7 ms·

How accurate was the Chernobyl mini-series wrt damage caused by radiation, specifically to the firefighters? If it was accurate at all I think I might pick Hiro

by maverick2007 6y ago

How accurate was the Chernobyl mini-series wrt damage caused by radiation, specifically to the firefighters? If it was accurate at all I think I might pick Hiroshima, at least it would be over quick.

skissane 6y ago
Firefighters are staying put to fight the fire. If they'd ran away from the disaster as fast as they could, they would have received less radiation exposure, and would have had greater chance of survival.
catalogia 6y ago
MANY victims of Hiroshima died like those firefighters died. Not all were vaporized instantly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki#Post-attack_casualties https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_a... (I know the premise you were responding to was standing right next to ground zero, where you would have been vaporized, but I think it's worth mentioning that not all of the people killed died like that.)
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  Since it's pedantic HN nuclear day again, actually it was an airburst.
  - catalogia 6y ago
    Well since we're being pedantic, I didn't say anything about groundbursts. "Ground zero" in the context of Hiroshima refers to the hypocenter. > In the case of an explosion above the ground, ground zero is the point on the ground directly below the nuclear detonation and is sometimes called the hypocenter (from Greek ὑπο- "under-" and center). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_zero https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_zero
mhh__ 6y ago
There is some limited public imagery of radiation injuries sustained by the firefighters. Its no where near the pepperoni pizza shown in the show but if you got it badly enough it is a three dimensional sunburn that kills you from the inside and waits for your body to catch up. I don't think there is any publicly available photography of the way acute radiation affects the skin but the phenomenon has been written about. In true Soviet fashion some libraries had all material on radiation removed after the accident. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokaimura_nuclear_accident https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokaimura_nuclear_accident (famous story which has become something of a creepypasta but does contain) If you drink the FSB tea, I'd suggest finding a tall building.
- gambiting 6y ago
  This is publicly available, report of the nuclear incident in Georgia done by IAEA: https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Pub1660web-81061875.pdf https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Pub1660web-81... Basically, 3 lumberjacks went into the woods, found a strange metallic thing that was warm to the touch, slept next to it. The report has incredibly graphic images of how their skin looked due to radiation exposure, don't scroll down to that section if you cannot look at gore. But essentially - the issue wasn't the initial damage, the issue was that the affected areas just wouldn't heal no matter how many skin transplants were done, literally rotting away while alive.
  - skissane 6y ago
    If they had a basic understanding of radioactivity, they would have realised the object was likely radioactive (any strangely warm or glowing object probably is), stayed away from it, and they would have been in a far better place. Their injuries were from choosing to expose themselves to it for hours on end (as a heat source), as opposed to the brief initial exposure of discovery. When I was a kid my dad told me a story about people finding glowing objects and taking them home and giving their whole family radiation poisoning. (In hindsight, I think he was probably describing the Goiânia accident in Brazil in 1987, which would have been recently in the media at the time he warned me). Like most people, I never found any glowing object but if I ever did I would have known to leave it be, get the hell out of there, and then call the authorities.

How accurate was the Chernobyl mini-series wrt damage caused by radiation, specifically to the firefighters? If it was accurate at all I think I might pick Hiroshima, at least it would be over quick.

skissane 6y ago

Firefighters are staying put to fight the fire. If they'd ran away from the disaster as fast as they could, they would have received less radiation exposure, and would have had greater chance of survival.

catalogia 6y ago

MANY victims of Hiroshima died like those firefighters died. Not all were vaporized instantly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki#Post-attack_casualties https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_a... (I know the premise you were responding to was standing right next to ground zero, where you would have been vaporized, but I think it's worth mentioning that not all of the people killed died like that.)

redis_mlc 6y ago
Since it's pedantic HN nuclear day again, actually it was an airburst.
- catalogia 6y ago
  Well since we're being pedantic, I didn't say anything about groundbursts. "Ground zero" in the context of Hiroshima refers to the hypocenter. > In the case of an explosion above the ground, ground zero is the point on the ground directly below the nuclear detonation and is sometimes called the hypocenter (from Greek ὑπο- "under-" and center). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_zero https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_zero

mhh__ 6y ago

There is some limited public imagery of radiation injuries sustained by the firefighters. Its no where near the pepperoni pizza shown in the show but if you got it badly enough it is a three dimensional sunburn that kills you from the inside and waits for your body to catch up. I don't think there is any publicly available photography of the way acute radiation affects the skin but the phenomenon has been written about. In true Soviet fashion some libraries had all material on radiation removed after the accident. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokaimura_nuclear_accident https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokaimura_nuclear_accident (famous story which has become something of a creepypasta but does contain) If you drink the FSB tea, I'd suggest finding a tall building.

gambiting 6y ago
This is publicly available, report of the nuclear incident in Georgia done by IAEA: https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Pub1660web-81061875.pdf https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Pub1660web-81... Basically, 3 lumberjacks went into the woods, found a strange metallic thing that was warm to the touch, slept next to it. The report has incredibly graphic images of how their skin looked due to radiation exposure, don't scroll down to that section if you cannot look at gore. But essentially - the issue wasn't the initial damage, the issue was that the affected areas just wouldn't heal no matter how many skin transplants were done, literally rotting away while alive.
- skissane 6y ago
  If they had a basic understanding of radioactivity, they would have realised the object was likely radioactive (any strangely warm or glowing object probably is), stayed away from it, and they would have been in a far better place. Their injuries were from choosing to expose themselves to it for hours on end (as a heat source), as opposed to the brief initial exposure of discovery. When I was a kid my dad told me a story about people finding glowing objects and taking them home and giving their whole family radiation poisoning. (In hindsight, I think he was probably describing the Goiânia accident in Brazil in 1987, which would have been recently in the media at the time he warned me). Like most people, I never found any glowing object but if I ever did I would have known to leave it be, get the hell out of there, and then call the authorities.