Chernobyl

Anyone here watching the HBO miniseries?

True to history and it's really well done. Spectacular.

Saw the first episode the other night. Very well done. Can't wait to get back to it.

Obscurity said:

Anyone here watching the HBO miniseries?

True to history and it's really well done. Spectacular.

Click to expand...

I visited Chornobyl/Pripyat (the Ukrainian spelling) twice when I lived in Ukraine. It is indeed a fascinating story (and place).

If you enjoy the subject, I very highly recommend....

Midnight in Chernobyl - Adam Higginbotham / Simon & Shuster / 2019 / 538pp.

Obscurity said:

Anyone here watching the HBO miniseries?

True to history and it's really well done. Spectacular.

Click to expand...

It's the freaking best show on TV right now.

Obscurity said:

Anyone here watching the HBO miniseries?

True to history and it's really well done. Spectacular.

Click to expand...

I may give it a watch. But I already know enough of the sickening details of the Soviet Union, and the brave men of the Soviet Liquidator teams who died horribly to clean up and contain the hazardous materials around the ruined reactor. I am already prone to melancholy enough, without being reminded of the needless death caused by man-made disasters.

Im waiting till it finishes so I can binge watch it, like what I'm going to do with GoT this weekend.

Obscurity said:

Anyone here watching the HBO miniseries?

True to history and it's really well done. Spectacular.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reminder. Will be sure to watch.

Obscurity said:

Anyone here watching the HBO miniseries?

True to history and it's really well done. Spectacular.

Click to expand...

It is fantastic, and frightening as hell. They used another plant that was the exact duplicate of Chernobyl and filmed much more of it around Kiev. It has that mid 80's Soviet drab look exactly down.

Great acting, the lead actor was on Mad Men (spoiler: he hung himself on that show too).

I've been telling everyone to watch this, this week's episode was just gruesome, the makeup on the dying firefighters was amazing and gross.

I have it on demand and watching it now. It was a horrible time for everyone around the world, particularly for those people in Ukraine. Hopefully it will never be repeated and we've learned lessons from Chernobyl. Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979 was about as close as I want to be to a nuclear meltdown ever again.

The Chornobyl Exclusion Zone covers an area of ~1,000 sq mi. A similar Exclusion Zone in Belarus is slightly larger. About 1.5 months after the reactor explosion, abnormal background radiation readings were recorded in Kyiv, about 60 miles south. As a result, 100,000 schoolchildren were evacuated from the city and disbursed around the country. They were away for an entire year. The destroyed nuclear reactor #4 is now shielded by the New Safe Confinement (NSC) sarcophagus which is taller than the statue of Liberty and covers an area 284 yards x 180 yards. Although the Exclusion Zone will not be totally safe for humans for roughly another 20,000 years, plant, insect, and animal life seems to be doing very well. I myself saw gray wolves, fox, and wild horses.



New Safe Confinement structure now entombs the destroyed reactor #4.

The three Chornobyl divers.

Two days after Chornobyl reactor #4 exploded, the authorities made a startling discovery. The 185 tons of highly radioactive reactor material was rapidly melting its way downward (The China Syndrome) through a thick concrete slab. The problem was that beneath the concrete slab was a 5 million gallon pool, the water of which was used as coolant for the power plant. When the melting core came into contact with this water, a huge nuclear-dirty explosion would occur, the results of which were impossible to calculate. Three scuba divers volunteered to scuba in the dark under the concrete slab and then locate and turn two large valve wheels which would empty the pool. That's the three men above in the picture. They were ultimately successful and emptied the pool of its water averting a second disaster. Some accounts say Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bespalov and Boris Baranov all died within two weeks at Moscow's Hospital №6 (a special hospital for radiation contaminated patients) and were buried in lead-lined coffins on the hospital grounds. Another account says one of these men lived until 2005.

There remains one body within the encased reactor #4 building. It was considered impossible to attempt to locate and then remove this corpse (which could have been incinerated by scalding steam or slowly cremated from the radiation heat). Although the Soviet authorities used remote controlled robot machines to approach the plant, the gamma radiation fried their electronics within minutes. Not far from the Chornobyl nuclear facility (at Rassorva) is a huge fenced area that contains over 2000 various vehicles and military helicopters used in the emergency response that were contaminated with radiation. They remain highly contaminated to this day, 33 years later. On one of my two sojourns to Chornobyl, I spotted an earth-moving claw deserted in a nearby forest. From a distance, my dosimeter warned that the claw metal is still lethally contaminated. Needless to say, we (my local guide and I) immediately backtracked and left this area.


The vehicle graveyard at Rassorva.

Chernobyl is a very well done series. The photography is spectacular, and along with the soundtrack really sets the mood. It’s very creepy and tense. An edge of your seat experience.

Obscurity said:

Anyone here watching the HBO miniseries?

True to history and it's really well done. Spectacular.

Click to expand...

Chernobyl is the best HBO show ever, I just have 1 question, WHEN RUSSIANS begin TO PAY COMPILATIONS TO BELARUSIANS for the Chernobyl rain?

Chernobyl is best HBO show ever, I just have 1 question, WHEN RUSSIANS begin TO PAY COMPILATIONS TO

Felis Leo said:

I may give it a watch. But I already know enough of the sickening details of the Soviet Union, and the brave men of the Soviet Liquidator teams who died horribly to clean up and contain the hazardous materials around the ruined reactor. I am already prone to melancholy enough, without being reminded of the needless death caused by man-made disasters.

Click to expand...

"brave men " not sure about it, my uncle was one of them (no a liquidator but he took a part in so - called "clean up operation") , he is dead already (42) . commie propaganda worked well 1986, 99% of them simply did not understand the risks ...