ARGH!!!
Posted on 01/23/2006 10:14:26 AM PST by rellimpank
Nobody likes to be "had," but that is precisely what has happened to the American public with the documentary Chernobyl Heart. Since winning the Academy Award for "Best Short Documentary" in February 2003, it has received international accolades, has been uncritically quoted in major newspapers, and is being recommended for America's classrooms on the National Education Association's website. HBO has run it continuously since September 2004. Yet while presented as a documentary on the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, it relies to a shocking extent on scientifically unsupportable claims and in some cases outright falsehoods.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
Making a story to open the check books. It is a good cause but stop the liberal lies to take money from people.
Hmmm, who to believe? Leftist anti-nuke activist or "Paul Lorenzini ... a nuclear engineer and former general manager of operations at the Department of Energy's nuclear facilities in Hanford, Washington."
For the leftists the answer is clear: believe the one with no expertise in the matter as long as leftist views are supported.
Great post! Thanks
I'm betting it takes only ten posts before someone puts up a link to the debunked story of a motorcycle ride through Chernobyl.
Michael Criton also debunks the Chernoble nonsense in his latest book.
If it ain't sensational, it ain't news.
Never heard of the movie but last night as I was changing the channel I passed by West Wing which I have never seen so I paused for a second. Seems Sheen was on air force 1 and he was having an argument with Alan Alda who I would guess by the way they were arguing plays a conservative (go figure) and Sheen was screaming about the evils of nuclear energy. So I figured basewd on my 20 second view of the show the left must be gearing up their anti-nuke energy base for some reason. I figure that it will start to be an issue in more and more TV shows and movies since that's one of their main channels of propaganda.
Don't worry West Wing is cancelled after May.
Gone to Old TV show graveyard.
Regarding chernobyl. There's a really insteresting web log that I read on the web a whil ago, but can't find it again. It's the personal chrinicales of thie young russions woman who rides a sport bike (motorchcyle) and tours the affected ghost town area.. with a dosimeter.. and takes pictures and measurements... not for any poitical agenda just I guess for her own reasons, but created a really interested photo journal of it. I wish I could find it again. Anyone know what I am talking about or can point me in the right directions? (As I recall she was kinda hot, too)
--Sheen hasn't done it for a while, but he shows up fairly regularly to get arrested in the Yucca Mountain, Nevada nuke storage facility "protests"--
Exposure damage to radiation is additive over your life. Basically you want to avoid it whenever possible.
It was awful what happened at Chernobyl. But we gotta remember, the technology being used at the plant was old and faulty. One could easily expect that new plants would be quite a bit safer.
Apparently everything sbout the story was real except the motorcycle part. She actually went by car into the area, but sexed it up with saying she rode a motorcycle. Still interesting.
I've read that same website from the woman on the motorcycle, I'll see if I can find it for you.
bump
bookmarked
Remember too, that many birth defects in the countries of the former Soviet Union are linked to chemical contamination completely apart from nuclear research/accidents/waste.
As a blanket statement, this is incorrect.
A little explanation of the motorcycle ride debunking here: http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2004_05_16_archive.asp
Besides the earlier link, try www.elenafilatova.com/
I suppose you don't believe that there are giant ants caused by the nuclear testing in Nevada.
Hey, I read that whole piece on the motorcycle ride but didn't save the link. I wondered what a nice girl like her was doing in a place like that? Didn't know it was bunk. Do you have the link to the de-bunking? Thanks.
There is a strong body of evidence that long term exposure to low levels of radiation has positive benefits on the cellular level in protecting against cancers. Long term studies of nuclear workers dating back as far as WWII shows that they have significantly less cancers than the general population.
This statement is way to simple to describe the biological effects of exposure to ionizing radiation.
I don't really want to go into it, but what most people should be interested in is low level radiation over a long period of time. The scientific studies of low level radiation (<~5 R/yr) are inconclusive. Due to this two theories on its effects have been created and are being tested as data accumulates (which is very slowly).
The first theory states that any amount of radiation will cause biological damage and that logically the longer and more intense the exposure, the greater the damage. This theory has made the nuclear industry formulate the ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) standard. Radiation doses are minimized and workers cannot exceed a certain amount of exposure per year (5 rem). This theory was interpolated from high level short term exposures to ionizing radiation. There is little proof that it is justified, but it is agreed that it is at least conservative.
