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Chernobyl

Discussion in 'General' started by SPL170db, May 12, 2019.

  1. jbammin

    jbammin Well-Known Member

    I wish they explained this in the very beginning.
     
  2. Jed

    Jed mellifluous

    Reactor go boom.

    Basically they were trying to test if the turbines could provide enough power to run the cooling pumps in the case of a power outage. The backup generators needed around a minute to spool up to speed to power the pumps. To test they brought the power down in the reactor but they brought it down too low and pulled the rods to get more power. When they cut the main power to the cooling pumps either the turbines didn't have enough juice to spin up the pumps again or the water was already flowing too slowly through the core. In any case steam started to build in the core an this reactor design had a flaw where steam allowed the reaction to increase power. This lead to the steam explosion that blew it up. The AZD button was supposed to drop the control rods but the channels in the stack had constricted due to the heat and they got stuck. So runaway reactor.
     
  3. Rebel635

    Rebel635 Well-Known Member

    It’s like you listened and you only heard half the explanation.....

     
  4. Sprinky

    Sprinky Well-Known Member

    I have no clue about this nuclear stuff, but I could swear it's the AZ5 (I love the British use of Zed) button. Literally everytime I hear them say it, I try to figure out what AZ5 stands for.
     
  5. Jed

    Jed mellifluous

    Hah, that was before I saw the last episode and based on what I had read up on it. I watched last night and said to myself "well I feel dumb now."

    :D
     
  6. In Your Corner

    In Your Corner Dungeonesque Crab AI Version

    My youngest sister used to host kids from the Chernobyl
    area (they were from the Kinsky area of Belarus). They would
    come to Boston in the summer for medical treatments donated by doctors
    and dentists for about a month. They had a number of conditions
    blamed on the radiation, thyroid disease, kidney problems, cancers,
    heart deformities, and scoliosis. They were an inspirational
    bunch of kids.
     
  7. Rebel635

    Rebel635 Well-Known Member

    I told my friend about the show and am now rewatching it with him. It’s just as good the second time around.
     
  8. rcarson15

    rcarson15 Well-Known Member

    According to IMDb, Chernobyl is now the Top-Rated TV show of all time.. above Breaking Bad, GoT, and Planet Earth 2. It got rated 9.7/10 over 156k votes.
     
  9. NemesisR6

    NemesisR6 Gristle McThornbody

    I still have two eps to go.

    I don't disagree with their assessment.........absolutely incredible show.

    My wife is having a hard time getting through it, though. She has a background in radiology and spent a lot of time learning about the dangers of exposure, and the numbers they are throwing around have literally brought her to tears. She was sobbing after the first ep........knowing what those directly exposed were going through and those less directly exposed would battle for their entire lives.

    She also let me know that, in the the remote chance a similar event happened in our area, there are currently little to no operational training guidelines in place for medical personnel to treat victims of acute radiation exposure.........the bureaucrats have determined the possibility of such an event isn't high enough to justify the cost.
     
  10. cBJr

    cBJr Well-Known Member

    If you’d like a little more background on the show, “the Chernobyl podcast” by HBO was really interesting to listen to. It goes into the details on why they did or did not include certain elements of the story, as basically an interview with the series creator, writer and executive producer Craig Mazin.
     
    Lawn Dart, jksoft and nlzmo400r like this.
  11. SPL170db

    SPL170db Trackday winner


    Only thing I know it to take a heavy dose of iodine to protect your thyroid.....but I knew that before the show.
     
  12. nlzmo400r

    nlzmo400r Well-Known Member


    I'll say coming from working at a nuclear power station, the possibility of such an event is VERY nearly zero, at least something in the capacity of Chernobyl. Today the reactors are contained in large steel and concrete (several FEET thick) containment buildings that are kept at a negative pressure so that even if something were to happen, it could not escape. From the physics perspective, the reasons the Chernobyl failure occurred aren't necessarily possible in the US as we are required to use depleted (enriched) uranium that is much less radioactive as well as have more redundancy regarding cooling pumps and power. The downside to these extensive measures is cost. Although operational cost of nuclear power is cheap, a new nuclear plant costs into the 10s of billions now to build. Woof.
     
  13. SPL170db

    SPL170db Trackday winner

    ....and not to mention, it sounds like from the description in the final episode, this disaster would not have even happened if it weren't for gross negligence on the part of some of the operators. While yes there were fundamental design flaws to the reactor it took several improper steps to exploit them and cause the meltdown.
     
    nlzmo400r and stk0308 like this.
  14. 50Joe

    50Joe Registered User

    Plot failure in episode 4: When the three guys were out shooting animals they had bugs buzzing around them. No way flying insects would be alive.
     
  15. Lawn Dart

    Lawn Dart Difficult. With a big D.

    I've seen it now... The end of the episode says the other reactors were retrofitted, but there's multiple sources on the internet that say there are a bunch of RBMK-1000 reactors still in operation in Russia and its unknown whether they've been fixed or not.

    Still, I'm glad they approached it, and described it in such detail, but in a way we can all understand... That was a damn good miniseries, even if it was such a horrible event.
     
  16. Robby-Bobby

    Robby-Bobby Steeltoe’s Daddy

    Loved the end showing the pictures and real videos. They nailed the actors pretty well!

    Crazy that the firemen clothes are STILL in the hospital basement...... and still crazy radioactive!
     
  17. Banditracer

    Banditracer Dogs - because people suck

    Hope this ends up on Youtube at some point, I want to see it but no HBO.
     
    lee955i, scottn and MikeR like this.
  18. MikeR

    MikeR Well-Known Member

    Same here.
     
  19. SPL170db

    SPL170db Trackday winner

  20. buzz-06

    buzz-06 Well-Known Member

    Comcast allows the first episode on demand and then says I have to subscribe to watch the rest....jerks
     

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