Chernobyl - "The network is in full meltdown!" "Nyet, we still have spinoffs..."

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > Chernobyl - "The network is in full meltdown!" "Nyet, we still have spinoffs..."

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Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

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karma_coma posted:

I watched this entire thing yesterday thinking "meh yeah I remember that I'll see if its any good before bed" and i wound up staying up until 3am so I could watch the entire thing.

There were a few scenes I just could not do but holy poo poo it was good.

How real was the radiation poisoning poo poo?

I did not know it could've been a lot worse than it was..... loving crazy.

They go into detail in the podcast, which everyone highly recommends, but they tried to be extremely accurate with the makeup and costuming, especially for the radiation poisoning. If anything, the reality was worse:

Voices of Chernobyl posted:

We were newlyweds. We still walked around holding hands, even if we were just going to the store. I would say to him, "I love you." But I didn't know then how much. I had no idea.

We lived in the dormitory of the fire station where he worked. There were three other young couples; we all shared a kitchen. On the ground floor they kept the trucks, the red fire trucks. That was his job.

One night I heard a noise. I looked out the window. He saw me. "Close the window and go back to sleep. There's a fire at the reactor. I'll be back soon."

I didn't see the explosion itself. Just the flames. Everything was radiant. The whole sky. A tall flame. And smoke. The heat was awful. And he's still not back. The smoke was from the burning bitumen, which had covered the roof. He said later it was like walking on tar.

They tried to beat down the flames. They kicked at the burning graphite with their feet ... They weren't wearing their canvas gear. They went off just as they were, in their shirt sleeves. No one told them.

At seven in the morning I was told he was in the hospital. I ran there but the police had already encircled it, and they weren't letting anyone through, only ambulances. The policemen shouted: "The ambulances are radioactive stay away!"

I saw him. He was all swollen and puffed up. You could barely see his eyes.

"He needs milk. Lots of milk," my friend said. "They should drink at least three litres each."

"But he doesn't like milk."

"He'll drink it now."

Many of the doctors and nurses in that hospital and especially the orderlies, would get sick themselves and die. But we didn't know that then.

I couldn't get into the hospital that evening. The doctor came out and said, yes, they were flying to Moscow, but we needed to bring them their clothes. The clothes they'd worn at the station had been burned. The buses had stopped running already and we ran across the city. We came running back with their bags, but the plane was already gone. They tricked us.

It was a special hospital, for radiology, and you couldn't get in without a pass. I gave some money to the woman at the door, and she said, "Go ahead." Then I had to ask someone else, beg. Finally I'm sitting in the office of the head radiologist. Right away she asked: "Do you have kids?" What should I tell her? I can see already that I need to hide that I'm pregnant. They won't let me see him! It's good I'm thin, you can't really tell anything.

"Yes," I say.

"How many?" I'm thinking, I need to tell her two. If it's just one, she won't let me in.

"A boy and a girl."

"So you don't need to have any more. All right, listen: his central nervous system is completely compromised, his skull is completely compromised."

OK, I'm thinking, so he'll be a little fidgety.

"And listen: if you start crying, I'll kick you out right away. No hugging or kissing. Don't even get near him. You have half an hour."

He looks so funny, he's got pyjamas on for a size 48, and he's a size 52. The sleeves are too short, the trousers are too short. But his face isn't swollen any more. They were given some sort of fluid. I say, "Where'd you run off to?" He wants to hug me. The doctor won't let him. "Sit, sit," she says. "No hugging in here."

On the very first day in the dormitory they measured me with a dosimeter. My clothes, bag, purse, shoes - they were all "hot". And they took that all away from me right there. Even my underwear. The only thing they left was my money.

He started to change; every day I met a brand-new person. The burns started to come to the surface. In his mouth, on his tongue, his cheeks - at first there were little lesions, and then they grew. It came off in layers - as white film ... the colour of his face ... his body ... blue, red , grey-brown. And it's all so very mine!

The only thing that saved me was it happened so fast; there wasn't any time to think, there wasn't any time to cry. It was a hospital for people with serious radiation poisoning. Fourteen days. In 14 days a person dies.

He was producing stools 25 to 30 times a day, with blood and mucous. His skin started cracking on his arms and legs. He became covered with boils. When he turned his head, there'd be a clump of hair left on the pillow. I tried joking: "It's convenient, you don't need a comb." Soon they cut all their hair.

I tell the nurse: "He's dying." And she says to me: "What did you expect? He got 1,600 roentgen. Four hundred is a lethal dose. You're sitting next to a nuclear reactor."

