Forum Index > Full Moon Saloon > Building Chernobyl's Mega Tomb
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Bootpathguy
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PostThu Apr 27, 2017 6:40 pm 
Fantastic! Must watch Wow! A contest for the best design. The planning The process The engineering Understanding gamma rays Lots of other good stuff http://www.pbs.org/video/3000273548/

Experience is what'cha get, when you get what'cha don't want
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zephyr
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PostThu Apr 27, 2017 9:44 pm 
Bootpathguy wrote:
Wow!
...is right. Wow. This was intense at times to watch. Lots to think about. Sometimes you were on the edge of your seat toward the end. The Chernobyl Disaster took place in northern Ukraine 31 years ago. As BPG stated ... the Ukrainian government held a contest for designs to cover the containment structure that is currently covering the old reactor. A French construction firm won the contract and designed the largest structure ever moved on land. It was too dangerous with radioactive waste to build directly onsite. They had to build to the side and slide the new cover in place. The video has superb animation effects to demonstrate this process. The design is a monumental arch of steel that will not only cover the reactor and covering structure but will also house a machine within that dismantles the reactor over time--decades. The steel arch was jacked up while being built. They used 40 jacks--each one powerful enough to lift 2 and a half fully loaded jumbo jets. The roofers who fastened the steel plates in place were trained rope access technicians working 30 stories above the ground. The radioactive waste and fuel rods will remain dangerous for 20,000 years. Part of this process will be to build a storage facility for when they start dismantling the current structure and reactor. This too will be problematical down the road. It will take decades to complete this project. They had to design the steel arch to be fully enclosed, sealed off and equipped with climate control technology to protect the steel from rusting and eventually collapsing. It's an ambitious task to not only cover the waste, but to build a technology structure to remove the highly radioactive material. The whole time they were building the steel arch and cover, they were racing against time and the elements. The old structure (the Sarcophagus) was starting to collapse. Every challenge that came up was handled well it appears. Quite a testimony to the brilliance and skill of the crew. This project took 18 years of planning, 7 years of construction and the work of over 10,000 men and women from 30 countries. Very inspiring. ~z

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CC
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PostThu Apr 27, 2017 10:51 pm 
I was going to watch half today and the rest tomorrow, but I couldn't stop. Awesome engineering.

First your legs go, then you lose your reflexes, then you lose your friends. Willy Pep
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Kascadia
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PostFri Apr 28, 2017 3:08 pm 
In the same neighborhood. . . Radioactive Wolves is very good. The scenery is downright post apocalyptic (as indeed it is) along with a very interesting story. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/radioactive-wolves-full-episode/7190/

It is as though I had read a divine text, written into the world itself, not with letters but rather with essential objects, saying: Man, stretch thy reason hither, so thou mayest comprehend these things. Johannes Kepler
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kbatku
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PostSat Apr 29, 2017 1:05 pm 
The story of the original explosion and subsequent heroics would make a spectacular action movie - drama. I wonder why Hollywood hasn't made that movie yet?

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zephyr
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PostSat Apr 29, 2017 5:15 pm 
CC wrote:
Awesome engineering.
I kept thinking the same thing over and over during the movie. Not only the design and execution, but the project management to pull this off. So many challenges and the extreme danger factor to contend with. ~z

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wickerman323
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PostThu May 04, 2017 10:54 pm 
I saw this documentary the other night. I remember hearing about the dome a couple years ago when I went down a Chernobyl rabbit hole and seemed to watch everything I could about the disaster. At the time it seemed like it would take forever. I found it funny as they were sliding the dome that they showed, a couple times, someone spraying essentially a can of Pam cooking spray on the teflon sliding pads. Hopefully they didn't do that too much. Hopefully they got a good gross discount from Costco or something.

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Randito
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PostFri May 05, 2017 11:04 am 
My favorite bit of the operation was swinging down one of the "cat doors" at a certain point. The engineering team really had to think this one through step by step. I'm sure they modelled it extensively. The other aspect that I found interesting is the international aspect of the funding -- it is certainly in Germany's, France's and other European countries self interest that the mess be contained within the site -- good to see some enlightened countries make a pro-active investment in environmental safety. I don't know how long the new dome will last -- I didn't catch an estimate -- maybe a century ? But that's why the robotic interior crane was an important aspect of the design -- so that the original sarcophagus and the remains of reactor itself can be dismantled and entombed at a nearby site in a manner that will last many centuries. There is no such thing as "nuclear waste disposal", only "nuclear waste management" many future generations of people will need to watch over Chernobyl, Hanford, Fukushima and numberous other sites.

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Bernardo
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PostFri May 05, 2017 7:23 pm 
The dome has a design life of 100 years and cost $1.6 billion. The United States contributed over $375 million to the project and is the largest shareholder in the EBRD, the project's financial coordinator. On April 28, 1986 I went for a nice hike with a platoon of hiking buddies in Germany who all showed up wearing the exact same outfit! It was a beautiful spring day as we hiked cross country across high meadows and crossed the Hessen-Bavarian border not far from the iron curtain. That night the news broke that Chernobyl had happened. Add unexpected fallout to the list of hiking risks.

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Jumble Jowls
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PostFri May 05, 2017 8:33 pm 
On this same general topic, I suggest reading Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich. It's about how the disaster affected the people who lived there at the time, in their own words. Very moving.

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Bootpathguy
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PostTue Jul 17, 2018 9:28 pm 
Kascadia wrote:
In the same neighborhood. . . Radioactive Wolves is very good. The scenery is downright post apocalyptic (as indeed it is) along with a very interesting story. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/radioactive-wolves-full-episode/7190/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/07/chernobyl-wolves-radiation-mutation-animals/

Experience is what'cha get, when you get what'cha don't want
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Bernardo
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PostWed Jul 18, 2018 8:25 pm 
Interesting. As the article points out, most mutations would be harmful and would not likely spread or persist in populations.

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Malachai Constant
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Malachai Constant
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PostWed Jul 18, 2018 8:28 pm 
What I had always heard is that a mutation is the equivalent to adding a random bolt to an operating engine, odds are it will be bad.

"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
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dr.rock
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PostThu Jul 19, 2018 1:36 pm 
This was super interesting.....along the lines of potential nuclear mishaps. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/command-and-control/

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