I just finished listening to it on Audible. About 20 hours long.
It was an enjoyable read. I have actually lived at one time or another near two of the military bomb accident sites.
I will say, that not being a nuclear engineer, that after reading his book, watching this series, and reading/watching a few other internet sites dedicated to this disaster; I can't help but think they purposely designed the RBMK reactor to explode. It's like every choice they made was pro explosion.
I imagine a conversation held back in the 70's (or whenever) between the Russian designers:
SOME SPOILERS AHEAD for those who haven't watched.
Chief Politburo Man (C): Gentlemen, I'm tired of listening to all of the pansy Westerners and their concerns over meltdowns! I want a reactor which will actually f'ing explode! We always do things bigger in this country!
Others (O): Yes comrade!!!!
C: So let's look at our design.
1. Will it have a positive void coefficient? By that I mean when the water boils into steam, the reactivity of the reactor increases which produces more heat which produces more steam, which increases the reactivity, which produces more heat, which produces more steam, which increases..... Round and round she goes!!
O: Check Comrade!
C: Can we make the control rods move more slowly than those on the imperialistic pig's reactors? Making it more difficult to slow down?
O: Check Comrade!
C: Can we put graphite tips on the control rods so that if they are completely removed, the first thing the reactor will see when it's scrammed is going to increase reactivity further instead of decrease it???
O: Check Comrade!
C: Awesome! Ok, one more thing. Let's not tell anyone, especially our nuclear reactor operators, that the reactor will behave that way. I can't wait to see the surprise on their faces! Oh, and no containment buildings.
O: Check Comrade!
just my mind at play
cc
Well, the Fukushima reactors were designed by americans and run by japanese, and still failed...
Not as spectacularly thanks to the containment vessel and the prevailing winds into the Pacific, but still plenty scary 25 years after Chernobyl.
Last edited by TiroFijo; 06-10-2019 at 04:55 PM.
Mahaffey's chapter on that was quite interesting. It starts off with him discussing the folly of placing reactors in the most earthquake prone and tsunami prone countries on the planet. However, at the conclusion he points out that several (?dozens) of other reactors in Japan were hit by the same quake and the same waves and only this one had any major problems.
Add a little older design than others, a few minor mistakes made by the operators, and a bit of just plain bad luck and Bamm!
cc
Last edited by ccmdfd; 06-10-2019 at 06:14 PM.
https://youtu.be/1CJoF4Z_-Ro
The entire video is very informative, but at 19:24 the author- a resident of Kiev during the Chernobyl incident- describes a stupendously horrific event. Kiev- a city of 3 million people held a parade when the radiation exposure levels were so bad the parade participants each received five times the annual rad exposure permitted to Western nuclear workers in one HOUR. The entire city was a hard radiation zone , but they held a parade to maintain appearances.
Meanwhile, senior party officials were quietly filling every flying vehicle out of Kiev with their families and kids.
Last edited by GardoneVT; 06-10-2019 at 10:13 PM.
The Minority Marksman.
"When you meet a swordsman, draw your sword: Do not recite poetry to one who is not a poet."
-a Ch'an Buddhist axiom.
Excellent series. Nothing new for me but well executed and yes, I'm grateful they didn't use fake accents or actors speaking in tortured PseudoRussian. For a native speaker, that's right up there with the idiotic cocking sound effect every time a Glock is whipped out on TV shows.
The theme and point could've been made a little more subtly, especially during the trial scenes, but it's a minor quibble.
"In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State."
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
This show was damn well executed. Acting was great and felt like they did not get too carried away with the storyline. GOT could have learned a few things on execution
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So I haven't seen the miniseries but I did see a news article related to it recently. One of the things that they discussed in a news article was when the people were evacuated just the people went. They were ordered to leave their pets behind and apparently Russian soldiers went in afterwards and killed most of them. Which was probably the Humane thing to do given the circumstances.
What was interesting is the reactions of the people who were reading the article in the comments. They were up in arms that the Russians would do that and vowing that they'd never leave their dog and how they'd insist on taking their dog with them and how they wouldn't take no for an answer.
And I remember thinking and even commenting " Do you idiots not realize this was a communist country? they would have shot the dog right in front of you and thrown your ass on the truck or they would have shot both of you and called it a day."