When they all died, they refurbished the hospital. They scraped down the walls and dug up the parquet. When he died, they dressed him up in formal wear, with his service cap. They couldn't get shoes on him because his feet had swollen up. They buried him barefoot. My love.

# ? Aug 19, 2019 18:21

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# ? Apr 18, 2024 07:02

mst4k: Apr 18, 2003; budlitemolaram

Toxic Fart Syndrome posted:

They go into detail in the podcast

Holy poo poo, that is insane.

I know more about how nuclear power works than say... the air conditioning system in my house.

Checking out the podcast and cancelling my afternoon conference calls. Thanks for all this.

# ? Aug 19, 2019 18:31

Toaster Beef: Jan 23, 2007; that's not nature's way

Toxic Fart Syndrome posted:

They go into detail in the podcast, which everyone highly recommends, but they tried to be extremely accurate with the makeup and costuming, especially for the radiation poisoning. If anything, the reality was worse:

Russians have such a specific command of language. They have this unfathomable natural ability to convey immense, soul-consuming sorrow, and hardly anybody else can even touch it.

# ? Aug 19, 2019 21:08

Hannibal Rex: Feb 13, 2010

Season 2 launch event.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/russia-launches-floating-nuclear-power-plant-akademik-lomonosov-190822145809353.html

# ? Aug 23, 2019 14:58

Kassad: Nov 12, 2005; It's about time.

Those ARGs are going overboard, but I suppose they have to with the new competition from Brazil.

# ? Aug 23, 2019 15:05

etalian: Mar 20, 2006

Kassad posted:

Those ARGs are going overboard, but I suppose they have to with the new competition from Brazil.

Russia's state corporation has described the vessel as a "pilot project", with plans for widespread development and use of similar designs.

# ? Aug 23, 2019 16:56

GABA ghoul: Oct 29, 2011

Hannibal Rex posted:

Season 2 launch event.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/russia-launches-floating-nuclear-power-plant-akademik-lomonosov-190822145809353.html

Filming for season 3 has already started

https://www.zdnet.com/article/employees-connect-nuclear-plant-to-the-internet-so-they-can-mine-cryptocurrency/

# ? Aug 26, 2019 18:58

CommieGIR: Aug 22, 2006; The blue glow is a feature, not a bug; Pillbug

Opferwurst posted:

Filming for season 3 has already started

https://www.zdnet.com/article/employees-connect-nuclear-plant-to-the-internet-so-they-can-mine-cryptocurrency/

incoherent posted:

3.6 hashrate. not good, not terrible.

# ? Aug 26, 2019 19:44

Toxic Fart Syndrome: Jul 2, 2006; *hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.

_{...the meter only goes to 3.6...}; Pork Pro

Russia loved Chernobyl so much they�ve guaranteed at least five more seasons in the last two months:
https://twitter.com/clmazin/status/1173713532937916416?s=21

# ? Sep 17, 2019 00:09

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

Learned that "Chernobyl" means "Mugwort" today. The Strugatsky brothers referred to it as "Mugwort City" (Полынь-Город) back in the days when censorship still meant something, fully expecting the allusion to be recognized.

# ? Sep 22, 2019 19:46

ZorajitZorajit: Sep 15, 2013; No static at all...

Now the proud winner of 3.6 Emmy awards!

# ? Sep 23, 2019 15:10

Sand Monster: Apr 13, 2008

ZorajitZorajit posted:

Now the proud winner of 3.6 Emmy awards!

But not Jared Harris.

:cry:

# ? Sep 23, 2019 15:17

hobbesmaster: Jan 28, 2008

ZorajitZorajit posted:

Now the proud winner of 3.6 Emmy awards!

Not a great showing, but not terrible either!

# ? Sep 23, 2019 15:24

Shageletic: Jul 25, 2007

CainFortea posted:

There was no series of stopable events to create that disaster tho. It was literally just "we'll save money by doing this wrong gently caress everyone" and that was it.

Sorry to resurrect this post, but check out the recent Frontline about Flint. You had multiple preventable vectors, slamming into each other due to the arrogance/cruelty of local republican politicians. I'm not going to do it justice, but the plan to switch to another water source was based on "cost savings", but the water source not being there, the pipes not being adequeate for the job, the loving water treatment plant being a shell and the foreman desperately trying to warn people about it, the extensive cover up going all the way to Obama miming the act of drinking Flint water, its incredible.

# ? Sep 23, 2019 15:34

twistedmentat: Nov 21, 2003; Its my party
and I'll die if
I want to

Sand Monster posted:

But not Jared Harris.

