40 years ago, 25/26 April 1986, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, contaminating huge swaths of land regionally and across Europe.
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@W_Lucht and because Russia hid it, wasn’t it only detected because countries such as Sweden, Germany?, etc detected radioactivity in the atmosphere?
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@W_Lucht I remember. We did the same thing in our AP physics class. We lived close to the thorium reactor in Hamm, and they used the fallout to cover up an incident in the THTR. That’s when we learned that you can’t trust the nuclear industry even if it would be possible to safely operate nuclear plants. The temptation to cut corners is just too strong.
Something, just this one thing, could not happen here: that a central government orders the May festivities to take place in Ukraine as planned, all the while they secretly inject cloud seeding aerosols between Chernobyl and Moscow to make the fallout fall out of the sky far before Moscow.
A second thing could not happen here: that experts fear Gulag for speaking out or for acting according to expert best knowledge, against orders.
The fear component doesn't apply in most "western" societies. As long - how long? - the rule of law is working.
And from memory, it was this culture of fear that caused several moments in the chain of events leading up to the Chernobyl explosion. Had fear not existed, the total disaster would have been preventable. -
@precariousmind @dmacphee @W_Lucht
Ja, staff of a Swedish nuclear reactor set off radiation alarms arriving to their shift. Not when leaving their shift, but arriving at work. That got the ball rolling.
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40 years ago, 25/26 April 1986, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, contaminating huge swaths of land regionally and across Europe.
I remember it well. I worked at an Institute for Nuclear Physics (working on space particles). We put instruments on the roof to check whether the gvmt told the truth.
I remember taking refuge in doorways when it started raining - we did not want to get touched by ... rain drops. It was terrible.
And don't give me "can't happen here".
@W_Lucht and in the UK, sheep in the northwest of England couldn't be eaten due to radioactive contamination. Obviously this had nothing to do with the nearby nuclear powerstations, even though it didn't seem to affect sheep in parts of the UK nearer Chernobyl.
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D drajt@fosstodon.org shared this topic
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40 years ago, 25/26 April 1986, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, contaminating huge swaths of land regionally and across Europe.
I remember it well. I worked at an Institute for Nuclear Physics (working on space particles). We put instruments on the roof to check whether the gvmt told the truth.
I remember taking refuge in doorways when it started raining - we did not want to get touched by ... rain drops. It was terrible.
And don't give me "can't happen here".
Watchtower. Mayday in Kiev.
https://youtu.be/WwoJEKf5-G0 -
40 years ago, 25/26 April 1986, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, contaminating huge swaths of land regionally and across Europe.
I remember it well. I worked at an Institute for Nuclear Physics (working on space particles). We put instruments on the roof to check whether the gvmt told the truth.
I remember taking refuge in doorways when it started raining - we did not want to get touched by ... rain drops. It was terrible.
And don't give me "can't happen here".
I was in eighth grade and I remember being at a friend’s house, looking up at the sky and wondering when the radioactive cloud would arrive.
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Something, just this one thing, could not happen here: that a central government orders the May festivities to take place in Ukraine as planned, all the while they secretly inject cloud seeding aerosols between Chernobyl and Moscow to make the fallout fall out of the sky far before Moscow.
A second thing could not happen here: that experts fear Gulag for speaking out or for acting according to expert best knowledge, against orders.
The fear component doesn't apply in most "western" societies. As long - how long? - the rule of law is working.
And from memory, it was this culture of fear that caused several moments in the chain of events leading up to the Chernobyl explosion. Had fear not existed, the total disaster would have been preventable.@anlomedad @JensHannemann @W_Lucht #Belarus. That is the place between #Chernobyl and Moscow where #Russia decided to make the fallout go by seeding the radioactive clouds.
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System shared this topic
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@precariousmind @dmacphee @W_Lucht
Ja, staff of a Swedish nuclear reactor set off radiation alarms arriving to their shift. Not when leaving their shift, but arriving at work. That got the ball rolling.
@anlomedad @precariousmind @dmacphee
And the Soviet Union publicity acknowledged what had happened only after three days.The US were lucky with Three Mile Island in Harrisburg in 1979. That remained contained but the core did melt down.
So 1979 in the US, 1986 in the Soviet Union, 2011 in Fukushima, that's about the rate of major failure, three in 50 years. And that doesn't even count a lot of close calls.
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40 years ago, 25/26 April 1986, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, contaminating huge swaths of land regionally and across Europe.
I remember it well. I worked at an Institute for Nuclear Physics (working on space particles). We put instruments on the roof to check whether the gvmt told the truth.
I remember taking refuge in doorways when it started raining - we did not want to get touched by ... rain drops. It was terrible.
And don't give me "can't happen here".
@W_Lucht
It’s Chornobyl in Ukrainian. -
40 years ago, 25/26 April 1986, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, contaminating huge swaths of land regionally and across Europe.
I remember it well. I worked at an Institute for Nuclear Physics (working on space particles). We put instruments on the roof to check whether the gvmt told the truth.
I remember taking refuge in doorways when it started raining - we did not want to get touched by ... rain drops. It was terrible.
And don't give me "can't happen here".
@W_Lucht
It was 6 a.m., and my friend called me from Stockholm. He had just gone out to buy milk for his children’s breakfast, but they wouldn’t sell him any, without giving any explanation. He asked me if I knew why. Later that same morning, I realized what was going on. I studied the wind map and drove to Lisbon. -
@W_Lucht
It’s Chornobyl in Ukrainian. -
@W_Lucht
It was 6 a.m., and my friend called me from Stockholm. He had just gone out to buy milk for his children’s breakfast, but they wouldn’t sell him any, without giving any explanation. He asked me if I knew why. Later that same morning, I realized what was going on. I studied the wind map and drove to Lisbon.@peterluschny
Wow. Thanks for sharing! -
40 years ago, 25/26 April 1986, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, contaminating huge swaths of land regionally and across Europe.
I remember it well. I worked at an Institute for Nuclear Physics (working on space particles). We put instruments on the roof to check whether the gvmt told the truth.
I remember taking refuge in doorways when it started raining - we did not want to get touched by ... rain drops. It was terrible.
And don't give me "can't happen here".
In France my parents told me the news said it is alright the wind turned away from our country!
WHAT?
Anyway, lots of people afterwards getting thyroid cancer and people, oh no, going Bald! -
R relay@relay.mycrowd.ca shared this topic