The second theory is that ionizing radiation is only harmful above a certain threshold and may be helpful below that threshold in a complicated manner. This is because cancerous or damaged cells that absorb radiation have a higher probability of dieing than normal cells. At a certain radiation level you will create as many cancerous cells as you kill. Below that level you will kill more cancerous cells than you create (though it depends on the amount of cancerous cells and other cancer producing rates). Because this is low level radiation, the non-mutation deaths of normal cells by radiation is not factored in because it is insignificant (you can think of cancerous cells as an amplifier to biological damage from radiation whose value is many orders of magnitude greater than radiation cell deaths). For this reason, there may be a non-zero low level radiation dose rate that depends upon how many cancerous or damaged cells that you have that will be more healthy for you than a zero radiation dose rate. This theory has some scientific backing, but is certainly not conclusive yet.
I tend to agree with the second theory more because I can relate it indirectly to things like radiation treatment. Radiation treatment uses ionizing radiation to kill tumors by focusing it at a specific area of the body. Both normal and cancerous cells in that area are hit. The cancerous cells die and the normal cells are injured, but recover. The overall result is that a patient has a higher probability of surviving.
I'm more skeptical of the debunking than the motorcycle ride. She has to walk a fine line legally. It sounds quite possible that after taking the car tour and getting the low down on area rad levels that she was able to slip through barracades tour a bit on a two-wheeler. Then she could shrug her shoulders about it when the authorities got nasty. "Oh I really just..."
Point taken - could be either way. I have no way to prove it. I just posted a link to what I found.
Post # 10 (Bones75): Regarding chernobyl. There's a really insteresting web log that I read on the web a whil ago, but can't find it again. It's the personal chrinicales of thie young russions woman who rides a sport bike
I win! :-)
It doesn't. In both Russian and Ukrainian wormwood is 'Gorkaya Polyn', and even the the verse from the Ukrainian Bible calls it 'Polyn'.
'Chernobyl' means 'Wormwood' in Ukrainain
No effort was made to balance the usefulness of nuclear power against the risks of poorly maintained, poorly staffed plants. The film turned into a universal condemnation of nuclear power, a horror story for the post-Cold War era.
1 post.
"The primary cause of Chernobyl was the instability of graphite moderated reactors at low power levels."
I recall seeing a year or so ago a documentary on Chernobyl. Aside from all the technological issues it seemed to me the main culpret was the political type guy that pushed the limits of the test the engineer's were running. As I recall the lead engineer walked off 'cuz of the politco's request knowing that it would cause a meltdown. The other engineers didn't and followed the politico's orders. (Or something to that effect!?)
ARGH!!!
Two minutes four seconds, apparently.
Twelve minutes 4 seconds, actually.
Hard to keep up with all the freepmails.
Ìîé ðóññêèé ÿçûê íåìíîãî ðæàâ, çàáîòà, ÷òîáû ïåðåâåñòè?
Crap, the font isn't supported.
Chernobyl means "Home of Giant Ants".
Too bad it wasn't a nuclear but economic disaster that chased all the people out of this city. I suppose that I could make something up, like the mototsiklistka did, but then, I don't look that good in leathers.
FYI
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/chapter1.html
This tells the story if it is still up and running.
They sure are good at concrete construction. Imagine how drab and depressing that place must be in winter. Unnngh.
Isn't this an urban legend? I actually looked up the passage from Revelations in a Russian Bible, and the word was not chernobyl.
It looks like Chernobyl means "black-" something, I don't know what the "byl" addition means.
Read the post to which I replied, #31. I was goofing!
Some of the older Stalin-era houses are okay - high ceilings, ornate plasterwork, and thick walls, but Khrushchev/Brezhnev/Andropov/Chernenko/Gorby-era buildings were the pits.
These buildings were in a neighborhood outside of Karaganda, and most are slowly being 'mined' for their pipes, wiring, etc. Some people still live there, and there is an active bus stop, believe it or not.
The Russian version of 'It's a Wonderful Life', which they play every New Year's Eve is called 'Ironies of Fate'. The plot concerns a guy who gets drunk with his buddies one New Year's in Moscow and accidentally gets on a plane to Leningrad/Peterburg. Once there, he takes a taxi home, since he thinks he was just seeing someone off at the airport (now that's drunk). In Leningrad, there is a street with the same name as his own in Moscow, and an apartment complex that looks exactly the same, and with the same address. He takes the elevator to his apartment, and his key even works there. He passes out on a couch he can't remember buying, and a cute lady who of course he'll fall in love with comes home with her fiance.
Some great lines in the movie: "Pit' nado men'she" (Gotta drink less), and the songs are by Nikitin and Pugacheva. The actress was Polish, BTW.
Now such a movie wouldn't be possible in the West. Central planning - it's not just for democrats ;-)
Very interesting!
I had a co worker who left russia during the Reagan administration. He was a very smart guy, and had an excellent education, but was very difficult to work with and would never take responsibility for anything. Very regimented, too, and took all of his breaks to the second. He would wait outside the office even in freezing weather until it was 8:00 on the button.
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