Chernobyl

[pragmatic]

The topic was introduced as a gripping dramatization, one mainly about the denial and resistance of the communist bureaucracy to the nature of the problem. It starts off with denial from bottom up that there was a core meltdown, the scientists and engineers said fit couldn't happen, the party leaders want to impress higher ups it was contained. Gorbachev put together a committee that decided it was all nothing till a physicist convinced them it had to be worse because of graphite found scattered around the blast, so Gorby assigned the physicist and a high-ranking official to go see. They decided the core had melted but initially since that was believed impossible, had no way to solve it and preventing worse. The physicist eventually proposed covering the core in borium (?) and sand. A nuclear physicist woman heard and raced to the plant to explain all the water from firefighting had accumulated around the core and the borium and sand would only cause it to heat up to the point it would melt through to the water and set off a huge explosion. So they send some plant engineers to open valves to run off the water--next episode! It's a dramatization of something that was a disaster and could have been much worse.

Have watched the first 2-3 episodes. (am one episode behind)

Agree. Fascinating docudrama. Spent several years working construction on a nuclear power plant in Missouri back in the '80s. The topic has added interest.

[Chris]

[Admiral Ackbar]

If you have Amazon Prime, check out Chernobyl. It's a gripping dramatization of government bureaucracy in the face of disaster.

You might even say it is evidence of how Socialism Sucks!