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Looking into the debris-filled reactor (look for the inverted lid on the left). The 1000-ton lid is now wedged 4 feet lower than it rested before the explosion. Taken from GlobalSecurity.org.
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From: Holly (Thu Apr 7 06:43:44 2005) Fascinating true stories of soldiers who were on the clean up crew... “Well, so they brought us in, and they took us right to the power station. They gave us white robes and white caps. And gauze surgical masks. We cleaned the territory. The robots couldn’t do it, their systems got all crazy. But we worked. And we were proud of it. We rode in—there was a sign that said: Zone Off Limits. We met these crazed dogs and cats on the road. They acted strange: They didn’t recognize us as people, they ran away. I couldn’t understand what was wrong with them until they told us to start shooting them . . . The houses were all sealed up, the farm machinery was abandoned. It was interesting to see. There was no one, just us and the police on their patrols. You’d walk into a house—there were photographs on the wall, but no people. There’d be documents lying around: people’s komsomol IDs, other forms of identification, awards. People drove to the block, the actual reactor. They wanted to photograph themselves there, to show the people at home. They were scared, but also so curious: What was this thing? I didn’t go, myself, I have a young wife, I didn’t want to risk it, but the boys took a few shots and went over. So . . .” For more heart wrenching hair-raising true stories from interviews with townspeople, politicians, and scientists who experienced the tragedy read “Voices from Chernobyl” at www.theparisreview.com/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5447 |
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From: Anonymous (Wed Apr 13 16:56:05 2005) *jaw drops* damn |
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From: Walks_with_chairs (Sat Apr 16 09:51:34 2005) good god! that is truly chilling, what a horrid messy situation! |
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From: dratomic@indiatimes.com (Fri Apr 29 01:41:10 2005) This is a long way from being over. 19 years later and the beast will soon awaken again. To join the other beasts hiding in thier dens. Hanford, Oak Ridge, they are just a few of the many hells that are about to release thier secrets to the world. Physics doesn't stop being physics just because we wish it so. Mother Earth is about to shake us off like a bad case of fleas. It's sad that hte animals and plants of the Earth have to follow. The genetic heritage they have to start over with has been compromised and the clock set WAY back. However, the Earth was here before we were and will do fine without us. We had our chance. And now we must go into that long goodnight never having touched our potential. Sadly it wont be a sudden death but a pathetic lingering selfish bottom up erosion that will make all the good we have achieved mean nothing but a barely detectable layer of atoms and minerals in some future anthropologists assay of the strange world they will find themselves in. If we are lucky at all an Atlantian legend will be thought up for us to explain how so "advanced" a suspected previous culture had so completely destroyed itself. And as a physicist I really used to love playing with these toys. I just never thought that people could be so ignorant as to think there wouldn't be consequences. Ah well, for the time being we still have our economy to keep our attention off of it for now. |
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From: neil@namx.co.uk (Thu Apr 27 12:48:02 2006) Dratomic, cheer the funk up my man. You are still alive, life is not for ever, try to be happy. |
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From: AlexxSoft@bk.ru (Thu May 4 11:38:45 2006) ìîæåò áûòü ÿ ñîãëà ñ óìà ÷òî ïèøó òóò, äà åùå è íà ðóññêîì ÿçûêå...íî ïî÷åìó-òî êîãäà çàõîäèò ðå÷ü î ×åðíîáûëå..ÿ âñïîìèíàþ îäíó èñòîèþ..êîòîðàÿ ñòðàííûì îáðàçîì çàáðàëàñü â ãîëîâó: ìàëü÷èê, îñòàâøèéñÿ â ãîðîäå ñîâñåì îäèí..æäàë ñâîþ ìàìó....îí âèäåë ÷òî â íåáå ëåòàëè âåðòîëåòû...îí íàøåë ÷òî-òî è íàïèñàë ìåëîì íà àñôàëüòå "ìàìà, ÿ æäó òåáÿ" (íå äîñëîâíî)....êàêîé òðàãèçì... |
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From: Anonymous (Mon May 8 00:09:38 2006) Yeah, I must agree with neil@namx.co.uk As fascinating as this website is, and terrifying I might add, it doesn't need melodramatics. Or, to put it in chatspeak, ur emo-ness is wack. Thanks, dratomic |
