Chernobyl photographic timeline

[endfire79]

Photographic timeline of the Chernobyl disaster, before and after.  The subject has always fascinated me ever since childhood.

  http://imgur.com/a/TwY6q   

[Nefaro]

Wow.  Lots of photos.  Nice find!



Some interesting ones too.  Like this one showing men shovelling debris on the highly radioactive roof, in lead-panelled suits, complete with radiation damage at the bottom of the film.
:o

[endfire79]

Those guys must not have been very lucky in the end.  There's also a recounting of how 3 had to dive into the radioactive pool to shut off valves manually at one point.

The amount of radiation released was and still is mind boggling.  A chart posted on the site compares the amount of radiation one can absorb from various sources.

[LongBlade]

Yeah, I had heard several of the Chernobyl workers sacrificed themselves to shut things down there. A heroic sacrifice.

[JudgeDredd]

Cool find. I love things like this.

Made me want to go back and play Call of Duty:Modern Warfare! Especially seeing the swimming pool

[Staggerwing]

Yeah, I had heard several of the Chernobyl workers sacrificed themselves to shut things down there. A heroic sacrifice.

The Soviet Navy's nuclear submarine fleet has also produced a number of posthumous heros, mostly among the engineering crews.

[LongBlade]

Yeah, I had heard several of the Chernobyl workers sacrificed themselves to shut things down there. A heroic sacrifice.

The Soviet Navy's nuclear submarine fleet has also produced a number of posthumous heros, mostly among the engineering crews.

In fairness, just boarding a Sov/Russian sub seems to be heroic.

[Airborne Rifles]

In Soviet Russia, subs board you!

[Centurion40]

Photographic timeline of the Chernobyl disaster, before and after.  The subject has always fascinated me ever since childhood.

  http://imgur.com/a/TwY6q   

What a sickening nightmare.

[WallysWorld]

Thanks for posting, endfire79.

The pictures of the radiation burns suffered by the workers are just heart wrenching. True heroes!

[endfire79]

Photographic timeline of the Chernobyl disaster, before and after.  The subject has always fascinated me ever since childhood.

  http://imgur.com/a/TwY6q   

What a sickening nightmare.

Agreed, it was (and still is).  The superstructure built to contain the site is in the process of being replaced by one of the worlds biggest movable structures, built to contain the problem for another 100 years...   :o

[JudgeDredd]

And we get told it's overall the cheapest and (get this) cleanest form of energy....all in the hopes people don't mind more nuclear power plants to save a few pence on their energy bills. 

I'm not disputing it's the cleanest form of energy - from what I know about it - that is true. However if it goes wrong then it's by far NOT the cleanest form and it's certainly more dangerous. You can also tag onto that that whilst it might be the cleanest in the short term - there's a hell of a legacy for someone to deal with 

I feel I need to add something - I doubt I was thinking when I posted....my initial reaction was how cool it was seeing old photos and very direct photos. I love things like that - things that aren't in the public domain or not very well known about.

But it is indeed sickening.

The Russians were not - by a long way - the only nation to take Nuclear for granted and be very complacent about the safety of people. They may be more so now - but early on there were a lot of countries that didn't really give a crap about safety of others (or at least were guilty of complacency).

All the nuclear tests that went on around the world - how much radiation has been pumped into the atmosphere and circulating around for everyone to take in??

[GDS_Starfury]

on many levels its been a technology pushed.  on many more its been a technology marginalized.   I think that if the nuclear PR pushed in the 50s was followed through with we would already have fusion.  its simply the way to go.

[LongBlade]

I feel I need to add something - I doubt I was thinking when I posted....my initial reaction was how cool it was seeing old photos and very direct photos. I love things like that - things that aren't in the public domain or not very well known about.

But it is indeed sickening.

We knew what you meant.

I agree with you about when things go wrong - but there is also the aspect of simply handling spent material when things go right. The half life of spent fuel rods can be measured in multiples of human lifetimes. Well and good to put it away now, but what happens in 300 years if something goes wrong? Will there be anyone around who knows what's wrong, let alone how it might be fixed?

I dunno - nuclear energy has always seemed like something of a tiger by the tail. We *think* we have it managed, but I'm never really convinced.

[JudgeDredd]

...
I dunno - nuclear energy has always seemed like something of a tiger by the tail. We *think* we have it managed, but I'm never really convinced.

That's a great way to put it.