He should have won for this or The Terror.

# ? Sep 23, 2019 21:16

Gonz: Dec 22, 2009; "Jesus, did I say that? Or just think it? Was I talking? Did they hear me?"

Trailer for the game my brother worked on. It's basically S.T.A.L.K.E.R. meets Metro; he modeled and textured the reactor and control rooms. He's got a credit in the game and was promised download codes when it's released, so i'll see how many he can get and share them on here with you riff raff. He's so excited for it and i'm proud as hell of him; it's his first game credit. He's got another one coming next year in which he's the project's art director.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Vh7287RbD4

# ? Oct 11, 2019 22:42

Squinty: Aug 12, 2007

I'm super late to the party so I apologize if this has already been discussed, but why does this show keep implying that the firefighter husband guy is radioactive and dangerous? He got radiation sickness, he didn't turn into Radioactive Man. The plastic curtains and masks and gloves and everything else are there to protect the patient from infection, not to protect other people from getting irradiated. And I'm not a doctor, but the line about the unborn baby absorbing all the radiation instead of its mother sounds like a load of BS. I'm pretty sure babies don't work like that. The whole sideplot seems bizarrely out of place in a series about the dangers and consequences of disinformation.

# ? Nov 5, 2019 21:12

God Hole: Mar 2, 2016

Squinty posted:

I'm super late to the party so I apologize if this has already been discussed, but why does this show keep implying that the firefighter husband guy is radioactive and dangerous? He got radiation sickness, he didn't turn into Radioactive Man. The plastic curtains and masks and gloves and everything else are there to protect the patient from infection, not to protect other people from getting irradiated. And I'm not a doctor, but the line about the unborn baby absorbing all the radiation instead of its mother sounds like a load of BS. I'm pretty sure babies don't work like that. The whole sideplot seems bizarrely out of place in a series about the dangers and consequences of disinformation.

not sure if this is a joke post but he was definitely radioactive, man. that pile of firefighting equipment that was piled up in that one room in the hospital is supposedly still dangerously radioactive to this day, and you'll notice that firefighter equipment is not in fact reactor fuel.

# ? Nov 5, 2019 21:29

Squinty: Aug 12, 2007

God Hole posted:

not sure if this is a joke post but he was definitely radioactive, man. that pile of firefighting equipment that was piled up in that one room in the hospital is supposedly still dangerously radioactive to this day, and you'll notice that firefighter equipment is not in fact reactor fuel.

That's what decontamination procedures are for? The dust and particles on the clothing contain radioactive material, but the guy himself is not radioactive and he's not going to irradiate his wife by touching her. Radiation is not an infection that spreads from person to person.

# ? Nov 5, 2019 21:38

Dalael: Oct 14, 2014; Hello. Yep, I still think Atlantis is Bolivia, yep, I'm still a giant idiot, yep, I'm still a huge racist. Some things never change!

Squinty posted:

That's what decontamination procedures are for? The dust and particles on the clothing contain radioactive material, but the guy himself is not radioactive and he's not going to irradiate his wife by touching her. Radiation is not an infection that spreads from person to person.

I wonder how much did doctors really know about radiation at the time tho. Maybe they just didn't know any better and were not taking chances?

# ? Nov 5, 2019 21:41

jisforjosh: Jun 6, 2006; "It's J is for...you know what? Fuck it, jizz it is"

Squinty posted:

That's what decontamination procedures are for? The dust and particles on the clothing contain radioactive material, but the guy himself is not radioactive and he's not going to irradiate his wife by touching her. Radiation is not an infection that spreads from person to person.

There are very specific types of radiation, especially those found inside reactors that can most assuredly make organic matter latently radioactive. At the dosages the firefighters were exposed to, they were definitely radioactive

# ? Nov 5, 2019 21:45

CainFortea: Oct 15, 2004

Squinty posted:

That's what decontamination procedures are for? The dust and particles on the clothing contain radioactive material, but the guy himself is not radioactive and he's not going to irradiate his wife by touching her. Radiation is not an infection that spreads from person to person.

The guy himself was radioactive. You're incorrect in your assumption.

His body was still radioactive when he died. He was buried in a zinc coffin with a concrete pad on top.

# ? Nov 5, 2019 21:46

Madurai: Jun 26, 2012

Squinty posted:

That's what decontamination procedures are for? The dust and particles on the clothing contain radioactive material, but the guy himself is not radioactive and he's not going to irradiate his wife by touching her. Radiation is not an infection that spreads from person to person.

