Nuclear Physicist Reacts - Chernobyl Episode 1 -
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- čas přidán 1. 10. 2022
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Nuclear Physicist Reacts - Chernobyl Episode 1 - 1:23:45
In this video, I react to Chernobyl Episode 1 - 1:23:45 from the perspective of a nuclear physicist. I go through the Chernobyl Episode 1 - 1:23:45 and look through what is accurate information on Chernobyl Episode 1 - 1:23:45 about nuclear power plants, radioactivity, and nuclear Physics and react to it.
Hope you like the video about Nuclear Physicist Reacts - Chernobyl Episode 1 - 1:23:45 - Věda a technologie
Thank you very much, finally someone explained to me why the nuclear workers all wear those white clothes.
Hehe always here to provide all the relevant info ☢️👩🏽🔬
@@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist Chernobyl - Official list of the 31 direct deaths
czcams.com/video/F2gnooj2xac/video.html&ab_channel=djmixsound
www.youtube.com/watch?
Anatoly Dyatlov’s story about the Chernobyl explosion was told by himself
The interview was taken in 1994, a year before his death. v=N8__v9EswN4&t=24s&ab_channel=VasilisaLukashevich
www.youtube.com/watch?
This unique video shows examination of the most dangerous places inside the Chernobyl sarcophagus: The sub-reactor room (room 305/2 and schema "OR"), probably room 304/3 and a bit inside the (almost empty) space of the reactor core/active zone.
These expeditions have been performed by scientists of the Kurchatov institute in 1988.
v=zCcQgpjqyBw&t=184s&ab_channel=MartinM
@@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist There is footage of the exposed core self fuelling the person who filmed it was both in a chopper fly-over and in the plant looking at the core...
@@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist Cherenkov light, the eerie blue glow often associated with nuclear reactors. Cherenkov light is emitted when charged particles travelling through a medium move faster than light-which has been slowed by the same medium. It is similar to the sonic boom that follows an aircraft that is moving faster than the speed of sound. Scientists can use Cherenkov light to detect neutrinos moving through giant tanks of water.
My guess it`s cause from the cold damp air and the spray from the water been spayed.....
@@kylereese4822 I don't think it's Cherenkov radiation, it's supposed to be the glow of ionized air, like the one created by lumps of cesium-137
One little correction: Ionizing radiation in high doses actually tastes like metal itself. Seems to activate some taste buds / ion channels. It's not the metal dust. You find this in several IAEA accident reports
It actually kind of tastes like licking a battery
Wikipedia says that Louis Slotin reported a "sour taste".
@@patnolen8072 Correct, from the demon core. Horrible death
It's just a technical distinction, it's essentially the same thing.
Iodine 131 as well. Iodine vapour has a metallic taste.
Fire crews tend to go with what they are used to. For instance, when a friend's shop was on fire he was telling them not to use water on the pile of burning magnesium. They ignored him. So an explosion. Then they were avoiding the argon tanks, which were basically big fire extinguishers.
Indeed that’s true. Thanks for the comment and support ☢️👩🏽🔬
It's important for structures that handle materials that require special fire responses to communicate with local FD. When possible, partnering with FD to have fire drills and train for emergency situations would be ideal.
The argon tanks can still explode. Not based on flammability but because the gas in them expand from the heat till the tank ruptures. I’ve seen argon tanks shoot 100s of yards in a fire. You’re right about not being explosive on its own. Any compressed gas tank can explode as the result of an increase in pressure
one would hope that fireman drill involves at least speaking of metal fires and radiation nowadays. just like it would do for electricity, gasses and flammable liquids. especially if someone tells about it, it should be a warning
as for cnpp reaponse, i wonder if firemen were just so innocent to response to plant? it's like responding to gas station, surely nothing can burn in it?
In a confined area, argon tanks are life extinguishers. If argon floods a space as they can aboard ship, and you're in there, you will die immediately.
I’ve never watched the series, but my god I was terrified for the guy when I saw him pick-up that chunk of graphite. All I could think was “oh shi-…you’re dead…”
The series is amazing and terrifying. It's not just that he is dead it's the gruesome nature of the death that awaits him and the others that really is the worst part.
tbh, at this stage, he was probably dead no matter if he picked the chunk up or not
Erh...we're all dead! But "Sooner or Later" ?
i was a kid when it happened, bunch of young soldiers were literaly sacrifised and many knew they will die... there was not enough equipement, later footages, after a year or so were elesed, you could see dogs and pets in houses mumified, coz everything had to be left behind, people who lived there were lied that they will be back home soon... a lot of lies came in soviet union and in my country, coz it also was communistis and they tried to cover it from public and when that was not possibel anymore, they made a show what to do, after the clouds passed us multiple times. air disance between ukraine and us is very short actually, only 2-3 countries between us were back then...
Yeah that's very much the sort of thing where if you pick it up then realise what it is you then go find a way to cut things short as painlessly as available, certainly just about anything you could find would be less then when the radiation damage presents itself.
This was a very interesting series. I work at a nuclear power plant and I was expecting this to be over the top, but was quite surprised how well done this series was done.
it still sux czcams.com/video/SsdLDFtbdrA/video.html
It’s time!!!! Chernobyl series! You asked, and I delivered! The cuts were due to copyright but let me know how you liked this reaction video and thanks for suggesting it guys! ☢️👩🏽🔬 Check out my support page in the description for the full uncut video!
I loved this video. How does this compare to the Fukushima accident?
@@Boodieman72 Even though they were both classified as the highest level 7 event in the INES scale, no one died from Fukushima radiation even though three of the reactors melted down at Fukushima. The main reason for this is Fukushima had containment vessels designed for such an eventuality, but Chernobyl did not.
