Chernobyl Web Page

[Corley5]

Here's an interesting series of pages I was pointed to.  A real eye opener as to what really went on and the consequences of it.  The biker chick is sorta cute too  
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/

[AtLast]

Definately a cool chick with a hot ummmmm bike  
UNBELIEVEABLE!!!!....thanks for sharing....a good wake up call......course that would NEVER happen here......right?......( 3 mile island)

[Kirk_Allen]

Thanks for the link. I think its a must read for everyone.

I know while in Alaska there was concern that shifting winds would bring radiation there but turns out we never got hit.........or at least thats what we were told.

[Jeff]

That chick must glow in the dark.  Some pretty sobering images on there.

[Corley5]

I wonder how the critters are surviving in it.  She says that the wolves, wild boars and horses are doing OK.  They must have a higher tolerance to radiation than humans or just don't live very long

[L. Wakefield]

   My exchange student from the Czech Republic told us he remembered being very sad when his mother told him they could not eat apples from the trees or food from the garden because of the fallout. And they were not close.

  It is something that *we* have seen only in nightmares, in photos, or in science fiction. What horror! Creeping, slow death, unlike any other.  lw

[Stump Jumper]

This is quite an eye opener.  Thanks for link.  That was our graduating year in high school didn't pay much attention at that time to what was going on.  I know that we had a lot of major flooding that spring in our area.  They were concerned about the Croton Dam breaking.  Because several smaller ones broke.  So we were keeping up on that.

[oldsaw-addict]

Anyone need some glow sticks? they glow for at least 50years or your money back Just kidding but that was a very well constructed site about the chernobyl disaster. Its so sad, but so interesting at the same time.

[Ron Wenrich]

Three Mile Island happened 25 years ago, this past Sunday.  The day of the TMI accident, which was a Wednesday, I was cruising timber, 12 miles north of the site.  Wind was blowing from the South.  

It started at 8 AM.  By 4 PM, Met-Ed was saying that everything was under control, and that is was a minor event.  Meanwhile, TMI was out of control, and they knew it.  The total event lasted 16 hours before they got control.

The next day, I was going to start a timber mgmt plan on 800 acres, just 6 miles south of the plant.  We could see the cooling towers from that job.  We decided to stay out of the woods until we knew what was going on.  Met-Ed still was stonewalling the public.

On Friday, there was a radiation release.  The Feds wanted us to evacuate, the state had no way of pulling it off.  So, they had pregnant women and toddlers evacuate to the Hershey Arena.  I had a client that told me he stood on the parking lot with an old Civil Defense Geiger counter.  He pegged it.

There was also the question of hydrogen bubble.  Mixed with oxygen, it would blow.  The Feds brought in Harold Denton of the NRC to ease the tension and act as a spokesman.  No more was heard from Met-Ed.  Denton knew his stuff and people trusted him.  They didn't feel the bubble was as big a deal as everyone else.  But, it was still there.

Saturday was a wait-and-see day.  We waited for evacuation notices.  My grandparents lived inside the 5 mile zone and moved out.  Several cousins left the state.  Evacuation was a scarey deal.  If there was an explosion, there was no saving any of your property, and there would be little chance of reimbursement thanks to the Price-Anderson Act which limits nuclear liability.  Ain't govt grand.

Evacuation would have all the major Interstates being 4 lanes, one way.  If you broke down, you would be pushed off the road.  Entrances would be blocked for other traffic.  I live 21 miles East from the plant.  Evacuation for me would have to be back roads.  Luckily, it didn't come to that.

Pres. Carter came on Sunday to tour the site.  That put everyone at ease, and the crisis was largely over.

Met-Ed suffered very little from the accident.  They went to court, and forced the public to pay for the construction of the Unit 2 reactor.  We got a total of 6 months worth of electric and a $600 million bill.  Met-Ed had a total of 6 down quarters, then made a profit.

Radiation was released into the air.  Of course, this was safe, and is how they disappated the hydrogen bubble.  Its also how they got rid of the radiation.  They also used people as human sponges.  Work for a few hours, off a few weeks.