If they've ingested enough contaminants, they'll be radioactive. The curtains were for anticontamination, sure, but don't think for a second that those dudes weren't still hot after the showers and scrubbing.

# ? Nov 5, 2019 21:46

Draven: May 6, 2005; friendship is magic

CainFortea posted:

The guy himself was radioactive. You're incorrect in your assumption.

His body was still radioactive when he died. He was buried in a zinc coffin with a concrete pad on top.

And if I remember correctly, the baby absorbed most of the radiation transferred and ended up dying shortly after childbirth. She too ended up buried like her father was.

# ? Nov 5, 2019 21:52

CainFortea: Oct 15, 2004

swordfish duelist posted:

And if I remember correctly, the baby absorbed most of the radiation transferred and ended up dying shortly after childbirth. She too ended up buried like her father was.

It's not like we have an indepth study on exactly what happened, but remember a lot of the radiation problems you get from particulate matter in the environment is thyroid cancer. As a lot of the problematic bits get stuck in that organ.

So it's conceivable that the growing fetus functioned in much the same way that the thyroid does in that context.

# ? Nov 5, 2019 21:55

Squinty: Aug 12, 2007

CainFortea posted:

The guy himself was radioactive. You're incorrect in your assumption.

His body was still radioactive when he died. He was buried in a zinc coffin with a concrete pad on top.

Did some googling, one of the doctors who actually treated patients on the ground disagrees. https://cancerletter.com/articles/20190524_3/

quote:

Another error was to portray the victims as being dangerously radioactive. Most radiation contamination was superficial and relatively easily managed by routine procedures. This is entirely different than the Goiania accident, where the victims ate 137-cesium and we had to isolate them from most medical personnel.

Lastly, there is the dangerous representation that, because one of the victims was radioactive, his pregnant wife endangered her unborn child by entering his hospital room. First, as discussed, none of the victims were radioactive�their exposures were almost exclusively external, not internal. More importantly, risk to a fetus from an exposure like this is infinitesimally small.

# ? Nov 5, 2019 21:59

hobbesmaster: Jan 28, 2008

Squinty posted:

Did some googling, one of the doctors who actually treated patients on the ground disagrees. https://cancerletter.com/articles/20190524_3/

The portray of those events are a direct adaptation of her interview in midnight at Chernobyl. Even if they were wrong about the danger and the cause of death of her baby that�s what she was told.

# ? Nov 5, 2019 22:05

spankmeister: Jun 15, 2008

CainFortea posted:

It's not like we have an indepth study on exactly what happened, but remember a lot of the radiation problems you get from particulate matter in the environment is thyroid cancer. As a lot of the problematic bits get stuck in that organ.

So it's conceivable that the growing fetus functioned in much the same way that the thyroid does in that context.

This is specifically because the thyroid absorbs iodine, and iodine-131 (iirc) is one of the decay products inside a reactor. So the thyroid sucks up and concentrates that specific isotope, eventually causing cancer.

I'm no medical doctor or nothing but I don't think babies work as iodine sponges (let alone there being radioactive isotopes floating around in the air at the hospital where the first responders were being treated).

# ? Nov 5, 2019 22:12

CainFortea: Oct 15, 2004

spankmeister posted:

I'm no medical doctor or nothing but I don't think babies work as iodine sponges (let alone there being radioactive isotopes floating around in the air at the hospital where the first responders were being treated).

Man, glad we got that figured out. It's a relief to know that the ONLY dangerous isotope is iodine.

Phew.

Besides, it wouldn't be a problem because according to that other poster up there none of them inhale so no big deal

# ? Nov 5, 2019 22:20

spankmeister: Jun 15, 2008

CainFortea posted:

Man, glad we got that figured out. It's a relief to know that the ONLY dangerous isotope is iodine.

Phew.

Besides, it wouldn't be a problem because according to that other poster up there none of them inhale so no big deal

It's a good thing we have a radiation and baby expert such as yourself in the thread, to ask the important questions like: "Maybe babies are like sponges idk". Truly a question for the ages.

# ? Nov 5, 2019 22:41

Comrade Koba: Jul 2, 2007

hobbesmaster posted:

The portray of those events are a direct adaptation of her interview in midnight at Chernobyl. Even if they were wrong about the danger and the cause of death of her baby that�s what she was told.

You'd think this was obvious, but I've lost count on the number of goons who've come rushing to this thread huffing and puffing about the scientific inaccuracies they found found in a fictional dramatization, followed by a "Nuh-uh, THIS is how radiation works!" slapfight for another 2-3 pages.