You are on the right lines when it comes to Iodine, it's use in the body is for the production of hormones in the Thyroid. As such the Thyroid gland selectively absorbs Iodine in the body and will thus bioaccumulate Iodine that is absorbed by the body in what is a very small area significantly increasing the risk of complications in the event the Iodine isotopes are unstable. Providing excess doses of stable Iodine can saturate the Thyroid gland and prevent it from taking up any additional radioactive Iodine. This makes it a useful prophylactic treatment if administered before or soon after exposure to potentially radioactive Iodine as it can reduce the risk of developing Thyroid dysfunction or cancer later.
As much as I get it, you should understand back in those days you need to understand how stuff were kept in the soviet union and how crappy they were like the officials so Elina you will learn more about the USSR and that communists officials are a piece of crap
Blue light is Cherenkov Radiation.
One thing that is often forgotten is that the town was created solely for the power plant, and you had to be invited by the government to live there. So everything, including the fire department, would be there to support the power plant. It looks like the fire department was not properly trained in the dangers of radiation, but that fire department was chosen by the government to be the first responders to the power plant. The power plant does not have their own fire department in this situation.
Actually the plant did have it's own fire unit, the 2nd Paramilitary Fire Brigade. This is the group of firefighters first on the scene led by Lt Pravik. The 6th Paramilitary Fire Brigade was the Pripyat fire brigade that included Vasily Ignatenko.
It wasn't so much they weren't trained, but at the time they were being informed it was just a hydrogen explosion in a water tank. The fires they were extinguishing they thought were just regular fires including the roof that was all tar. Even when men began getting dizzy and collapsing the rest thought it was just from the fumes of the burning tar. No one at the time had any concept of the actual damage to the reactor, aside from the few that were evacuated after getting sick from being exposed to it, until actual photos and readings came back after daybreak.
Some firefighters after the event claimed they knew what was going on, and most experts dismiss it as conjecture for whatever reasons as others said they knew nothing about the actual destruction till long after cleanup began
@@panzerwolf494 Thanks for the additional information. What I probably should have said is that the whole purpose of the town was to service the power plant, and all fire brigades in the area would have been expected to participate in a major emergency. And even though they may have thought the fire was less severe that it really was, I am sure that some fire fighters were smart enough to figure out this was more than a roof fire once they arrived. There should still have been more training and preparedness. For example, fire brigades that are assigned to put out fires at nuclear power stations should have their own radiation detection equipment, and if they had, they would have figured out very quickly that this was more than a roof fire.
@@ScottMStolz Yeah, they did have their own radiation equipment, plant employees even made note of it to eventually try and borrow a dosimeter from the fire department. When they used it and it went off the scale the guys in charge (Dyatlov, Fomin, and Bryukhanov) dismissed it as a faulty meter because a RBMK can not explode, ever, according to all the info and training everyone has had. No one understood how bad it was, even the experts showing up to lead the investigation till pictures came in showing the burning "eye" in the debris of the reactor hall in the early morning after sunup
@@panzerwolf494 This whole episode happened because the government withheld information about the flaws in the reactor design. Without that information, everyone on scene was NOT properly trained.
part of a problem back then, not just in soviet union, but even in my country ( yugoslavia) was a regime, people who worked in certain fields and areas were there by nepotism ( mostly political) and often it happened that person in charge of something is not the right person to be in that position. training and education was also questionabel, regimes worked on a prinicipal of fear, if something serious happened people on the sight of scene tried to solve it by themseleves often and cover it all up, often from fear what will happen to them. tthaz just how certain regimes worked back then. and often if something happened first panic would set in, then people would try to solve it, then notify the supervisor ( who usualy were asleep and pissed off if waken up) etc etc... thaz just how it went back then. even in my country they tried to hide from public what happened, until it become impossibel, records often were altered, sealed, people would dissapier etc., so all of these workers were in panic of concquences and majority of their deicision was made coz of fear, they tried to do it on their own, when it failed they went one step further, until it came to point the goverment had to be infomerd.. and bunch of workers and people all that time were affraid what will happened to them and their families coz of the accidents they fail to prevent, good exampel how things worked back then in such regimes is a nuclear incidents, when one russian man prevent nuclear war, russians saw on their radars that bunch of nukes incoming, response and order was to send a contra attack, one man refused and said it is maybe a mistake, an errror in system, thanks to him catastrophe was prevent. his reward? being questioned, accued of disobeying orders etc etc etc, at the end they did praise him, he never recived any kind of reward or anything, coz the supervisors would have to be punished for not mainting the system.. he was relocated and sent to early retirement. thaz how things worked, so that poore people were thinking the same, when it is over they will be the one to blame, sent to sybir or who knows where, so the supervisors can stay clean.. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov ....
I read somewhere, that people saw that blue light above the reactor, after the accident, because of how much ionizing materials were in the sky above, due to the radioactivty. Great video btw, keep it up.
its called fluorescence because of the high amounts of radiation that interact with the air. It is not actually cherenkov radiation like some people would call it because you would not actually be able to see Cherenkov radiation in the air with a naked eye, in water you can!
I thought I saw this too. Eye witnesses said they saw a blue column of light over the power station and said it was actually beautiful to see.
Iirc I've read this statement too. It was bit tough to read some of the civilian statements that were like "it was incredibly beautiful looking", but many/most realized that something is severely wrong, but didn't left cause people just where there and nobody said anything about severity of events. Tragic..
To be fair the real photos of the reactor core before the sarcophagus taken in 1986 look fairly similar to the scene where they look down into the reactor burning in the show. In my opinion it's fairly accurate.
The shape an size I agree. I’m not sure about the gushing flames from it. But then again non of us has actually seen a reactor core burning or we wouldn’t be here. So all we can do is guesstimate how it would look like 👩🏽🔬☢️
@@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist yeah, the rolling flames is just some Hollywood magic but the structure and bent rods surrounding the core are pretty much perfect.
