were blase with their nuclear programme. Especially towards their own population. Irresponsible. 

[TT350]

11 hours ago, scobie140 said:

Its amazing how a tv series can generate and spur on peoples interest in this, lots of people talking about it now and more aware of it  

I've been interested in it for years.

 

So fascinating. 

[TT350]

Interesting...

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2019 by TT350

[TT350]

Crazy.

 

 

[TT350]

 

[Ekona]

I really need to go out there someday soon. 

[TT350]

1 hour ago, Ekona said:

I really need to go out there someday soon. 

Join me. 

 

Always wanted to go. It's a minimum of 4 to go out though and everyone I've invited doesn't want to "come back with a 6th toe on one foot"

 

There are options that can include just touring pripyat or as much as going inside the sarcophagus and the control room of reactor 4 Which is what I'd like to do. 

 

 

 

[TT350]

This lady is....dedicated to being irradiated.

 

 

[TT350]

This was a very interesting one...

 

 

[TT350]

Third episode. Shocking portrayal of the effects of acute radiation syndrome. 

 

Poor guys were ignorant with regards to radiation sickness. Would they have done what they did if they were fully aware of the horrors of ARS? 

 

If they were, they should have been offered a quick, painless death by the authorities and not just shipped off to Moscow to die in agony.

 

With ARS, your veins collapse, so no pain medication can be administered while your DNA literally disintegrates and you begin coughing up parts of internal organs that have decomposed inside you.

 

Really brings to light the suffering of the poor guy in the tokai mura criticality accident who was kept alive for 3 months. Begged to die but, they wouldn't let him. Theories go that the Japanese and Americans collaborated during the event to research the effects and possible "cure".