Posted on 04/20/2006 9:37:49 AM PDT by b2stealth
Chernobyl 2006
Directly in front of the gate the radiation levels are 350-3000 microroengen.
Soviet scientists reported that the Chernobyl Unit 4 reactor contained about 180-190 metric tons of uranium dioxide fuel and fission products. Estimates of the amount of this material that escaped range from 5 to 30 percent, but some liquidators, who have actually been inside the sarcophagus and the reactor shell itself -- e.g. Mr. Usatenko and Dr. Karpan [citation needed] -- state that not more than 5-10% of the fuel remains inside; indeed, photographs of the reactor shell show that it is completely empty. Because of the intense heat of the fire, much of the ejected fuel was lofted high into the atmosphere (with no containment building to stop it), where it spread.
In first days after explosion, in some places around reactor it was 3,000 roengen per hour and people who were thrown to put down the fire have been dying on the spot.
who can count how many people died of radiation? no one, even approximately. Some tell that 400,000 dead, soyuzchernobyl report of 300,000 people that died since 1986 and this is not over, in 30 years people will still die
"Let communism live - the bright future of all mankind!"
"Party of Lenin - force of all people, brings us the communism triumph!"
No clocks - only radiation meters.. 
Stunning images.
I am grateful that you posted them.
National Geographic did a story on Chernobyl a short time ago. Apparently the sarcophagus is in danger of collapsing so they need to built a better one to contain the first attempt.
Her server is about to crash. She doesn't use JPG properly and now she's about to get more hits in a day than she does in a month.
I hope I'm wrong about the servers because the photographs are important, as is the story. Chernobyl is a monument to totalitarianism: the engineers on duty knew the test was wildly dangerous, but proceeded out of fear of their Soviet bosses, who didn't seem to understand the risk. Chernobyl would not have blown if the safety measures had not been defeated for the purpose of that foolhardy test.
I have been secretly in love with Elana since I first saw her site...visit it, Freepers...beautifully terrifying...
Agreed!
Yeah, the problem is huge, it is foolish not to take care of it (new concrete structure?) and not to make sure new nuclear designs are take care of mistakes seen here..
Also don't forget the progressive socialist regime with free healthcare that brought this to live.. with firefighters and soldiers dieing not even knowing area is radioactive.. Brave souls!
..and to think I never noticed that she rides a cow...
A lot of disinformation and junk science is being tossed around about Chernobyl, as one might expect.
The HBO special on Chernobyl was outstanding, but I fear the message people will get from it and similar efforts is "Isn't nuclear power terrible?" rather than the correct conclusion, "Isn't Communism terrible?"
Phew... its horrific.
The Soviets never did anything on a small scale... even their disasters were enough terrorise two continents.
The accident On Saturday, April 26, 1986, at 1:23:58 a.m. local time, the unit 4 reactor of the Chernobyl power plant—known as Chernobyl-4—suffered a catastrophic steam explosion that resulted in a fire, a series of additional explosions, and a nuclear meltdown.
Events On April 25, 1986, the Unit 4 reactor was scheduled to be shut down for routine maintenance. It had been decided to use this occasion as an opportunity to test the ability of the reactor's turbine generator to generate sufficient electricity to power the reactor's safety systems (in particular, the water pumps) in the event of a loss of external electric power. Reactors such as Chernobyl have a pair of diesel generators available as standby, but these do not activate instantaneously—the reactor was, therefore, to be used to spin up the turbine, at which point the turbine would be disconnected from the reactor and allowed to spin under the force of its own rotational inertia, and the aim of the test was to determine whether the turbines in the rundown phase could sufficiently power the pumps while the generators were starting up. The test was successfully carried out previously on another unit (with all safety provisions active) and the outcome was negative (that is, the turbines generated insufficient power in the rundown phase to power the pumps), but additional improvements were made to the turbines which prompted the need for another test.
The power output of the Chernobyl-4 reactor was to be reduced from its normal capacity of 3200 MW thermal to 1000 MW thermal in order to conduct the test at a safer, lower level of power. However, due to a delay in beginning the experiment the reactor operators reduced the power level too rapidly, and the actual power output fell to 30 MW thermal. As a result, the concentration of the nuclear poison product xenon-135 increased (this product is typically consumed in a reactor under higher power conditions). Though the scale of the power drop was close to the maximum allowed by safety regulations, the crew's management chose not to shut down the reactor and to continue the experiment. Further, it was decided to 'shortcut' the experiment and raise power output only to 200 MW. In order to overcome the neutron absorption of the excess xenon-135, the control rods were pulled out of the reactor somewhat farther than normally allowed under safety regulations. As part of the experiment, at 1:05 AM on April 26, the water pumps which were to be driven by the turbine generator were turned on; the water flow generated by this action exceeded that specified by safety regulations. The water flow increased at 1:19 A.M.—since water also absorbs neutrons, this further increase in the water flow necessitated the removal of the manual control rods, producing a very unstable and dangerous operating condition.