@@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist Maybe it was the graphite burning. You would need a heck of an air flow & extremely hot core graphite temperatures for that, wouldn't you? Graphite does not burn that easily.
@@wellesmorgado4797 Graphite doesn’t burn, it needs to be converted from a solid to a plasma too react with oxygen that depends on Particle size and heat, the core would be breaking down into dust then plasma it's the plasma that creates the flame effect. The flames in the video though are hydrocarbon.
The core was as hot as the surface of the sun at that point, so the graphite as well as the uranium which it is pyrophoric, were burning. the blue glow was reported by people who were interviewed. It is the cherenkov radiation.
CZcams's copyright system is fucking annoying sometimes. This is a circumstance where an expert in a very niche field is offering direct commentary on a video about that subject. Seems like a very clear cut example of Fair Use.
Thanks for the comment! Indeed took several tries to even be allowed to post this video by CZcams. Pls feel free to check out my support page when you can support the channel and get exclusive content like the full uncut version of this video. Like in the description. 👩🏽🔬☢️
CZcams only cares about Fair Use if you have followers in the millions and your leaving the platform would cost them money.
@@DocProctor Fair use/fair dealing's scope wildly varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The workable intersection is basically zero fair use except for obviously educational material.
@@erkinalp this is obviously educational
@@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist
🤩🤩🤩
You are more beautiful than the most lovely rose
And more sweet than honey
and more precious than gold
You are more precious than everything that exists in this world
😍😍😍
A beauty queen whom I never ever seen any one as beautiful as her before and may never ever in my whole entire life will see anyone as beautiful as her-meaning you-at all...
mashaAllah God perfected you.
😍😍 WoW!!!
you are a lovely butterfly and a beautiful rose
you are the diamond and the pure gold
you are the lovely moon in our nights
you are the radiant sun shining soo bright
loving you is sooo sweet its the most enjoyable thing
for you are the paradise for the heart and soul and mind
Everything about you is sooo unique and attracts the eyes and captivates the mind
God surely perfected you so glorified is he whom made you too beautiful and made you soo smart
🌷😘
There was a teacher whom didn't believe in the existence of God, one day he asked his students, do you see God?
the students then replied no we don't see God, so the teacher said if you don't see God it means there is no God.
then a smart student stood up and said to the other students hey guys can you see the teachers brain?
then the students answered no we don't see the teachers brain, the student then said the teacher then is crazy, he has no brain
:0)
😍😍
Wow!!,
you are too beautiful!!!
whomever see you should believe that God is true & real..
and whenever I see you I feel like Iam in a dream,
And when we wake up we will all realize that all this life was nothing but a dream and that only God is whats true and real..
The universe science says was not always there, it had a beginning point, the big bang, meaning it was begun/initiated in other words created, thus there should be a creator,
there must be a God.
Also, check this out, if you like, this is from Artificial intelligence, chat Gpt:
Prophecies in Major World Religious Books Referring to Prophet Mohammed:
1. The Bible - Deuteronomy 18:18-19, John 14:16, John 16:7-14, Isaiah 42:1-13
2. The Hindu Scriptures - Bhavishya Purana, Atharvaveda Book 20 Hymn 127-129
3. The Buddhist Scriptures - Cakkavatti-Sihanada Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya III:61, Digha Nikaya III:76-77
4. The Zoroastrian Scriptures - Zand-i Vohuman Yasht, Farvardin Yasht, Dadestan-i Denig
& Regarding the verses in the Quran asking to protect non-believers or polytheists, there are several that emphasize the importance of treating all people with respect and kindness, regardless of their religious beliefs.
One such verse is found in Surah Al-Mumtahanah (60:8), which states: "Allah does not forbid you from those who do not fight you because of religion and do not expel you from your homes - from being righteous toward them and acting justly toward them. Indeed, Allah loves those who act justly."
Also In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Merciful (If any of the polytheists seek protection from you, grant him protection)
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم(إن استجارك أحد من المشركين فأجره)
Another verse in Surah Al-Anfal (8:61) encourages Muslims to make peace with their enemies, even if they are non-believers or polytheists: "And if they incline to peace, then incline to it also and rely upon Allah. Indeed, it is He who is the Hearing, the Knowing."
& Regarding the verses in the Quran asking for justice and kindness, there are many such verses throughout the holy book. One example is found in Surah An-Nahl (16:90), which states: "Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded."
& In terms of prophecies about Prophet Mohammed in major world religions, there are a few examples that some scholars have pointed to. One such example is found in the Bible's Book of Deuteronomy (18:18), which states: "I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him." Some Muslims interpret this verse as a prophecy about Prophet Mohammed.
Because the Arabs are the brethren's of Israelites,
The Arabs are descendants from Ishmael or Ismail the brother of Isaac the father of Israelites, and because the verse didn't say from amongst them or from their descendants, it said from their brethren's.
Similarly, some scholars point to a passage in the Bhavishya Purana, an ancient Hindu text, as a prophecy about Prophet Mohammed. The passage describes a "holy man" who will come from Arabia and spread a new religion, and some argue that this refers to Mohammed and the spread of Islam..
Also search scientific miracles in the quran, harun yahya its nice,
One God for all of us
he created us all and can revive us again,
God initiated everything,
& he repeat/redo things too, & thats clear, we see many cycles of different things in life, also in summer for example the desert land becomes like empty and is filled with only sand, and when rain falls in abundance in spring or winter, after that small flowers & wild plants grow again, also, we see how humans and animals grow and how their body is formed from the elements which were in the sand which plants feed on which they eat, and after they die they go to the sand and their atoms/elements are taken by plants which humans & animals eat and their bodies grow from those atoms & elements found in the sand which came from previous humans & animals which died before, so God can bring us again after we die even if our atoms became in the sand he can make us from the same atoms we were made of or from other atoms if he want or make us be in a spirit form or like ghosts, any ways, everything in this life is recycled, learn if you want about the different cycles in life in nature, the food cycle or food chain, the water cycle, even the gas cycle that makes the air the oxygen &carbon dioxide &nitrogen cycles, even the energy is like recycled but only changes from form to another form.
