Cool Site

[PyRo]

Stupid Russians didn't bother mentioning this to anyone for about three days, hell the United States knew about it from stalite photos before the people who lived in the areas affected by radiation.
For three days they allowed people to be exposed to the radiation. Want to know whats more erie see that picture of the fire truck, everyone who went to the plant in that truck probably died within a week. So many lives could have been saved if they had swallowed there pride and admitted what happend. When they finally had to admit to the public what had happend they denied how far the radiation had spread, and they denied just how contaminated the areas were. This caused yet more deaths. People are still being effected by the fallout from this today.
Do they ever learn either? Nope. Remember a couple years ago when they lost a submarine, and the US and several other countries got there first offering there help. They refused to let anyone help them instead the trapped crew had to wait for a Russian ship, and by the time it arrived it was too late.

[Thordic]

We know nothing of this meltdown...

[OfficerGoat]

Originally posted by PyRo
Stupid Russians didn't bother mentioning this to anyone for about three days, hell the United States knew about it from stalite photos before the people who lived in the areas affected by radiation.

We just happened to be a LOT luckyer than they were. Had they left the coolant off at 3 mile island we would have the same size dead zone they do only there would have been no way to contain the core like they were able to do. You would have had radioactive steam coming out of the ground for 100s of miles around the plant.... that would have really sucked. As is a human will never be able to actualy enter that part of the plant ever again. They continuosly denied the fact that there was anything wrong with the plant untill they couldnt contain the truth any longer.

[Fixion]

Yeah, saw it on slashdot. Its wierd seeing an empty city like that. Reminds me of 28 days latter.

[Python14]

Dude, that was just erie. It makes me really want to go and see it for myself though. 100s of square miles deserted.

The jist of what happened was sometime around 1am April 26th of 1986, some of the engineers at the reactor 4(I think it's #4, I may be wrong), were doing some routine tests. A small problem arose with the primary coolant pump system. Typical response is to turn on the secondary coolant pump. However, a slip of the finger and a scientist accidently turned off the pumps. The reactions were happening too quickly that the core temperatures rose so quickly that even if they got the secondary pump back on, it would have been too late.

Added to that is the fact that Chernobyl reactor is of a type that frankly, was outdated, unsafe, and for the most part an accident waiting to happen. The combination of the fact it was unstable at lower powers(the scientists were testing it with like 6 rods when they should have used 30 or more), and the fact that it used Steam as a coolant(everyone else in the world uses soft water).

Finally, at around 1:30ish, the temperature rose so sharply, so quick that the containment vessal(A million lb lead and iron pill looking thing) literally exploded. Radiation poured out all over Eastern Ukraine and winds carried it even further. The government even covered it up for 3 days, denying it happened.

The actual reactor site was a glowing mass of Graphite, Celsium, Uranium, and radiation soaked steel and iron. It glowed red hot for close to a year(and most estimates have it glowing for another 300 years). The workers who were present in the reactor 4 vessal were literally vaporized. Their bodies seperated into individual atoms and now they are spread out over thousands of square miles. The firefighters(yall saw the trucks in the photo) who came to the "rescue" died within hours. The workers who were "lucky enough" to live were immediately tossed in jail without anything even resembling a trial. All of them died within a few months. Currently, no one who was in "ghost town" those days are alive...and I guess it will stay that way.

Three days later, they evactuated an area the size of Rhode island....but it was too late. Hundreds of thousands of people died within months, and countless more have died as result of Radiation poisoning in the 18 years since.

Today, the Russian government is basically abandoning the area. The reactor sarcophagus is in dire need of replacement and the Russian government refuses to front the money for it. Other European groups are doing their best to raise the money, but odds are it's not gonna get done in time. Another accident like Chernobyl is possible and unfortunately, with the current state of things, likely.

All in all, seeing this just makes it more scary. I still want to see it though. The pictures showed just how beautiful the area is, and how sad it is that no one can live their for almost a millenia.