# ? Nov 5, 2019 23:09

Dalael: Oct 14, 2014; Hello. Yep, I still think Atlantis is Bolivia, yep, I'm still a giant idiot, yep, I'm still a huge racist. Some things never change!

Comrade Koba posted:

You'd think this was obvious, but I've lost count on the number of goons who've come rushing to this thread huffing and puffing about the scientific inaccuracies they found found in a fictional dramatization, followed by a "Nuh-uh, THIS is how radiation works!" slapfight for another 2-3 pages.

New thread title?

# ? Nov 5, 2019 23:11

Warmachine: Jan 30, 2012

At this point I'm convinced the thread is radioactive and needs to be isolated in a zinc casket with a concrete slab on top.

# ? Nov 6, 2019 00:57

hobbesmaster: Jan 28, 2008

Comrade Koba posted:

You'd think this was obvious, but I've lost count on the number of goons who've come rushing to this thread huffing and puffing about the scientific inaccuracies they found found in a fictional dramatization, followed by a "Nuh-uh, THIS is how radiation works!" slapfight for another 2-3 pages.

An interesting separate question is if the makers of the series should�ve �corrected the record� with what was later known to be correct. They faithfully portrayed what interviews say everyone thought at the time. This makes it a faithful* reconstruction of events but there certainly was a lot of fear and worst case planning that was just plain wrong.

*well, prior quibbles about having the entire soviet scientific community merged into one character

# ? Nov 6, 2019 03:54

Squinty: Aug 12, 2007

Comrade Koba posted:

You'd think this was obvious, but I've lost count on the number of goons who've come rushing to this thread huffing and puffing about the scientific inaccuracies they found found in a fictional dramatization, followed by a "Nuh-uh, THIS is how radiation works!" slapfight for another 2-3 pages.

Sorry, I was inspired by a mini-series I just saw that was all about the dangers of spreading misinformation.

# ? Nov 6, 2019 04:47

ThisIsJohnWayne: Feb 23, 2007; Ooo! Look at me! NO DON'T LOOK AT ME!

The Dunning-Kreuger in the thread reads 3.6/h, as can be expected. The original guy is entirely right, the firefighters had in fact not become radioactive. I'm far far from being an expert, but I do know that much about neutron flux (its explained earlier in this thread even, by the actual experts).

Humans coincidentally die long before our atoms become radio activated to such a degree that we'd hurt others. No one will walk around radioactive from exposure to an exposed nuclear core nor from a nuclear explosion, you will already be very dead/vaporized by then. Calm down.

As for the hospital set up; your tools for trying to keep something in will look the same as when you try to keep something out in a hospital. It's not like they could have made anything different if it was Ebola instead a non-contagious immunodeficiency decease? Hospitals have gently caress-all for options in extreme cases - and if you can't actually help, at least you can set up isolation. Looks like you're doing something that way, right?
Which arguably was important and common in the USSR.

# ? Nov 6, 2019 05:06

theflyingexecutive: Apr 22, 2007

People who get nuclear medicine procedures done with micrograms of material are latently radioactive for a period of time, (but for isotopes with half lives of minutes, not years) and have to be isolated from contact with techs/people. While the firefighters themselves weren�t radioactive, it�s almost certain they ingested/inhaled/touched enough radioactive debris that their bodies were functionally radioactive.

# ? Nov 6, 2019 05:16

lobotomy molo: May 7, 2007; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Yeah, inhaling a bunch of fine radioactive dust means you're gonna be emitting radiation until that dust isn't radioactive.

Which could be a while.

# ? Nov 6, 2019 06:45

kaesarsosei: Nov 7, 2012

Fly Molo posted:

Yeah, inhaling a bunch of fine radioactive dust means you're gonna be emitting radiation until that dust isn't radioactive.

Which could be a while.

The very simple explanation that makes most of the previous page redundant.

# ? Nov 6, 2019 12:31

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# ? Apr 18, 2024 07:02

bring back old gbs: Feb 28, 2007; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

Fly Molo posted:

Yeah, inhaling a bunch of fine radioactive dust means you're gonna be emitting radiation until that dust isn't radioactive.

Which could be a while.

actually this is what decontamination showers are for, too bad the fancy bigwigs at hbo didnt hire me to tell them: meat cant have radiation in it once its taken away from the radiation source

# ? Nov 6, 2019 12:58

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > Chernobyl - "The network is in full meltdown!" "Nyet, we still have spinoffs..."

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