Anyways,, God created this life but it's only a temporary sample/an example of a coming everlasting one
which could be either in heaven paradise or in hell.
If we try to be good humans in life, and try to obey God and his messengers-including the final messenger for all humanity the prophet Mohammed- and those whom rightly represent them, for example imam Ali & ahlulbayt the family/good descendants of the prophet mohammed, then we will all go to heaven/paradise, if not then we will go to hell fire and burn in it forever.
keep shining sunshine &spread the light.
this first episode was genuine nightmare fuel. one of those irrational fears i had as a kid, radiation.
Hi there, I’m a bit more familiar with RBMK’s and I would like to say something about the so called “reactor polygon on the panel” it is known as an MTK, and it can display several things related to live reactor data, for example it could display heat hotspots or pressure hotspots, while it could technically display control rod insertion and stuff like that, it wouldn’t be practical to do as the measurements for control rod insertion are those gauges, they’re known as “selsins”, each one displays the insertion of an individual control rod, those weird red LED’s represents neutron flux level, if they’re green it’s too low, off it’s perfect, and red means too high. Hope this helps!
I love this kind of "react" channels that really add to the video they are watching by adding a lot of context, explanations and expanding on the reality of the subject matter. I'm VERY happy to have found a channel that is going such high quality content on a subject that is so interesting and important as nuclear physics. Very much looking forward to seeing more of your content.
I was 2 when this accident happened. I lived in a small town close to the Soviet border back then. Supposedly the spring was beautiful in 1986 and my mother spent a lot of time outside with me and my new born sister. Anyway, in Poland citizens received a liquid with the safe isotope of iodine for thyroid, and they started to give it out on the next day after the accident. I don’t remember it though. When I was older I was only told that I didn’t like it and had been forced to drink it.
I was 3 years old and i remember they told us nothing about the incident except to avoid eating green vegetables for a few month. No iodine tablet or liquid was distributed. I lived next to Ukraine in Hungary.
12:50 My understanding is that the massive explosion destroyed the floor around the core lid, and this is what remains of it. -- In episode 5 there were two explosions, the first was a smaller one that blew the lid off the reactor, and the second one that caused the catastrophic damage.
13:00 that would probably mostly be the graphite block burning which basically is a huge clump of coal. If you've ever seen the fire in a forge, it looks quite similar.
I like that you were able to provide some cultural context to the video to kind of relate some of the conditions (operational & political) the operators were under while trying to respond to this accident. Looking forward to the next segment. Very relatable analysis!
Thanks for the great comment and support 👩🏽🔬☢️
Elina, I’m also a physicist and I want to profoundly thank you for doing this channel. Could you possibly do a video on passive reactors?
That is a very nice surprise. Great reaction :)
About firefighters, the fires were on roofs of reactor 3 and turbine hall (that contains turbines of all reactors) and it was crucial to put them out quickly because roof was made out of flammable material... So that tells a lot about design soviet nuclear reactor. Firefighters of course were mostly clueless about what they were dealing with.
That glow supposed to be Cherenkov radiation or ionized-air glow? Witnesses including power plant workers, claimed to had seen something like was shown in this episode, like a blue laser beam
The "inside of the core" look, for unqualified me at least, is amazing and probably close to reality as well. Those rods were sticking out of reactor lid that after explosion rested vertically above reactor, and it really looks similar to the photos and videos of that lid taken inside reactor building.
I love this series, it really makes me feel the scope of disaster, and the music is just brilliant. First episode feels like a horror movie. There are few misconceptions or some movie magic here and there but overall it just one of the best series made. The one sad thing for me was how they portray Diatlov, It's very far from reality.
Thanks for the great and detailed comment ☢️👩🏽🔬
Whole series is far from reality.
It makes me so sad to know , that the collective experience of everyone in the room that night was only 4 months, and most engineers were below the age of 45 , some were
younger than 30.
Some of them were barely 25 years old......almost fresh out of a college masters degree program.
8:50 about the fire department, Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant actually had its own fire department in case of emergencies such as this one, but they needed help so they called on the regular fire department as well.
wow. For having a smaller channel, the video editing is amazing and closer to the editing level of a 100,000 sub channel. I'm very impressed. Also love your insight. I'm currently a college student studying to become a nuclear engineer so it's like your content was made for students like myself :-)
Thank you so much for the great comment! I truly appreciate your support 👩🏽🔬☢️
I am on the same way. Second academic year!
Yay for young people like you! While solar and wind are getting geared up, I truly believe nuclear is the answer for the bridge between fossil and renewables.
I only wish the word nuclear didn’t scare people so much! I want the words ‘fossil fuels’ to be associated more with killer storms, yearlong wildfires, heat waves of 114 degrees, coastal cities underwater.
Keep up the good work
I haven't finish watching this reaction yet, but already subscribed. Great work, thank you for all the explanations and keep up with the awesome reactions! =)
YESS!!! I was waiting for this one so much, thx a lot for your reaction, it's super interesting!! One of my favorite tv show =D
Thank you! We’re on! Full episode on my ko-fi 👩🏽🔬☢️
The scene where the people who were told to take a look inside the reactor building is fairly well documented, because Juwtchenko, one of the four survived and died only recently, over thirty years after the accident. He was the one who stayed back to hold open the massive door with his shoulder and got severe radiation burns from that because of course the door was highly contaminated on the inside. They were ordered to look from above, level 35 meters because their superiors simply didn't believe the reactor was gone. They also reported the blue light above the core, i think from ionized air molecules and scattered radiation hitting those molecules.
