Remember this? Chernobel 24 years on

[Skinhead]

I wonder how many lives this affected.  I really feel sorry for the children affected by this.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/chernobyl--24-years-on-1954969.html?action=Gallery

[musclehead]

I heard that this was caused by a couple of curious engineers that wanted to see how long the turbine would spin. they ignored about 7 alarms.  this is also what happens when you build a nuclear reactor in a cardboard box

[ILcruiser]

According to various sources, that's exactly what happened.  The plant operators wanted to see how long the turbines would keep spinning and producing electricity after the electrical power supply was shut off.  In order to do that, they had to disable several of the control systems, including those that would shut the reactor down in the event of overheating and loss of control over the chain reaction in the reactor core.

There's a Russian journalist, Elena Filatova, who has documented numerous trips into and through the affected region on her Kawasaki Ninja.  It makes for fascinating, but haunting, viewing:

http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/chapter1.html

[Skinhead]

WOW!  That is an awesome site!  Thanks for posting it.  It is incredible the scope of that disaster.

[FLAVALK]

According to various sources, that's exactly what happened.  The plant operators wanted to see how long the turbines would keep spinning and producing electricity after the electrical power supply was shut off.  In order to do that, they had to disable several of the control systems, including those that would shut the reactor down in the event of overheating and loss of control over the chain reaction in the reactor core.

There's a Russian journalist, Elena Filatova, who has documented numerous trips into and through the affected region on her Kawasaki Ninja.  It makes for fascinating, but haunting, viewing:

http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/chapter1.html

That's what I thought of when I first read this post. Remember seeing it a few years ago. Great link, thanks for posting

[ILcruiser]

Actually, now anyone can go exploring there, as the Ukrainian government opened it to tourism this week:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20101215/sc_livescience/chernobylwoostouristswithpromiseofnegligiblerisk

Think I'll pass.

[Ice]

I was assigned in Germany during the Chernobyl incident and I can tell yoy first hand the fallout was much larger than any report ever officially acknowledged. My wife was working for a large produce company then and they had to check all the harvested fruits and vegetables with a geiger counter to ensure that they were not above what was considered the "safe limit", that think just ticked all day long. What a mess that was......

[valkmc]

I heard that this was caused by a couple of curious engineers that wanted to see how long the turbine would spin. they ignored about 7 alarms.  this is also what happens when you build a nuclear reactor in a cardboard box

Actually it was built in a metal building without secondary containment, it might as well as been a cardboard box!!!!