Chernobyl

Jive Turkey

Jive Turkey

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Finished watching the series tonight. It's really a perfect show. Directing, pacing, cinematography, writing... it's flawless. The first episode is one of the most gripping episodes in television history
 
Jive Turkey

Jive Turkey

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BrutulTM said:
www-forbes-com.cdn.ampproject.org

Why HBO's "Chernobyl" Gets Nuclear So Wrong

If Hollywood ever decides to tell the true story of nuclear it won’t need to resort to sensationalism.
www-forbes-com.cdn.ampproject.org www-forbes-com.cdn.ampproject.org
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"Nor did radiation from the melted reactor contribute to the crash of a helicopter, as is strongly suggested in “Chernobyl.” There was a helicopter crash but it took place six months later and had nothing to do with radiation. One of the helicopter’s blades hit a chain dangling from a construction crane."

This is the second time I've seen one of these "What Chernobyl got wrong" articles claiming the show depicted the helicopter crashing due to radiation. It quite clearly hit the crane cable, just like it did in real life. I have no idea what these people thought they were watching
 
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BrutulTM

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Yeah, but they clearly insinuated that they ran into the chain because the pilot was being barbecued by radiation, not that it was just a routine crash due to pilot error.
 
Siliconemelons

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"I am in a panic! I need someone to explain to me how it is safe to live on the east coast!"

If that is your reaction, then its not... go to cuckifornia now ASAP!
 
Jive Turkey

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BrutulTM said:
Yeah, but they clearly insinuated that they ran into the chain because the pilot was being barbecued by radiation, not that it was just a routine crash due to pilot error.
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They only insinuated that the radio communication was fucked because of the radiation. They never implied the pilot got fried. The only little dramatic addition was that the pilot was too close and couldn't see through the smoke. Which is a fair concession; it's quicker to convey than trying to explain to the audience that the pilot was so preoccupied with the fire that he didn't see the cables. It neither adds nor detracts from the real life events; it just means that they didn't need to add another scene explaining that the pilot fucked up.
 
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Alex

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If these minor things were the only scenes dramatized I'd say the show is pretty fucking accurate.
 
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Reht

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Maybe, but there is already a NOVA documentary on Netflix called Building Chernobyl's Megatomb that shows the construction of the new dome containment.
 
Araxen

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I finished this last Sunday finally, and the last episode really is so great. It wraps up the show so well, and the line "and that is how a RBMK reactor explodes" is some just great writing.
 
Erronius

Erronius

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meStevo said:
While it's not exactly history repeating, some of this has been scary to read over the last day or so.

www.bbc.com

'Brief radiation spike' after rocket engine blast in northern Russia

The explosion on a naval test range in Arkhangelsk region kills two people and injures six.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com


The sea adjacent to this incident has now been closed by Russia for a month.
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It's not really close to where the Losharik accident occurred. That was the first thing I was curious about. This was near Severodvinsk, while Losharik was north of Severomorsk.

They're claiming it was a liquid fuel explosion. Clearly, that won't create radiation on its own. But what it might have been was an accident with their nuclear cruise missile, as AFAIK you need a separate method to launch it before the nuclear reactor can superheat the air and take over. This might have even been an accident during a test launch and the missile crashed in the sea.

Speaking of the Losharik accident...Russia had launched several test flights of their nuclear cruise missile (and nuclear powered torpedo as well, I'm sure) and it was rumored that they needed to recover some of them from the ocean. That might even have been the mission the Losharik was undertaking when they shorted out their batteries while docking to their mothership, and why they had a literal metric fuckton of high-ranking officers on board at the time (RIP).
 
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Erronius

Erronius

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Leadsalad said:
Super heat the air... I'd be interested to know how long that reactor actually functions for before fusing the whole thing into a solid lump of melty badness.

Is it different than this? Nuclear thermal rocket - Wikipedia
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Yeah...I think the rocket acts upon the fuel, so it has a much more finite range. This is more of a reactor that just transfers heat to the air for propulsion. The early experiments didn't have the power they would have liked, compared to conventional turbines.

