Chernobyl Episode 3 - Open Wide, O Earth - Nuclear Engineer Reacts
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- čas přidán 18. 06. 2024
- Part 3! The nature of the disaster is evolving. Now, the fuel is melting down and Legasov and crew will have to deal with it. Also, Khomyuk is at the hospital interviewing the operators.
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[1] periodictable.com/
[2] www.informationisbeautiful.ne...
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:15 Corrections from Episode 2
07:21 I-131 and Cs-137 Emissions Decreasing
10:24 Meltdown & Liquid Nitrogen
15:59 Will Legasov and Shcherbina Die?
18:31 Heat Exchanger
19:56 Lyudmila should be safe from Ignatenko.
21:30 12 meter deep tunnel
22:35 What is the plastic curtain for?
24:27 "Why didn't you press the AZ-5 button?"
26:02 The rigors of criticality safety
26:39 Are the firemens' bodies radioactive waste?
27:45 Outro
Hey, all! I've gotten several comments about it so I'm going to clarify. At 4:46, I talk about michaelr19d's comment with 15000 Roentgen. The accuracy of what he said was not in question, but, I did not do a good job explaining that. If the meter is maxed out then, yes, it is not giving an accurate measurement. I used this opportunity to explain the perception I have been getting from several other comments that a meter may be giving the correct exposure of 7000 Roentgen, for example, at some point X, but if you go to point Y, it's even higher. My whole point was to clarify, yes, that is how radiation works and no, that's not how you quantify the amount of radioactivity, i.e., radiation is not equal to radioactivity. Again, michaelr19d was not saying this, but seeing his comment just jogged my memory. I hope this alleviates any confusion!
Because I’m bored and want to tell you this the control room radiation meters only read up to 3.6 in reality radiation was much higher in the control room than usual the best known estimating about 10.1 yes it was shielded that’s why radiation levels weren’t about 50 or 60.2 The way to tell if there’s over 1000 radiation in your area tell people if you sense ozone ozone means there’s more than 1000 R the area
With regard to plastic barriers: I actually wonder whether it is for the VICTIMS safety. They are sporting significant skin injuries and the risk of infection is enormous.
I don't think back in 1986 when that happened they knew everything that we know now. The reason why I say that I can't imagine our government or our city leaders sending our fireman into a nuclear mess the way those men did. They had no protection at all.
@@grahamsalmons2027 that's a good view
For science's sake. Half lifes of radioactiv isotopes (they do not simply desappear)
is one thing, their decay chain is another.
The technician saying he did everything right gets me every single time.
I agree. Not knowing why something like this happened when you "followed the book" must have been a horrible feeling. The poor guy would never find out the cause either.
Akimov actually started losing pieces of his mouth as his body decomposed and you can hear it. A slight lisp as he talks... The level of detail is amazing
@@SC457A but in reality they didn‘t follow the book and this is one of the two reasons this happened…. the other one would be the flawed design of the emergency mechanism
@@meganoob12 in his mind he did. Crappy test, poorly ran with the circumstances at hand.
@@SC457A in his mind Hitler did nothing wrong either… that doesn‘t mean that‘s true.
These people clearly knew they weren‘t following the protocol and still continued.
They objectivly did something wrong and they knew it
The radiation damage to the firefighters wasn’t exaggerated, it was actually understated. Their skin was literally falling off of them while they were still alive. One man’s legs and waist skin “degloved”, and fell down like pants when he stood up while they were trying to change his hospital gown
Oof grizzly
Those poor nurses
The timing of it was exaggerated. It didn’t happen within a matter of hours it happened in a matter of weeks. Also, there’s an actual doctor who was the first on scene, at the hospital, after the explosion. She goes into detail about what happened to their skin.
But visually it was over exaggerated, watch actual footage of this degree of radio actove burn. It's not looking like this
@@darkangel10001000that poor dude.
The barrier isnt to protect her, its to protect him. The damage from radiation poisoning/burns leaves the patient extremely susceptible to all kinds of infection.
Because immune system is no longer working, so they can die from simple infection like people with HIV
Makes the fact that she went in all the more disgustingly tragic. He was cleaned (externally) of radiation. However, SHE brought more germs in, which was killing him faster thanks to what the radiation already did to his immune system.
@@Kamina.D.Fierce Dying faster is a mercy for someone with that amount of acute radiation exposure. At that point, all they are experiencing is nausea and excruciating pain in all parts of the body. Easily one of the worst possible ways to die.
@guywholikesgoodmusic "Faster" may or may not have been the right word. He was already doomed but her adding more bacterial exposure certainly made his condition more miserable and definitely worse for him. For the longest time I always believed that the 2 worst ways to die were burning to death and starvation. Both are tied. Now however, ever since I saw the Chernobyl series and did additional research into radiation and such, it's now a 3 way tie between burning to death, starvation, and radiation poisoning.
@@Kamina.D.Fiercedon’t forget crucifixion…
In the book memoir "Voices From Chernobyl", Lyudmilla gave her account of her Husband and Firefighters (to whom she acted as Nurse for, because the real Nurses were too scared to go near them) last two weeks before they died; the Show actually went softer than real life.
I don't know if the plastic rules in hospital is about the fact that their immune systems would be non-existent at this point too. So the plastic may be to prevent passing infection to the patients.
Quite sure they were certain the firefighters and the most radiated plantworkers would die, but I was thinking the same thing. High doses stops cell division in the body = no more leukocytes = immune system basically dies. I guess they did it for some drama in the series, spoiler, since there is no evidence as of yet that fetuses would "absorb" the radiation instead of the mother.