A similar, while orders of magnitude smaller mechanism existed on one of the German experimental reactors, I think it was the THTR300, where the shielding on top was too thin and scattered radiation from air molecules radiated well outside the property.
Juwtchenkos story is together with Tom Tuohy one of the most remarkable ones. Tuohy was reactor manager when Windscale caught fire and he personally climbed on the roof and did look on the backside if the fire was out. He also survived the accident by over 50 years.
The Tchernobyl explosion was only possible on the background of the Sowjet system and mentality which is still alive and still causes unneccessary deaths in Ukraine because everyone is lying to everyone, occasionally keeping important facts secret and steal everything which is not bolted down. The firefighters had to put out the fires on the roof of the still running Block 3 and the Turbine hall, probably knowing they are going to die because otherwise the whole facility might blow up. The radiation on the roof and around the building was somewhere between 2,000 and 8,000 roentgen per hour which is deadly in minutes. And of course the roof should't be flammable, but that fireproof material from the construction plans has somehow gone missing and the plant had to be completed on schedule ...
Finally, the algorithm bringing light to quality content, good stuff. Rock on!
Thank you so much for your comment and support ☢️👩🏽🔬
That was awesome!! You explain things so well. I hope more people watch your channel.
Thank you so much ☢️👩🏽🔬 I appreciate your comment! Pls feel free to check out my support page to support the channel and get access to exclusive context! Link in the description
You may be a nuclear physicist, but i worked at shoe factory and now i'm in charge.
take her to the imermery, she is delusional
To the workers of the world.
The scene at 13:30 (looking down into the reactor) isn't all that unrealistic. The RBMK core had a large number of pressure tubes that carried the water up through the graphite blocks. This scene shows many tubes ruptured and 'mangled' after the steam explosion. The light isn't from radiation (I don't think) but more from burning graphite. That was the 'fire' that took several days to put out. The explosion lifted the lid and threw a large number of graphite blocks and uranium fuel assemblies all over the place but a lot fell back into the core area in a totally jumbled mess.
I'm not physicist or anything, but considering mass of turbine and that even it got serious "oomph" to it's power before failure, I suppose it would be possible that failed pipes here and there could've also contributed to blowing steam/air into vicinity of core until the turbine stopped. Pure speculation on my behalf.
Excellent editing. The brief clips with a lot of conversation is a great format. Keeps the video flowing and engaging.
For Iodine tablets that's the basic idea. The thyroid needs iodine and if a person is exposed to radioactive iodine the thyroid will absorb and use that. Iodine pills overload the body with iodine so less radioactive iodine is absorbed. So they are useful specifically in a contamination event where a radioactive isotope of iodine is present, which I think would be in any reactor meltdown. Hollywood tends to use them as a cure all for radiation exposure, which can be rather silly at times.
Thanks so much for the support! We try to make the editing as good as possible for you guys ☢️👩🏽🔬
I really enjoyed this series, so it's nice to hear from you that it's quite accurate. Thank you
it's not accurate... its anti nuclear propaganda...
czcams.com/video/SsdLDFtbdrA/video.html
thank you very much for these explanations whick allows me to understand more clearly the situation, than in other reactions :)
Discovering your channel only today. Awesome job, congrats.
The word scram is an acronym Single Control Rod Axe Man. It was coined at one of the experimental units in the 50’s. It was a person who was charged with the task of cutting the “shutdown rod” with an axe
Omg, I am hypnotized. New subscriber incomming 🥰
annnnd now i have to watch it again its such a good series thank you. love love your channel and always thank you for the brain food with your amazing accent.
sorry. Would be awesome to make a video reacting the the Chernobyl lost tapes on HBO max its awesome so much footage.
take care and love your channel.
Interesting series, hoping for more. I also find it incredible how unique the situation was, people really had no idea how to handle it or what to do. Maybe you could do a video about how they should have reacted and what safety measures would have been best after the explosion, would be really interesting to see 👀
Your example looks like the dosimeter they let me use in 2011, only mine was yellow and without the wand. When we drove past the edge of the Red Forest, it went a little crazy...and that was on the very outskirts.
What makes it really scary is not the sci-fi horror movie vibe.
But because it's NOT a sci-fi horror movie.
Real pain, real people experienced these.
RIP.
Yes!! I love this nuclear myth busting videos!! Thank you!
Thank you for the love and support to the channel 👩🏽🔬☢️
Thank you very much for your awesome channel, and your passion for nuclear science. I’m a chemist and current run chemical manufacturing plants for a Fortune 500 company. We practice chemistry using some of the most hazardous chemicals in industry. And I’m just fine in my space with NO interest in being around nuclear materials. Once I did visit one of our healthcare divisions than operated a gamma sterilization system and was able to walk into to see the cobalt 60’ down in the pool glowing purple, that was enough for me, lol.
Thanks again for your awesome channel accurately explaining nuclear science!
Hello Elina, I love watching your videos, thank you so much for explaining this Chernobyl series for us. What I have heard is that radioactivity burning the atoms and ions of the moisture in the air, straight up into the air! Allot of witnesses say that it was a beautiful sight to see!
Thanks for the excellent video! Cool TBBT t-shirt! ;-)
Two minutes, holy moly
Thanks kid, merry Christmas
Minor correction: The fire crews likely saved a much greater catastrophe. To save time and labor, the roof of all of the buildings in Chernobyl were covered in a flammable tar (this was in direct violation of Soviet building codes but no one seemed to care). The explosion from reactor 4 set the roofs on fire in the adjacant reactors 2 and 3. If those fires were not put out promptly, additional reactors could fail. There was an interview done with a fire truck driver / pump operator years after the fact where he bluntly stated that none of that fire crew expected to survive, but they had to do their duty.
HBO gets bonus attention to detail because in later shots of the roof, they show all the roofing tar having been burnt off.
