5 ms·

I still remember the reports on TV from there at the time. Initially there was a flat out denial that anything happened at all, but once the scale of the catast

by 0xbear 9y ago

I still remember the reports on TV from there at the time. Initially there was a flat out denial that anything happened at all, but once the scale of the catastrophe became clear (within about a day), and it became clear that it can’t be swept under the rug, we started seeing the coverage of unbelievable heroics that people would demonstrate. I mean literally firefighters pouring water into the molten reactor core by standing at the edge of it, and then dying the same day from radiation poisoning. The radiation was so strong that the TV helicopter filming the reactor from above (which in itself was heroic given the kinds of shit suspended in the air) would show the most radioactive part with sort of a haze. Endless streams of trucks pouring concrete, etc, etc. It was 30 years ago so I don’t remember much, but man to get the Secretary General to admit such a bad fuckup — that was something truly extraordinary.

tantalor 9y ago
And we are lucky for it. If the runaway core had reached the water table beneath, it would have exploded and irradiated most of Eastern Europe, if not the whole continent.
- git_rancher 9y ago
  What? Holy smokes! This is the first I've heard of this. Can you share any more info? Sources?
  - MertsA 9y ago
    That's the case for any nuclear meltdown, Chernobyl isn't special in that regard. If you have a very dense blob of liquid fuel (called corium after a meltdown) generating megawatts of power it's going to melt through concrete and steel, it's just a matter of time. Once that blob hits a ton of water underneath it forcing all of that water to heat up will create enormous pressure and the only way out is up.
    - ben_w 9y ago
      Speaking only for myself, the surprising claim was not “explode”, but “irradiated most of Eastern Europe, if not the whole continent.”
  - mseebach 9y ago
    It appears to be based on a quote from the 1979 film "The China Syndrome". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_meltdown#China_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_meltdown#China_syndrom...
- myth_drannon 9y ago
  Why it didn't happen in Fukushima?
  - proaralyst 9y ago
    They managed to cool the corium by flooding it with water.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
a_bonobo 9y ago
Svetlana Alexievich's Voices from Chernobyl has many stories like this, highly recommended reading if you want to know more about the incident
pvg 9y ago
The accident was acknowledged by Soviet news on April 28th, two days after it took place. While they were slow to provide details there was no public denial - they initially denied anything was wrong in response to private inquiries by Swedish diplomats since elevated radiation levels were measured in Sweden. This is an ABC news report from the time which also shows the Soviet announcement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmeeEpWxfRY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmeeEpWxfRY
- 0xbear 9y ago
  That may have been what they said to the Western media. It does not necessarily match what they said to their own government run TV channels and newspapers.
  - pvg 9y ago
    What do you mean? The Soviet announcement is right there in the video. It's an announcement on Vremya, the official evening news TV program broadcast across the Soviet Union.
    - 0xbear 9y ago
      The accident happened on April 26th, and was acknowledged 36 hours after when they began to evacuate Pripyat, a town in the immediate vicinity of Chernobyl. As I said, it took about a day for them to acknowledge it, and it was only acknowledged when it became clear that it could not be swept under the rug. Your video does not contradict that.
      - pvg 9y ago
        You wrote "Initially there was a flat out denial that anything happened at all, but once the scale of the catastrophe became clear (within about a day)". That's not what happened, you can look it up in any of the numerous timelines and accounts of the accident and the reporting and Soviet disclosures. The evacuation of Pripyat started before the first public Soviet announcement as described here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster#Evacuation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster#Evacuation And the section immediately following regarding the announcement.
smsm42 9y ago
Note also this was very close to May holidays (May 1st etc.) when people customary go out, with kids, some go camping, etc. Kiev - a city with population over 2 millions - is 90 km from Chernobyl, and nobody there knew what's going on for a while. I'm not even sure there's any statistics of what health effects this produced. And of course when it was known there was no proper information on dealing with radioactive contaminations, mostly everybody would go by wildest rumors and home remedies. No tools for measuring radioactivity either anywhere to be bought, people made their own eventually. Etc., etc.
- trhway 9y ago
  > I'm not even sure there's any statistics of what health effects this produced. My post with some effect summary for Belarus https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=15737928&goto=threads%3Fid%3Dtrhway%2315737928 https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=15737928&goto=threads%...
  - smsm42 9y ago
    AFAIR due to the weather patterns Belarus got a lot of the fallout and Kiev area was affected much less.
- petre 9y ago
  Yes, we were camping as well. It all happened during a sunny weekend.
  - dboreham 9y ago
    It was raining very heavily in Scotland unfortunately. Probably also Norway.
Yizahi 9y ago
Check this story - https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-famous-photo-of-chernobyls-most-dangerous-radioactive-material-was-a-selfie https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-famous-photo-of-ch...
hutzlibu 9y ago
" seeing the coverage of unbelievable heroics that people would demonstrate. I mean literally firefighters pouring water into the molten reactor core by standing at the edge of it, and then dying the same day from radiation poisoning" I heard those hero's had mostly no clue, that they were on a heroic suicide mission, nor did they had any choice in the matter. Knowing a bit about UDSSR I can very well imagine this to be true, but does anyone knows more? edit: this article confirms it, but I am not sure if the site is reliable (it quotes the "socialist worker") http://www.upworthy.com/you-probably-dont-know-their-names-but-30-years-ago-they-saved-europe http://www.upworthy.com/you-probably-dont-know-their-names-b...