But children are highly susceptible to the harm of radiation, because they are growing rapidly.
I kind of think they again actually at that time believed it, that they were dangerous. There hadnt been and luckily havent been anything like this before or after. Also as far as I understand today it is much more used as a prodection for the radiation victim.
@@mrsmerily I doubt it, and by the time of this episode, experts would have been consulted. So I suspect it's as the OP says and more a concern about infection. Much the same principle as is used with thermal burn victims. But a terrible way to die, especially as they'd have been in the 'dead man walking' or 'ghost' phase. Person may feel fine for a some hours after exposure, but the damage is done, cells stop replicating and death is pretty much inevitable.
But another sad and curious thing. A lot of the safety assumptions were theoretical, and the nuclear industry tries hard to avoid exposure. But when it does happen, it puts the theory to the test. I remember when Chernobyl happened, and there was a lot of fear spread, often by the anti-nuclear lobby. Since then, there's been a lot more research, and in some ways it's been discovered the theory and fears were exagerated. I've visited Pripyat, and it's far from the barren, desolate wasteland of post-apocalyptic fiction. It is a rather haunting place though, seeing nature reclaiming what was once a populated town. So although in many ways, the nuclear industry is safer, it's still good that it operates with an abundance of caution.
@@brolohalflemming7042 It's a "hot spot" for biology and zoology research. Most of the fauna have short enough lifespans for them to be severly affected by the radiation contamination in the area. Obviously the animals in the top of the food chain are the ones that have the highest accumulated exposure to radiation.
@@secularnevrosis Yep. I had an interesting chat with a researcher studying grasses. Idea being they grow fast, absorb some of the particles, and can then be mown, incinerated leaving more manageable amounts of ash to dispose of. Seemed an interesting way to do organic decontamination. I also think I read a paper that studied wolves, and the effects seemed to be less than expected.
Another researcher was studying boars, which I guess would pick up contamination by their feeding habits.
Scariest part of the visit was being told about looters and scavengers, so real-life Stalker.. But with the added hazard of potentially selling contaminated stuff to unsuspecting people. It's not really the place to pick up a souvenir from.
Really like how even handed these videos are. Commenting on the inaccuracies but understanding that some of it is for artistic effect. Wish more commentary videos were this balanced
thank you! i appreciate film and enjoy the behind the scenes of it and the effort that goes in to it all
@@TheAtomicAgeCM Yea, a lot of people tend to take small inaccuracies as personal insults and attacks against their entire family. It's kinda weird.
@@IIBloodXLustII Mainly because Chernobyl was dramatic enough. They did not need to add more drama to make a good show. The only (suspected) reason they did that (knowingly?) is to discredit nuclear energy.
Yeah, I feel like it's important to point out the inaccuracies and make it clear that this is at the end of the day a piece of art based on the perception of the people that lived through the event, not a documentary that reflects all the ins and outs of the reality of it.
@@laurentmaquiet5631 thats not it at all and I don't know what gave You that idea. This mini series was actually loosely based on a book called Voices of Chernobyl, which reflect the way in which people at the time percieved the event. They didnt have all the exact information, Even the sciences behind it has evolved and now we know more about it than back then. The medical inaccuracies, for example, are intentional and exaggerated because thats how people viewed radiación sickness at the time, thats what people thought was real. The added drama is a way to reflect the terror and dread of the people living the event, not to discredit nuclear power.
Sky did a 30th anniversary doc on the accident were they interviewed some of the people who were there. One of which was one of the firemen who recovered from acute radiation sickness to tell his story. I think he was in a supervisory role because he said he stood in front of the reactor all night and witnesses the firemen who went up into the reactor to fight the fire come stumbling back down while vomiting. It appears a few hundred feet was the difference between certain death a survivability.
Definitely. Scary stuff.
Good ol' square cube law.
My wife is Ukrainian and this summer she booked me and one of my best friends a private tour of Chernobyl. She didn't go because in her words "Yeah, I saw more than enough of that when I was younger." It was one of the most fascinating and grim experiences of my life. Walking around with a dosimeter made the whole experience a lot more intense. That thing goes nuts when you go into the woods.
Now you might find some UXO...
@@56bturn Yay, radiation AND unexploded ordinance? And I thought Chernobyl tourism was dumb before....
@@PumpkinHoard But it's not, it's never wrong to learn.
@@23GreyFox Lol, you think exposing yourself to elevated levels of, partly unpredictable and potentially airborne and permanent radiation is a good idea?
@@PumpkinHoard Just walking around is not dangerous anymore. Even inside the red forest.
The burial scene was relatively accurate. Research the burial of the three victims of the SL-1 disaster in Idaho Falls at the NRTS (Nuclear Reactor Testing Station). The bodies were autopsied, debrided of as much radioactive materials as could possibly be removed and still the bodies were so radioactive they were buried in lead lined coffins inside of lead lined concrete vaults...
It's accurate in that they were buried this way, but it's not because their bodies pose some sort of risk. But all nuclear regulatory bodies have specific activity limits by which they classify material that has become artificially radioactive via the nuclear industry. If it's above a certain (quite trivial) amount then it's classed as low level waste and must be diluted before discarded into the environment, or handled as radioactive waste for special disposal if you cannot. There's a quite common but pretty much true factoid that if you brought a piece of granite into a nuclear facility you couldn't remove it anymore because of its natural radioactivity. Well, it's not really true because the "natural" part precludes it from being classed as low level waste, but it is true that any material that artificially becomes as radioactive as natural granite is suddenly classed low level waste and must go through special disposal. Including human bodies...
