Chernobyl

[AugustaHibs]

Don’t want to give away anything but having watched the first few episodes of the chernobyl mini series on sky and seeing the hospital scenes I would rather it just wiped us out than left people suffer like that.

Anyone have any stories from chernobyl? Morbid however it’s something that is extremely interesting to me.

[StevieC]

During my charity work in Ukraine I have heard a lot about the affects of the fallout on health, especially the affects on children. I’ve even met some families from areas nearby, whose children have ailments that they connect to the accident.

[Jack]

One of my work mates was on the Scottish Government (whatever it was at the time) helpline set up to put people's mind at ease.

A few of the folk where I worked knew him too and we found out his number and I phoned him with a dodgy old accent.

I explained I'd been walking my dog down at Crammond and we'd been caught in the rain. Now we were home and I could swear the dug was glowing.

The more he tried to allay my fears the more hysterical I became.

I was then telling him I thought the dog needed dried very quickly so I was going to put it in the microwave, for a few minutes to start with, to see if it made a difference.

We were both getting hysterical now! My workmates were poorless.

Oh how we laughed again in the pub that Friday when we all met up and he couldn't wait to tell us the story of the nutter from Crammond!

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

Went on a day trip to Prypyat/Chernobyl whilst in Kiev for a Scotland game, fascinating and sobering stuff.

[blackpoolhibs]

Went on a day trip to Prypyat/Chernobyl whilst in Kiev for a Scotland game, fascinating and sobering stuff.

It must have been matey, anything that gets you sober must be eye opening. :wink:

[ZAGREB RED]

Watching the TV series it's one of those things that puts a chill down your spine, but then you remember it's based on actual events, not just a made up plot about a horrific disaster, then it becomes even harder to get your head round it.
The one thing that really stands out is the attitude of the Soviet government, who seem more concerned with saving face and not being shown up in a bad light than saving lives and rectifying the situation to stop any more deaths. Also, the way they expect the mostly downtrodden people to risk their lives or face almost certain disease and death to help a country that does little for them on a daily basis. The scenes with the miners and the rooftop are pretty hard to watch. Ditto the dogs.
If it was true, the way the government refused to request a piece of equipment from West Germany purely on the grounds of not being seen to need help from a capitalist country summed it up.
Jared Harris is excellent in this.

[Beefster]

Don’t want to give away anything but having watched the first few episodes of the chernobyl mini series on sky and seeing the hospital scenes I would rather it just wiped us out than left people suffer like that.

Anyone have any stories from chernobyl? Morbid however it’s something that is extremely interesting to me.

Not related to Chernobyl directly but I read a story not long ago about a Japanese worker who, in the ‘90s, received what is amongst the highest known doses of radiation ever. Doctors kept him alive for nigh on three months before he died but it sounds horrendous. There are photos of him on t’Internet, if you’re not of a nervous disposition.

Edit: Wikipedia entry about the accident - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokaimura_nuclear_accident#In_1999

[Fife-Hibee]

Not related to Chernobyl directly but I read a story not long ago about a Japanese worker who, in the ‘90s, received what is amongst the highest known doses of radiation ever. Doctors kept him alive for nigh on three months before he died but it sounds horrendous. There are photos of him on t’Internet, if you’re not of a nervous disposition.

Edit: Wikipedia entry about the accident - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokaimura_nuclear_accident#In_1999

Photos are truly horrifying. It was cruel to keep him alive that long.

[Newry Hibs]

Went on a day trip to Prypyat/Chernobyl whilst in Kiev for a Scotland game, fascinating and sobering stuff.

Interesting that you are allowed to visit. The program was talking about the area being unhabitable for thousands of years. I presume no one lives there (apart from maybe scientists)?

The program depicts people walking around the area in the clean up in the weeks after the explosion. I'm thinking it was 'relatively' safe then - but future illnesses were to be expected.

[Mr Grieves]

Not related to Chernobyl directly but I read a story not long ago about a Japanese worker who, in the ‘90s, received what is amongst the highest known doses of radiation ever. Doctors kept him alive for nigh on three months before he died but it sounds horrendous. There are photos of him on t’Internet, if you’re not of a nervous disposition.

Edit: Wikipedia entry about the accident - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokaimura_nuclear_accident#In_1999

Coincidentally, I'm reading a book about this just now. It's called 'a slow death, 83 days of radiation sickness'

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

Interesting that you are allowed to visit. The program was talking about the area being unhabitable for thousands of years. I presume no one lives there (apart from maybe scientists)?

The program depicts people walking around the area in the clean up in the weeks after the explosion. I'm thinking it was 'relatively' safe then - but future illnesses were to be expected.

There are now people living within the exclusion zone, with the authorities turning a blind eye. Short term visits are relatively danger free, I suppose I'll find out in a few years!

[Pretty Boy]

Not related to Chernobyl directly but I read a story not long ago about a Japanese worker who, in the ‘90s, received what is amongst the highest known doses of radiation ever. Doctors kept him alive for nigh on three months before he died but it sounds horrendous. There are photos of him on t’Internet, if you’re not of a nervous disposition.

Edit: Wikipedia entry about the accident - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokaimura_nuclear_accident#In_1999

I read about that recently, I think on the back of seeing a trailer for the Chernobyl series and doing a bit Internet research and getting sidetracked.

The description of Hisahi Ouchi begging the Doctors 'I can't take it anymore, I' m not a guinea pig' is genuinely horrifying. I always wonder if there was an investigation into the way he was treated. The decision to resuscitate him 3 times and continue treatment when recovery was impossible must be unethical. He was treated as little more than a living experiment.

[Fife-Hibee]

I read about that recently, I think on the back of seeing a trailer for the Chernobyl series and doing a bit Internet research and getting sidetracked.

The description of Hisahi Ouchi begging the Doctors 'I can't take it anymore, I' m not a guinea pig' is genuinely horrifying. I always wonder if there was an investigation into the way he was treated. The decision to resuscitate him 3 times and continue treatment when recovery was impossible must be unethical. He was treated as little more than a living experiment.

The Japanese have a long line of history of these type of inhuman experiments. The experiements that took place on war prisoners at Unit 731 make this seem like nothing. But they were let off the hook in exchange for sharing their medical research with the US.

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

Interesting that you are allowed to visit. The program was talking about the area being unhabitable for thousands of years. I presume no one lives there (apart from maybe scientists)?

The program depicts people walking around the area in the clean up in the weeks after the explosion. I'm thinking it was 'relatively' safe then - but future illnesses were to be expected.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/moving_to_Chernobyl

[heretoday]

A holiday in Chernobyl? No thanks.

[NYHibby]

There are now people living within the exclusion zone, with the authorities turning a blind eye. Short term visits are relatively danger free, I suppose I'll find out in a few years!

I’ve stayed overnight in the town of Chernobyl (which is different from Pripyat). There are actually a lot of people who live and work in the 30km exclusion zone. I forget the exact number but it is probably in the thousands. They do something like three weeks on and then a couple of weeks outside the zone. People still work at the nuclear power plaint. I ate lunch at the power plaint’s canteen with them.

Its really just the 10km zone that people limit their time in.

In terms of visiting, I fear the new sarcophagus and the likely surge in tourists resulting from the show combined with the authorities apparently becoming stricter about going inside buildings in Pripyat (as the building continue to deteriorate) will ruin the experience I had.

[NYHibby]

Here is a video I took when we were dropping off my guide at her flat. This was in the middle of the afternoon. There was a lot more activity at the beginning and end of the workday when people were leaving or heading back to their buildings.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L3DADCSh6I