Chernobyl - NOW WITH PICS!!

Panama_Jack666

stickyfiddle;715441" said:

d8m said:

Why bother with pics?



Surely google street view of Merthyr Tydfil gives a detailed impression





Nah, there's less trees in Merthyr

I went to Merthyr Landfill once. 1/5 Would not recommend to a friend.

usedtobe

Thanks for sharing. Fascinating!

Longtallronnie

Eerily beautiful pics, Mike.

TTony

Wow.

Moss

Truly stunning, thanks for sharing with us

octatonic

FUUUUUUUUUUCK!

Sambostar

I just wouldn't go end of story,  Bad enough natural radiation levels on the granite and schist in Philadelphia, Cornwall and Scotland.

You might regret it when it catches up with you.

octatonic

Sambostar said:

I just wouldn't go end of story,  Bad enough natural radiation levels on the granite and schist in Philadelphia, Cornwall and Scotland.

You might regret it when it catches up with you.

and yet you smoke?

Sambostar

Well exactly, I wouldn't want to increase my risk factors by going to Chernobyl.

holnrew

I kind of fancy being naked there for some reason.

stickyfiddle

Sambostar said:

I just wouldn't go end of story,  Bad enough natural radiation levels on the granite and schist in Philadelphia, Cornwall and Scotland.

You might regret it when it catches up with you.

Honestly, it's fine. You have to wear long sleeves and trousers when you're near the plant (and only for extra risk-mitigation), but that's about it. The tour guides won't take you anywhere where the big bad stuff is buried or whatever - they don't want to go anywhere dangerous either! And the effects of radiation are now quite well understood, largely as a result of the accident and cleanup. We know who had what doses and what illnesses they had and who died and who didn't. And there are still 4000 people working in Chernobyl, with about half of them in the town at any one time.

holnrew said:

I kind of fancy being naked there for some reason.

This is probably pushing it a bit far though...

Sambostar

Where has the radiation gone then, Correct me if I'm long but half life is not just a few decades?  What happens if you start digging around in the dust, does the Geiger counter go off the scale?  Or have we really swallowed all that radioactive dust already as it went airborne over Europe back in the day.  As I remember a lot of sheep and livestock got infected sores and we were all instructed not to eat this and that.  Maybe it's why cancer rates are on the rise, although that may be the elderly population.

Chalky

@suspiciousminds - nuclear bomb deep underground is going to leave all the bad stuff there - deep underground. So not very harmful (we are talking deep deep underground so the explosion didn't erupt the surface just lift it a few metres and drop it). An aerial burst of half a mile up for a fission bomb and a couple of miles higher for a fusion bomb will cause a shock wave to bounce off the ground, pushing the fireball and the bad stuff upwards which, together with their very high temperature will carry them high up into the atmosphere, 10-30 miles maybe, where they will be dispersed over a very large area by winds of up to 100 mph.

The dirty detonation puts the bomb so close to the ground level that the bad stuff is forced into the top layer of soil in high densities and spread locally. One of the worst was the 'Baker shot' in a lagoon, where the relatively small fission bomb not only radiated the seawater but also dredged up and radiated the seafloor spraying it all over the ships being used for the test. The radiation was far far higher because of this, and meant many test results couldn't be collected as it was way too dangerous to send men in.

The largest ever bomb exploded by the Russians, the so called Tsar bomb, was very clean because so much of the bad stuff simply went upwards. It also demonstrated that huge fusion bombs are not as effective as smaller bombs because the vast majority of the energy released went out into space. Thats good news because simple physics limits the destruction capability of larger bombs. Which is why modern fusion bombs don't go beyond a few megatons.

stickyfiddle

Sambostar said:

Where has the radiation gone then, Correct me if I'm long but half life is not just a few decades?  What happens if you start digging around in the dust, does the Geiger counter go off the scale?  Or have we really swallowed all that radioactive dust already as it went airborne over Europe back in the day.  As I remember a lot of sheep and livestock got infected sores and we were all instructed not to eat this and that.  Maybe it's why cancer rates are on the rise, although that may be the elderly population.

A lot of the really bad stuff was created in the explosion and had a relatively short half-life. The uranium from the plant is still there, melted and fused with the surrounding melted concrete and graphite. The chunks of core and building that were scattered by the blast didn't go far, and were mostly picked up and put back near the plant and the sarcophagus built around them all. That's thick concrete and airtight so most of the radiation is stopped by it. 

TimmyO

Hertz32 said:

Sambostar said:

Why the fuck would you willingly want to go to Chernobyl?  There is nothing there and I imagine the midges would drive you nuts.

I could have got you a tour of the decommissioned plant at Fawley if you were interested.  Probably much the same less the radiation.

And isn't Chernobyl still inside a country that is actively in the state of civil war?

You never wondered what it would be like to be in a post apocalyptic zombie movie? 

Didn't they set a Call Of Duty level on that spot? 

stickyfiddle

TimmyO said:

Hertz32 said:

Sambostar said:

Why the fuck would you willingly want to go to Chernobyl?  There is nothing there and I imagine the midges would drive you nuts.

I could have got you a tour of the decommissioned plant at Fawley if you were interested.  Probably much the same less the radiation.

And isn't Chernobyl still inside a country that is actively in the state of civil war?

You never wondered what it would be like to be in a post apocalyptic zombie movie? 

Didn't they set a Call Of Duty level on that spot? 

Yup - 2 levels in COD4 including sniping at the plant and a shootout at the ferris wheel. They changed the layout a bit though.

There was a Black Ops MP map set at the radar station as well, apparently.

Sambostar

Cesium 137 is 30 years apparently.  Never heard of it.

Pu 239 has a 24,000 year half life.

http://georgewashington2.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/radiation-will-pollute-area-around.html

@stickyfiddle, did you actually hold you Geiger counter up to the ground?  What about your boots?

stickyfiddle

Sambostar said:

Cesium 137 is 30 years apparently.  Never heard of it.

Pu 239 has a 24,000 year half life.

http://georgewashington2.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/radiation-will-pollute-area-around.html

@stickyfiddle, did you actually hold you Geiger counter up to the ground?  What about your boots?

Yup, at several different times. There are "hotspots" where it goes a bit nuts, but even at that rate you'd have to stand there for something like 18 months before getting ill, and it's mostly alpha and beta particles which are blocked by clothes and can't travel more than a few feet.

Boots were fine - hands and feet get scanned in detail by these machines on your way out - if the machine picks anything up they don't let you leave until you're decontaminated.

http://static0.demotix.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/a_scale_large/1900-3/photos/1365847036-chernobyl-nuclear-reactor-in-ukraine_1952153.jpg

Sambostar

BTW.  Are you a loyal fan of Putin now you've been in that machine?

stickyfiddle

Sambostar said:

BTW.  Are you a loyal fan of Putin now you've been in that machine?

Nah, it was a Ukrainian machine. They all hate him!