Chernobyl

[CenturionStrategy]

Hey all,

I assume most of you will have heard of Chernobyl, and the meltdown of the Nuclear plant over there back in 1986.

I was always fascinated by it, but have never found much about it on the net, it seems to be something that everyone wants to forget.

However, I stumbled across this awesome site last year where a girl bikes it across the ghost city and visits the actual power plant. It's kind of written as a story (scroll to the bottom of each page, and click 'next page'), with some great photos in it:

Chernobyl Story

Pictures:
Abandoned army equipment
The sarcophagus
The ghost town
Abandoned School

What is so amazing is that everythign is there virtually untouched since the accident in April 1986 - It's just like a timewarp, the town is just frozen in time.

Nick

[F_A_L_C_O_N]

Yeah Ive seen this one before

Some girl, ha

[TaNG]

We've got two of those mens magaines here in Australia. It's either FHM or Ralph and they had an article in it a while back where they sent two journalists over there to write a story about the whole thing. Was really interesting, there is actually still people living near the actual plant or something, and it's cracking! Imagine just, going inside the concrete tomb thing, that would be nuts.

[CenturionStrategy]

Originally posted by TaNG
We've got two of those mens magaines here in Australia. It's either FHM or Ralph and they had an article in it a while back where they sent two journalists over there to write a story about the whole thing. Was really interesting, there is actually still people living near the actual plant or something, and it's cracking! Imagine just, going inside the concrete tomb thing, that would be nuts.

Yeah, I saw a documentary a few weeks back. There are people who still actually work in the plant . The reporter even went into the main control room where things started going wrong - with minimal protection (I think it was just a face mask and a geiger counter).

Nick

[Martin_89]

wouldnt she die after that?

its a thing ive never learned about, always knew the basics but thats about it.

when i was at primary school there was a group of kids from chernobyl that got brought over to scotland for a charity holiday thing and we all got to meet them. was quite interesting. it was said that by bringing them to scotland for 2 weeks they could live upto a year longer or somthing like that

they were all better than us at football too

[Huge]

Saw something about this on the history channel recently; creepy stuff...

[krupted]

i love learning about chernobyl. it was a real nuclear meltdown that actually happened- not like the rest where the safety mechanisms stop the meltdown early or usually before it happens.

The number of people that died wasnt amazing, but nobody upwind suffered injury. the radiation just folllowed the flow of the wind wich was directly for that town.

by now they have encased the whole thing with so much concrete that its gonna be awhile before we have to worry about it. like said you can just stand on top of it, its not leaking, and those men need to be there to make sure it stays this way

[equinoxe3d]

Thanks for the link, that was an extremely interesting read indeed, and some amazing pics. I like to learn stuff about Chernobyl, because I was only 2 years old when it happened so I can barely imagine how it went

[F_A_L_C_O_N]

So basically whatever was cleaned up, its relatively safe to walk on and you should be OK, not receiving too much radiation as long as you know your way, right?

BTW do this guys who work there recieve as much radiation daily as say transatlantic pilots do, more, less?

[Ponch]

You don't really die from radiation, just the probability your children are misformed is multiplied by 2, but as the risk is only 1%, it just goes to 2%, which is nothing.
That was said by my physics teacher at university during an exercise with radioactive elements. But he didn't care anymore as he was surely more than 55.
Oh, and if I remember, this only apply to cerain types of radiations (alpha I think)

[TaNG]

This is where I get all confused. What exactly is radiation? It's not a solid, it's not liquid, what is it? How does it mess with you?

[krupted]

radioactivity comes in many forms, and instead of me trying to explain the basics that i know heres a link- http://www.darvill.clara.net/nucrad/types.htm it should give you an idea.

some types can kill you instantly, like high levels of gamma rays can fry you like a egg ... well high levels of any can kill you quickly

[TaNG]

Cool thanks. Reading now.

P.S. Look at my post count. 1234. HAHA!

[Marvt74]

That site is very good, only got around to reading last night.
It is pretty creepy how quiet it all is there, wouldnt have minded being on one of those tour groups though i think it'd be pretty cool.

Well done Tang thats very cool indeed

[dannyboy27]

Apparently, as long as you stick to the roads you can get quite close to Chernobyl with virtually no increase in radiation dose at all. This is due to the fact that the asphalt doesn't absorb much radiation.

However, as soon as you stray off onto the grass, the dose increases about five times - so do not walk on the grass kids

I saw a video about this when I was at Uni (studying Environmental Protection). In the days following the disaster, volunteers were asked to follow a path through the complex and try to clear up as much radioactive waste as possible within a set period of about a minute or so.

They were paid VERY handsomely, even by Russian standards, but you could see from their faces that they knew they probably wouldn't be around to enjoy the money for very many years

They also dropped a remote control robot down into the remains of the core, and found that a superheated molten lump of the reactor had gone straight through about 3 floors, much like the Aliens blood in the Aliens films. It settled and cooled into a blob which was nicknamed the elephant's foot

There's also a good slideshow of pics here

edit: sorry Nick, just realised that your link is the same one I read a few years back about the radiation levels on the asphalt and grass