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[HBO] Chernobyl

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by donkeypunch, May 9, 2019.

  1. Dgn1

    Dgn1 Member

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    I don't know what's worse, the radiation or all those dam cigarettes people smoked back then.
     
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  2. Buck Turgidson

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    I got to visit the former Eastern Block, got to know a whole bunch of people who grew up there, and I don't know that anyone from the West could really appreciate the dark humor that comes out of that society unless they truly lived it. It's how they coped.
     
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  3. donkeypunch

    donkeypunch Contributing Member

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  4. Supermac34

    Supermac34 President, Von Wafer Fan Club

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    I have a new channel to subscribe to now.
     
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  5. donkeypunch

    donkeypunch Contributing Member

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    Yeah, the guy is pretty effin awesome. Theres a recent video where he brings supplies to the mom and son that opened their home and what little they had in their fridge.
     
  6. Rocket River

    Rocket River Member

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    Was it a known flaw then
    cause they sure acting like it was impossible
    or
    was not known only in Russia

    Rocket River
     
  7. LosPollosHermanos

    LosPollosHermanos Houston only fan
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    Radiation damage yes, but “5 megaton explosion” is many many orders of magnitudes off
     
  8. B-Bob

    B-Bob "94-year-old self-described dreamer"

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    The various layers of bureaucracy added the "impossible" part.
     
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  9. Rocket River

    Rocket River Member

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    Like Chimneys
    Ah . . . I was wondering why all the Engineers was saying it was impossible
    but
    I guess that was just what they were taught and were told they could not think otherwise

    Rocket River
     
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  10. Ottomaton

    Ottomaton Contributing Member
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    On them saying it was impossible for the core to explode on the show:

    I'm pretty confident that technically they are correct - it is impossible for the core to explode, it could only melt down. The core is the uranium rods, the graphite and the control rods and all their accoutrements. "Explosion" of the core itself would be supercritical nuclear fission - i.e. a nuclear bomb going off. RBMK uses low enriched uranium. The core was completely incapable of going supercritical, even with a team of bomb designers and precise engineering. Further enrichment of the uranium would be required.

    What actually exploded was the containment vessel that surrounded the core due to steam pressure, like a pressure cooker with the steam valve blocked. When the shell around the core exploded, it damaged the apparatus of the core and spread bits and pieces of graphite all across the lawn. But it wasn't the core that exploded. In fact, what happened after the containment vessel exploded and all the water evaporated away was a melt down of the core, which is B-Bob's elephant foot.

    However the more I think about it, the more stupid their ignorance was.

    A nuclear reactor is basically a huge steam engine, like an old steam locomotive and the core containment vessel is essentially the boiler. You just heat the water in the "boiler" with radiation instead of an external fire, and you turn electricity generating turbines instead of pistons that move wheels. Obviously, a reactor is much more complex, but basically it is a steam engine. What happens if you overheat the water in a steam boiler past its pressure limits?

    It should have been obvious to anybody that ever put a tea kettle on a stove that steam pressure can be dangerous. For a casual observer it might not spring to mind, but if I spent a week on that job thinking about running a reactor like that, I'm positive that the danger of a steam explosion would be something I thought about, even if nobody told me it was possible. Every single one of those engineers was smart enough to just intuit the danger of steam overpressure in the core on the basis of first principles.

    They basically must have been cowed by the authority of the state into not thinking unapproved thoughts.
     
    #70 Ottomaton, May 22, 2019
    Last edited: May 22, 2019
  11. Buck Turgidson

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    You know your favorite part was the naked miners. Don't lie.
     
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  12. daywalker02

    daywalker02 Member

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    Horrible view of what Legasov predicted. The miners gave a comic relief.

    Oh boi, instability of cell structure.
     
  13. Wooderson

    Wooderson Member

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    I'm just going to go with the radiation.
     
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  14. Dgn1

    Dgn1 Member

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    Radiation, cigarette smoke and miners lung. Throw in a little cirrhosis of liver while your at it.
     
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  15. ROXTXIA

    ROXTXIA Contributing Member

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    The episode was hard to watch. The effects of radiation poisoning. I would have just said, "Tell my wife I love her very much and I'm sorry I couldn't say good-bye in person. Live a good life. OK, Igor, put a bullet in my skull now."

    A shame so few are watching the show----1 million per episode, compared to 1 jillion for Game of Complaints; but who wants to learn anything about, you know, history? It's, like, so old.
     
  16. CrazyJoeDavola

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    Chernobyl: Radiation, cigarettes, vodka, frumpy people and lots and lots of pale green backgrounds
     
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  17. dmoneybangbang

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    Don’t try to BS a miner....
     
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  18. donkeypunch

    donkeypunch Contributing Member

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    This damn show has THE best dramatic closings. First those Geiger counters and then that damn cement truck man. Oof.
     
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  19. Kilgore Trout

    Kilgore Trout Contributing Member

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    This is really excellent stuff from the series. Bit surprised of the lack of usual TV sites/critics not covering it at all.
     
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  20. Wooderson

    Wooderson Member

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    I was just talking about that last night. I can't believe how under the radar this show seems to be. Maybe it is just overshadowed by the end of Game of Thrones, or the fact that we are fast approaching summer holiday for schools. I don't know...I just wish that more people were talking about this.

    But like we've said in this thread: this can be difficult to watch for many people.
     
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