I've been watching this and I got to thinking. I in elementary when that happened but really don't remember hearing that much about it. Can you imagine if something like that happened today the INSANITY that would ensue from media outlets?

Hard to imagine the amount of pearl clutching that would go on in today's media climate.

93MarineHorn said:

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You must have been very young or very sheltered. It was HUGE news when it went down.

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Like I said, I was in elementary. Early elementary.

Weird filter.

The release of the movie The China Syndrome occurred right around the time of the Three Mile Island incident.

Within weeks or months, IIRC.

ETA: The China Syndrome released March 16, 1979

Three Mile Island Accident March 28, 1979

Spotted Ag said:

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I've been watching this and I got to thinking. I in elementary when that happened but really don't remember hearing that much about it. Can you imagine if something like that happened today the INSANITY that would ensue from media outlets?

Hard to imagine the amount of pearl clutching that would go on in today's media climate.

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Lots of historical inaccuracies

Biz Ag said:

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The release of the movie The China Syndrome occurred right around the time of the Three Mile Island incident.

Within weeks or months, IIRC.

ETA: The China Syndrome released March 16, 1979

Three Mile Island Accident March 28, 1979

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And one of the lines in the movie was something like " it would destroy an area the size of Pennsylvania"
The whole theatre erupted in laughter. Maybe it was too soon. I don't know. But everyone laughed

3 mile island was a much different deal. It was a bunch of operators that didn't understand the symptoms of the casualty they were in, and compounded it by troubleshooting the wrong thing. They went days without ever noticing they had a stuck open relief valve, and if their operators were competent or proficient, whichever word you want to use, it would have been an easy fix that wouldn't have led to them uncovering the core more than it already was.

Pure incompetence. With that said, people within a few miles didn't receive more than an x-rays worth of radiation, and the plant's shielding did its job.

samurai_science said:

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Spotted Ag said:

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I've been watching this and I got to thinking. I in elementary when that happened but really don't remember hearing that much about it. Can you imagine if something like that happened today the INSANITY that would ensue from media outlets?

Hard to imagine the amount of pearl clutching that would go on in today's media climate.

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Lots of historical inaccuracies

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There were some, but it hit a lot of the high points.

Midnight in Chernobyl is an awesome book, and lays it out great in layman's terms. It always teaches basic nuclear physics and theory in non-engineer terms.

Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham is a good read on the subject. Yes there are a good amount of inaccuracies on the series.

There is a youtube channel called History Buffs which does a breakdown of the series vs actual events. In a lot of instances of inaccuracies the creative crew/director were well aware of their inaccuracies, but due to format, storytelling, etc, they give some context of why they made the creative license decisions they did (consolidation of characters, etc.).

Chernobyl 1:23:40 is another good read on the disaster.

If you prefer video, Kyle Hill's Half-Life Histories series on YouTube has outstanding videos on 3 Mile Island, Chernobyl, ***ushima, and other radiological disasters.

One of Simon's channels just did a video on the RBMK or whatever rector type was that failed at Chernobyl and it was somewhat more detailed on exactly what actually happened.

NukeAg10 said:

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3 mile island was a much different deal. It was a bunch of operators that didn't understand the symptoms of the casualty they were in, and compounded it by troubleshooting the wrong thing. They went days without ever noticing they had a stuck open relief valve, and if their operators were competent or proficient, whichever word you want to use, it would have been an easy fix that wouldn't have led to them uncovering the core more than it already was.

Pure incompetence. With that said, people within a few miles didn't receive more than an x-rays worth of radiation, and the plant's shielding did its job.

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Unfortunately those 2 events back to back basically killed the nuclear energy movement for the last 40 years in the US.

As for the OP it was a huge story but it was also a different time. Remember it happened in the Soviet Union which was a black box of information and it happened at a time before the internet. Just a different world in so many ways, it was a while before we really understood what happened.

I was in elementary when the Three Mile Island incident happened. It was non-stop on the news for what seemed like an eternity. The media made it out to be way, way, way worse than it actually was. They made it out like it melted down (literally) and all the air around it was pure poison. Yellow dog sensationalism at its finest.

