Late night thoughts

[SpiritMr89]

Anyone else have random thoughts at night?

Was listening to a thing on yootoob tonight on the Chernobyl Liuidators.

It meantioned about the helicopters, dropping sand, clay, borax(?). On the fire.
Got me wondering, would it have been better to just cap the fire, let it burn, and use filters to catch the radiatoion?

Yes I spend ALOT, of time on my own.
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Hello

[Raffles]

[stinkwheel]

Cap it with what? Put a filter on where?
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Polarbear]

I live in fantasy land at night.

and in the day after a bottle of the Captains finest.
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[Nobby the Bastard]

This was not a traditional fire. It was bot subject to the usual rules regarding fuel, heat and oxygen.

The radioativity creates heat. The melted core material gets hotter and hotter until it potentially melts it's way to the centre of the earth. It's called the China Syndrome.

In reality what would happen in this instance is that astoundingly hot corium (yes, there is a mineral called corium, the result of nuclear reactors that have melted down) meets fuck loads of ground water, resulting in an even bigger explosion and much wider spread of radioative material.

This didn't happen in the end but it was considered to be such a great risk that miners tunneled underneath the reactor floor in preparation to install liquid nitrogen cooling beneath the concrete base of the reactor building to prevent the heat melting it.

Caping the fire wasn't an option in the first place because it's akin to caping a football stadium size ruined building.
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trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Sprint ST 1050

[Robby]

Also important to remember that all of this was happening in secret, or at least being denied. It's difficult to assemble a football-stadium sized concrete cap, quickly and quietly.

[Nobby the Bastard]

It was only secret for about 3 days. The jig was up once it started triggering radiation alarms in Swedish power plants.
____________________
trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Sprint ST 1050

[stinkwheel]

Borax and sand would effectively cap it anyway because it'll fuse in to silica glass from the heat as well as tying up any heavy elements within the glass structure. A bit like when you use it as a flux when you fire-assay precious metals.

I suppose there's a risk of it concentrating the heavy metals in one place under the glass though, increasing the criticality effect. I wonder if adding lead salts to the mix would have encouraged the heavies to form a less rich alloy.
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Nobby the Bastard]

The borax absorbs neutrons, damping down the reactions. thats why they chose it.

Not that they actually managed to drop any of it accurately enough to make a difference, though.
____________________
trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Sprint ST 1050

[Copycat73]

stop drinking coffee after midday .... or mouldy cheese ....
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Whatever I post I have no citation and no intention of providing one..
caveat emptor

[Bhud]

I'm gonna think about ancient Egypt again, tonight. Predynastic Egypt, and how they made those precision cut vases. And about what the weathering marks on the the Sphynx mean. Again...

[SpiritMr89]

[SpiritMr89]

[Nobby the Bastard]

[stinkwheel]

There weren't as many cancer deaths as you'd think, 3940 according to the WHO, about 3% over the baseline. A lot of thyroid cancers but they were mostly treatable. Quite a few deaths from the explosion itself and acute radiation sickness in the initial liquidators.

There were way more excess deaths attributable to the massive social displacement.

https://apps.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr38/en/index1.html
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Copycat73]

[duhawkz]

Could always ask them next time you're in Pripyat
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"The guy is a worthless cunt and I honestly believe I would be a slightly happier person if he died." - Chris-Red

[Islander]

[to v or not to v]

i seem to remember news articles about sheep here being born here in Blighty with defects- extra limbs and such, some time after the Ruskie meltdown?
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current bike Yamaha Thunderace.
its old and fat, but its a damned good ride. the bikes not bad either.

[Nobby the Bastard]

The sheep in wales had too high a level of radioactivity for human consumption, no horrific mutations identified. The sheep were tested every three months to check if the radioactivity was within acceptable limits and when radioactivity is concerned these limits are very strict.

Wildlife in the exclusion zone is extensive. Very little signs that wildlife are suffering from the excess radioactivity in the zone are found. Most are animals (and plants) that have particular needs. For example grazers that crop the grass so low they are picking up caesium.
____________________
trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Sprint ST 1050

[Robby]

To tl;dr the concerns about safety and the realistic impacts.

Nuclear safety guidelines are incredibly risk-averse. The huge exclusion zone around Chernobyl reflects that. Most of the exclusion zone wouldn't actually be very dangerous to live in, you would have somewhat elevated risk of radiation-related illnesses, but not insta-death or weird mutation territory.

If the same level of risk avoidance was used for carbon monoxide, sulphur oxides or nitrous oxides, we wouldn't' be able to drive internal combustion vehicles or have gas boilers in our homes.

[stinkwheel]

True, and while we have a good idea of the likely effect of high dose exposure (lots of data from the Japan bombings), the understanding of low to moderate doses isn't as well understood.

There's an assumption that the degree of harm is linear but it's probably the case of there being more of a sharp drop-off as dose decreases. There being a point at which the biological repair mechanisms cope with the damage. I remember seeing one study that looked at people who lived in high background radiation areas (like Aberdeen) and high exposure jobs (like airline pilots) and they didn't see a significantly higher rate of cancers in those populations. If I took a piece of Aberdeen granite into Sellafield, it would set off alarms.
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Nobby the Bastard]

Some studies seem to indicate a higher background level of radiation is actually preferable. The trouble is, because radiation exposure risk is based on statistical increase of risk of getting cancer, it's hard to prove one way or the other.
____________________
trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Sprint ST 1050

[RhynoCZ]

[stinkwheel]

Or looking at it another way. A pyramid is just a pile with straight sides. If you make a big heap of rocks, you get a cone. If you make a slightly more controlled heap of stones using cut stones laid straight, you get a pyramid.
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.