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Not to mention the whole groundwater incident...which, had it not been for (suicidal?) miners digging a tunnel, the water supply of FIFTY MILLION people would

Not to mention the whole groundwater incident...which, had it not been for (suicidal?) miners digging a tunnel, the water supply of FIFTY MILLION people would have been contaminated.

CyanBird 7y ago
When it comes to the miners, they actually weren't necessary, the corium lava didn't breach the lower levels of concrete, it solidified before that, so all those miners were exposed to all that radiation and risk of cancer needlessly, of course at the time it wasn't known that would be the situation so they made the right call anyways
- pdkl95 7y ago
  The people that were very unfortunately necessary that deserve to be remembered are the 3828 "liquidators" that cleaned up the radioactive graphite (mixed with bits of reactor fuel/waste) that covered the roof above the reactor. In their own words[1]: > [the remote control bulldozer] has overridden a graphite block with it's right caterpillar track, and now was sitting on 12,000 Roentgen fragment. [...] Starodumov was already thinking about something else... what all of us have already known: robots failed, and the extra radioactive zones will have to be cleaned by men. > The shift lasted only two minutes. [...] Here, the unthinkable background radiation of nearly 8000 Roentgens. 20 meters away from us is the naked muzzle of the destroyed reactor. [...] With each succeeding group, with each fragment removed, the background radiation will reduce. This means the risk for the next group will already be lower. [1] (this includes footage of the cleanup) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfDa8tR25dk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfDa8tR25dk
AnthonyMouse 7y ago
Even that is misleading though. The consequence of that isn't that fifty million people have to drink contaminated groundwater forever, it's that you have to build a fancy water filtration plant not unlike the ones in Silicon Valley where the water supply was polluted by 20th century semiconductor manufacturing.
- Tharkun 7y ago
  I'm sure that would have been very practical in 1980s Soviet Russia. After all, they were know for really caring about human lives. You know what would have happened? 50 million people drinking contaminated water and dying from it.

Not to mention the whole groundwater incident...which, had it not been for (suicidal?) miners digging a tunnel, the water supply of FIFTY MILLION people would have been contaminated.

CyanBird 7y ago

When it comes to the miners, they actually weren't necessary, the corium lava didn't breach the lower levels of concrete, it solidified before that, so all those miners were exposed to all that radiation and risk of cancer needlessly, of course at the time it wasn't known that would be the situation so they made the right call anyways

pdkl95 7y ago
The people that were very unfortunately necessary that deserve to be remembered are the 3828 "liquidators" that cleaned up the radioactive graphite (mixed with bits of reactor fuel/waste) that covered the roof above the reactor. In their own words[1]: > [the remote control bulldozer] has overridden a graphite block with it's right caterpillar track, and now was sitting on 12,000 Roentgen fragment. [...] Starodumov was already thinking about something else... what all of us have already known: robots failed, and the extra radioactive zones will have to be cleaned by men. > The shift lasted only two minutes. [...] Here, the unthinkable background radiation of nearly 8000 Roentgens. 20 meters away from us is the naked muzzle of the destroyed reactor. [...] With each succeeding group, with each fragment removed, the background radiation will reduce. This means the risk for the next group will already be lower. [1] (this includes footage of the cleanup) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfDa8tR25dk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfDa8tR25dk

AnthonyMouse 7y ago

Even that is misleading though. The consequence of that isn't that fifty million people have to drink contaminated groundwater forever, it's that you have to build a fancy water filtration plant not unlike the ones in Silicon Valley where the water supply was polluted by 20th century semiconductor manufacturing.

Tharkun 7y ago
I'm sure that would have been very practical in 1980s Soviet Russia. After all, they were know for really caring about human lives. You know what would have happened? 50 million people drinking contaminated water and dying from it.