Kind of like

Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Project Pluto - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
Leadsalad

Leadsalad

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Yeah, you're missing the reaction of the spent fuel being pushed out the back also forcing the craft forward.

And those reactors are enormous.
 
Erronius

Erronius

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meStevo said:
www.thedrive.com

Russia Admits Mysterious Missile Engine Explosion Involved A Nuclear 'Isotope Power Source' (Updated)

This new detail and other information suggest that the accident might have involved one of Russia's nuclear-powered cruise missiles.
www.thedrive.com www.thedrive.com
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I don't take victory laps often, but when I do, it involves Russia

EDIT: from that article:

There have been no previous reports that Russia has previously tested Burevestnik, also known to NATO as SSC-X-9 Skyfall, which Russian President Vladimir Putin first revealed the existence of in a speech in March 2018, at this particular location.
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Well, kind of yes, kind of no. There has been speculation that some weird readings picked up in Europe could have been from flights of the cruise missile. It's just that they didn't have any way to verify it. That's part of why I've wondered if Russia has done secret test flights, then purposely had them splash down in the Barents relatively close to Severomorsk so their secret-squirrel subs like Losharik could recover them after test flights. That's been one of the issues of testing things like that...how the hell do you land them? You don't want to just crash them willy-nilly on land. And if you can't have them return to a base and land, maybe having them crash into the ocean is a decent Plan B.

thebarentsobserver.com

Is Putin’s new nuclear systems source of mysterious radioactivity in the air?

If it is true that Russia have tested its new nuclear-powered missiles, some radioactive releases could occur, says Norwegian nuclear safety expert.
thebarentsobserver.com thebarentsobserver.com

In Norway and Finland, radioactive isotopes were discovered at monitoring stations in January and March last year, as well as in January and February this year. The first cloud of radioactivity last year was first detected at Svanhovd air filter station on Norway’s border to Russia in the north, but spread over most of Europe south to France and Spain over the following two weeks.


Authorities underline that the levels were nearly undetectable and are far from presenting any health concern to population.
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«If it is true that Russia has tested its new nuclear-powered missile, some radioactive released could have occurred,” Bøhmer says and points to the United States’ on-ground testing of reactors for a nuclear-powered aircraft back in the late 1950s. «That project was cancelled because of high releases of radioactivity behind the engines at the test site in Idaho Falls,» Nils Bøhmer explains.


He says there could be a connection between the mysterious iodine-131 detected and Russia’s new missile. «This could be explained by the secret testing of Russia’s new nuclear-powered missile. Because of short half-life of eight days of iodine-131, this isotope measured in the air could only be explained by reactor operations. Other isotopes, like Cecium-137 that has a half-life of 30 years is found in nature long after the releases have happened. This could explain why only iodine-131 is detected, because Cesium-137 is masked by the releases from the Chernobyl accident,» Bøhmer tells.


A nuclear-powered cruise-missile with a small reactor would most likely have an partly open-air cooling system, where isotopes simply would fly out as the missile speeds away.
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From the SLAM program:


The source of energy for SLAM propulsion was to be a nuclear fission reactor operating at a power level of 600 MWth. To minimize its weight, the reactor was not to have radiation shielding for the fission products of neutrons and gamma rays. As a result, the neutron flux was calculated to vary from 9 x 1017n/(cm2.sec)in the aft section to 7 x 1014n/(cm2.sec)in the nose section.Gamma ray energy was expected to be 4 x 1011MeV in the aft section and 1.2 x 108MeV in the electronics compartment.This requires careful selection of materials which could survive not only the high temperatures but also the high radiation levels.Some very sensitive components required a feasible amount of local shielding. The result of the investigations led to the conclusion that missile subsystems were available or could be made available for the SLAM application. Flight testing of the missile was planned to be conducted over the northwest Pacific Ocean with termination in deep ocean waters in the neighborhood where atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons had taken place at that time period.
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