Ask HN: Is anyone else terrified about a nuclear catastrophe from Ukraine? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is anyone else terrified about a nuclear catastrophe from Ukraine?

1 pointnanna18 comments

We're a single loose shell away from another nuclear catastrophe in Ukraine, and I'm terrified. Is anyone else? Given that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has already suffered shelling it seems fair to say that we're on the brink of a nuclear fallout at the moment.

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Don't quote me on this, but I think you personally will absorb more radiation from eating bananas in your lifetime than you would from Zaporizhzhia even if it were blown to smithereens.

Risks from nuclear meltdowns are actually overinflated in the public mind. Do you know how many people died of radiation poisoning in the wake of Chernobyl? It's fewer than you think.

More people die each year from coal related air pollution than Chernobyl did in total, many more

iirc, direct deaths were less than 100 and long-term the debate ranges from 1-10k

Likewise, a lot more nukes have been set off than most people realize.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-nuclear-weapons...

Over 2000 nukes have been exploded.

That is a very cavalier way of looking at it. This is the radiation fallout map from Chernobyl. In all darker red areas you still have to radiation test wild game and people are advised to not each too much mushrooms.

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tx9iqKuIdYU/VhP7XTxs4dI/AAAAAAAAp...

> Radioactive contamination of mushrooms and wild game

> - As a result of the Chernobyl reactor accident, certain species of mushrooms and wild game are still highly contaminated with caesium-137 in some areas of Germany.

https://www.bfs.de/EN/topics/ion/environment/foodstuffs/mush...

It's not all-or-nothing. We must be able to understand that nuclear disasters are bad while also not being overly freaked out by them.

The world really isn't taking Russia-Ukraine seriously enough. But the risk of a Chernobyl level disaster is low, with a Fukushima level disaster as the worst case scenario and also low likelihood.

It's the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.

The risk is high, if the plant loses the cooling system which requires power to run then this becomes a serious issue. The fuel will start heating up.

It is not the broken reactor design of chernobil. It will not blow up that way.

Well there’s no point in being “terrified” because you can’t control the outcome. Why waste your last moment imagining your body decaying from fallout burns and then, actually having to endure it as well?

In all seriousness though I’m pretty sure one side in that conflict will intentionally bomb a plant and blame the other, both having the motive of revenge against Europe. Ukraine because nobody helped them and indeed the powers that be got out the popcorn, and Russia just because they’re crazy spiteful soviet shits like they always have been.

I have gas mask with filter marked to 1952 year for me. Still very appropriate to put it on in first few days because of alfa and betta ray make any dust radioactive.

I just wish we would stop funding foreign wars

Would you rather have an entire country removed from the map?

Would you rather let bullies win and get their way?

We should’ve split Ukraine with Russia and made a new state, and avoided a potential war with a nuclear power, since Ukraine destroyed all their nukes after listening to pacifists. Ukraine BTW spent the cold war manufacturing hydrogen bombs to drop on US cities, so really who cares who wins so long as we don’t get involved

Ukraine was formed by such an agreement which was subsequently violated by Russia. Why do you think another would result in different outcomes?

We care because countries with freedom support each other, because it is the right thing to do morally. Would you rather have authoritarians take over more of the world?

Or not being evil and actually liberating Ukraine and rest of the Eastern Europe after defeating Germany in WW2...

After hanging children from lamp posts and the rape of Berlin the allies figured out they weren't morally superior, gave up and went home

And yet they were morally superior. We just didn’t know what the soviets had done.

Because having a direct war a little later is so much better.

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