I believe that was because the three bodies died right above the reactor, with one of the control rods literally piercing one of the men. I think they were coated in the material from the reactor that made their bodies so radioactive. The autopsy of the three men was committed in a minute or so, with 10-15s for each man because the doctors couldn't allow themselves a bigger dosage than that. I think in the same principle their bodies could not be washed away of the radioactive waste because it would either take complex machinery or a very long exposure to their bodies. Additionally, in an interview of an actual Chernobyl nurse (which you can find on CZcams) she does mention that people who experience radiation sickness are not necessarily radioactive, and that it was a very common misconception at the time (and it is displayed in the show, as most medical staff are not given proper radiation training and that the Soviet union was taking all radiation books/sources out to hide them because of the incident). She mentions that the misconception went so far that children and people of pripyat, when arriving in Moscow, were denied living quarters by many citizens because they thought of them as "dirty" and "contaminated". Having said that, I do not know whether the firemen were actually carrying radioactive particles, which is incredibly likely, and whether it could ever leave their bloodstream. Just wanted to point out that the situation at the SL-1 disaster was slightly different case, but the same could be applicable here.
The interview you are referencing is by Dr Alla Shapiro. She was one of the medical first responders to the accident
m.czcams.com/video/m1GEPsSVpZY/video.html
Yes.
It's not accurate because it was a myth that they buried them like this. That different victims of a different nuclear incident were buried this way does not make it true in this case.
The guy behind plastic is there to keep contamination out. He's super susceptible to infection right now, on top of the internal contamination. I'm certain they documented everything to see what radiation does to the body, infection would only screw up the data
I often find it hard to watch when professionals try to put their field into layman’s terms, but you do it very well without coming off as demeaning. Good shit bro!
thanks so much! that means a lot
Definitely an amazing effort, I love that I found these videos but really wish I could have been in on them at time of release!
Yea he’s one of the best, just stumbled on this series of videos from watching scenes of the show because it’s one of my favorite. Glad I stumbled on it!
Having worked in the medical field for a few years, I'm interested to know if they were concerned about his immune system. The plastic might have been there to protect him from potential infection as well considering all that radiation would have reduced the effectiveness of the immune system.
yeah it is also for reference 25R is early blood changes and 200R is where you generally get infections a guy that was in the room with the "demon core" got around 200R and died from infection
At a certain point, doesnt matter. There was a guy in Japan got bombarded with 18 Sv. Even the donor white blood cells they infused him with had their DNA break down.
@@brandonclark435 he had 3 heart attacks then died from multi organ failure the most you could survive is probably 4-6 seivert with really good medical attention death is still highly likely
Immune system?
His entire immune system was busy killing irradiated cells while being irradiated itself.
@@urosmarjanovic663 he had no immune system
1,600R you immunw system is dead thats where the latency period comes from
The chemistry of "oxygen candles" which burn to PRODUCE oxygen is really interesting! Some legitimately burn with a flame, and they will ignite and burn without any oxygen. They're used on aircraft, in submarines and in space.
I would love to know more about the heat exchanger they built.
Very interesting indeed, never hear of this, but I assume the fire uses it's own "oxygen supply", and also releases some extra oxygen from the reaction into the environment.
@@oshixxxx Yeah. Generally they use highly oxygen rich salts which thermally decompose to release lots of oxygen, with iron powder and a starter to create the temperature at which it all kicks off. The iron powder reacts with some of the released oxygen to sustain the temperature. The mixture will burn until all of one of the components is exhausted, and there's nothing you can really do to extinguish it.
The US Navy used to use them in firefighting equipment and smoke hoods, as well. The OBA (Oxygen Breathing Apparatus) canisters contained a chlorate candle and potassium chlorate (IIRC). Once the candle started the reaction, the canister would generate O2 from the moisture and CO2 in the user's breath (or so we were told).
The EEBD (Emergency Egress Breathing Device) was a smoke hood with a chlorate candle to generate a few minutes worth of O2 to allow the user to escape from a smoke-filled space.
Check out Smarter Every Day, he did a video on nuclear submarines where he actually toured one, and they explained the oxygen candles there.
@Gerald H "The iron is ignited inside the cylinder by a small percussion cap" On US subs its a red phosphorous coated nail, so the reaction is chemical. It's the same chemical reaction as striking a match, as the striker strip is made of red phosphorous and the match head is a chlorate. I hear that Canadian and British subs use caps.
I like how you address your own mistakes or misunderstandings about things. Your insight is amazing and you balance the artistic expression and historical integrity. Your humbleness and honesty is appreciated. That’s the sign of an awesome scientist!
~ another scientist
that's how real scientists behave, to discuss and evaluate. compare that to our modern 'the science is settled' attitude to climate change/ global warming - this is why no-one takes them seriously. Science IS exploration and probabilities, not absolutes and likelihoods, not 'what I say, goes'.
I wish a certain national health advisor felt the same way.
@@sparkyroots369 To be completely fair, the science surrounding Climate Change doooess give a lot of support to its existence, negative impact, and potential human involvement. Of course, it’s important to have discussions and look at both sides. But at a certain point we can agree there IS a common consensus, correct? People used to think washing your hands regularly as a doctor was ridiculous, until the science proved that it’s actually super beneficial. People used to believe the Earth was flat, until science disproved this fact. It may take humanity a while, but through study and real research we’re able to reach agreement on what’s going on. (Which, is exactly what happened for Chernobyl, think of Dyaltov-he kept denying anything was going on. After it became apparent something WAS happening that was catastrophic and demanded action, do you think the universal consensus sided with him? Do you think he was looked at with a loving light in the history textbooks for refusing to look at the facts, costing a HUGE amount of people their lives?)