Then I was in junior high or high school for Chernobyl. The Soviet Union had such an ironclad lockdown on the news that it took a long time for the details to emerge to the rest of the world. So in those first few days/weeks, you really didn't know what or to what extent had happened. It took awhile and then it became apparently that this really was the meltdown that Three Mile Island was not.

aggie93 said:

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NukeAg10 said:

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3 mile island was a much different deal. It was a bunch of operators that didn't understand the symptoms of the casualty they were in, and compounded it by troubleshooting the wrong thing. They went days without ever noticing they had a stuck open relief valve, and if their operators were competent or proficient, whichever word you want to use, it would have been an easy fix that wouldn't have led to them uncovering the core more than it already was.

Pure incompetence. With that said, people within a few miles didn't receive more than an x-rays worth of radiation, and the plant's shielding did its job.

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Unfortunately those 2 events back to back basically killed the nuclear energy movement for the last 40 years in the US.

As for the OP it was a huge story but it was also a different time. Remember it happened in the Soviet Union which was a black box of information and it happened at a time before the internet. Just a different world in so many ways, it was a while before we really understood what happened.

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Different world for sure. Media coverage today would be a circus.

Tramp96 said:

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I was in elementary when the Three Mile Island incident happened. It was non-stop on the news for what seemed like an eternity. The media made it out to be way, way, way worse than it actually was. They made it out like it melted down (literally) and all the air around it was pure poison. Yellow dog sensationalism at its finest.

Then I was in junior high or high school for Chernobyl. The Soviet Union had such an ironclad lockdown on the news that it took a long time for the details to emerge to the rest of the world. So in those first few days/weeks, you really didn't know what or to what extent had happened. It took awhile and then it became apparently that this really was the meltdown that Three Mile Island was not.

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^
^
This. Soviets really locked down the story, evacuating and isolating the population virtually overnight.

Spotted Ag said:

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I've been watching this and I got to thinking. I in elementary when that happened but really don't remember hearing that much about it. Can you imagine if something like that happened today the INSANITY that would ensue from media outlets?

Hard to imagine the amount of pearl clutching that would go on in today's media climate.

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There is a companion podcast that is very helpful to listen to as you watch. Great way to really understand what is happening and fill in some of the details that were left out or condensed or combined in the HBO series.

The official podcast of the miniseries Chernobyl, from HBO and Sky. Join host Peter Sagal (NPR's "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!") and series creator, writer and executive producer Craig Mazin after each episode as they discuss the true stories that shaped the scenes, themes and characters.

I take the counter side of that argument

seeing as how that was the pride of the Soviet Union

the media would cover it up today because they would not want to make the commies look bad

+1 on Midnight at Chernobyl. Really well done book.

I read 3 books on TMI and at least that many on Chernobyl. Growing up with both (and the cold war) nuclear radiation fascinated me (and scared me to death) so I absorbed all I could about both accidents.

TMI was an example of a group of operators, with poor controls and coordination doing all they could to destroy the power plant - and they succeeded, but without creating any real danger thanks to the redundancies built in.

Chernobyl was an example of arrogance and lack of respect for the danger - from design to operation.

Quote:

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the media would cover it up today because they would not want to make the commies look bad

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No they wouldn't - they hate nuclear energy more than they love communists.

Spotted Ag said:

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I've been watching this and I got to thinking. I in elementary when that happened but really don't remember hearing that much about it. Can you imagine if something like that happened today the INSANITY that would ensue from media outlets?

Hard to imagine the amount of pearl clutching that would go on in today's media climate.

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I was on the East German border at the time and the cloud passed over central West Germany. I flew aerial Radiological Reconnaissance surveys to determine the rads we were being exposed to. Pretty sophisticated. Stick your hand out the door of your OH-58 with a handheld dosimeter. We were prohibited from drinking milk from German cows. LOL.

aggie93 said:

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NukeAg10 said:

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3 mile island was a much different deal. It was a bunch of operators that didn't understand the symptoms of the casualty they were in, and compounded it by troubleshooting the wrong thing. They went days without ever noticing they had a stuck open relief valve, and if their operators were competent or proficient, whichever word you want to use, it would have been an easy fix that wouldn't have led to them uncovering the core more than it already was.

Pure incompetence. With that said, people within a few miles didn't receive more than an x-rays worth of radiation, and the plant's shielding did its job.

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Unfortunately those 2 events back to back basically killed the nuclear energy movement for the last 40 years in the US.

As for the OP it was a huge story but it was also a different time. Remember it happened in the Soviet Union which was a black box of information and it happened at a time before the internet. Just a different world in so many ways, it was a while before we really understood what happened.

