Chernobyl - HBO/Sky *Spoilers*

Tokyo

PhilOssophy wrote: »

Why couldn't they just collapse the roof? What was below it that meant it couldn't just be collapsed and the sarcophagus built around it as well?
Collapse the roof, bury it in concrete, jobz a goodun?

AKA world's biggest dirty bomb....

PhilOssophy

mike_ie wrote: »

AKA world's biggest dirty bomb....

Sure they were throwing it down into the reactor core anyway. I don't see why it mattered!

no.8

Disagree but that's only imo. The timeline has moved forward and I found the scene with the liquidators on the roof to be absolutely harrowing. Was it actually 90 seconds in length (their scene time out there)?

As they are dealing with an invisible enemy, the inclusion of the Geiger counter tone fits the bill purely on a drama basis imo. The levels of radiation exposure there on the roof was not hugely far off standing in a functioning reactor core, obscene. These guys are/were heros.

The story about the culling of animals was extremely sad.

Walter Bishop

How would they collapse it? If they use explosives they just blast super-radioactive graphite all over the surrounding area. Also, planting and wiring explosive would take hours, fatal to all involved.

Can't use sledgehammers etc., take way too long. One has to assume that they considered all options before going with what they did.

PhilOssophy

Walter Bishop wrote: »

How would they collapse it? If they use explosives they just blast super-radioactive graphite all over the surrounding area. Also, planting and wiring explosive would take hours, fatal to all involved.

Can't use sledgehammers etc., take way too long. One has to assume that they considered all options before going with what they did.

If the first robot was too heavy it mustn't have been a very strong roof. I'm not saying I'm right by the way! I'm just curious as to why they didn't.

OleRodrigo

Another option might have been to pour concrete from a distance. Change the mix so that it takes longer for it to harden, allowing to flow down a longer chute.

They probably thought of that too though..

Tokyo

PhilOssophy wrote: »

Sure they were throwing it down into the reactor core anyway. I don't see why it mattered!

Location of the radioactivity probably mattered a lot. Collapsing the building in on itself - particularly a concrete building designed to be as robust as a reactor - would likely require a reasonable amount of explosives. Keeping the radioactivity within the confines of the reactor site definitely trumped spreading it across half the eastern bloc.

gauralordon

no.8 wrote: »

Was it actually 90 seconds in length (their scene time out there)?

Yes it was. You should definitely listen to the podcast. Such a great accompaniment to the episodes.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chernobyl+podcast

The Specialist

PhilOssophy wrote: »

If the first robot was too heavy it mustn't have been a very strong roof. I'm not saying I'm right by the way! I'm just curious as to why they didn't.

There is supposedly an underground reservoir beneath the reactor, and the fear for a long time was that a lump of molten nuclear fuel known as the "Elephants foot" in the basement, would burn through the reactor floor in to the water down there and cause a secondary steam explosion - this would have blown the entire reactor remnants out of the building and would have been catastrophic.

I'd assume they didn't just collapse the roof in to the reactor for a similar reason - the weight would push the reactor and its burning fuel down to that water source.

errlloyd

The Specialist wrote: »

I'd assume they didn't just collapse the roof in to the reactor for a similar reason - the weight would push the reactor and its burning fuel down to that water source.

They had drained the water at this stage. I am almost certain it was a just a dust into the atmosphere decision.

mickdw

I didn't find that episode very good.
It was all based around the suspense / terror of having to kill the animals.
I didnt find that particularly upsetting against a background of nuclear disaster.
Roof scene was good and you could see the panic.

Padraig Mor

PhilOssophy wrote: »

Why couldn't they just collapse the roof? What was below it that meant it couldn't just be collapsed and the sarcophagus built around it as well?
Collapse the roof, bury it in concrete, jobz a goodun?

I stand to be corrected, but I think the graphite etc was on the roofs of adjacent buildings and (still functioning) reactors which of course weren't going in the sarcophagus - the roof of reactor no. 4 was gone.

PhilOssophy

Padraig Mor wrote: »

I stand to be corrected, but I think the graphite etc was on the roofs of adjacent buildings and (still functioning) reactors which of course weren't going in the sarcophagus - the roof of reactor no. 4 was gone.

Actually that is probably it.

weldoninhio

Heckler wrote: »

Again another brilliant episode. If this doesn't win a bunch of awards...

Why didn't they clear the roof from the front to the back instead of stumbling over rubble from the back with shovel loads ? ie. peg it to the front, toss and leg it back. As the front would be cleared the time to the back would be lessened. The time from the back then to the front would be lessened too with no rubble in the way.