@@lunasmith9367 The moment someone said 'science is settled' anyone who actually knows science ran away. They totally suicided their own credibility, very foolish and you are quoting these clowns. So any argument made now is blown. I am old and we always had a word for climate change - WEATHER. Even in my lifetime there have been extreme weather events like UK 1976 which I remember very well and nobody went hysterical over it. Then there's the Dark Ages to consider, Grand Solar Minimum and more. Add to that the readily observable public political manipulation pattern, repeating its MO for war, pestilence, woke and economics over and over in the last decade and it becomes utterly unbelievable as well as tiresome gaslighting. When they take politics out of science and everywhere else it doesnt belong, they can start to regain public trust.
Yes I love how he handles it. Says what he thinks is correct and how he understands it but isn’t so egotistical to say he was wrong or didn’t think of something. How a real scientist should be
I'll admit, I was blown away by the depictions of radiation poisoning... I've always been morbidly curious about what happens to the human body after those sorts of doses, and from what I've read they did amazingly at portraying it. It reminded me of a book I read "A Slow Death: 83 Days of Radiation Sickness" that chronicles how Japanese Doctors tried to save the life of TEPCO plant worker Hisashi Ouchi. It's a collation of first-hand accounts of the doctors and nurses that tended to him for the 83 days, and the remedies they tried.
Really quite a morbid read, but from the perspective of learning about the effect of acute radiation poisoning on the human body it was definitely fascinating.
"A Slow Death" is one of the most horrifying things that I've ever read, honestly.
Ouchi was burned much worse than the Chernobyl cases.
Another pretty morbid read is what happened to Akimov. In the documentary you only hear him talking they never show him, only mention that his face was gone. Apparently at one point he tried to stand up and the skin from his legs literally fell off .
Kept repeating myself that they cared for Ouchi just for an experiment, to see what would work and what wouldn't, not to save his life, he wanted to die but they still had more to experiment on him. It was horrifying to read and to watch.
I just finished reading the book "voices of chernobyl" and the first story you read is ludmilla (excuse the bad spelling) herself talking about the last days of vassily.
I don't feel like they've overdone the effects the radiation had on him...
Exactly. Actually it was worse then what they showed. Akimov's face burned off due to radiation. Correct me if I'm wrong Ludmila also mentioned that one of the fire fighters wanted to stand up, her or a nurse wanted to pull up his sock and his skin just slid off like butter. It was pretty hectic all around. and it touched a lot of folks. My childhood homie was considered a 'Chernobyl child'. Born that year, although in Lithuania, still somehow he contracted bloodcancer and died in his late teens. RIP pana.
but that was a book, which like a tv show is often overdramatized
But, there's the question of how well she remembers the details, and how well she properly understood what was happening. I think a lot of the incorrect information in the HBO miniseries might be because of overreliance on the self reported experiences of the people who were there over the opinions of a scientific advisor. Especially where health is involved, self report can be really misleading. I suspect that attitudes towards radiation being treated as contagious displayed by medical personnel, along with some of the kind of ridiculous stuff about babies absorbing radiation of their mothers, came from reliance on people self reporting of what they believed in their uneducated assessment was happening to and around them. I've not read the book, but I've got an understanding of radioactive materials to some degree (I've worked with them not infrequently) and some of this stuff in the miniseries related to health effects, like I've mentioned above, simply don't make sense from a physics of radioactive materials perspective.
@@mind_onion I'm not an expert by any means however there is quite a lot evidence online of pictures of firefighters as well as other victims from the hospital nr.6. Also, I've dug deep in the web although hard to find there is evidence that it's not over exaggerated (although some things in this series are misleading, and over done and not realistic). Also, I've seen a mini documentary (I'm sure it's floating around somewhere of lighter stages) of effects that radation caused on peoples bodies and they look pretty similair to what is seen in the mini series. But yeah, anyways, they did die, in a pretty horrible way. I'm specifically speaking about the fire fighters here.
@@robertoprestigiacomo253 To certain extent somethings are, yes. But not this part tho. But to each it's own opinion.
Took me til 20 minutes in to realize he was wearing a Red Letter Media shirt. Great video and great merch representation dude!
thank you! love my hack frauds
I noticed instantly hahah. OH MY GODDDDDDDDD
Haha, yeah, both channels produce great material.
Plinkett will never finish Night Court now.
I CLAPPED! I CLAPPED WHEN I SAW THE SHIRT FOR THE HACK FRAUDS I RECOGNIZED
23:10 I'd think the plastic would be more so used to protect the man with no immune system left, less so protecting the lady from radioactivity. The show portrays as protecting her, but any sickness on her would lead to a even earlier death for him.
Fantastic video by the way! Can't wait for the next ep!
For i-131 and cs-137, the general did specify that it was a reduction in emission. I interpret that as there's less of it in the smoke, not less on the ground or in the reactor where the half life would matter more.
Edit: great breakdowns btw. I'm a RSO and radiation health SME for a rather large organization, and I've used the HBO series as a sort of case study for my new generation of "SMEs" (sorry, being purposefully generic here) where we break down what went right and wrong in each episode. The inaccuracies are relatively minor and forgivable, and serve as a teaching moment for communication to the average person.
Thank you for your respect towards the victims of this tragedy and your reminder to treat these forces seriously and responsibly
Was fascinated by this event + depiction, it's so intriguing to hear some of the science behind it, and your presentation is spot on. Thanks for this!
I think I recognize your t-shirt. Always good to see another RLM fan in the wild. :D I know I'm late to this party but just stumbled across this series and I'm loving it!
