Author Topic: HBO's Chernobyl  (Read 6786 times)

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Offline Det. Bullock

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I wouldn't call building a nuclear power station at 10m above sea level in a country so famous for tsunamis that we stopped using our own word for the phenomenon "everything done correctly" :p
Hindsight is 20/20. :P
But seriously, Chernobyl is so visibly a product of the incompetence of the communist authorities that using it as a parable about the risks of nuclear power while being even partially honest about what caused it is probably impossible.
"I pity the poor shades confined to the euclidean prison that is sanity." - Grant Morrison
"People assume  that time is a strict progression of cause to effect,  but *actually*  from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more  like a big ball  of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff." - The Doctor

 

Offline jr2

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I think that the main problem is that the Chernobyl incident doesn't really work as an anti-nuclear story.
The cause of the incident wasn't the inherent danger of nuclear power plants (Fukushima would be better, everything was done correctly yet it all went down the drain anyway) rather the general stupidity of the Soviet system in general at least the way I understand it.
I wouldn't call building a nuclear power station at 10m above sea level in a country so famous for tsunamis that we stopped using our own word for the phenomenon "everything done correctly" :p
Yeah, the backup generators for circulating coolant after a shutdown were diesel and, uh, those don't run under water (although if you put an intake stack ("snorkel") on them they'd run just fine so long as the intake remains above water)

 

Offline General Battuta

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Chernobyl is certainly a parable about something, and in fact it beats you over the head with it, but it ain’t nuclear power.

 

Offline Rhymes

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Chernobyl is certainly a parable about something, and in fact it beats you over the head with it, but it ain’t nuclear power.

Hey it's not like it begins and ends with the question "what is the cost of lies?" and then spends the intervening five episodes answering that question.

Oh wait.
If you don't have Knossos, you need it.

“There was a button," Holden said. "I pushed it."
"Jesus Christ. That really is how you go through life, isn't it?”

 

Offline jr2

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Chernobyl is certainly a parable about something, and in fact it beats you over the head with it, but it ain’t nuclear power.

Hey it's not like it begins and ends with the question "what is the cost of lies?" and then spends the intervening five episodes answering that question.

Oh wait.

Of course, it's not lies if it's hyperbole in service of telling us the cost of lies...

 

Offline Rhymes

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What even is your argument here? That they're not 100% in line with reality and therefore it's RUINED?
If you don't have Knossos, you need it.

“There was a button," Holden said. "I pushed it."
"Jesus Christ. That really is how you go through life, isn't it?”

 

Offline jr2

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What even is your argument here? That they're not 100% in line with reality and therefore it's RUINED?

No; that they are very much over the top and are therefore doing a disservice.  Similar to claims of cruise control causing cars to fly out of control through the air under hydroplaning conditions (yes, that's and actual claim).  The problem exists, accidents can (and do) happen, but you have to be careful or you will scare the uninformed into thinking the tech is too dangerous for human use.  It's not; people are just dumb sometimes, and THAT should be the argument: for transparency and accountability, with checks and balances to prevent a handful of people following the mistake of one or two and causing mass harm.

Let's see if we got this right:

Chernobyl: unsafe (relatively) design coupled with bureaucratic mistakes which pushed said design past its limits, further complicated by said design failing b/c shutdown was impossible without a temporary spike of reaction acceleration which froze the entire shutdown mechanism)
3 Mile Island: lack of training complicated by bad equipment design (indicator light wired to switch position instead of valve position)
Fukishima: Poor design for backup systems, IIRC also ignored when safety of such design was pointed out (backup generators located where water could stall the engines in an area prone to earthquake and therefore tsunamis, with a reactor design that required active cooling after shutdown).

All of the above accidents, especially Chernobyl, are bad enough without adding anything to the facts of the stories for dramatic effect.

 
The problem exists, accidents can (and do) happen, but you have to be careful or you will scare the uninformed into thinking the tech is too dangerous for human use.
Cool, that's exactly what the show does, go watch it.

 

Offline Rhymes

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It's not; people are just dumb sometimes, and THAT should be the argument: for transparency and accountability, with checks and balances to prevent a handful of people following the mistake of one or two and causing mass harm.
Okay. So clearly you haven't actually watched the show, or if you did, you did it while half asleep/doing the dishes/cleaning the house/whatever. How about you go back, watch it again, and this time, pay attention. It's not subtle about making this point.

Either that, or you started watching, saw that it was about a nuclear accident and decided to just jump in and go "b-but nooklear."
« Last Edit: October 18, 2019, 07:44:19 pm by Rhymes »
If you don't have Knossos, you need it.

“There was a button," Holden said. "I pushed it."
"Jesus Christ. That really is how you go through life, isn't it?”

 

Offline General Battuta

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No; that they are very much over the top and are therefore doing a disservice.  Similar to claims of cruise control causing cars to fly out of control through the air under hydroplaning conditions (yes, that's and actual claim).  The problem exists, accidents can (and do) happen, but you have to be careful or you will scare the uninformed into thinking the tech is too dangerous for human use.  It's not; people are just dumb sometimes, and THAT should be the argument: for transparency and accountability, with checks and balances to prevent a handful of people following the mistake of one or two and causing mass harm.

You didn't watch a minute of the show, did you? Like you didn't even watch enough to get the show's first line (which is, iirc, also its last line).

This totally uninformed commentary is a pattern with you, jr2.