Ask HN: Is the Chernobyl Reactor Leaking? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is the Chernobyl Reactor Leaking?

29 pointsprakhar89715 comments

https://www.saveecobot.com/en/radiation-maps#10/51.4557/29.7915/gamma/comp+cams+fire

Radiation levels seem to be on rise and have maxed out sensors in Chernobyl. Can anyone tell whats happening?

Edit:

Snapshots: https://web.archive.org/web/20211029005305/https://www.saveecobot.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20210922063854/https://www.saveecobot.com/en 74 snapshots since 2018. The specific radiation map has been snapshotted yesterday only which seems concerning.

Snapshotted about page: https://web.archive.org/web/20210301011105/https://www.saveecobot.com/en/static/about All people here seems legit.

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https://remap.jrc.ec.europa.eu/Advanced.aspx

I cant see anything crazy happening here on the official European Commision Radioactivity Environmental Monitoring website. A radiation monitor nearby in Belarus recorded a small spike to 470 nSv/h at last reading, but this is nothing really.

Although interestingly the Chernobyl sensor hasnt reported since the 23rd https://imgur.com/a/Un8ltqb (purple series).

There is a lot of talk on TV News (I am watching CBS News streaming right now) about possible threats to the Chernobyl site since there are now Russian troops in that area.

It's not impossible that an attack with heavy weapons could damage the sarcophagus around the failed reactor and leak some radiation but it would be a bad move with no strategic motive for either the Russians or Ukrainians.

I think it is a concern that is exaggerated.

Would that make it an excellent stronghold? A force could hold there without fear of bombardment and set up artillery and the like.

Makes me wonder if you could use something similar in a more portable sense, like a large amount of nuclear waste carried with a company over enemy ground.

To be clear, I don't think Russia's doing this, but it's an interesting tactic to think about.

Once nuclear waste has aged for a while the main radiological threats are a few fission products with a half-life around 30 years (Cesium 137 and Strontium 90) and then some transuranics (Plutonium 239) that have half-lifes more like 40,000 years.

Thus if somebody dispersed spent fuel in the environment it would not create mass causalities that would kill or injure combatants but instead there would be a concern that it would cause health problems for random individuals over a very long time.

I'd compare that to a dirty bomb which is probably not that much deadlier than a plain bomb (if you had material that was dangerously radioactive enough to harm the public the bomb makers would be killed by it) except that people who are near it might suffer psychologically because they imagine they might get lung cancer because they inhaled plutonium particles.

I've posted this in a few threads right now:

That site is suspect. The "radiation map" page did not seem to exist before today: https://web.archive.org/web/20220224230609/https://www.savee...

They claim to have "1 million users", and yet only have 22 Twitter followers: https://twitter.com/SaveEcoBot

It smells of a misinformation campaign to me. If there was a spike of radiation at Chernobyl, I'm sure we would very quickly hear about it from more reputable sources.

https://web.archive.org/web/20210922063854/https://www.savee... https://web.archive.org/web/20210922063854/https://www.savee...

74 snapshots since 2018. The specific radiation map has been snapshotted yesterday only which seems concerning.

Yeah, the site existed before today, but it seems like they hastily put together this "radiation map".

I'm waiting until a reliable source claims the same thing before I believe it.

There have been some people saying that somewhat elevated radiation levels were to be expected from tanks and trucks kicking up dirt in the area, and that it wouldn't be something to be majorly concerned about.

Not sure how accurate this is:

“ Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak told the Associated Press that Russian forces took control over the decommissioned nuclear power plant; authorities there said in the process of the violent attack in the area, shelling hit a radioactive waste repository at Chernobyl, increasing the amount of radiation in the area. Now scientists are busy watching for signs of any radioactive event unfolding, including tracking any hazardous radioactive cloud that could rise from the area and float through Europe and perhaps beyond.”

https://weatherboy.com/scientists-track-radioactive-dangers-...

Looks like information war. Russians does not have enough military to win war with Ukraine, so trying to convince Ukrainians, that something terrible happen.

And sure, for this they captured Chernobyl site and cut communications, so now could simulate anything.

At the moment, those attacks have only one real win - mobile networks where overloaded, so become unusable, and nothing more.

You're living in absolute fantasy if you believe that Russia doesn't have a big enough army to defeat Ukraine.

Impossible. Even when where best years of USSR, communists spend about TEN YEARS to suppress guerilla resistance in Ukraine (after WW2, last info about guerilla where late 1950th).

Now will be much longer and Ukrainians will be much more effective.

I just saw this article saying that shelling may have hit a repository.

https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-chernobyl-russia-invasion...

If it's even true at all and not disinfo, It could've been caused by radioactive top soil getting disturbed by shelling/bombings.

Yes

I have heard that a waste storage had been damaged. But Im not 100% sure

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