Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

The pictures are lovely and the reflections profound. But much of the cited data here appears wrong. For instance, the article states (italicized): &quot;six hundred helicopter pilots were killed&quot; and yet it was only 600 helicopter pilots who _flew_ liquidator missions[1], two of which were killed in an piloting accident and none were registered killed from immediate radiation exposure[2], though at least one eventually died from cancer likely from this exposure[3]. Similarly a claim of &quot;Over six hundred thousand people were directly involved in dealing with the aftermath of the Chernobyl explosion&quot; is not supported by the evidence[4].<p>I don&#x27;t mean any of this to lessen the enormity of what happened and the tremendous, noble effort made by the liquidators to remediate what was there at great personal cost. It&#x27;s just good when making specific claims for those claims to be substantiated.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rotorandwing.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;04&#x2F;26&#x2F;chernobyl-anniversary-recalls-helo-pilots-bravery&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rotorandwing.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;04&#x2F;26&#x2F;chernobyl-anniversar...</a><p>[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.terradaily.com&#x2F;reports&#x2F;Chernobyl_pilots_knew_risks_commander_999.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.terradaily.com&#x2F;reports&#x2F;Chernobyl_pilots_knew_risk...</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.latimes.com&#x2F;archives&#x2F;la-xpm-1990-07-04-mn-106-story.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.latimes.com&#x2F;archives&#x2F;la-xpm-1990-07-04-mn-106-st...</a><p>[4] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.chernobylgallery.com&#x2F;chernobyl-disaster&#x2F;liquidators&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.chernobylgallery.com&#x2F;chernobyl-disaster&#x2F;liquidato...</a>

Highly recommend the HBO&#x27;s new miniseries Chernobyl. One episode left. It&#x27;s already at the top of IMDB TV show rankings.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.imdb.com&#x2F;chart&#x2F;toptv&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.imdb.com&#x2F;chart&#x2F;toptv&#x2F;</a>

I&#x27;m confused, did they legally entered the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone? I was told that biking into the Chernobyl Zone, e.g., is forbidden due to the risk of contamination when you exit.<p>Edit: Indeed it was not. From Instagram, “we spent the night tiptoeing around razor wire fences, coasting through sleeping security checkpoints, and riding frantically away from some surprisingly alert and vigilant guard dogs.” This validates what I know from Ukraine. Entering the exclusion zone is a very lucrative touristic business, with prices around $100-200 for a single day trip in a group.

Loved this story! Also good timing as a lot of us are watching the HBO mini-series now. I especially liked this quote: &quot;The reason it&#x27;s so beautiful and so peaceful is precisely because we can&#x27;t consume it. Like, perhaps, all real paradises everywhere.&quot;

When discussing the safety of nuclear power most comments seem to focus on the number of deaths. While death count is tragic in itself, it doesn&#x27;t capture the full extent of human drama.<p>Consider this<p>Fukushima<p>&quot;the nuclear accident was responsible for 154,000 being evacuated&quot;<p>&quot;In December 2016 the government estimated decontamination, compensation, decommissioning, and radioactive waste storage costs at 21.5 trillion yen ($187 billion), nearly double the 2013 estimate.&quot;<p>Chernobyl<p>&quot;In 2005, the total cost over 30 years for Belarus alone was estimated at US$235 billion; about $301 billion in today&#x27;s dollars given inflation rates.&quot;<p>&quot;between 5% and 7% of government spending in Ukraine is still related to Chernobyl&quot;<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disa...</a> <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Chernobyl_disaster" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Chernobyl_disaster</a>

&gt; Standing in the bleachers, listening to the Pripyat municipal overture of resounding bird song, the only thing we could do was stare out at the trees and wonder &quot;how long until New York looks like this?&quot;<p>I&#x27;m curious what the author meant by this. Does he mean how long would it take NYC to look like Chernobyl after a similar nuclear&#x2F;natural accident happened? Or do they have a fatalistic outlook on the future due to some environmental, economic, or political worldview?<p>Also the end of the story mentions there are no obvious monuments to the people who worked to help rescue people but there is one in the very city he was reporting from dedicated to the firefighters and others involved: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;oddviser.com&#x2F;ukraine&#x2F;chernobyl&#x2F;memorial" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;oddviser.com&#x2F;ukraine&#x2F;chernobyl&#x2F;memorial</a>

There&#x27;s a YouTuber who&#x27;s been traveling around Belarus and recording his daily adventures. Many of the videos are from inside the areas affected by Chernobyl. They&#x27;re fun to watch: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;playlist?list=PLqWdYjn21PdHRvHB7NrwlXBeHE44AW-R9" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;playlist?list=PLqWdYjn21PdHRvHB7Nrwl...</a>

