Creepy.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/55494/16-...-chernobyl

Amazing

I'm calling BS on this one. Anyone could have gone to Detroit and taken those pictures.

Guided day-tours? You couldn't pay me to visit Chernobyl (aka: Red Flags Over Fallout; Radiation Station; Nuclear Half Life Convention and Visitors Center; Radioactive Mutations Water Theme Park).

We should build a reactor in Washington DC

(03-12-2014 07:07 AM)Jerry Falwell Wrote:  We should build a reactor in Washington DC

I agree... We already have toxicity there.

Here are some photos 25 years after the meltdown...

Chernobyl 25 years after

There are a lot of these out there... and videos of people riding motorcycles through the dead zone. Very interesting stuff. It is amazing how well nature continues on in that environment.

(03-12-2014 10:21 AM)mlb Wrote:  There are a lot of these out there... and videos of people riding motorcycles through the dead zone. Very interesting stuff. It is amazing how well nature continues on in that environment.

I hear there's good fishing out there...

Any place they tell you don't step on the grass, I'm sure as hell not going fishing.

I remember when Chernobyl happened. A lot of liberals in the US -- protective of the Soviet's media-image -- insisted that Chernobyl and Three-Mile Island were of equal seriousness, and that both events should be "a lesson to us all" about the Dangers Of Nuclear Power.

My senior year in high school.

I remember the Russians trying to say it was no big deal until the satellite pictures came out.

(03-12-2014 11:54 AM)Smaug Wrote:  My senior year in high school.

I remember the Russians trying to say it was no big deal until the satellite pictures came out.

I was 7 when Chernobyl happened so I don't remember it very well.

The Russians tried very hard to keep it under wraps, because that's what they did with everything embarrassing. IIRC, some country far away started getting squirrely radioation readings, and that's what started raising eyebrows internationally.

Once the satellite pics came out, there was no longer any fooling anybody.

More containment and even more back up systems need to be implemented.
Japan should not have had as bad a tragedy as they did and Chernobyl should
have never happened.

(03-12-2014 03:16 PM)GoApps70 Wrote:  More containment and even more back up systems need to be implemented.
Japan should not have had as bad a tragedy as they did and Chernobyl should
have never happened.

As a reminder, deaths from the tsunami were about 15,000. Deaths at the nuclear plant ... 2, one missing, one killed by a crane. Deaths from radiation are still likely to be approximately zero over the lifetime of the residents.

(03-12-2014 08:41 PM)I45owl Wrote:  

(03-12-2014 03:16 PM)GoApps70 Wrote:  More containment and even more back up systems need to be implemented.
Japan should not have had as bad a tragedy as they did and Chernobyl should
have never happened.

As a reminder, deaths from the tsunami were about 15,000. Deaths at the nuclear plant ... 2, one missing, one killed by a crane. Deaths from radiation are still likely to be approximately zero over the lifetime of the residents.

lmao....my kind of guy.....surely, it makes more sense to worry about things that are infinitely more understood and better engineered today in contrast to those that have zero clue how to predict mass annihilation from mother nature...

hell, they've made movies about both scenarios.....

It was Reagan's fault.

If Reagan hadn't pushed the deployment of the Pershing tactical nuclear missiles in Europe, the USSR would not have had to allocate scarce resources towards matching with missiles west of the Urals and could have re-allocated those rubles towards improving the safety of Chernobyl.

Reagan also messed up the USSR's gas deal with Western Europe, thus denying the Soviets hard currencies. And, with the help of John Paul, he messed with Poland, thus distracting the Kremlin from maintaining proper control over the power generating station.

Then Reagan kept calling the Soviets bad names and demanding they "tear down this wall", thus making the Kremlin feel bad.

(PS If Rachel Maddow wishes to use this on her show, she has my permission.)

(03-13-2014 07:43 AM)QuestionSocratic Wrote:  It was Reagan's fault.

If Reagan hadn't pushed the deployment of the Pershing tactical nuclear missiles in Europe, the USSR would not have had to allocate scarce resources towards matching with missiles west of the Urals and could have re-allocated those rubles towards improving the safety of Chernobyl.

The problem with Chernobyl is not so much efficient allocation of resources, it's a cultural problem of central planning and accountability in Soviet society. I have seen the argument elsewhere that nuclear plants should be taken out of the private sector and run only by government because the profit motive means they cannot be trusted. Chernobyl and the Obamacare website rollout are but two examples of what happens when you trust communists to execute large, expensive projects.

(03-13-2014 09:27 AM)I45owl Wrote:  The problem with Chernobyl is not so much efficient allocation of resources, it's a cultural problem of central planning and accountability in Soviet society. I have seen the argument elsewhere that nuclear plants should be taken out of the private sector and run only by government because the profit motive means they cannot be trusted. Chernobyl and the Obamacare website rollout are but two examples of what happens when you trust communists to execute large, expensive projects.

I have friends whom I trust in the industry... they all point to the 1 critical issue that TEPCO missed... the height of the generators.

The reactors scrambled as they were supposed to, but they lost power for the cooling pumps. Even with the 50 year old design of the reactors, everything worked as planned up until they lost generation power.