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Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

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Re: Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

#31

Post by freehunter »

SomeOldThrow wrote: post #17
randylahey wrote: post #4

I found it very distracting that none of the ostensibly Russian or Ukrainian characters have an even remotely slavic accent.

I wish they had gone with the actual language + used subtitles, it really destroys the immersion.

I feel the opposite. I always feel like having to read subtitles destroys the immersion, because I can't read the subtitles and also watch the environment and visual cues and facial expressions. If I'm reading subtitles, I might as well be reading a book because I'm not watching the show anymore.

Re: Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

#32

Post by 2000YearOldMan »

randylahey wrote: post #4

I found it very distracting that none of the ostensibly Russian or Ukrainian characters have an even remotely slavic accent.

The creator/writer/director has a podcast where this was discussed. He opted to have the actors speak in their natural accent so that the actors don't act to the accent but instead act to the situation. I may be doing a bad job explaining it but he said something along the lines of actors starting to take on stereotypical traits when doing an accent, and he wanted to focus more on the reactions to the situation at hand.

Re: Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

#33

Post by brianpgordon »

joshuamorton wrote: post #27
baybal2 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> equivalent of a 5 megaton explosion Yep, the man greatly dramatises the story. Total deaths from immediate "radiation poisoning" were likely less than 100, with possibly 100 more due to radionuclide ingestion. Immediate DNA damage that does not result in radiation sickness, is much less lethal than popular culture suggests. Another thing to add, the best protective equipment for nuclear disaster is a good respirato…

> > equivalent of a 5 megaton explosion To be clear, this didn't happen. No one said it did. There was a chance something like this could have happened (the Chernobyl miniseries does a great job of showing this). The issue was that there were large water tanks under the reactor, and that the reactor material would eventually melt into those tanks, superheat the water and cause an enormous steam explosion, further sca…

To be even more clear, a steam explosion cannot by any stretch of the imagination "level" a city fully two hours away. And the phrase "equivalent of a 5 megaton explosion" has no possible interpretation that squares with reality. The idea of a megaton-sized steam explosion is ludicrous, so I assume he means to imply some connection to radioactive fallout - but the amount of fallout isn't really correlated with the strength of the explosion. In fact, early fission bombs were relatively dirty while later thermonuclear bombs were relatively clean. The largest nuclear explosion ever produced was actually remarkably clean due to its unique design. So what is Moxie even talking about? It borders on incoherent, and I think you're being far too charitable.

By the way, the three men who faced "almost certain death" were certainly heroic but weren't in nearly as much danger as he plays up. All three men survived and lived for decades afterward.

Re: Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

#34

Post by iooi »

dweekly wrote: post #5

The pictures are lovely and the reflections profound. But much of the cited data here appears wrong. For instance, the article states (italicized): "six hundred helicopter pilots were killed" and yet it was only 600 helicopter pilots who _flew_ liquidator missions[1], two of which were killed in an piloting accident and none were registered killed from immediate radiation exposure[2], though at least one eventually d…

You seem to have cherry picked sources that have a lower estimate for all these figures, i.e., "propaganda numbers".

I think the best source for these numbers is the Wikipedia article "Deaths due to the Chernobyl disaster" [1]. From the article, Russia claims "estimates ranging from 4,000" while scientific and environmental organizations claim "no fewer than 93,000". It's clear that Russia wants to downplay the enormous human and environmental toll this has had and will continue to have.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_due_to_the_Chernobyl_di...

Re: Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

#35

Post by baybal2 »

joshuamorton wrote: post #27
baybal2 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> equivalent of a 5 megaton explosion Yep, the man greatly dramatises the story. Total deaths from immediate "radiation poisoning" were likely less than 100, with possibly 100 more due to radionuclide ingestion. Immediate DNA damage that does not result in radiation sickness, is much less lethal than popular culture suggests. Another thing to add, the best protective equipment for nuclear disaster is a good respirato…

> > equivalent of a 5 megaton explosion To be clear, this didn't happen. No one said it did. There was a chance something like this could have happened (the Chernobyl miniseries does a great job of showing this). The issue was that there were large water tanks under the reactor, and that the reactor material would eventually melt into those tanks, superheat the water and cause an enormous steam explosion, further sca…

Man, 5 megaton tnt is like ~25 exajoules.

