At 0123 local Ukrainian time on 26 April 1986, an alarm sounded at the Chernobyl nuclear power station marking the beginning of an accident that has had a lasting effect on the world. Today is the 20th anniversary of that event.
Shane and Rod review the accident, the aftermath, and the lessons learned about the accident. They also discuss some of the reactions to the event and some of their political and economic motivation.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:27 — 12.5MB)
Subscribe: Android | Google Podcasts | RSS
great show guys. I was 15 when Chernobyl happened and I don’t remember much about it apart from media saturation and the impression that new-clear energy (to quote your president) is dangerous. Glad you guys are providing some perspective.
Thanks, boss. It is nice to be appreciated.
I caught your promo on DSC and thought I would have a listen. I
was in the Navy’s Reactor Operator training program in 1987. We were given a fairly thorough set of information about Chernobyl. One thing that was heavily noted in that report as well as one I read later in my life written by the IAEA (I believe) was the extent to which the leaders on the control rods played a damaging effect. They noted the void coefficient was something like 2.50 and the control rods had a one-meter leader.
On the topic of the podcast format, could you consider each of the two of you recording your own portion of the show locally (skype is still alright for your connection between you) and then mix the two tracks together into your mono podcast. This should get better quality sound from Shane (if I am getting the names correct) as well as give you better control of sound levels.
Shane, please have a Chili-Works (?sp) burrito for me. I left LANL in 1998 and that is the thing I miss the most.
Robin:
Great to hear from you and thanks for telling me where you found out about the show. Did you ever make it to a ship or boat? I was starting my engineer officer tour in 1987 and remained in that job until the end of 1990.
Thanks for the suggestion on the sound quality. We are still experimenting with ways to improve and might try out your suggestion.