Awesome, those guys crack me up. I'm glad to hear it
Once again, many thanks for these videos and your level headed, expert commentary.
My Grandfather lived to 89 years old. He always used to say that “every day was a school day”. With that in mind, even now at 45 years old, I try to learn something new every day. Your videos help me to achieve that aim.
And with Russia threatening to use Nukes against Europe / Ukraine, (I’m in the UK 🇬🇧), such knowledge is more important than ever.
I’m looking forward to making my way through the rest of your insightful videos.
One thing you have to remember watching this is that many people, even professionals and hospital staff only had a rudimentary understanding of the dangers of radiation. I grew up in the 80s when the threat of nuclear war was still around, and remember Chernobyl happening. Even in the UK people were worried they could be in danger just by standing next to sheep that had become irradiated due to fall out causing build up of contamination. People genuinely think that "you'll glow in the dark" even to this day. A lot of the things that people did were through fear and half known or distorted facts and were either wrong or actuallydangerous, especially in the Soviet era where they simply weren't told of the dangers.
Id prefer to be hyperparanoid of radiation rather than dismissive. On one hand, you have what you described, and on the other hand you have turn of the 20th century treating radium water as a form of medication.
Yessssssss. Found you this morning. Didn't have to wait long for episode 3 :-) Subscribed after the first vid. Keep it up!
Looking forward to the remainder of the episode analysis. These are great to listen to as you are able to explain very complicated and technical things in a very easily to digest way.
Regarding things burning without contact to oxygen... Not sure if you'll consider these scenarios a solution to that question since they DO technically contain oxygen. However, they don't contain free, elemental, diatomic oxygen though. Smokeless gunpowder is one example. Gunpowder is self-contained solid fuel and solid oxidizer and it will burn in a vacuum. A Glock 17 will likely accompany the first astronaut mission commanders to Mars, I'd bet $5 on that. 😁 Another better example is magnesium ribbon burning in a pure CO2 atmosphere. The elemental magnesium energetically liberates the oxygen from the carbon, producing magnesium oxide and elemental carbon. We normally think of CO2 as a pretty inert molecule. It's used as a fire EXTINGUISHER and a MIG/TIG welding shield gas for god's sake! It's used as a soft drink propellant because it's pretty nonreactive and won't affect the drink's taste. But for magnesium, it's an excellent oxidizer even though the oxygen has to be ripped off that carbon first. 🤷🏻♂️ Try to extinguish a magnesium engine block or intake manifold with a CO2 fire extinguisher. It won't do diddly squat. 😁 Neither will water. You need a dry chemical extinguisher which will not react with the magnesium nor allow it to contact atmospheric oxygen. Magnesium burning in air also "burns" with nitrogen to make some magnesium nitride. Nitrogen isn't really thought of as an oxidizer, but it oxidizes the magnesium at extreme conditions. 🤷🏻♂️ You can find many videos of the magnesium ribbon burning between 2 chunks of dry ice, but I'm not sure if it'll burn the same way in a pure nitrogen atmosphere or if the nitride formation is a mere side reaction of a primary O2, CO2, or H2O oxidization reaction. 🤔
Of course, you can also "burn" things without oxygen itself by just substituting another halogen like chlorine or fluorine gas. Periodic Videos has a video demonstrating chlorine or fluorine gas being passed through steel wool at room temperature which causes it to immediately combust. Very cool.
Damn, thanks for this post. I was vaguely aware that there's a huge variation in how and where things can combust but your explanation really makes me appreciate the details and I'm definitely going to read more about the subject. Fascinating, thankyou :)
@@baronvonfaust rocket fuel burns in space - its a mix of a fuel and an oxidizer - the oxidizer provides the missing oxygen to allow it to burn. appollo 13, they weren't really worried that the LEM rocket would light the first time, its purely opening a valve and bang!
@@baronvonfaust You're welcome. :) Never stop learning!
Some what late to the conversation. But my first thought was Lithium-ion batteries. As i understand it, they burn depending on how much charge they have like nuclear fule, again, as i understand it.
Well, it's friday, i had a few beers and i'm amongst people who are curious. So, I just had a thought since you mentioned gun poweder and oxidizers. Converting a solid oxidizer in to oxygen requiers energy, right? Take a cartridge for example, what if you skip the oxidizer and fill it with pure oxygen? Granted, not very practlical. But would the energy of the same amount of fule(sulphur and charcole) be higher due to the lack of energy needed to convert potassium nitrate in to oxygen?
Life is a learning experience, once you stop learning you also stop living. Learning that you can be wrong, is one of the best life learning experiences one can have.
there are a few compounds out there that "oxidize" better than oxygen do. They do the same thing, but better. These things can burn sand, cant be smothered etc. Chlorine trifluoride for instance. Fun article on that. Its really scary stuff.
Love the shirt.
Also, really enjoying the breakdown of these episodes while explaining the science related to the scenes.
You're breaking new ground!!!!!!
I clapped! I clapped when I saw it!
Found your channel based on these videos. I absolutely love it! I also love the fact that you do "Corrections" for your previous videos in the next one. You're level of humility and professionalism, and overall intriguing insight on things is def why I crushed the hell out of the Subscribe button. Keep doing what you're doing man. I'm really enjoying learning more from you on this.
Great to have as some sort of commentary! I love this series and am highly interested in these types of disasters. Your insight, along with the other commenters, is excellent. Subscriber gained. Can't wait for the next segment!
Just found the channel last night and I love it. I have been interested nuclear power and weapons my whole life. Hearing an educated voice about the subject is so fascinating. Thanks all the work.
