Chernobyl - 30 years later

[Jo498]

Many on the board will be too young and for non-Europeans it was very far away but for me there are mainly three impactful events I remember quite well and this is historically the first one (the others are when the Berlin Wall fell in November 89 and 9/11). It took about a week until it really became known what have happened and I remember that a local track&field competition where my younger brother was to participate was canceled because it had rained and people were afraid of their children jumping into contaminated sand.

[sologdin]

considering things like this, one wonders about the ultimate cause of the disaster.

[Horza]

put away the tinfoil solo, the RBMK-1000 was literally the first Soviet civilian powerplant model and the incident was the product of poorly-managed testing ironically aimed at improving reactor safety by overcoming incipent design flaws.

[Werthead]

There's a Ukrainian biker who created a blog about riding through the disaster zone and taking pictures. It got canned, but fortunately someone saved it here. Quite interesting.

[Gears of the Beast]

18 minutes ago, Werthead said:

There's a Ukrainian biker who created a blog about riding through the disaster zone and taking pictures. It got canned, but fortunately someone saved it here. Quite interesting.

That's cool. There's a great video out there with drone footage of Pripyat, pretty much the same places as in those videos but you can really take in the beauty and the melancholy, "I met a traveler from an antique land" etc etc.

I want to go there one day. 

[Lightning Lord]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

There's a Ukrainian biker who created a blog about riding through the disaster zone and taking pictures. It got canned, but fortunately someone saved it here. Quite interesting.

Thanks for linking that.  I read that initially just after I moved over there, so about nine years ago.  I always wanted to recreate part of her trip and take a bike into the area.  Living near (few hundred km) there was unusual - being told not to eat mushrooms, avoid eating the skin on potatoes... not sure how much of that was fear and how much was grounded in science.

[Jon AS]

While I don't recall news about the incident itself, I remember the aftermath, how some foods were suddenly no longer considered safe, or how when you saw dead fish in a lake you wondered if it has something to do with the accident. But overall I was probably too young to fully grasp the impact it had on older people around me.

[Tears of Lys]

I remember it quite well.  Too well, in fact, for me to have 100% confidence in nuclear power.  I know, I know - if not that, then what.  But as safe as we all can make it, there are still these pesky humans in charge of running the damn things. 

[Tijgy]

I heard stories of my parents who told me the after effects even reached our country (Belgium). Some years ago I saw a documentary and it is really horrible how many people got sick (cancer) from this. 

Otherwise I do find it a little interesting to see pictures from those locations and how now nature is coming back there (like wolves, ...)

 

[Vastet]

I remember it being in the news, but I didn't really read/watch news much back then.

I don't believe for a moment that the Americans had anything to do with it. If they'd been caught we'd all likely be dead right now. WAY too risky. And it conflicts with everything the Soviets released.

I found it interesting to read they are currently building a replacement 'shield' to prevent further leaks as the site is in severe disrepair and in danger of releasing radiation.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

For those who are into special holidays.

As far as I know there are guided tours to Pripyat available. Not exactly what my dream vacation looks like, spending a day walking through a ghost town near the site of a nuclear reactor meltdown. But apparently there's a market.

[The Flayed Knight]

I'm currently reading Chernobyl Prayer by Svetlana Alexievich, which is a collection of oral testimonies from those who were affected by the disaster. I remember reading the first chapter and it was utterly heartbreaking to read how a young couple alone were drastically affected (and I can only imagine the scale of fear and anguish on a grander scale).

I've been highly into reading further into the disaster (back in school I wrote a paper on the disaster for my science class and I have a collection of photo essays from Igor Kostin). For anyone interested in reading from the perspective of those affected by the disaster in the Ukraine and Belarus, then I'd pick up a copy of CP (and its not a long read at all).

[Taphien]

There are still areas in Germany were up to 70% of the hunted wild boar have to be discarded because of the radioactive contamination of their meat.

[DireWolfSpirit]

On April 26, 2016 at 3:42 PM, Tears of Lys said:

I remember it quite well.  Too well, in fact, for me to have 100% confidence in nuclear power.  I know, I know - if not that, then what.  But as safe as we all can make it, there are still these pesky humans in charge of running the damn things. 

 

[The Wedge]

Holly Morris, who is one of the travel hosts on Globe Trekker, produced/directed a documentary called The Babushkas of Chernobyl about 100 women who live in the Exclusion Zone.  Well worth checking out.

 

[Ice Queen]

I remember Chernobyl very well. But then, I remember TMI, too. 

One thing I always wondered about. Why haven't they buried it if it's so dangerous? 

[Pebble thats Stubby]

Well I guess its the sheer scale that makes it problematic to bury.

 

The exclusion zone is approximately the same size as Italy.

 

But if your just talking about the reactors themselves.  well they still are very big.

This is a Picture of the of the Sarcophagus taken just a few years ago  

And this is taken from Pripyat

 

I imagine if your gonna bury it then it needs to a really thick layer on top.  maybe like a mile or so.   Not only that you want to make sure rain water doesn't penetrate and start eroding your Mountain of soil/whatever.

 

 

The Sarcophagus is how they have buried it so far.   They just need a new bigger one.

[Ice Queen]

5 minutes ago, Pebbles said:

 

But if your just talking about the reactors themselves.  well they still are very big.

This is a Picture of the of the Sarcophagus taken just a few years ago  

And this is taken from Pripyat

I imagine if your gonna bury it then it needs to a really thick layer on top.  maybe like a mile or so.   Not only that you want to make sure rain water doesn't penetrate and start eroding your Mountain of soil/whatever.

The Sarcophagus is how they have buried it so far.   They just need a new bigger one.

Yeah, I meant just the reactors, not the exclusion zone. But they buried gardens, pine forest, bulldozed whole villages and towns, and they buried people in lead-lined coffins. The clean-up was far more dangerous than the initial meltdown. 

They're building what they call the "arch" because the sarcophagus is so deteriorated. They should have the whole area cleaned up by 2065 or 2070 or so. 

[Pebble thats Stubby]

2 minutes ago, Crazy Cat Lady in Training said:

Yeah, I meant just the reactors, not the exclusion zone. But they buried gardens, pine forest, bulldozed whole villages and towns, and they buried people in lead-lined coffins. The clean-up was far more dangerous than the initial meltdown. 

They're building what they call the "arch" because the sarcophagus is so deteriorated. They should have the whole area cleaned up by 2065 or 2070 or so. 

I am far from an expert, but I think the gardens and Forrest ect needed a lot less material to cover them (in depth), since although contaminated they where not producing more radiation.

My understanding is the reactors are still hot and still emitting radiation. hence would need a lot more material covering it.

I also think concrete (and lead?) they have in the sarcophagus is far better and blocking radiation than the same amount of soil would be.   

 

As for it being cleaned up by 2070   I hope your right.  I won't be holding my breath.  I'm thinking it will be 1000's of years maybe even 100's ot 1000's before its what I'll call cleaned up.   (or where you meaning they should have the new Arch built by then?

[Zoë Sumra]

On 16/05/2016 at 8:00 PM, Pebbles said:

As for it being cleaned up by 2070   I hope your right.  I won't be holding my breath.  I'm thinking it will be 1000's of years maybe even 100's ot 1000's before its what I'll call cleaned up.   (or where you meaning they should have the new Arch built by then?

IIRC the radioactivity should stop being a problem in about 10,000 years' time.  After this new sarcophagus, several more will be needed over that time to protect the site...