At 1:23:04 A.M., the experiment began. The unstable state of the reactor was not reflected in any way on the control panel, and it does not appear that anyone in the reactor crew was fully aware of danger. Electricity to the water pumps was shut off, and as they were driven by the inertia of the turbine generator the water flow rate decreased. The turbine was disconnected from the reactor, increasing the level of steam in the reactor core. As the coolant heated, pockets of steam formed in the coolant lines. The particular design of the RBMK graphite moderated reactor at Chernobyl has a large positive void coefficient, which means that the power of the reactor increases rapidly in the absence of the neutron-absorbing effect of water, and in this case, the reactor operation becomes progressively less stable and more dangerous. At 1:23:40 A.M. the operators pressed the AZ-5 ("Rapid Emergency Defense 5") button that ordered a "SCRAM" — a shutdown of the nuclear reactor, fully inserting all control rods, including the manual control rods that had been incautiously withdrawn earlier, into the reactor. It is unclear whether it was done as an emergency measure, or simply as a routine method of shutting down the reactor upon the completion of an experiment (the reactor was scheduled to be shut down for routine maintenance). It is usually suggested that the SCRAM was ordered as a response to the unexpected rapid power increase. On the other hand, Anatoly Dyatlov, chief engineer on Chernobyl nuclear station at the time of the accident, writes in his book:
"Prior to 01:23:40, systems of centralized control ... didn't register any parameter changes that could justify the SCRAM. Commission ... gathered and analyzed large amount of materials and, as stated in its report, failed to determine the reason why the SCRAM was ordered. There was no need to look for the reason. The reactor was simply being shut down upon the completion of the experiment." [4]
Due to the slow speed of the control rod insertion mechanism (18–20 seconds to complete), the hollow tips of the rods and the temporary displacement of coolant, the SCRAM caused the reaction rate to increase. Increased energy output caused the deformation of control rod channels. The rods became stuck after being inserted only one-third of the way, and were therefore unable to stop the reaction. By 1:23:47 the reactor jumped to around 30 GW, ten times the normal operational output. The fuel rods began to melt and the steam pressure rapidly increased causing a large steam explosion, displacing and destroying the reactor lid, rupturing the coolant tubes and then blowing a hole in the roof.
To reduce costs, and because of its large size, the reactor was constructed with only partial containment. This allowed the radioactive contaminants to escape into the atmosphere after the steam explosion burst the primary pressure vessel. After part of the roof blew off, the inrush of oxygen—combined with the extremely high temperature of the reactor fuel and graphite moderator—sparked a graphite fire. This fire greatly contributed to the spread of radioactive material and the ultimate contamination of outlying areas.
There is some controversy surrounding the exact sequence of events after 1:22:30 local time due to the inconsistencies between eyewitness accounts and station records. The version that is most commonly agreed upon is described above. According to this theory, the first explosion happened at approximately 1:23:47, seven seconds after the operators ordered the "SCRAM". It is sometimes claimed that the explosion happened 'before' or immediately following the SCRAM (this was the working version of the Soviet committee studying the accident). This distinction is important, because, if the reactor went critical several seconds after the SCRAM, its failure would have to be attributed to the design of the control rods, whereas the explosion at the time of the SCRAM would place the blame on the operators. Indeed, a weak seismic event, similar to a magnitude-2.5 earthquake, was registered at 1:23:39 in the Chernobyl area. The situation is complicated by the fact that the "SCRAM" button was pressed more than once, and the person who actually pressed it died two weeks after the accident from radiation poisoning.
In January 1993, the IAEA issued a revised analysis of the Chernobyl accident, attributing the main root cause to the reactor's design and not to operator error. The IAEA's 1986 analysis had cited the operators' actions as the principal cause of the accident.
Radioactive release (source term)
..one broke when turned on. Thus the reactor crew could only ascertain that the radiation levels in much of the reactor building were above 4 R/h (true levels were up to 20,000 roentgen per hour in some areas; lethal dose is around 500 roentgen over 5 hours).
I heard a great interview on BBC the other night. There are people living in the restricted area. Some are former residents who came back, some are criminals, who ignore the radiation dangers in order to have a hideout.
There was an interview with a guy who came back to live in his parents' house. He was having a get together on the day of the explosion. All of the people who were at the party are dead now. He said that the government really mistreated the evacuees. They had to leave with nothing and got very little from the government to buy new furniture, clothes, etc. Whole families who had lived in houses were forced into small apartments. It was fascinating radio and the kind of thing the BBC does very well.
She's survived a Slashdotting, she can survive this.
The story of the motorcycle ride has been proven false, but her lyrical brilliance in telling the story has stood the test of time very well.
She actually went on an organized tour and took the pictures then. You will notice that the motorcycle is no longer photographed once she's in the danger zone.
It's still worth visiting her pages. She's told the story with flair and brilliance, and the photographs themselves are real.
D
>Many in the scientific community now believe the actual >death rate from Chernobyl is less than 100 and that >future deaths will be around 4,000.
I don't want to start a war here, so I just say that I don't agree.
Cases of cancer are up a lot in Ukraine.
If you talk to people in Ukraine they can tell you.
Not only was the reactor very vulnerable to a high-temperature castrophe in event of coolant cutoff that could cause the entire fuel pile to explode, but also the reactor had no containment structure to keep the radiation in. This sharply contrasts with Three Mile Island, where the containment structure contained just about all the radioactive byproducts of the partial fuel meltdown.
Now imagine what would happen if one of those new Russian/Soviet reactors in Iran is let to go "meltdown" after it started..
Thanks for posting this- I went to the site- the photos are spellbinding...intense.
IMO the truth is probably somewhere in between. Either way, I'm glad Chernobyl didn't happen in my backyard.
What a butt-ugly nightmare communism is.
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