You should really look into the events that unfolded at Tōkai Nuclear Power Plant in Tōkai. A worker by the name of Hisashi Ouchi was directly in line of a severe does of radiation (there was a blue flash of Cherenkov Radiation). The guy started falling apart after a few weeks and was kept alive by Japanese hospitals for 83 agonizing days. The extent of deterioration his body went through is absolutely incredible.
Wow, thanks for my shoutout at 4:41 there, Charlie! And indeed for leaving my comment up from 4:07 on. Someone else did leave a suggestion that the scientist/s may have exaggerated the scale of the coming explosion in the basement to Gorbachev to get action taken because "further pollution" wouldn't be quite shocking enough. That one is plausible, I guess, given the lies the Soviet Union told itself internally, which is an abiding theme throughout the entire story. Looking forward to the results of your research on it!
I'm loving your vidos, binged most of your videos yesterday. It's nice hearing a professionals perspective without fluff.
These videos are very enjoyable. I personally could probably do with watching only Chernobyl episodes 1, 2, and 5 but I will definitely watch/listen to each recap video.
Great series. Love the lighting fast vcr repair shirt! Its been said that RLM is your favorite youtuber's favorite youtuber.
"There's no such thing as half an atom."
Unless the atom is hydrogen, half an atom is just a different whole atom. It might also be a dangerous atom, even if it is smaller.
Wow, my comment (reflecting Mazin's comment on the flashlights) got mentioned in the video! Thanks. I'm a former physics major who loved the series, and I'm very much enjoying your guided engineering perspective with respect to CHERNOBYL.
Thanks! Really enjoying your breakdown of the series.
I teach high school auto mechanics & when it comes to shop safety, I’m going to quote you , “ overkill won’t fail”. Keep up the good work!
"A glass of Vodka will land you in a hospital..."
*Me: stops drinking a boot of Vodka*
"Good health-tip!"
300 ml of vodka to go to hospital? That is not true. Thats a considerable amount of drunkiness for a person (except Russians and Finnish people, they'll just feel warm and fun :) )
@@mojeimja Yea... after drinking 300ml quickly, a 180lb male would be at about 0.13 to 0.15 bac. You still have 'sloppy drunk' at 0.16-0.19 before you risk going to the hospital at 0.20 bac.
but it was metaphorical vodka... so to speak. If he was picturing a 16oz glass then it would be 454ml. That would put you well past 0.20 and has a risk of killing you.
@@mojeimja Where I come from, a boot is 1.5l. So 1500ml
I see that RLM shirt. I love this series, and I love your commentary. Cheers
FINALLY!!!
Thanks man, your reviews are incredible, keep up the good work!
Just discovered your videos and am enjoying them a lot. This series was terrifying to watch. I read a lot on Chernobyl afterwards. Amazing and devastating and just insane.
Just to note that I live in Moscow, near the Mitino cemetary, where the firefighters were "buried". It is just north, a little bit to the northwest of Moscow. I visited a grave of a relative last year and also went to visit the memorial erected over the place they were buried. There is a sculpture of a mushroom cloud and a man in front of it with arms thrown to his sides as if crucified.
Wow, that must have been a somber sight. Cпасибо
“a glass of vodka over a week will do almost nothing, a glass of vodka right now will probably land you in the hospital” no brother, that is just a good thursday night😂
Really glad to see your channel taking off. Saw it with only 500 followers and couldn't understand how a gem like it was being missed.
Thanks so much, very nice of you to say :)
I'm legitimately addicted to these. Keep up the great work!!!
The other thing the plastic may prevent is increased risk of infection of the patient. Being their whole body is covered in burns, open wounds, coughing on them, or otherwise transmitting something is probably very much more likely and concerning. Their immunize system would probably already be completely scuffed so that may be why.
The megaton explosion from last episode and this one, I believe where the megaton estimate came from wasn't just the water in the holding tanks but was inclusive of the other reactors on-site. If I recall correctly the doomsday scenario was: The corium would melt into the basement and the water holding tanks, causing a large steam explosion causing the other three (3) reactors above them to explode which they then estimated to be the megaton explosion from all of that combined.
Which is a load of BS
Found this channel via YT recommendation. Started with Chernobyl Episode 1, and I've binge watched so far to this episode. Great analysis and insights for the layperson. Looking forward to watching the other episodes, and then having a browse through your channel. Thanks.
thank you! glad you're enjoying it, Richard.
absolutely love this series. Keep 'em coming!
Yes, things can burn without oxygen. Combustion typically refers to reactions with oxygen, but a strong oxidizer (e.g. ClF^3) will react exergonically (releasing heat) in the absence of oxygen. Somewhat more relevant here, you can also have non-chemical nuclear energy release, like that in the sun.
Good point that burning is oxidation but oxidation doesn't necessarily imply oxygen.
Ah, good old Chlorine Trifluoride. Liquid "HELL NO!" in a bottle...
Regarding the long-term mortality, acute radiation syndrome typically kills within weeks. Long-term cancer risks do ride with large acute doses, but it's not a big increase (everyone has about a 20-25% chance of dying from cancer, you pick up about 5% additional risk per Sievert of acute dose. Doses distributed over long periods of time have been shown to not have as much carcinogenic effect. Case in point: Ramsar, Iran has a background of up to 260 mSv/year, and cancer risks in Ramsar are no higher than comparable communities in Iran.
FYI it's not additional risk but relative risk, 1 Sv is 5% but relative to the "normal" 20%, so it means you go to 21%.
Really, really enjoying your insights! Excellent work!