Really enjoy your videos, thought I recognized the train in the "touching uranium" video and yup - that's Stockholm, just 40km from me... Remember when Chernobyl blew up - was 10 at the time but remember it very well even today... that was scary shit.
What a great technical commentary!
Dyatlov was a scapegoat. Not only he knew reactor exploded, he stayed for over an hour helping the injured, him self getting radiation sickness in process. It was purely reactor design fault that was not acknowledged
I thought the blue light *going up* was maybe Cherenkov radiation
20:35 From what I remember, eyewitnesses described seeing a blue light coming up out of the reactor as it was depicted in the film, presumably from Cherenkov radiation. I don't know how much of it was dramatized for the show, however.
That would be my guess. If you see a nuclear reactor running, there is video available on the web, I don’t recommend trying to watch directly, the ionising radiation hits the water causing the blue glow. Very pretty, perversely. It can happen in air as well, just not as efficiently. During the Manhattan project it was observed that when they brought two sub-critical masses of uranium close to each other a pale blue glow with blue-lightening criss-crossing it would appear.
I think the Chernobyl Series is very well made. I love watching it.
Im Swedish and I am 47 years old so I remember this.
I remeber that several years later when mom bought foos the food was labeled with the "bekerel-level".
It was scary, but for me, as a 11 year old boy, it was just life.
The Soviet Union handled this disaster extremely poorly and a powerplant in Sweden picked up on the fallout from Chernobyl and warned Europe..
I like nuclear power, its the best source for energy we have right now and its also best for the climate and enviroment if you look at coal plants, oil plants and in some regards making solarpanels and so on.
I hope we can advance the power plants so we, the whole world can be powered.
Scientists are the heros!
thanks for that, elina! I learned a lot. I don't think I considered the firefighting water causing some criticalities with uranium debris piles. Yikes, it was such a messy situation.
I really enjoyed the Chernobyl series (as bad as that sounds considering the subject) Yes there was some "Hollywood" stuff added but it was really good! Chernobyl has always fascinated me.
Also you're a stunning women :D
Elina Charatsidou; "explain that to me"
Me; "um No you're the Nuclear Physicist you explain it to us" lol
Just found your channel and I'm absolutely thrilled. There are so many bad faith arguments made in regards to Nuclear energy, it's nice to see more voices rise to push back against the growing tide of unscientific rhetoric.
I've seen an example of that graphite in kreosan English channel when they enter an abandoned laboratory in pripyat full of radioactive soil and equipment.
"Fire at the Nuclear Power plant you say? I sure picked a hell of a day to retire!?....."
I was almost a teenager, 12 years old, living in Leningrad, former USSR. We didn't know anything. My mother went to the May 1st parade. It rained and she got a mild radiation exposure, iodine-131 in her thyroid. She thought it was a sore throat and treated it like a cold. Later, when the news came out, it was really strange.
You mention that firefighter throwing water inside the reactor core isn't good, what about sand, clay, or gel of some kind?
For all the extra information you were providing here, there are some other things that the programme makers got wrong. The reactor was not under normal operation : they were conducting a "safety test" to see if the turbines could generate enough electricity to power the reactor's cooling system as the reactor was powering down from a SCRAM. Unfortunately, the energy demands meant that they were (at the last minute) forbidden from doing this during the day time; thus, the test was being carried out at night. However, all the scientists and engineers who were supposed to oversee the test had gone home for the night, and the night shift workers did not have enough understanding of the operation of the reactor to interpret what was happening. IIUC, the core had increased xenon poisoning, which meant that the reactor thermal output power dropped far below the 200 MW at which the test was supposed to be conducted. In order to bring the power back up, the operators did the only thing their training told them would increase the reactor power, which was to remove control rods. They removed too many control rods (some safety systems had been disabled to allow the test to take place), and the reactor went into thermal runaway. The reactor had a negative void coefficient, meaning that if the water boiled off in the reactor, leaving the cooling channels filled with steam instead of water, the reactor thermal power would increase, which would boil off more water, and so on.
The operators did SCRAM the reactor, but, because the control rods were tipped with graphite, a portion of the reactor saw an increase of neutron moderation and went into thermal runaway. This caused the explosions (IIUC, there were two, the second of which blew the 2000-tonne "lid" off the reactor vessel completely).
And the operators in the control room definitely felt the explosions.
> Alexander Yuvchenko, who worked at the Chernobyl plant on the night of the explosion, recounted how he “ran out of the building and saw half of the building gone and the reactor emitting a blue glow of ionised air”.
There probably wasn't a tower of blue light, and it was likely more of a flash of blue light, but it's supposed to be the exposed core ionizing the air. Oxygen/Nitrogen glow blue-white when ionized.
I don't know what it is about you but you make this stuff interesting. Keep up the good work. 👍
Everyone at Chernobyl or anywhere nearby had been assured that there is no way for an RBMK reactor to explode. Thus they tend to doubt all evidence to the contrary...at least initially. But it is not just the people, the Soviet state and nuclear industry act as if it is not possible for an RBMK to explode, so they do not put a proper containment structure around them, it does not properly equip the first responders to assess their danger from radiation or give them proper protective gear, nor do they even provide stable iodine to hospitals in the area or even keep large stockpiles of it anywhere nearby. Most folks treated everything the Soviet state told them as absolute fact...as you say, you did not question the people above you in that system...so even when people see with their eyes that the core is open and exposed, and they report that to their bosses, the bosses berate them because they are stating things that are impossible. That is why they do not evacuate immediately and why they continue to worry about keeping water on the core and keep doing all of the other insane things they do. ✌
Sadly yes. If only people were better informed and instructed to do the right thing. Timing was crucial ☢️
I really enjoyed the Chernobyl series. thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Thank you for your comment and support ☢️👩🏽🔬
as someone who knows very little about nucular subjects you explained this perfectly and i was bale to understand, your amazing
Damn you are super intelligent 😁😁 nice explanation and reaction 👌🏻
"You didn't see graphite on the ground because IT'S NOT THERE!"
