Chernobyl

[Frazod]

Just finished the first episode; I guess I'll be keeping HBO a bit longer after Game of Thrones ends.

It is fascinating, horrifying and infuriating. And spellbinding.

[Bump]

This show definitely has my attention, my big question is, where they really so against listening to the experts like this? I'm on the 2nd episode and that just seems ridiculous that they think that all of the experts saying the same things are complete nonsense. Was it really like that?

[O.city]

Originally Posted by Bump

This show definitely has my attention, my big question is, where they really so against listening to the experts like this? I'm on the 2nd episode and that just seems ridiculous that they think that all of the experts saying the same things are complete nonsense. Was it really like that?

Not to get too political, but what is your stance on climate science at this point?

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

My best recollection is that they take an absolutely hellish rap now but there were some advantages to those designs as well (and if memory serves there are still about a dozen of them in service, though with some modifications on account of one of them nearly making Eastern Europe a wasteland....)

Based on the numbers you cite, and the modifications, you're almost certainly referring to the specific TYPE of nuclear power plant at Chernobyl -- the RMBK. There are a variety of designs, including BWR (boiling water reactor), PWR (pressurized water reactor).

The RBMK (which is an acronym of Russian words which translates into approximately "High Power Channel-like Reactor") was exclusive to the USSR. As you say, about a dozen of these remain in service, and were modified after Chernobyl to make them safer. There are over 30 reactors still active in Russia alone, much less whatever operates in other parts of the old USSR.

[Bump]

Originally Posted by O.city

Not to get too political, but what is your stance on climate science at this point?

I get what you are trying to imply there. These are not very comparable. While you are having a nuclear core explosion, failing to listen to your most knowledgeable people seems like a bad decision. Politicians that scream the world is ending in 12 years with no evidence is a bit different than what I'm asking.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by Bump

I get what you are trying to imply there. These are not very comparable. While you are having a nuclear core explosion, failing to listen to your most knowledgeable people seems like a bad decision. Politicians that scream the world is ending in 12 years with no evidence is a bit different than what I'm asking.

What about when it's actual experts in the field of it saying it? So one could say, "when you're having climate issues, failing to listed to your most knowledgable people seems like a bad idea".

Again, I don't really care to get into it here, but I think more of the reason here is that they just didn't think it was possible for it to actually happen and were just convinced otherwise.

I'm interested to see how they play that angle out. They've done a good job with the USSR and KGB stuff IMO.

[Bump]

Originally Posted by O.city

What about when it's actual experts in the field of it saying it?

Again, I don't really care to get into it here, but I think more of the reason here is that they just didn't think it was possible for it to actually happen.

I'm interested to see how they play that angle out. They've done a good job with the USSR and KGB stuff IMO.

You don't care to get into it here, so why did you bring this up? I can pull up articles from 10+ years ago that warned us that the world was ending by 2013 and that didn't happen, so is science actually based on facts these days? I'm not going to respond any further out of respect to others just trying to talk about this show.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by Bump

You don't care to get into it here, so why did you bring this up? I can pull up articles from 10+ years ago that warned us that the world was ending by 2013 and that didn't happen, so is science actually based on facts these days? I'm not going to respond any further out of respect to others just trying to talk about this show.

Sounds good.

Wasn't trying to get into a political battle.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by Bump

This show definitely has my attention, my big question is, where they really so against listening to the experts like this? I'm on the 2nd episode and that just seems ridiculous that they think that all of the experts saying the same things are complete nonsense. Was it really like that?

Let's be mindful of what we saw in the FIRST episode also. Fomin was chief engineer. Dyatlov was a nuclear engineer also. They were in DENIAL in part because of the concept made no inherent sense to them, as well as the fact that if it were true, they were ****ed, so they didn't want to admit it even in the face of evidence to the contrary.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by O.city

Not to get too political, but what is your stance on climate science at this point?

LOL... Zing!

[Fishpicker]

Originally Posted by Bump

This show definitely has my attention, my big question is, where they really so against listening to the experts like this? I'm on the 2nd episode and that just seems ridiculous that they think that all of the experts saying the same things are complete nonsense. Was it really like that?

yes. that has to do with the Marxist/Leninist method of buiding consensus. In an open democratic society, consensus is achieved by adding and removing opinions. In a Marxist/Leninist society, consensus was achieved by removing the opinionated.

[O.city]

Episode 3 on again tonight

Wonder if they’ll get into the actual birth defects later?

[wazu]

One freaky new thing I've learned from this series is that apparently radiation sickness is contagious. The extreme reaction to the pregnant wife having contact with her husband seemed crazy. I would think that the exposure there would be less than if she had stayed at home in Pripyat. Googled it and it does sound like the exposure to bodily fluids of a contaminated victim matters. Curious how accurate the portrayal of the radiation sickness is. Knew it was a horrible death but the full on melting is beyond what I would've imagined in my nightmares.

[Miles]

I was trying to google the same tonight and couldn’t find anything on just how contaminated his body would have been with respect to the wife being around him. Apparently the first response firefighters took unimaginable levels of radiation doses and were actually burred in lead boxes and cement poured on top as show in the series to prevent groundwater contamination. The quotes from Vasily’s wife on what happened to him are pretty ****ing brutal.

[wazu]

I’m also curious about the protective properties of plastic. Seems like the Russians feel it makes for decent shielding.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by wazu

One freaky new thing I've learned from this series is that apparently radiation sickness is contagious. The extreme reaction to the pregnant wife having contact with her husband seemed crazy. I would think that the exposure there would be less than if she had stayed at home in Pripyat. Googled it and it does sound like the exposure to bodily fluids of a contaminated victim matters. Curious how accurate the portrayal of the radiation sickness is. Knew it was a horrible death but the full on melting is beyond what I would've imagined in my nightmares.

Yeah, I think the exposure was so high that the material that was ****ing melting him was radiating off of him into the wife.

But it's no shit about the bodily fluids though. My mom had to irradiate her thyroid and they were nazis about the manner in which she peed.