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Looking forward to it, but with limited series like this, I tend to wait til the end so I can watch it in bigger servings than HBO's weekly format. Plus I have to finally watch Deadwood so I know whats going on in the movie that is coming out soon
Glad its getting such high praise.
"Sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning." - The Emperor, from The Outcast Dead.
"Tell your gods we are coming for them, and that their realms will burn as ours did." -Thostos Bladestorm
Captain Joystick wrote: I don't know if this goes in Geek Media, but I'm geeking out over it so I'm making the call.
Thank you so much for making this thread! I kept meaning to and forgetting.
I hope at least someone on this forum with a good grasp of physics is also watching this and can weigh in on the accuracy of this. I know they streamlined some stuff on the show to make it more "watchable", but last episode some stuff happened that I was kind of dubious on.
Specifically, after the initial explosion, a big plot point was that the nuclear fuel was melting its way down towards the bubbler pools, which were thought to be empty but actually were filled with water - the concern was that if the fuel reached the water, it would superheat, cause a explosion with the force of several orders of magnitude larger that Hiroshima, and would spread fallout across a large part of the Soviet Union.
I don't remember this historically at all, and Wikipedia doesn't go into as much detail as I would have liked - is this accurate?
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
Really enjoying this show so far.
Its grim, darn grim so I suggest its not for Sunday evening pre Monday morning work
I love the way they captured the era though, the rooms, offices, equipment, cars, architecture - really spot on.
A good cast too and very well shot.
That ending of ep2 when the lights go out was harrowing.
@ ouze - from other documentaries/films I have seen the superheating water is not true and could well just be creative license. Could be wrong however.
Dman137 wrote:
goobs is all you guys will ever be
By 1-irt: Still as long as Hissy keeps showing up this is one of the most entertaining threads ever.
I'm certainly not a nuclear physicist, so I poked around on the Web about that for a few minutes after the episode. Looked to me like there were at least a few Russian scientists worried about a multi-megaton catastrophe, but there seems to be a lot of doubt elsewhere whether the event would have been anywhere close to that in size. I'm just going to assume that there was a risk of another explosion, and that would have been a bad thing even if it wasn't some kind of massive blast.
The fear of a steam explosion was real and that was the reason they sent those three men in to open the sluice gates, but I really don't know what the severity of that explosion could be or was estimated to be.
There's a thread on it physics stack exchange and there someone estimated it would have been just under the equivalent of 150 tons of TNT with some pretty math to back it up.
Now that would be enough to catch the nearest reactor causing it to ultimately melt down itself, which would theoretically result in another 50t explosion of its own. None of which combined adds up to the figure that gets described in the show.
That said, the assertion that the explosion could have been between 3 and 5 megatons is not a new one, it crops up from time to time and gets described less as a flash vaporisation of radioactive water and more along the lines of the reactor pile melting down, reaching critical mass somehow and blowing up like a nuclear bomb. Which obviously would throw a lot of radioactive debris around (including the cores of the other tree reactors)
Based on what the showrunners say about how they take multiple accounts of the incident and defer to the most conservative ones, I expect the big explosion risk either was possible due to some factor armchair physicists aren't aware of, was a worse-case scenario estimate made by the Russian scientists (which Watson's character is a composite of), or least likely, a piece of fiction that has recurred so often that there really aren't more conservative estimates in the literature.
Well, there were three other reactors in the blast radius, not just another one.
As I understand it, as a layperson, the fear was real but overblown. The Beeb docu I mentioned earlier goes into the futility of a lot of the deaths of the workers and rescue personnel.
I knew the fear of a secondary explosion was real, but didn't know it as big as these described. I also hadn't considered the (in retrospect) very obvious fact that even a relatively small explosion would have likely caused more meltdowns from the rest of the facilities.
I remember when this happened, but there wasn't a lot of information available at the time from what I remember.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2019/05/17 21:25:28
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
I've been enjoying this as well, only slight gripe I may have is the accents. The acting is pretty spot on though so I can forgive it, would be worse if they tried to fake it.
This show makes the whole Chernobyl event feel on the scale of all of WH40k's most preposterously OTT bits of fluff. The man power, the resources, the sacrifices demanded. Just staggering.
The podcast is one of the very few show companion podcasts I really think adds something. Cracking stuff.
Watched the first episode earlier tonight. I've always been very interested in nuclear technology, and even visited the reactor itself in 2015, but not until now have I seen a decent reconstruction of the accident and the immediate aftermath.
I absolutely loved every second of it, although surprised to see Paul Ritter in a serious role, half expected a "Hello Bambinos" when the authorities showed up.
The scene from the latest episode, of the poor “bio robots” on the roof, with the Geiger counters screeching and that damn ‘bell’...this show does tension and suspense better than the conjuring movies...and I don’t say that lightly...
Thargrim wrote: I've been enjoying this as well, only slight gripe I may have is the accents. The acting is pretty spot on though so I can forgive it, would be worse if they tried to fake it.
Emily Watson is particularly guilty of this - she slid into a full on Irish accent briefly last episode.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2019/06/03 00:35:46
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
The scene from the latest episode, of the poor “bio robots” on the roof, with the Geiger counters screeching and that damn ‘bell’...this show does tension and suspense better than the conjuring movies...and I don’t say that lightly...
Yep that was another stunningly haunting scene. The handheld camera work was terrific on it too.
And that end scene in the hospital with Ludmilla - man that was heart wrenching
As I've stated before easily the best piece of TV this year, hell maybe the last few years. Pity its only 5 episodes.
Dman137 wrote:
goobs is all you guys will ever be
By 1-irt: Still as long as Hissy keeps showing up this is one of the most entertaining threads ever.
I am looking forward to watching it, I have heard good things.
Now to find a friend's HBO account to steal...
You say Fiery Crash! I say Dynamic Entry!
*Increases Game Point Limit by 100*: Tau get two Crisis Suits and a Firewarrior. Imperial Guard get two infantry companies, artillery support, and APCs.