So you thing you're hard core?

[Viva]

Originally posted by snowsprite
Chernobyl-fried rat?

Sprite

Nope, never been to Russia.

[LCC]

Damn.

Impressive. Scary. Extrememly interesting.

[Dexter Rutecki]

She almost always goes by herself, right? So what if she crashes or her bike breaks down? (Rhetorical--I know she's fucked, just pointing out it's pretty crazy.)

[Mr. Altagirl]

Probably the most interesting thread I have ever read.

When I lived in /Southern Italy, I used to get around quite a bit. There was one small village that was really spooky and had gone through some kind of disaster. After snooping around for a few years, I found out the place had been wiped out by a radiation cloud from the "accident". I later learned there were places like this all over Europe. In this particular village, the neighboring villages got so freaked out when the livestock started really having some issues (major cancer, birth defects), they slaughtered everything. It was realy amazing how far reaching this event really was.

[Sublime]

I just found out that one of the reactors is just encased in a thick concrete covering. The bad news is that it is starting to crack and fall apart.

When it finally cracks and breaks down the place is going to start glowing again.

Will it be Chernobyl all over again with the same effects?

[horizon]

The article is haunting (I actually dreamed of it the night after reading it).

I lived in Romania at the time. I'm pretty sure that Western Europe and the US knew about the accident before we did (spy satellites?) and that the USSR only confirmed it officially a couple of days after it happened. Anyway, we hadn't been informed that anything happened (there were never ANY bad things happening in Communist countries. All the news of earthquakes, storms, flooding, train accidents, to say nothing about strikes etc) were from capitalist countries). So I was out with my dad playing tennis on the day when the radioactive cloud passed over us . It rained, too. I'm surprised my hair's still on. (by the way, that article fails to mention Romania. Perhaps we were not in the path of the main clouds).

We had a very small experimental nuclear reactor in our city. A neighbour who worked there came over with a Geiger counter (dosimeter) and it was "fun" to see how our hair gave one of the highest readings. Water was mostly ok, dust on the shoes was a high reading as well. Didn't eat any vegetables but canned ones for a while.

That spring there were a certain species of insects ("May beetles") which couldn't open their wings to fly (our biology teacher told us).

Those of us who lived in those countries realise that a lot more people died or became really sick because of Communist cover-up reflexes than would have otherwise.

[Tippster]

Originally posted by Sublime
I just found out that one of the reactors is just encased in a thick concrete covering. The bad news is that it is starting to crack and fall apart.

When it finally cracks and breaks down the place is going to start glowing again.

Will it be Chernobyl all over again with the same effects?

Well, seeing they didn't move the damn thing to Iowa, I'd say it's going to be Chernobyl for at tleast the foreseeable future...

And Horizon, that's pretty fucked up! I'm glad you're OK.

[Mtn Man]

Definitely the most intriguing read that I've hit in a while. This one grasped me through the whole thing. Props to tonghands for finding this one. I sent this to others as well. Those pics at the end really hit hard.

B)

[Blurred Elevens]

Originally posted by Viva
Not enough credit goes to the people who knowingly gave their lives to contain the damage. Guys went in there to build the structural support of the scacophagus and pour the concrete knowing that they would die in weeks or months as a result. I don't remember how many hundreds were involved.

Yeah, they built the support naked....

[Free Range Lobster]

The crew working on the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Oblivion Lost (or Shadow of Chernobyl) also went in there and photographed it...


http://www.stalker-game.com/

[IBISguru]

Originally posted by Viva
Not enough credit goes to the people who knowingly gave their lives to contain the damage. Guys went in there to build the structural support of the scacophagus and pour the concrete knowing that they would die in weeks or months as a result. I don't remember how many hundreds were involved.

I am pretty certain those boys didn't have much say in the matter. Nor did they have any idea of the repercussions.