I'd say if you were trying to balance rubble while navigating over more rubble, there would be more chance of tripping, and we all saw in ep 1 with the fireman what happens when you touch the graphite, even with gloves.

errlloyd

weldoninhio wrote: »

I'd say if you were trying to balance rubble while navigating over more rubble, there would be more chance of tripping, and we all saw in ep 1 with the fireman what happens when you touch the graphite, even with gloves.

Yeah I agree. Best method is definitely to clear from the edge back towards the door. Preference in this order.

1: Never having to run across rubble while carrying rubble.
2: Never have to run accross rubble at all.

To be fair, I'd say the job got steadily easier as time went by, but **** being the first guys out. Can you imagine the realistation when you went out there that in 90 seconds you were barely going to scratch the surface of this job.

weldoninhio

errlloyd wrote: »

Yeah I agree. Best method is definitely to clear from the edge back towards the door. Preference in this order.

1: Never having to run across rubble while carrying rubble.
2: Never have to run accross rubble at all.

To be fair, I'd say the job got steadily easier as time went by, but **** being the first guys out. Can you imagine the realistation when you went out there that in 90 seconds you were barely going to scratch the surface of this job.

Yeah, and the last lads got the 800 or 8000 rouble bonus!! They would have had the least work to do.

GrumPy

Another excellent episode. Such gripping TV. The most shocking aspect for me wasn't the animals, it was how they lied to the German's about the level of danger, out of sheer pride. It's madness how they could have put the whole planet at even *more* risk, because they were too embarrassed essentially.

I need to check out the accompanying podcasts, are they any good?

I'm reading this at the moment, very cool.

2smiggy

GrumPy wrote: »

Another excellent episode. Such gripping TV. The most shocking aspect for me wasn't the animals, it was how they lied to the German's about the level of danger, out of sheer pride. It's madness how they could have put the whole planet at even *more* risk, because they were too embarrassed essentially.

I need to check out the accompanying podcasts, are they any good?

I'm reading this at the moment, very cool.

ya the podcasts are very good, well worth a listen !!

errlloyd

GrumPy wrote: »

It's madness how they could have put the whole planet at even *more* risk, because they were too embarrassed essentially.

I need to check out the accompanying podcasts, are they any good?

The most interesting thing on the podcast this week (for me) was actually talking about the robot. They didn't show it in the show, but apparently the first guys who ever went up on the roof, went up to try and fix the robot because they initially didn't know that the Germans didn't know the radiation level. So the guys at the plant dicked around for ages trying to fix a robot that was supposed to work but didn't. Putting serious levels of cancer risk on guys for nothing.

Tokyo

Robot is still there to this day.

TomSweeney

^^ There is a massive graveyard of cars,trucks,tanks, choppers etc ... that are abandoned there, too contaminated to be used .

Frank Bullitt

Great bit of history this. Pays testament to the heroic nature of these guys, the danger of the place they were, and also how the show captured this.

Look at the lumps of graphite on the roof!

Wibbs

TomSweeney wrote: »

^^ There is a massive graveyard of cars,trucks,tanks, choppers etc ... that are abandoned there, too contaminated to be used .

The scary part of that is some locals have over the years stripped the vehicles for parts either to keep others running or to sell because they might be valuable.

Hammer Archer

As per the podcast, they had filmed a more harrowing (and true) scene with the dogs but decided to cut it out. Found a dog alive in the pit but they were out of ammunition.

It really is an excellent listen.

Frank Bullitt

FYI, I am loving the "why didn't they just..." suggestions in here for the roof.

errlloyd

Gintonious wrote: »

FYI, I am loving the "why didn't they just..." suggestions in here for the roof.

Its mad actually, it's made me rethink all the GoT threads. People in this thread are like "why didn't they just" as if this didn't happen and it was written by some amateur

PhilOssophy

Gintonious wrote: »

FYI, I am loving the "why didn't they just..." suggestions in here for the roof.

Sure it looks easy from the couch, I'm convinced the radiation had gone to their head and they weren't thinking properly, they needed a clear headed vodka free thinker like myself there! Those 3k men would never have been on that roof but for the vodka.

Thargor

This is absolutely spectacular, my favourite series of recent times easily. Its absolutely riveting, Im not tempted to browse or look at my phone once for the whole hour, cant say that about Game of Thrones or any of the rest.

InTheShadows

Fantastic show. Have always being fascinated by the Chernobyl incident. Always thought the average Joe on the street didn't realize just how close Europe came to being inhabitable.

errlloyd

InTheShadows wrote: »

Fantastic show. Have always being fascinated by the Chernobyl incident. Always thought the average Joe on the street didn't realize just how close Europe came to being inhabitable.

Europe is fairly inhabitable right now tbh.