Chernobyl documentary BBC

[daleyd]

Just watched a pretty decent documentary about the dome structure that's recently been constructed over the Chernobyl reactor, detailing the construction and history etc.

Some pretty impressive stuff going on there, it's well worth a watch if your bored for an hour

Apparently the biggest/heaviest structure ever moved on land, 3x the weight of the Eiffel Tower

 

[Dieselman 63]

I read that after it blew up, liquidators were being paid with one free Lada car. Given the waiting list for cars was about seven years plus the cost, this was a seemingly amazing offer for ninety minutes work shifting graphite and rubble. I wonder if any lived long enough to enjoy their prize.

 

[WorkshopChris]

Looks interesting i will have to watch soon.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08650s6/inside-chernobyls-mega-tomb?suggid=b08650s6

 

[brightspark]

I read that after it blew up, liquidators were being paid with one free Lada car. Given the waiting list for cars was about seven years plus the cost, this was a seemingly amazing offer for ninety minutes work shifting graphite and rubble. I wonder if any lived long enough to enjoy their prize.

did they sh ...te

 

[mechman]

Looks interesting i will have to watch soon.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08650s6/inside-chernobyls-mega-tomb?suggid=b08650s6

Don't think they lived long enough to empty the tank. Were they all decorated as hero's or something like that?

 

[brightspark]

Don't think they lived long enough to empty the tank. Were they all decorated as hero's or something like that?

told a pack of lies .given a bit of lead sheets held to together by string to protect them and said they would be ok to work for half hour and well paid they all snuffed it within the week hundreds of them

 

[morssdn]

The first time I saw that semi-cylinder building on Google Maps when browsing round Ukraine, I thought, that looks a bit flimsy. Then watching this documentary I was taken aback at the obvious strength of the internal steel structure - that thing must weigh *many tons* They can't paint it as in the way of the Forth Bridge either - to stop it rusting they'll have to aircon the interior of the shell for decades..

 

[Pete.]

Cheers I might watch that.

I watched a documentary years ago where they told of a couple of real heroes who dived into a water tank below the reactor to drain it to prevent a thermonuclear explosion. They said that if the core had melted through to the tank with water in it the disaster would have been something like 300 times greater.

 

[ronan]

Cheers I might watch that.

I watched a documentary years ago where they told of a couple of real heroes who dived into a water tank below the reactor to drain it to prevent a thermonuclear explosion. They said that if the core had melted through to the tank with water in it the disaster would have been something like 300 times greater.

Yeah i seen that too and i have to say it was an excellent programme. Adrian Edmondson from the young ones was in it. Those men who dived into the water knew they were going to die, pure bravery and selflessness.

I remember back to the time of chernobyl, and the russians denying anything had gone wrong, even though the radioactivity alarms were ringing all over europe and even across the uk and ireland.

P.s The programme was called "surviving disaster" made in 2006.

 

[Dieselman 63]

told a pack of lies .given a bit of lead sheets held to together by string to protect them and said they would be ok to work for half hour and well paid they all snuffed it within the week hundreds of them

http://chernobylproject.blogspot.co.nz/2011/07/talking-to-aleksandr-v-strannik.html?m=1

This was the source, somewhere on this site. The guy was mainly washing trucks and shovelling dirt, far from the core and the red forest danger zones. Even today there are hundreds of technicians working on decommissioning the remaining reactors, working set hours to reduce radiation sickness. Thirty years is small when you think it will be 10,000 until it's habitable again.

 

[Dieselman 63]

I remember back to the time of chernobyl, and the russians denying anything had gone wrong, even though the radioactivity alarms were ringing all over europe and even across the uk and ireland.

The radiation warnings were lit up all over the USSR, too - my friend was working in the Odessa region at the time, and knew something had happened somewhere, but the news agencies said nothing. Pathetic betrayal of the people by the state.

 

[ronan]

The radiation warnings were lit up all over the USSR, too - my friend was working in the Odessa region at the time, and knew something had happened somewhere, but the news agencies said nothing. Pathetic betrayal of the people by the state.

The first rule of any of any government dept in any part of the world when something goes wrong, slap a D- notice on it and deny everything.

One of the lecturers i had doing my degree course years ago, had worked for our electricity company in a senior technical role. He was one of a team from the uk and ireland who volunteered to go out there and advise as to what could be done. He told us he never seen such a scene of desolation and destruction.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

did they sh ...te

Similar to the k-19 crew, issued rubber anti chemical suits rather than anything with half a chance of failing down the radiation. Watched a documentary with an interview with a crew member, he said the "volunteers" who had offered to go into the reactor to repair the damage were being pulled out , laid on the deck and they were watching them visibly swell up with the damage caused by the radiation

 

[Maker]

the russians denying anything had gone wrong,

Somewhere I read Reactor 3 had a partial meltdown a few years before the disaster everyone knows, but it was covered up while it was hastily repaired and was only made known after the 1986 disaster occured.

There's a few videos on YouTube of people walking around the plant, showing things like various control rooms, a reactor hall with it's giant refuelling machine and the gold corridors (Not sure if it's just for looks). They of course go nowhere near reactor 4, don't expect to see anything particularly hot.

 

[Omniata]

I met a guy from Salford university that travels to Chernobyl for environmental monitoring purposes, he's on their site.
Normal background levels there are 400 to 800 time background levels here, when the pocket meter "screams", "GET OUT!"...

There's a documentary on theirs and the Manchester Science Festival's websites...
Bearing in mind, this is 30 years later, and the wildlife is thriving.
Albeit, the background Iodine levels are a fraction of normal due to natural radiation absorbtion and decomposition.

 

[ronan]

Bearing in mind, this is 30 years later, and the wildlife is thriving.

Glows in the dark, but thriving

 

[daleyd]

I read that after it blew up, liquidators were being paid with one free Lada car. Given the waiting list for cars was about seven years plus the cost, this was a seemingly amazing offer for ninety minutes work shifting graphite and rubble. I wonder if any lived long enough to enjoy their prize.

Apparently 2200 of them are reckoned to have already, or will die of, radiation related issues. They were told after they received a certain dose they would be honourably discharged, but when that point came they were told there was no one to take their place.

 

[roofman]

Welsh lamb used to cook its self from the prevailing winds

 

[Omniata]

Apparently 2200 of them are reckoned to have already, or will die of, radiation related issues. They were told after they received a certain dose they would be honourably discharged, but when that point came they were told there was no one to take their place.

60 Fire fighters were initially sent in under orders that it was a "non" radioactive fire.
Most of them died within days due to significant exposure to high intensity alpha radiation

 

[nickk]

that was typical of the high standard of programmes on bbc4. theres a location in n.wales where they've only recently been allowed to sell the sheep into the human food chain.