I love the fact that you go through and address the comments and corrections from the previous video
A true scientist
Thanks so much! Yes, the corrections are important - I want it to be correct :) Glad to have you
Rick James: CHARLIE MURPHY! What’s up Darkness? That was...cold blooded 🎵
I will never not hear the name Charlie Murphy and hear Dave.
Love your t-shirt. It broke new ground!
oh my godddddddddd
Just noticed it as well, a fellow RLM fan.
Just found your channel via this series, I’ve watched all three videos concurrently and I can’t get enough. Unbiased and informative, definitely glad I found you. Excellent content, keep up the good work! CZcams is a good medium for entertainment, but there is also a lot of knowledge out there as well. This is a prime example of both. I know nothing about in depth nuclear physics, but I have what I would consider an above average knowledge of exposure/effects of radiation. I’ve written several papers on Chernobyl and Fukushima, and of course I’ve watched the Chernobyl series. To see someone with knowledge in the field go further in terms of explaining these things in an understandable fashion definitely means a lot!
Thank you so much!
@@TheAtomicAgeCM No problem man, I’ll pop by your twitch sometime soon and say what’s up. I dig the gaming channel as well.
@@jordoky6019 Excellent!
Just found this channel, and I'm loving it!
As a content creator I very rarely enjoy things away from my niche. Was up til 4am rewatching the series last night haha back here to catch up - they should cut you a commission 😂 they do it for BuzzFeed Unsolved, just saying haha also I’m sure you’re sick of this but unsolicited consideration/ recommendation: have you considered doing more popular, dramatic films but multiple in one video? I pictured the trend by insider and all those channels. It would surely pop in the algorithm and you’re actually the expert so it’s very doable for you. Eg: Dark Knight Rises, Planet of the Apes. A little less on the nose than the previous ones like your Crimson Tide video (excellently the way).The reach would be huge and you’d make intimidating concepts even more accessible.
Also, more in line with your previous content, I’ve always wished someone like you did this for Zero Days, the Stuxnet doc. It’s one of my favorite dramatic “non fiction”s but for some reason not many have heard of it.
Anyways, disregard all of this of course. Glad I stumbled here tho. Alright back to the program!
Thank you, means a lot! Yes, I too watch those Insider videos and enjoy them. I think I will definitely end up getting there at some point with montages of different media, there's only so much movies and shows directly about nuclear. I eventually want to make my own videos about accidents and such, too, although that will be monumentally more effort than this haha all in good time, though. Thanks for commenting!
The part that got me was the fact that they couldn't even give them injections of pain killers because their veins were breaking down.
I'd ask for them to compound the strongest opiates they had into a liquid and hose me down, let me drink it.
If that didn't work, I'd ask for a bullet.
gutted, stumbled across this series and thoroughly enjoyed a binge watch of all three.. and then realised i've caught you up and now i've gotta wait for the next one! Off to watch widowmaker. Great work, subscribed x
thank you!
Love that the reactions are more of a full diagnosis of what’s happening. Tells you the ins and outs and what is (probably) there for production value. Fits perfect for tha type of channel
thank you! really appreciate that
I see a RLM connoisseur. Or someone unfortunate enough to be employed at the last Wisconsin VCR repair service. :D
But if he actually went into work he could easily fix Mr. Plinketts VCR and the series would end.
So, I dont know this for a fact, but I believe that given such a huge dose of neutrons, in addition to ingested material, I think the actual material of the firefighters bodies itself could become radioactive material due to neutron capture, and that would be more consistent with the safety procedures in the show in this extreme case than the traditional focus on alpha/beta/gamma emissions in radiation safety.
Neutron ? Why would they even be exposed to neutrons ?
As you said, you don't this for a fact.
@Gerald H high neutron flux could lead to a lot of irradiated material if it was high enough, dunno if the conditions were right for it though
The first responders would not have been exposed to any sort of meaningful neutron radiation. At most the same spontaneous fission that happens in uranium by itself, which is the same as if being next to freshly mined and processed uranium. So, essentially nothing at all. The material inside the reactor is subject to high neutron flux while the reactor is in operation, but that's about it.
@Gerald H An intact core does indeed instantly lose criticality when the moderator is removed. A piece of fuel assembly from the core, no matter how big, would not be self-critical in any way. This kind of reactor absolutely relies on the presence of moderator in a specific reactor geometry to maintain criticality in the fuel assemblies. There is no such thing as a piece of core removed from a reactor remaining "critical" for a time.
@@zolikoff dunno how u could say that categorically, all kinds of radioactive elements emit neutrons, i cant say either way if neutron flux was a problem, im just saying it could have been, and it would explain some of the procedures that happened in real life and were depicted in the show
These reaction vids are awesome. Keep it up!
Thank you for the upload, I think episode 3 is probably the most difficult to watch knowing that this happened in the 1980's and during my lifetime too.
Was waiting for this video! 🙌🏻
i'm really enjoying these videos. hope you finish doing the whole miniseries.
Thank you! I will be finishing it :)
Finally! Thanks for the video man! Subbed 👌
I just found you channel and I'm loving the content. Keep up the good work!
Thank you! Awesome Half-Life references.
Love that RLM shirt ya got there! Lol seriously, this show is amazing and I’m loving your insight and breakdowns.
Thank you! And f*ck movies!
Finally I've been waiting to see you again!
been waiting for this for weeks!!.. lets go!!
Edit: to simplify a "heat exchanger" even more so is think about your cars radiator.. 2 fluids.. the coolant from your engine and the air flowing through it(yes air can be considered a fluid) transferring heat from one to another.. thats how id describe it
found you because of these vids, love the content man. cool to get a dumbed down description of this stuff lmao
Awesome knowledgeable commentary and a fan of RLM? Love this series and the info!
