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Chernobyl's Sarcophagus, Redux
Lasrick (2629253) writes "With the news that a multinational consortium is to the halfway point in constructing a huge stainless steel hangar that will sit over the ruined site of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, Dan Drollette looks in the archives of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and compares notes on the sarcophagus that was built 25 years ago, and the one that is being built now. 'No one really knows what went into the "concrete cube;" even the amount of concrete claimed to have been used is suspect, as it would form a volume larger than the sarcophagus, wrote nuclear engineer and author Alexander R. Sich in his 11-page article, "Truth was an early casualty."' Let's hope this new sarcophagus lasts longer."
I believe the structure should appear from space as a giant band-aid.
"Truth was an early casualty."
That's a great line.
I'm sure that this shelter is WAY better than that OTHER shelter made by THOSE people.
Chernobyl was arguably the worst design of anything in history. But the Soviets moved, 500,000 plus people. Gorbachev says it is what broke the USSR. Mistakes were made, but they are taking responsibility for the mess. This is what is needed for Nuke Inc. USA and Japan. Get it done. This would turn the tide of popular opinion.
Can we build something that will shield the reactor that is more effective that just leaving it open?
Serious question...
On a positive note, deeds such as this involving international assistance reinforce my retarded optimism that humanity might rise above tribalism into something astonishing.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
So what is the purpose of this submission? Chernobyl cleanup and management is an interesting topic, but little useful info is put forth here. An update on construction and a rehash of what we already know. Just a vehicle to put forth an accusation of lying about concrete volumes that doesn't appear to have a basis.
Chernobyl is a huge mess that fortunately can't and won't be replicated due to design differences in existing plants.
... and a lot of others doing the dying. Nothing new in the behavior of the human race. And no, this one will not last much longer either. After all, they will have to buy the next one, regardless.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
No one really knows what went into the "concrete cube;" even the amount of concrete claimed to have been used is suspect, as it would form a volume larger than the sarcophagus
The core melted a hole through the ground deep enough to hit the water table where it exploded on contact with water, then caused a steam explosion that was so powerful some of the material hit the jet stream. The heat continued causing hydrogen build up and further hydrogen explosions.
They tried to pour molten lead into the cavity but that just boiled and caused the radioactive steam to also carry lead vapor as well, making it even more toxic. So they gave up and filled it in with concrete. No one has any idea how large the whole was, if there was a chamber at the bottom from the water reservoir or multiple explosions. I don't find it the least bit suspicious that the amount of concrete poured into a random unexplored hole in the midst of the greatest man made disaster in history might be a bit off.
"Truth was an early casualty."' Let's hope this new sarcophagus lasts longer."
Apparently sensationalism is still alive and well.
What did they use to mine, crush, mix, transport and pump all that concrete? Oil, gas and coal. And how about for making that stainless steel? Oil, gas and coal. These things have to figure in when doing the Energy Return, air pollution and societal cost calculations on nukes...
It's hard to produce a scary movie based on lung cancer.
One of the scariest places I've ever been was the pulmonary ward of the major teaching hospital where my wife was working. I was picking her up just as the night shift began, so it was low lights and a chorus of laboured (and sometimes mechanically assisted) breathing emanating from the semi-dark. Hair standing up on back of neck just recalling the scene ...
Chernobyl is in Ukraine, a fact that should makes everyone think twice before pushing a civil war. And by everyone, I also mean US and EU. Nobody should have supported a revolutionary government with an agenda beyond making a new constitution and new elections
Ugh. Utterly embarrassing uninformed comments like this are why I really don't want to read /. any more. Everything you've said is just sophistry and doesn't pass the whiff test if you've got even a basic foundation in nuclear physics, and you got upvoted +5 for it!
Actually, coal is the worst by far. Nuclear is the best. Solar is more dangerous than Nuclear, but not even by an OOM. .44 .15 .10(not including Banqiao, including it raises it to 1.4 because the once incident killed 171k. And we thought rare accidents were dangerous with Nuclear? They have nothing on Dams). .04
Forbes article, deaths per Trillion kWh
Coal, Global: 170k, Coal, China: 280k, Coal, US: 15k
Solar: 440
Nuclear, Global average: 90
Deaths per TWh by energy source(note:1k times less electricity than above)
Coal, electricity, world average: 60. 100 if it's for everything.
Oil 36
Solar
Wind
Hydro
Nuclear:
I don't read AC A human right
Three full core melt-throughs are sitting in sandstone, leaching to the pacific/atmosphere without any control or sarcophagus at all, since march 2011.
