(no subject)

[keaalu]

I had never realised until now just HOW close to complete nuclear disaster the world came after Chernobyl. Just seen a program on TV about it, and it's really... well, got to me. If not for the bravery of two divers (whose names the world appears to have forgotten), who knew they were going to their deaths to empty the tanks under the reactor, something like a quarter of Europe would probably be uninhabitable now.

Edit2: *removes her previous edit since no-one gets it :P*

Comments

[aegis-fox.livejournal.com]

I knew of the incident; just not of the detail. Or, as you said, how close.

You'd think people would be less careless with technology that can destroy entire cities. Alas, people are people....

Hmm... maybe there's some way to fit some of this into a story...

Can't think about it too much. I'll just end up depressing myself.

What was the removed bit?

[keaalu.livejournal.com]

It was a cynical remark about how it seems to be all right and good taste for furries to name characters after some of the worst peacetime disasters, but really bad taste and something that'd get you socially oustracised if said disasters affected America, like September 11th. I know, bad idea to start with, ascribing good taste and thoughtfulness to furries, but seeing a radioactive dog-furry thing called "Chernobyl" (add in some "OMG LOL so ORIGNAL!"-s here) stuck me as disrespectful and quite disgusting. Like calling a character "Hiroshima", or something.

But then Chernobyl has always terrified hell out of me. The fact that the heat was so intense it DID burn through the concrete and lead floor and melt the fuel rods into an immobile mass (which will remain radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years) in the bottom of the water tanks below. That if those two divers hadn't gone to their deaths to drain the tanks there'd have been a thermic explosion which would have devastated a huge area of Western europe (two hundred square kilometres, I think). The fact that the only way they could lay sand on the fire to put it out was to literally hover a helicopter above it, in the worst updraft of radiation the world has ever seen, and throw SANDBAGS onto it. Yes, SANDBAGS. Not use those buckets like they use to drop water on forest fires, but tiny little sandbags, like they use to shore up front doors when there's floods. It took something like four thousand flights to do it.

[aegis-fox.livejournal.com]

I'll agree with you on that one - using the name that way is quite out of line. At least, it's not one that should be used casually...

As you said, it's still a mercy that half the country wasn't taken out by this.