2:17 Look up "chlorine trifluoride" (CTF) - it's a powerful fluorinating agent, and can "burn" stuff that's already been burned with oxygen. Fluorine is an even stronger "oxidizer" than oxygen, so it'll displace oxygen from silica (silicon dioxide - sand is mostly silica) and form silicon tetrafluoride.
Back in the 1950's, they had a container of the stuff rupture at the chemical plant that made it - it literally burned its way through the concrete floor and a sizable amount of the gravel underneath before being completely consumed. Apparently eyewitnesses said, "The concrete was on fire!"
Search for "Sand won't save you this time" for a chemist's article about the stuff.
I dig your videos bro! Huge fan of the show and of your attention to detail! You rock Charlie!
Thanks so much! I appreciate that.
I loved this show and am reallllly basic in understanding all the science so thanks for explaining it the way I can understand it!!!
Just found your channel and found out your hometown was Baltimore from the Sum of All Fears video! Definitely subscribed for that alone. Your content is awesome and a great in depth perspective without taking away from the weight of the situations at hand. Keep up the awesome work.
Thank you! Bohs and Os! haha
I’m no expert but Chernobyl is my hyper-fixation and I’ve read many books and studied the effects of it for a long time now.
During the initial wave of radiated patients to the local hospitals, most doctors and nurses had no clue how to treat them. Hospital no.6 did have a radiation unit, but it primarily treated factory workers and miners. They were extremely understaffed for the waves of people trying to be treated there, and there was also many restrictions placed on them on who could be taught radiation medicine and what was able to be revealed to the public. They could not ask for help until the Soviet government allowed them to. And a lot of the knowledge they had about radiation poisoning at the time came from a biased and highly controversial study from the US conducted over the people who had survived the nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the mild radiation poisoning from the aforementioned workers and miners. They were not prepared for people like the firefighters who had received such an extreme dose. They did believe that their body was radioactive even after being cleaned, but now we know better, mostly because of the knowledge collected from the incident and aftermath.
There is a lot not mentioned in the HBO series about the patients. About the American doctor that was allowed into hospital 6 in order to advise him to say that everything was under control and the deaths and illnesses werent that many, because the west would take him more seriously than the USSR and their doctors. They also conducted a lot of human experiments, like testing bone marrow and blood transplant and trying out machines to guesstimate what dose of radiation they had received (which was very faulty and vastly underestimated the dose that more experienced doctors had estimated).
A lot of our current radiation poisoning knowledge and even some cancer treatments are based on what was learned because of Chernobyl.
Definitely a powerful and impactful episode from a powerful series. Really brought home the sad human and environmental effect of the disaster.
I love the way you explain such a complicated field in an easy to understand way. Would you ever consider making a video covering the 3 mile island accident? It definitely wasn't as tragic or dangerous as Chernobyl and other indicents, but it was very close to making my hometown and the surrounding areas unihabitable for a good while. It would be nice to see your analysis on the events that occured.
Thanks so much! It means a lot to me. Yes, I do plan on making my own video on Three Mile Island. Maybe my own video on Chernobyl eventually, too.
Awesome explanation from the nuclear scientific point of view. Can’t wait for part 4. The best way to explain a heat exchanger for most of the viewers would be a car’s radiator since almost everyone deals with one on a regular basis.
I've seen the show and I liked it , i guess that's why you showed up in my recommended, I did watch all of your video and man I have never felt soo dump 😶, I like how you broke down everything nice
I know you had mentioned it in the last video as well regarding the firefighters clothing in the basement of the hospital, specifically how they are still down there today and they’re still very radioactive even after all this time. If you haven’t seen Shiey’s videos on his travels into the exclusion zone then I highly suggest you check them out, he actually brings a dosimeter with him (albeit a consumer grade one) and talks about the instantaneous exposure to radiation vs exposure over time. So when I heard your vodka glass analogy that was really interesting to me.
Subbed...looking forward to the next episode! Well done!
I love these videos so much, more please!!!
Your content is GREAT! Good job.
thanks so much!
Very much looking forward to part 4.
HOLY CRAP, I just realized you are wearing a Lightning Fast VCR repair shirt! Love it!
Been waiting for this!
I was thinking back to your first video, where the two engineers are exposed to the burning core. In the turbine hall they would be exposed to radiative radiation but burning embers and particulates which were being ejected as smoke and debris from the fire. Most discussion I've seen on this issue have focused mostly on exposure based on the distance from the core.
LOVE your shirt. And your commentary!
25:13 "Very skeptical" is probably the best phrase for her feelings on the subject. Apparently she was unaware that the bottom of the control rods displaced water with graphite plugs, or that they weren't full-length plugs... when the graphite plugs displaced the water at the base of the core, that part of the core probably went prompt critical, or heated up the remaining water fast enough to start boiling it, creating prompt critical conditions via the positive void coefficient.
I really like this guy. He popped up in my feed and I like the vids!
He’s a nuke, or at least that’s what we call them in my industry. But you can actually see the size of the brain on this guy! So humble and composed while narrating. I dig it!
Love the videos. The RLM shirt made me a true fan.
Good job. A comment on the plastic shielding in the hospital--it makes more sense as keeping bacterial infections from happening, because their immune systems are gone by this point. Odd timing, am watching this after a CT scan. I find my periodic PET scans really interesting.... my cancer shows up best when they use gallium 68. It gets wheeled in encased in a lead box. Because of the short half life, the scans are hard to schedule. Fascinating!
New to the channel and loving it so far! I must say though, love your t-shirt on this video! XD