Free Online Documentaries: The Battle of Chernobyl & Chernobyl: Life In The Dead Zone

Good information is crucial.



It’s a documentary which analyzes the Thursday 26th April 1986 that became a momentous date in modern history, when one of the reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in northern Ukraine, exploded. It was the most significant reactor failure in the history of nuclear power, a Maximum Credible Accident (MCA). The plant, just 20 km away from the town center, was made up of four reactor units each generating an output of 1,000 megawatts. The reactor in question exploded due to operational errors and inadequate safety measures and the meltdown was directly linked to routine testing on the reactor unit’s turbine generators.

The test required reactor activity and the thermal reactor output to be run down to a lower level. During the procedure, however, the reactor plummeted to an unexpectedly low and unstable level of activity. At this point, it should have been shut down; as the operators chose to continue with the test, the events subsequently proved to be catastrophic.

More than 200 people died or were seriously injured by radiation exposure immediately after the explosion. 161,000 people had to be evacuated from a 30 kilometer radius of the reactor and 25,000 square km of land were contaminated. As time went on millions of people suffered radiation related health problems such as leukemia and thyroid cancer and around 4,000 people have died as a result of the long-term effects of the accident.

Nobody was prepared for such a crisis. For the next seven months, 500,000 men will wage hand-to-hand combat with an invisible enemy – a ruthless battle that has gone unsung, which claimed thousands of unnamed and now almost forgotten heroes. Yet, it is thanks to these men that the worst was avoided; a second explosion, ten times more powerful than Hiroshima which would have wiped out more than half of Europe. This was kept secret for twenty years by the Soviets and the West alike.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-battle-of-chernobyl/#



Chernobyl: Life In The Dead Zone (2007)

http://www.alluc.org/movies/watch-Chernobyl-Life-In-The-Dead-Zone-2007-online/205555.html

It's about the kids who are still suffering from radiation

With all the new interest in nukes, hbo might even dig it out again.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://joe.tc/cupofweb/%3Fp%3D881&usg=__Y6ExrdAL1EmOrLSDc6rystM1XJA=&h=527&w=800&sz=218&hl=en&start=40&sig2=B-tTUx2l2Ip-pi4Uo5u8rQ&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=zI3GMRjiCbUa6M:&tbnh=94&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpripyat%26start%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=rZB-Tfu2FouN0QHgr72CCQ

I've been furiously "studying" all things nuclear now (so, so awfully late to the - - "scene"), but came across this 2 nights ago; found it both profoundly moving, of course, but also, the "time line" link spells out exactly what happened...

http://todayspictures.slate.com/inmotion/essay_chernobyl/

(by Paul Fusco, photographer, who spent two months there in the late 90's, I believe it was)

to day tourists. Damn he's a gutsy fellow thanks for the link to the photos!

even used copies are out of my price range right now, but if my ship ever comes in...

thank you again, my friend

it's at a library