Thermal energy of 100 tons of 2000C uranium is like 0.25 terajoules...

Somebody missed at least 5 zeroes

And it was later found that only few percents of the fuel melted, so very likely 7 zeroes...

And given that it is not possible for anywhere close to 10% of thermal energy of such huge, solid body to go into steam flash, add 2 more zeros.

Re: Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

#36

Post by [deleted] »

mikeash wrote: post #28
randylahey wrote: post #4

I found it very distracting that none of the ostensibly Russian or Ukrainian characters have an even remotely slavic accent.

I hate it when movies try to portray foreign language speakers as speaking accented English. That’s not how any of this works! If they want to go for accuracy, the actors should speak the actual language. Provide subtitles for outside audiences. Otherwise, just have the actors speak normally. It’s no less authentic than speaking with an accent, and the actors can focus on acting. Another prominent Soviet example of d…

[deleted]

Re: Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

#37

Post by the_af »

iooi wrote: post #34
dweekly wrote: post #5

The pictures are lovely and the reflections profound. But much of the cited data here appears wrong. For instance, the article states (italicized): "six hundred helicopter pilots were killed" and yet it was only 600 helicopter pilots who _flew_ liquidator missions[1], two of which were killed in an piloting accident and none were registered killed from immediate radiation exposure[2], though at least one eventually d…

You seem to have cherry picked sources that have a lower estimate for all these figures, i.e., "propaganda numbers". I think the best source for these numbers is the Wikipedia article "Deaths due to the Chernobyl disaster" [1]. From the article, Russia claims "estimates ranging from 4,000" while scientific and environmental organizations claim "no fewer than 93,000". It's clear that Russia wants to downplay the enorm…

While later contested, it's not only "Russia" which estimated 4000 deaths. Wikipedia states the United Nations took part in the joint group, and

> "[...] worked to establish international consensus on the effects of the accident via a series of reports that collated 20 years of research to make official previous UN, IAEA, and World Health Organization (WHO) estimates of a total of 4,000 deaths due to disaster-related illnesses."

In fact, the sentence you quoted states:

> "[...] there is considerable debate concerning the accurate number of deaths due to the disaster's long-term health effects, with estimates ranging from 4,000 (per the 2005 and 2006 conclusions of a joint consortium of the United Nations and the governments of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia), to no fewer than 93,000 (per the conflicting conclusions of various scientific, health, environmental, and survivors' organizations)."

So it's not just Russia.

Re: Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

#38

Post by joshuamorton »

brianpgordon wrote: post #33
joshuamorton wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> > equivalent of a 5 megaton explosion To be clear, this didn't happen. No one said it did. There was a chance something like this could have happened (the Chernobyl miniseries does a great job of showing this). The issue was that there were large water tanks under the reactor, and that the reactor material would eventually melt into those tanks, superheat the water and cause an enormous steam explosion, further sca…

To be even more clear, a steam explosion cannot by any stretch of the imagination "level" a city fully two hours away. And the phrase "equivalent of a 5 megaton explosion" has no possible interpretation that squares with reality. The idea of a megaton-sized steam explosion is ludicrous, so I assume he means to imply some connection to radioactive fallout - but the amount of fallout isn't really correlated with the st…

See this reddit thread[0] linked elsewhere here. The issue is likely a faulty primary source, some russian official who wildly misspoke or miswrote something.

[0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/TVChernobyl/comments/boo19f/did_she...

Re: Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

#39

Post by PorterDuff »

williw wrote: post #30
randylahey wrote: post #4

I found it very distracting that none of the ostensibly Russian or Ukrainian characters have an even remotely slavic accent.

It's actually very distracting that most of them speak a perfect british accents. I was quite confused at the beginning whether british engineers or scientists were actually working for Russia or Ukrainian at the time.

I thought it was German soldiers who spoke British. It's a crazy old world.

Re: Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

#40

Post by cycrutchfield »

gk1 wrote: post #13

There's a YouTuber who's been traveling around Belarus and recording his daily adventures. Many of the videos are from inside the areas affected by Chernobyl. They're fun to watch: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqWdYjn21PdHRvHB7Nrwl...

Used to be a fan of Bald until his bizarre fake fight video with Harald Baldr. Then I started to notice other little things he was doing that were a bit off-putting and how creepy and exploitative some of his videos felt. Ended up unsubscribing after that.
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