30 05 2019

There's a new HBO drama about the core breach and fire at Chernobyl. The 2nd episode became available today. YouTube will provide you with all the documentaries and information you could possibly watch but this drama makes it real. Here is the story you need hear. There were huge water tanks under the reactor. They needed to be emptied before the core melted through and contacted them. If that had happened, the resulting explosion would have been between 3 and 5 megatons. It would have torn open the other reactors at the site and dispersed enough radiation to make the western Soviet Union and most of Europe uninhabitable. Three men volunteered to enter the flooded basement under the burning reactor to find and open the valves. They succeeded. They took high doses of radiation and some reports suggest they died but from what I can find it appears they survived the initial period of acute radiation sickness. Their names were Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bespalov and Boris Baranov. They saved millions of lives and a continent. UPDATE: In the comments, the physics and math question of the potential size of the explosion is generating some thoughtful questions. 851.465.152.585:52078 665.141.456.563:1023 890.373.521.413:23930 1036.816.103.409:19519 564.837.575.125:39218 199.229.695.190:55045 927.751.980.525:68618 803.799.170.591:76028 788.572.416.677:40885 110.780.782.941:16393 666.719.716.413:83191 291.214.1071.903:65232 489.162.228.201:6758 208.242.656.749:44016 434.542.993.869:68851 575.285.863.1042:19152 186.548.189.675:46645 676.728.666.1004:30670 500.473.374.899:2667 985.772.708.362:62396 250.1047.911.1085:86879 324.491.870.745:41598 198.305.139.284:38147 1064.494.909.246:92891 630.408.919.734:99064 460.484.793.116:88483 815.726.783.485:74281 964.954.522.339:90840 984.919.400.958:24635 562.875.928.585:80828 345.1045.308.548:28968 1049.1083.456.243:60578 466.760.1098.527:43647 154.624.542.648:21971 475.1070.303.947:77782 775.301.241.536:35040 627.983.460.279:61248 562.465.573.1007:41916 421.189.1045.527:44004 130.396.876.233:97507 199.832.369.786:10258 485.937.672.456:84170