by 0xbear 9y ago

tantalor 9y ago

And we are lucky for it. If the runaway core had reached the water table beneath, it would have exploded and irradiated most of Eastern Europe, if not the whole continent.

git_rancher 9y ago
What? Holy smokes! This is the first I've heard of this. Can you share any more info? Sources?
- MertsA 9y ago
  That's the case for any nuclear meltdown, Chernobyl isn't special in that regard. If you have a very dense blob of liquid fuel (called corium after a meltdown) generating megawatts of power it's going to melt through concrete and steel, it's just a matter of time. Once that blob hits a ton of water underneath it forcing all of that water to heat up will create enormous pressure and the only way out is up.
  - ben_w 9y ago
    Speaking only for myself, the surprising claim was not “explode”, but “irradiated most of Eastern Europe, if not the whole continent.”
- mseebach 9y ago
  It appears to be based on a quote from the 1979 film "The China Syndrome". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_meltdown#China_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_meltdown#China_syndrom...
myth_drannon 9y ago
Why it didn't happen in Fukushima?
- proaralyst 9y ago
  They managed to cool the corium by flooding it with water.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

a_bonobo 9y ago

Svetlana Alexievich's Voices from Chernobyl has many stories like this, highly recommended reading if you want to know more about the incident

pvg 9y ago

The accident was acknowledged by Soviet news on April 28th, two days after it took place. While they were slow to provide details there was no public denial - they initially denied anything was wrong in response to private inquiries by Swedish diplomats since elevated radiation levels were measured in Sweden. This is an ABC news report from the time which also shows the Soviet announcement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmeeEpWxfRY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmeeEpWxfRY

0xbear 9y ago
That may have been what they said to the Western media. It does not necessarily match what they said to their own government run TV channels and newspapers.
- pvg 9y ago
  What do you mean? The Soviet announcement is right there in the video. It's an announcement on Vremya, the official evening news TV program broadcast across the Soviet Union.
  - 0xbear 9y ago
    The accident happened on April 26th, and was acknowledged 36 hours after when they began to evacuate Pripyat, a town in the immediate vicinity of Chernobyl. As I said, it took about a day for them to acknowledge it, and it was only acknowledged when it became clear that it could not be swept under the rug. Your video does not contradict that.
    - pvg 9y ago
      You wrote "Initially there was a flat out denial that anything happened at all, but once the scale of the catastrophe became clear (within about a day)". That's not what happened, you can look it up in any of the numerous timelines and accounts of the accident and the reporting and Soviet disclosures. The evacuation of Pripyat started before the first public Soviet announcement as described here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster#Evacuation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster#Evacuation And the section immediately following regarding the announcement.

smsm42 9y ago

Note also this was very close to May holidays (May 1st etc.) when people customary go out, with kids, some go camping, etc. Kiev - a city with population over 2 millions - is 90 km from Chernobyl, and nobody there knew what's going on for a while. I'm not even sure there's any statistics of what health effects this produced. And of course when it was known there was no proper information on dealing with radioactive contaminations, mostly everybody would go by wildest rumors and home remedies. No tools for measuring radioactivity either anywhere to be bought, people made their own eventually. Etc., etc.

trhway 9y ago
> I'm not even sure there's any statistics of what health effects this produced. My post with some effect summary for Belarus https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=15737928&goto=threads%3Fid%3Dtrhway%2315737928 https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=15737928&goto=threads%...
- smsm42 9y ago
  AFAIR due to the weather patterns Belarus got a lot of the fallout and Kiev area was affected much less.
petre 9y ago
Yes, we were camping as well. It all happened during a sunny weekend.
- dboreham 9y ago
  It was raining very heavily in Scotland unfortunately. Probably also Norway.

Yizahi 9y ago

Check this story - https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-famous-photo-of-chernobyls-most-dangerous-radioactive-material-was-a-selfie https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-famous-photo-of-ch...

hutzlibu 9y ago

" seeing the coverage of unbelievable heroics that people would demonstrate. I mean literally firefighters pouring water into the molten reactor core by standing at the edge of it, and then dying the same day from radiation poisoning" I heard those hero's had mostly no clue, that they were on a heroic suicide mission, nor did they had any choice in the matter. Knowing a bit about UDSSR I can very well imagine this to be true, but does anyone knows more? edit: this article confirms it, but I am not sure if the site is reliable (it quotes the "socialist worker") http://www.upworthy.com/you-probably-dont-know-their-names-but-30-years-ago-they-saved-europe http://www.upworthy.com/you-probably-dont-know-their-names-b...