Even though he saw it himself, a perfect example of the denial and confusion of the leadership during the disaster.
can't wait for all the reactions/analysis. You could do one extra to a real interview with Dyatlov (there are english subtitles) made some time before he died. To add also to your comments about the "cultural" situations: a lot of people were put in different important positions simply because they knew someone or were extremely active in the party even though they were mediocre at their jobs (like the doctor in the hospital, like Dyatlov's superiors and others in the series). My mother along with other millions of people in northern Romania were offered iodine pills but only after the soviet union admitted internationally that there was an accident. The series does an excellent job portraying what a cascade of unfortunate circumstances, human error and non-acknowledgement of facts can do and through this of course, does the best portrayal of the disaster to date
I loved this series
Hard to believe a nuclear physicist never watched Chernobyl before
Excellent Teaching
So a few comments in regards to RBMK reactors specifically.
The RBMK reactor is a graphite moderated reactor which actually causes water to have a different effect than your typical water moderated reactor. essentially graphite is so good at moderating, that water becomes a suppressant for nuclear reactions, so pumping water into the core would reduce the ability of the core to produce radiation. this is why the control rods of an RBMK have a graphite "tip" that runs most of the height of the reactor (but not quite the full height) when the rods are extracted from the core. This effect is also why there has been a noticeable increase in radioactivity at chernobyl as the building dries out due to the New Safe Containment structure.
When the 2 guys are on the railing looking down into the reactor core the still superheated graphene combined with hydrogen being produced by the shattered core is what was seen burning
I watched a PBS special within a few years of the event. It wasn’t an accident. The Party leaders wanted more output and to test the limits of the plant. It was intentionally pushed beyond the design limit. I was difficult to do because safety features kept disrupting the test by shutting the plant down. One by one the safety features were dismantled until they could force it into a runaway situation. At the end of the documentary the narrator concluded that nuclear power was a failed method of power generation.
The documentary was later remade by PBS with a completely different telling of the event. I am unable to find the original documentary.
20:40 I read somewhere that the light shining straight up was something that actually happened. The radiation was so intense that it cause that effect.
2:35 So all the people who watched the reactor burning that night said that from it they saw a faint tall light blue "tower" going high up in the sky from the reactor.
I assume it was due to the fact that the reactor core was completely exposed from above? Channeling the radiation in one direction?
Love the video! I cant wait for the rest of the series. I'm m trying to get back to grad school for nuclear engineering, so I love finding good explanation videos.
If you havent hear it yet, the creator of that series did a 7 part podcast with NPR talking about the series, what they changed, what they didnt ect. I think its still on spotify.
If I'm remembering right, diatlov (I dont think i got the spelling right) tried to tell everyone the blue light was the cherenkov effect, but later research indicated it was the air being ionized from intense radiation going up. Ive seen cherenkov radiation in a water reactor, what would it take to make the air do that?
"(W)hat would it take to make the air do that?"
Either a fundamental change in the laws of physics - Cherenkov radiation comes from (usually) beta particles moving faster than light in the local dielectric medium. This happens easily in water, where light only moves at around 2/3 the speed of light, but in air it requires electrons with greater energies than those produced by radioactivity.
Or cosmic rays.
The operational manual for a similar reactor that had problems was Top Secret so these people knew little of what was likely to happen -
The Chernobyl mini series was so much fun to watch. But I am glad I was not there when it happened.
I didn't know this before watching the show, but it surprised me to learn that the Chernobyl explosion happened two years before I was born.
Hmm yeah it’s a quite recent event even though it might feel like it happened very long ago ☢️👩🏽🔬
Thanks for reviewing this. I understand the need for copyright cuts (no worries -the series is seared in my mind and I won't need much prompting). I found Chernobyl to be both an indictment of a corrupt system (most if not all systems couldn't withstand this) and a testament to the spirit of the individual (so many of them) who sacrificed themselves and their positions for the unavoidable, undeniable truth.
Chernobyl was SO bad.... yet this series shows us that if not for folks stepping up and facing hard, hard truths, it could have been SO much worse. This is a lesson everyone in a position of power needs to learn. At some point - no matter how hard you resist - reality is undeniable. May they swallow the bitter "objective truth" pill before it's too late.
The reason for the glowing blue beam is explained in the Chernobyl podcast with Peter Sagal and series creator, writer and executive producer Craig MazinIt. He says it was essentially the ionization of the air. "The radiation was so intense it was breaking the oxygen molecules apart and creating this color."
This was a great series that shows the nexus of institutional hubris with incompetence. I suggest searching for: Meltdown: Cooling Water Crisis. It's a great documentary by NHK about the Fukushima disaster. Imagine misinterpreting data and cutting water flow to 3 reactors in meltdown DAYs after the initial explosion.
Nice Video, its very interessting so see how much Details went into the series which a normal person won't even notice like the age of the day and night shift or the actual function of some devices mentioned by the personal.
I'm looking forward to the other episodes and the 'discovery' of these Easter eggs 😊
this series is very very wrong from scientific point of view
czcams.com/video/SsdLDFtbdrA/video.html
Hmm, he only talks about the "thermal explosion" so I wouldn't convert it to the hole series. But I know that the series isn't 100% accurate, eg in reality the (I think) 3rd helicopter crashed and not the first like shown in the show or the images of the burnwounds the fireman got are made for astetics and not realism.
But all in all I still think the show gave a pretty accurate overview around the happenings at Chernobyl.
Btw. 2 things I would critizise about your video. First if I understood it correctly he said a thermal explosion wouldn't happen because the material around the tanks would have melted and therefore no pressure would be generated by the boiling water. I mean fair point but he said that that's his theory. So if u have to make a decision do you completely ground it one the truth or falseness of one theory? If you do that's a very high risk management.