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From: Kasag (Sat May 20 23:43:56 2006) ok to give you a idea of the intensity of this explosion ..the reactor vesile lid (on its side in the left of the pic) weighs 1000 tons ..the first explosion riped it loose and tossed it into the air like a toy ..that same explosion riped the building apart..the falowing explosion blasted radioactive fuel dust into the air ..then the real hell began as the graphite blocks in the reactor began to burn ..at a temp of 5000 degrese F..melting aneything thay came in contact with ..it took 8 days just to put them out ..the radeation levels droped for sevral days after ..till the workmen removed part of the core ..and it started to heat up again ..thay burried that part of the core in the town north of chernobyl ..it is now one of the most toxic places known to man ..there are about 800 waste dumps around the area ..and officals have lost track of most of these over the years (thay can locate about 300 of the 800 dumps) ..and the two big dumps are leaking badly ..one is being washed away by a river ..the other is in a unlined trench ..when thay talk about the loss of human life in this acident ..thay only speak of the 4000 or so people who have developed cancer over the years..no mention is made of the 600,000 liquidators who were sent in to clean this mess up ..estamates of the deth toll of the liquidators is between 200,000 and 400,000 ..now if you campair the radeation released in the acident ..to known radeoactive events..this acident was about 400 times worse than herosima ..and only about 4% of the fuel was expeled..96% is still in the building ..that is now falling apart..everyone is shoked by the acident at chernobyl..i say it was only a preview of the hell we are going to see |
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From: Alan (Tue Jun 6 01:41:55 2006) Kasag, so exactly what are you saying? My understanding is that the core has melted and is now four stories deep within the building. Since it has cooled, it is no emitting any dust/smoke even though the cooled core is massively radioactive itself. If the building falls down on top of it, what would be the problem? Would that just serve to bury and further shield the radiation? Am I missing something? |
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From: kasag (Fri Aug 11 23:46:43 2006) well if the building colapsed the first efect would be masive abount of radioactive dust thrown into the air ..equivilent to a large atomic bomb going off ..the nest efect would be the reminents of the core in the lower levels would be shoved down ..and broken up ..that would contaminate the ground water of most or europe .. so i would say the boulding colapsing wouldent be a good thing |
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From: Alan (Thu Aug 17 18:20:01 2006) Where would the radioactive dust come from if it is shielded four stories below? And, is there water source under the building? |
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From: Bob (Thu Oct 19 05:21:32 2006) The whole building reactor building is now radioactive, hence why they had to build a huge concrete/steel sarcougagous over it. If it collapses, the particles from inside the building would be strewn out. |
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From: Admiral (Sun Nov 5 20:25:14 2006) There are conflicting reports on how much fuel material is still inside the core. The official reports say 70% or more but eyewitness statements from liquidators say theres only 10-15% left in the building. It looks pretty empty to me, is that because of the core melting downwards? |
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From: Sonny (Thu Nov 16 21:58:25 2006) Hysteria stands all things in time, All you wantabe Engineers make me think of all the ignorance you share within your arrogant realm. We must use all knowledge and mistakes as more knowledge to build nuclear power to serve humanity. |
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From: The Bull (Thu Nov 23 00:26:41 2006) To Alan, In answer to your question yes there is a water source under the building. It is called groundwater. Well Done. Also, the radioactive dust is EVERYWHERE!!! If the lid collapses it will mean that the shelter will collapse. BIG PROBLEM!!! |:>( |
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From: Grounwaterhog (Thu Dec 14 06:30:20 2006) Sorry but the groundwater of half of Europe (as someone has written) being polluted in the case of the sarcophagus collapsing is pure bullshit. it would have happened during 1986 if there wasn't a steel-concrete basin below the ractor that holds all the melted fuel. it is not in danger any more. the dust problem is still there, though, but just do not spread fud for no particular reason! |