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Yep, really unfortunate. Chernobyl and 3 mile island were gross negligence, bad operators, poor design, bad QA, and a list that goes on and on.

Nuclear is the correct answer to sustainable, low carbon footprint, clean energy. Those events, and then ***ushima, set back nuclear power in the public eye, and then you get the idiots, liberal and conservative, who have no ****ing idea what they're talking about when it comes to how safe it is with today's reactor designs.

The Navy has been operating nuclear reactors since 1954, with zero accidents. Admiral Rickover built one of the best military programs the world will ever see, and the civilian side has taken a lot of that training and operation practices to use on their side. Nuclear can be safe, just need competent engineers and operators to use it.

NukeAg10 said:

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3 mile island was a much different deal. It was a bunch of operators that didn't understand the symptoms of the casualty they were in, and compounded it by troubleshooting the wrong thing. They went days without ever noticing they had a stuck open relief valve, and if their operators were competent or proficient, whichever word you want to use, it would have been an easy fix that wouldn't have led to them uncovering the core more than it already was.

Pure incompetence. With that said, people within a few miles didn't receive more than an x-rays worth of radiation, and the plant's shielding did its job.

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Username checks out.

As far as the different circumstances are concerned - it didn't matter to the Hollywood elites and the No Nukes crowd. They milked it for all it was worth.

NukeAg10 said:

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aggie93 said:

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NukeAg10 said:

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3 mile island was a much different deal. It was a bunch of operators that didn't understand the symptoms of the casualty they were in, and compounded it by troubleshooting the wrong thing. They went days without ever noticing they had a stuck open relief valve, and if their operators were competent or proficient, whichever word you want to use, it would have been an easy fix that wouldn't have led to them uncovering the core more than it already was.

Pure incompetence. With that said, people within a few miles didn't receive more than an x-rays worth of radiation, and the plant's shielding did its job.

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Unfortunately those 2 events back to back basically killed the nuclear energy movement for the last 40 years in the US.

As for the OP it was a huge story but it was also a different time. Remember it happened in the Soviet Union which was a black box of information and it happened at a time before the internet. Just a different world in so many ways, it was a while before we really understood what happened.

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Yep, really unfortunate. Chernobyl and 3 mile island were gross negligence, bad operators, poor design, bad QA, and a list that goes on and on.

Nuclear is the correct answer to sustainable, low carbon footprint, clean energy. Those events, and then ***ushima, set back nuclear power in the public eye, and then you get the idiots, liberal and conservative, who have no ****ing idea what they're talking about when it comes to how safe it is with today's reactor designs.

The Navy has been operating nuclear reactors since 1954, with zero accidents. Admiral Rickover built one of the best military programs the world will ever see, and the civilian side has taken a lot of that training and operation practices to use on their side. Nuclear can be safe, just need competent engineers and operators to use it.

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Anyone that claims to be concerned about Climate Change or anything in that realm and isn't pro nuclear should not be taken seriously. They are either ignorant (most) or evil ("Green is the new Red"). Nuclear has tremendous promise. I don't think it is a panacea but it has tremendous potential. Nuclear and Natural Gas as a combination seem to be the best solution in my opinion for most situations. No emissions for one and very low for the other. Plentiful supply and create lots of power. Certainly still some use for other forms (neither is practical for vehicles yet) but they should be the future imo. Instead we chase after windmills and solar that are so much less productive and have different problems of their own.

Chernobyl was such a good series but it was so depressing that I never want to watch it again.

About 2:30 minutes in there are scenes from Chernobyl in this Pink Floyd classic "Marooned."

then you should NOT read Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety.

the number of incidents, and the insanely low levels of security we got away with at times in our nations nuclear weapon history is amazing there was never a major event.

Things like keeping nuclear weapons on planes in Allies bases (turkey) guarded only by 1-2 enlisted men, where they could easily be overpowered and a pilot take off and drop the bomb...

single signal activation of firing sequences, where in a wreck a spark could detonate the weapon, vs a sequence of signals or events.

or when SAC was told the need to put codes on the weapons to secure them, but they didn't want to worry about remembering a code if they had to use them, so they make the code the same on every nuclear weapon: 00000000

cupcakesprinkles said:

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Chernobyl was such a good series but it was so depressing that I never want to watch it again.

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I've watched it probably10 times now.