Second he sadly totally ignored any winds and fallouts in his simulations about the nuclear explosions. And the fallout is the main reason why arias become terminated and uninhabitable after a these.
@@ketergraph9037 yeah he is not only one... but still also he separated into many videos.. here is about fallout:
czcams.com/video/y5dV3IuNWvU/video.html
in chernobil happened the worst scenario.. there is no worse thing than that as they portray in series to scare ppl with great nuclear like explosions... it was steam explosion like the one you can get with faulty pressure cooker at home. it's petrol industry propaganda against nuclear power...
Actually if we use nuclear fuel our planet will become less radioactive overall...
@@Zigg33 I think we got off the wrong foot. I am a supporter for nuclear power, i think it is a great thing. Maybe i am to light-hearted with the series but i dont see it as a series against nuclear power but a series about an historical event mainly. I even got the feeling that the communist system was mainly criticized and got the blame for the accident and not the nuclear-technology itself. But i could be wrong tho, dk how most people interpreted it.
I just know that i still enjoyed it
I was 6 years old when this happened. I was living in southern west Germany when the cloud came around and was outside when the rain came from that cloud.
The blue light is the ionization of the atmosphere, similar to the northern lights, but from the radiation radiating out from the exposed nuclear core.
About the guy near the reactor that is bleeding, might be because acute radiation poisoning due to exposure, look from Tokaimura incident, the guys were so close to the uranium breeder that they were using improperly (hurried the process) that got hit by a huge amount of radiation and technically "melted".
The blue pillar was actually there, the updraft from the fire was carrying high gamma irradiated ash straight up. While it did diffuse eventually, the concentration in that up draft caused the cherenkov effect in the AIR. It stopped as the fire was put out. In the weird circles I was in back then this was used as a proof Godzilla's atomic breath weapon would indeed glow blue in open air if concentrated enough, and we used that to calculate how radioactive it had to be. (according to my 10 year old math 2200Gy)
Chernobyl was a sound idea. The problem lies in the implementation. Political turmoil and bad management coupled with a lack of resources and training. I don't blame the Nuclear energy, I blame all those who misunderstood it.
Love these video's!
Would also love to see more :D
Also on the iodine pills, the effectiveness of them is highly dependent on timing, that's why for example it's unrecomended to take them as a precousion(as in every day). They are most effective if you take them just before the radiation hits so your body will be absorbing the iodine just before the radiation hits. So for the public at large the iodine pills do help a bit, but due to the uncontrolled timing the pills are mostly there to provide people the feeling they have something to help them, even if the effectiveness isn't the best.
I can also really recommend Scot Manleys reaction, if you haven't yet :)
I think there was another reason for calling in the day shift - he wasn’t satisfied with the performance of his night shift team and perhaps the day shift team could fix the problems.
According to what i can find, they called the firemen not because they wanted to pump water on the reactor to cool it, they were called because the fire on reactor 4's roof was threatening reactor 3 infrastructure.
One of the best mini series. This shows how toxic leadership, is so decremental.
Lol toxic leadership aka communism and socialism. Everything was just swept under the rug with the higher ups. So much self preservation.
The reactor hall roofing material was specified to be non-flammable, however cheaper flammable materials were used due to corruption. "Truth About Chernobyl" May 1991 by Grigori Medvedev (Author) That's one reason the firemen had to go up on the roof. Not sure if this was covered in the series.
So the writter/director of the show did a 1 hour interview on a podcast between each episode and he actually explains some of the things you were pointing out. They were in denial about what had actually happened, because 1 they assumed if the reactor exploded, they'd be instantly dead. 2 they were told over and over and over again that the reactor was perfectly safe. A lot of what was said in the show in the control room comes from accounts of the people who were there. It took months for the investigators to finally find the true cause of the accident, and under normal operating parameters they were right it isn't possible for the reactor to run away, but Dyatlov had the reactor well passed those parameters.
Also all of the firefighters died. They were the majority of the "official" casualties
Over all the years since the Chernobyl accident media has greatly oversimplyfied the physical processes going on in the reactor. I'm not a phsicist but I stll noticed the story didn't add up. I'm not sure if back then the whole chain of events wasn't known or still kept secret. Still, I started digging to understand the entire chain of events and their technical and phyysical background. So when the TV series was released i was positively surprised how it managed to combine entertainment (I'm missing zombies, though!) with a reasonably complete representation of the technical an dphysical events in the reactor. So the series gets my thumb up.
And with that background your comments and reaction video also get my thumb up, Elina!
the blue light coming from the reactor is cherenkov radiation. Basically the ionization of the air around. Since the plant emitted so much radiation this would be here.
I was in high school when this happened and the reason why I think they didn’t understand the severity of the situation was due to the fact that, one, their equipment couldn’t measure radiation that high, they didn’t think in those terms and two this was the Soviet union. There was no excuses, and somebody was going to pay, and somebody’s gonna die from the radiation or the firing squad. The cleanup team which they called “liquidators” numbered at 830,000 and by 2005, it is estimated that 115,000 to 125,000 people died due to radiation exposure.
I thought it was just artistic license but apparently according to people who were there (I worked with one) there was actually a bright glow visible just after the explosion distinct from the glow of the fire. I didn’t hear it described as a great beam going straight up, just a “blue glow”
Apperantly it only lasted for the first morning and not the following nights
I remember being stationed in Europe during these events. Our observation aircraft were in the air 24/7 listening and watching SLAR for signs of what was going on scary times
My cousins grew up in Buckeye Arizona right next to Palo Verde nuclear plant. We used to joke around that if they saw the plant melting they would call us in Phoenix to give us a chance to run.
no one should have to go through the horror those firefighters went through
Absolutely not. Sad and tragic situation