Q for ppl more knowledgeable - <i>How exaggerated is this claim?</i> :<p>&gt; would have ignited a second reaction that would have been the equivalent of a 5 megaton explosion. It would have leveled Kiev and Minsk, and would have ejected the nuclear material from the other 3 Chernobyl reactors with a force that would have rendered much of Europe uninhabitable for hundreds of years<p>(I can imagine <i>it is</i> exaggerated, but I am not an expert so can&#x27;t tell the magnitude. I meant 5 megatons is not that much, the tested &quot;Tsar Bomba&quot; was estimated at 50+ megatons. And even will tones of material spread around, most of it would have settled on the ground on a smallish area, right?)

Visited Chernobyl 3 years ago, just before they cover it with Confinement.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;gallery&#x2F;uIOOz1p" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;gallery&#x2F;uIOOz1p</a><p>Btw, you can easily visit it, because of lots of tours here, it cost about $100-$150 per day. I used this company <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.chernobyl-tour.com&#x2F;english&#x2F;48-one-day-trip-to-the-chernobyl-zone-and-prypyat-town.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.chernobyl-tour.com&#x2F;english&#x2F;48-one-day-trip-to-th...</a>

Maby they did sneak in, but fool me once: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kiddofspeed.com&#x2F;chapter1.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kiddofspeed.com&#x2F;chapter1.html</a><p>The last time someone posted pictures claiming they rode their motorcycle through the forbidden zone it caused a stir because that is expressly forbidden because of the risk of picking up contaminated dust. Enclosed tour vehicles only for this reason. Then apparently, in the case of kiddofspeed, we find out she rode her motorcycle to the standard meeting place and took the standard tour. While carrying her helmet along with her for effect.

All of Moxie&#x27;s stories are great and I highly recommended them: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;moxie.org&#x2F;stories.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;moxie.org&#x2F;stories.html</a><p>The train stories in particular made me recall reading Days of War, Nights of Love in a really good way.

I watched a documentary on the new concrete sarcophagus that they built to contain the reactor.<p>Its amusing that the EU had to invest billions into the project. Hell even the US put in money and expertise despite being an ocean away. Where was Russia? It was their powerplant that blew up!

&quot;When that material then started to smolder downwards out through the floor of the chamber, it threatened to come into contact with a large amount of water that had pooled there as a result of early firefighter attempts to put it out with hoses. This would have ignited a second reaction that would have been the equivalent of a 5 megaton explosion. It would have leveled Kiev and Minsk, and would have ejected the nuclear material from the other 3 Chernobyl reactors with a force that would have rendered much of Europe uninhabitable for hundreds of years. With only days to stop it, Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bezpalov, and Boris Baranov went into the ruins of the plant, knowingly facing almost certain death from that level of radiation exposure, to release valves that would drain 5 million gallons of water.&quot;<p>Is this really true? Are there better sources than this blog post?

&gt; This cost $1.8 billion to construct, $60 million a year to maintain,<p>What are the maintenance costs for The Object? Is it monitoring&#x2F;auditing or is there active construction&#x2F;repair?

Not so long ago there was a submission about visit of Arkadiusz Podniesiński in Fukushima. Before that, though, he was visiting the zone multiple times and made two long movies about it. Here&#x27;s a trailer of second one. Worth a look as the visuals are quite nice.<p>Alone in the Zone 2: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=zdCBQA7Z1Y0" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=zdCBQA7Z1Y0</a>

watching Chernobyl on HBO brought to life some of the stories that happened during that fateful period. Easily the best show on HBO right now

The book, &#x27;Chernobyl, History of a Tragedy&#x27; by Serhii Plokhy gives a very good account of the accident. Days preceding, the burning days ,and political and social repurcussions there after.

When was this published? I couldn&#x27;t find a date.

1 gallon of water weighs 8.34 lbs.<p>5 * 8.34 * 3 = 125.1 lbs

Five megaton explosion? That&#x27;s hydrogen fusion bomb range, dude, not a steam explosion.

never ceases to amaze..

Can anyone comment on the validity of the 5 MT explosion when the core material hit water? This was also stated the the HBO show.<p>I don’t think 5 MT fission bombs are even possible, as they tend to blow themselves apart.

On that score- the atomic bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki did less overall damage than the Allied&#x27;s firebombings in other cities- and, IIRC, there were less casualties in the nuked cities as well- the damage was just different.

Coincidentally I just started watching Chernobyl series on HBO <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hbo.com&#x2F;chernobyl" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hbo.com&#x2F;chernobyl</a>

I found it very distracting that none of the ostensibly Russian or Ukrainian characters have an even remotely slavic accent.