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From: $H@KTI (Sun Mar 18 16:12:15 2007) From what i,f heard is that the radioactive lava is eating trough every kind of material so why do people say that the groundwater isn,t a problem anymore???can,t you see it,s jus,t a matter of time before is goes trough the concrete/metal basin below the reactor???Or am I forgetting something!!!This lava is Corium right??? |
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From: Frag (Sat Apr 7 09:11:42 2007) Corium is indeed incredably corrosive stuff, but mostly only when hot. For the most part it simply 'melts' its way through materials, it doesnt erode them. When the lava like substance cools it solidifies and will no longer melt its way through the materials that are holding it in place (see the elephant foot picture). How long the Corium remained molten is of course open to debate, but the fact of the matter is that it has remained contained by the basin beneath the reactor. However, the Corium is sill very highly radioactive and thus somewhat corrosive. So even though the threat of wate table contamination from direct contact with the corium is minimal it is still a very real possibility. What is more dangerous is the amount of water leaking into the sarcophagus, this water will become irradiated and the possiblity is that some of it may then find its way back into the ground water. Again this is unlikely. |
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From: $H@KTI (Sat May 5 07:54:04 2007) Frag thxxx for youre information butt i have seen a movie on youtube.com on that movie you saw russian scientist walking inside the core looking for the fuel,but you also saw on that movie that their is still al lot of heat coming from the fuel en one of the scientist said that he saw the lava and that it still cooking!!! So how long does it takes to become solid like the elephant,sfoot???And isn,t it a threath that some of the fuel still cooking and verry corrosive beacausse it,s still corium??? |
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From: wildespace (Sun Sep 16 10:05:36 2007) Awesome photo! It's probably the closest I ever "got" to the epicentre. I think you can see the dropped sand and other material around the lid. I've read that most of it didn't actually go into the reactor shaft. |
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From: kteb2006@gmail.com (Sun Jun 15 11:03:15 2008) It was acually a 2,000 tonne lid that was blown off. Even 22years later I cant believe this happened. I guess this is what happens when you mix ignorange, no skills and stupidity. |
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From: sunman1967 (Sun Feb 22 13:24:38 2009) you can see chunks of fuel and burning graphite on the roof next to the reactor core. Human "bio robots" were used to clean this up because the machines didn't work. They were told to pick up two pieces each and throw them back into the reactor core. It's ironic they were told not to look into the core when they did this...lol. This can all be seen in a rare VHS tape titled "Suicide Mission To Chernoybl". Most state universities have a copy of this and it is a facinating watch. |
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From: bsimic@fesb.hr (Fri Jan 1 16:49:32 2010) The FACT: The pressure buildup of 0,31 MPa (3,1 bar) inside the reactor cavity is enough to lift up the upper lid of the reactor! The maximum pressure inside the fuel channels (the pressure when safety relief valves open is 7,15 MPa (71,5 bar)). The reactor cavity overpressure system was designed to relief ONE (1) fuel channel full rupture. Today requirement is NINE (9) simultaneous channels rupture (this rule was changed after Chernobyl accident). |
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From: al capone junior (Sun Feb 7 07:37:27 2010) Hysterical commentary and ill-informed attitudes about nuclear power were perhaps the most devastating result of chernobyl. The bottom line is that we need more plants. Modern designs are far better and much safer, not to mention better and far cleaner than coal. But still the ghosts of the past trump the sensibilities of the future. The real legacy of chernobyl seems to be the perpetuation of fear and ignorance. We won't have learned much from the accident if we forever insist on remaining under its shadow instead of rising up from its ashes. al |
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