The difference between TMI and Chernobyl is that their hydrogen bubble blew up.  Ours didn't.  30 minutes difference.  

It took 4 years before they could get a camera to the core.  The first 5 feet of the core was gone.  20 tons of uranium.

The lessons I learned from the experience is that you can't trust industry to do the right thing (they lied to us), bureaucrats don't know enough about anything to be effective (they were indecisive), and the government has some pretty sharp technicians that keep things moving (Thank you Harold Denton and crew).

I remain cynical, and have a mistrust of bureaucrats and industry.  Especially those that want to be self regulated.

[old3dogg]

That was creepy!Just like something out of the mind of Stephen King.
I just hope that the lady keeps the site up dated.
Thanks for the link.

[woodmills1]

I am not, and will not try to down play the size and danger of the three mile island disaster, but as far as I know there probably would not have been the type of explosion like chernoble.  Two major differences were double wall containment in US design and water versus graphite for neutron moderation. While I do have an old fart feeble mind, I remember the human "errors" in both cases were different.  I think the russians actually turned off cooling water and automatic controls to try to raise the output.

[Sawyerfortyish]

It's sad to think that so many lost there lives and so many more lost everything and will never be able to return home. But it scares the H&*ll out of me that it almost happened here. No way will anyone convince me that this is a safe easy way of making electric. As far as I am concerned  Hydro electric is the way to go.

[shopteacher]

Erieeeeeeeeeee!

[old3dogg]

Burn coal.Not people!

[L. Wakefield]

It took 4 years before they could get a camera to the core.  The first 5 feet of the core was gone.  20 tons of uranium.

.

  OK, I want to know more about this. Did it get hot enough (meltdown) that this just volatized/vaporized? Did it transmute? What was that movie with Jane Fonda that dealt with the phenomenon?

  Do we know what we're doing? (No, we don't. No, no, no, we do not.) You want to talk about shock and awe. This would be that. And not in a nice way.   lw

[Frickman]

I remember the TMI incident well. We're west of the facility, across the mountain, so there wasn't alot of danger posed to us. I remember the evacuations though. Alot of folks from out there came to stay with relatives in these parts. The politicians and bureaucrats did alot of stonewalling and misrepresenting facts, more concerned with their political career than the public's safety. I don't trust the government either, especially when they reach out their hand and say " We're from the government and we're here to help you. "

[isawlogs]

Scarry that all I got to say ....lost for words and that don't happen to often , just scares the hell out of me thinking that this could and did happen,  

[Ron Wenrich]

I remember that there was supposed to be massive bird deaths due to the accident.  I was working in the woods at that time, and never found any incidents of bird deaths.  Probably one of those unsubstantiated rumors.

The movie was called "The Chia Syndrome".  The China Syndrome occurs during a total meltdown and the core melts throught the containment and all the way to China.

As for the accident and the results you can go here:  http://www.tmia.com/accident/   TMIA is Three Mile Island Alert, and was formed by local residents that have a stake in TMI.  It is an anti-nuke site.  Kinda hard to find very many pro-nuke residents.  They counter the mainstream, and are pretty well informed.  But, they do have a bias.

The design of the reactor is to withstand the impact of a 707 falling on it.  Right now they are concerned whether it will withstand a plane flying into it.  And most planes are larger than the 707.  

The problem with a hydrogen explosion would have been a breach of the containment building, and that would have released radiation.  We weren't worried about an explosion that would blow up the plant, as in Chernobyl.  We were worried about a crack, and the radiation release.  That was a possibility.

Frontline did a show on the TMI accident.  I think it was a pretty decent presentation.  

[Haytrader]

isaw,

Just what I thought.
I looked at all the pics and then went through them again with the wife and grand daughter. Grand daughter just couldn't comprehend but granny got the creeps along with me.

[rebocardo]

I remember the men that fought the fire, they went in to the plant knowing they were going to die, so they could save the local population and their families from an even worse disaster.

Sobering web site.