CHERNOBYL - INVISIBLE DEATH (Chernobyl' - Nevidimaya Smert')

100 Worst Catastrophies (Sto Velikikh Katastrof), "Veche" Moscow | 1999 | I.Ionina, M. Kubeev

[struwwelpeter]

Friends in Kyiv say that during the days of Chernobyl, nothing was said to the general population. A parade was held along the boulevards, but many noted that the biggest burocrats had disappeared from the city.

[isthisnickcool]

This is interesting. See the links at the bottom of the page.

[Bear_Slayer]

Is there any relationship to this nuclear accident in 1986 and the collapse of the Soviet Union?

[jess35]

The aftermath of Chernobyl wasn't nearly as horrific as was expected. It's really surprised the doom and gloom crowd.

[NCjim]

Elena's pictures are a must-see...

[struwwelpeter]

Is there any relationship to this nuclear accident in 1986 and the collapse of the Soviet Union?

It could have been a triple-whammy: Chernobyl, the Armenian earthquake, and the Admiral Nakhimov... or perhaps the actions of Pope John Paul II in Poland, or Ronald Reagan's Star Wars spent them into oblivion, or their socialist economy finally hit the Kondratiev winter cycle.

I was stationed in Germany when the Berlin Wall 'fell', and kept a scrapbook of clippings. There was an incident in Budapest, a bunch of East Germans somehow got into the West German embassy there, and Hungary for some reason let them go to Austria. Then Hungary decided that any East Germans who wanted to go to Austria could do so, and even demobilized a stretch of border.

Lots of East German Trabbis and Wartburgs started showing up all over West Germany, West Germans were actually buying their Ossi brethren beer and champagne (seems like science fiction nowadays).

Then lots of demonstrations in Leipzig, Dresden, "Die Mauer mussen weg!" (The wall must go), and it did.

Once East Germany caved, all the rest followed. Romanians just up and shot their dictator, Poland, Hungary, and the Baltic states went to the streets declaring themselves free...

Gorby tried to hold it together, but their was a putsch, Gorby ended up stuck in his dacha near Yalta, Yeltsin climbed up on a tank and yelled to the soldiers to go home, since Russia had seen enough history for one century.

... Whatever it took, however it happened, thank God.

[mmercier]

my fave, the fr is the greatest... have not yet been able to vent on radiation.

in any case here goes: nuclear power generation is the most important technology that humanity currently employs. nuclear power generation is cost effective, environmentally friendly and a virtually limitless source of near free power. nearly free power that can be delivered to the far reaches of the planet and will bring prosperity to all humans, everywhere.

i no longer subscribe to conspiracy theories, i believe that nuclear power is underutilized because of justifiable fears within the hearts of average people. mistakes were made and will be made again, that is the nature of our technological evolution. imo the potential benefits so outweigh the potential consequences of error that i believe humanity is making the gravest of historical errors by not working this technology to the limit.

i could rant on and on, but wont. in short i believe that if there were serious people running this country, the "energy policy" joke we call "policy" would be a simple one sentence bill:

the united states government shall authorize the construction of 200 nuclear power generation facilities,
four to be sited in every state of the union.

posterity will curse us for our blindness, and we will end up burning twigs to cook supper on our current path. burning oil, coal and gas to heat homes and light streets is an abomination against the intelligence that God gave to man.

i have to go, as another nuclear force (the wife) is going to put this kb into one of my bodily orifices.

please remember that radiation is our friend, probably our only friend.

[bagman]

Da. The tardy, lackidaisical, whatever-you-want-to-call-it responed of Moscow to this accident is widely credited with helping to destroy whatever vestiges of credibility that the CP-USSR had at the time.

I expect to be in Ukraine in the summer. I'll pursue this question then (I'll be at a nuclear station of a completely different design than Chernobyl).

Thanks for giving me a diversion for my trip!

[bagman]

Thanks for your enthusiasm. We need more that four per state!

[struwwelpeter]

Kid of Speed's pictures ARE awesome, but I disagree with this:

"In Ukrainian language ( where we don't like to say "the") Chernobyl is the name of a grass, wormwood (absinth). This word scares the holy bejesus out of people here. Maybe part of the reason for that among religious people is because the Bible mentions Wormwood in the book of the revelatons - which fortells the end of the world.... "

Ah, the old 'Chernobyl' (chornobilka) is wormwood and is foretold in the Bible.

"REV 8:11 "And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter."

This online Ukrainian Bible says, however:

"REV 8:11 À imennya zori tiy Polin. I stala tretina vodi, yak polin, i bagato z lyudey povmirali z vodi, bo zgirkla vona..."

No Chernobyl there, nor in this online Russian Bible:

"REV 8:11 Imya sey zvezde polyn'; i tret'ya chast' vod sdelalas' polyn'yu, i mnogie iz lyudey umerli ot vod, potomu chto oni stali gor'ki. "

[struwwelpeter]

Which AEhS are you going to? Zaporozh'e?

[struwwelpeter]

please remember that radiation is our friend, probably our only friend.

You'd love this article: Soldiers of the Chelyabinsk Chernobyl

"As a result of the accident, more than 124,000 people received lethal overdoses of radiation, dying over an extended period ranging from days to years. In the spring of 1963, as if to punish mankind even further, the region suffered a severe drought. Shallow, boggy Lake Karachai completely dried out and a duststorm blew particles from the lake's highly contaminated bottom all over the area, adding to the eastern Ural radioactive catastrophy another 40,000 victims. These disasters were later known collectively as the Khyshtym tragedy, and caused more casualties than even Chernobyl."

[Waco]

Socialism is such a success, ain't it?

[struwwelpeter]

Russians have always been their own worst enemies. Even Hitler was a slacker compared to the Soviets.

[aruanan]

CHERNOBYL - INVISIBLE DEATH (Chernobyl' - Nevidimaya Smert')

Except for some workers at the site, most of the long lasting damage of Chernobyl was caused by the uprooting of people and being put on the dole by the government following the "disaster". As far as radiation-related illnesses went, there was little.

[t_skoz]

Bump for the Chernobyl motorcycle pics! You guys beat me to it.

[Bear_Slayer]

Spaceba?

[bagman]

South Ukraine, Mykolaiev oblast (?) (I don't pretend to understand the Ukrainian political system).

[bagman]

You're welcome?

[struwwelpeter]

Oblast' is like a state, and is generally named for the biggest city (Donetska obl, Luhanska obl, etc.). Mykolaiev (Nikolaev) is about 3-4 hundred miles south of Kyiv (Kiev). It's big ship-building city, and a lot of biggest surface ships of the Russian navy were made there. Recently they sold their aircraft carrier to China.

Driving outside of Kyiv (and inside it for that matter) is real white-knuckled. The roads are in awful repair, with lots of dare-devils in all makes of cars - from air-cooled Zaporozhets (Corvair) to ultra-delux Hummers. No insurance, just a belief in sud'ba (fate). A high-up in the US embassy was killed on one of the roads a few years ago.

The only thing worse is flying.

Careful at the airport - on the way out the customs like to find reasons to steal things, even the money in your pocket. Fill out and keep the declarations and all paperwork for cash you receive. If you see a big, blonde guy named Vanya at customs, punch him in the nose for me ;-)