I saw a documentary, there are deers, birds, a lot of large fish in the station's artificial lake, foxes, etc. And also a lot of trees in the Chernobyl area.
Is wild life and plants immune to radiation?
> The existing RBMKs have undergone significant changes [to prevent another Chernobyl disaster].
> A re-creation of such an event would take a long list of intentional actions taken by a team of people for that purpose.
The Stuxnet military computer worm required a long list of intentional actions taken by a team of people for that purpose (and cost about 100 million dollars to achieve success, after some 3 years). Stuxnet wrecked the iranian's uranium isotope refinement plants. It contains a simplified MIDI copy of Hatikva in its binary code and played it along over the frequency controllers as the hexa-fluoride gas ultra-centrifuges were wrecked.
Let there be absolutely no doubt, that CIA + NSA + Unit 8200 can use yet another Stuxnet variant, based on the flexible "Tilded" cyberattack framework, to make another one or two RBMK reactors explode spectacularly or on russian soil proper (should Putin and his ex-KGB cronies remain hell-bent on re-holodomorizing Ukraine and making toilet paper out of the Budapest Memorandum of Understanding of Security Guarantees for the Ukraine.)
Putin strolling across the isotopically depopulated steppes of Mother Russia will be much like Adolf Hitler, wandering around the ruined streets of Berlin on his last birthday of 20 April 1945.
BTW, did you know the Chernobyl disaster happened directly because of Israel? The soviet russians were experimenting with super-quick emergency shutdown scenarios, after witnessing the devastating efficency of "Opera campaign". It was a suprise-based air attack, in which a handful of jewish fighter-bombers easily demolished Saddam's Osirak nuclear reactor (despite the supposedly strong, soviet and french equipped iraqi air defence system of radars, missiles and jetfighters).
The efficiency of those newest, digital computerized american F-15 and F-16 warplanes, as used by the zionists in the Opera / Osirak attack, scared the soviets witless, as they were still stuck with vacuum tubes and hand-soldered discrete transistors at the time. Fearing a similar aerial attack on reactors on soviet soil, likely resulting in widespread radioactive fallout, they experimented with swift nuclear reactor shutdowns with just 5 minutes of forewarn. This resulted in an accident, with the soviets themselves spreading radioactive fallout over the USSR.
The "gas that mixes with the air" is not that much of a problem nowadays, the concrete will mostly cover that. What's leaking from below, on the other hand...
Whether the new design is adequate or not is moot: when Putin takes over the country, he will completely shut down any real news and everything will be fine.
*** Don't be dull.***
Because I'm sure they're lying about how much concrete they used rather than they just did it so hurriedly nobody kept accurate records.
Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
Not according to official documents and various memoirs.
> where there not a army of miners that where employed to to dig a giant chamber below the building to house a cooling apparatus? The cooling apperatus was never placed because of money issues and wasn't that chamber filled then with concrete out of a possible worry that the fissionable materials would go into the ground water table.
Not quite, no. The chamber was dug up to be filled with concrete right from the start; they've also made a concrete underground wall surrounding the station to prevent the contamination of the ground waters.
> on the subject of the lead it was mixed with sodium (not sure about what the other part was of the mixture but i thought it was sodium) that was dropped in there by helicopters it was to stop a reaction because the lead isolates the neutron(?) emissions that caused the reaction to continue.
It was mostly sand, sometimes mixed with lead pellets, boric acid, or dolomite — about 5000 tonnes of those mixtures were dropped from April 27 to May 2, when adding such extra weight was considered too risky, as the reactor supporting structures might've collapsed. Since then, only radioactive debris and construction waste from around the station were dropped inside the sarcophagus.
Actually, some argue that dropping all those bags was not only pointless, but made the situation even worse, because every bag dropped temporarily increased the radiation levels straight above the reactor three times, and released more fission material and highly radioactive dust particles and fumes from the core into the air.
> several helicopter crews died due to radiation exposure because they needed to fly directly over the open reactor to drop the mixture in there.
31 "liquidators" died in 1986, 4 of them were the only helicopter crew crashed on Oct 2, 1986. As already pointed out, the pilot accidently flew too close to a crane.
> The fire fighters that where first on scene knew exactly what they where facing and went in the reactor room anyway to fight the fire because their families where in the worker city nearby they all died in less then 14 days due to radiation exposure.
No, the didn't know. And they haven't gone to the reactor room — they were putting out the fire on the roof. The 4th reactor's operators were the ones who put out the fire in the reactor room and adjacent turbines room.