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EricDVH
Current Version
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[[folder:Dubious minutia]]
*** Many contemporary reactors use electromagnets to hold up the control rods -- specifically so that a loss of power to the safety systems causes an immediate and automatic rod drop.
** In fiction, a melting down reactor is always a Chernobyl-level catastrophe regardless of design. Most of the consequences of the Chernobyl meltdown were a direct result of the plant being built without a containment building, a structure that surrounds the reactor itself and is intended to reduce any consequences of a leakage or meltdown. These work rather well: in the second-worst reactor disaster on Three Mile Island, the containment building duly contained the steam and other bad effects of the meltdown. No pyrotechnics; in fact, the radiation released from Three Mile Island was less then the radiation \'\'coming from your computer monitor.\'\'
** Purity of material is directly related to this. While reactor-grade fuel can be used in a nuclear device, much more of it is required than for weapons-grade fissile material -- so much more that it is not really useful for a direct military application.
# Any amount of radiation renders an area a physically unapproachable deathtrap for thousands of years. Radiation in videogames might approach lava in terms of lethality, or even be used as an ersatz InsurmountableWaistHeightFence to define the edge of a stage.
** People live in Hiroshima and Nagasaki \'\'right now\'\' despite the best efforts of a pair of horribly primitive and inefficient strategic nuclear weapons. Weapons that would have left a much larger and more concentrated amount of radioactive fallout than more efficient weapons.
** It\'s also perfectly possible to walk around in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone without dropping dead in seconds or growing a third arm.
*** Maybe that one should be a new trope: YouFailHealthPhysicsForever
* Very nicely averted in \'\'Hammer and Sickle\'\' when, in the next to last mission, the main character says something like \
*** Many contemporary reactors use electromagnets to hold up the control rods -- specifically so that a loss of power to the safety systems causes an immediate and automatic rod drop.
** In fiction, a melting down reactor is always a Chernobyl-level catastrophe regardless of design. Most of the consequences of the Chernobyl meltdown were a direct result of the plant being built without a containment building, a structure that surrounds the reactor itself and is intended to reduce any consequences of a leakage or meltdown. These work rather well: in the second-worst reactor disaster on Three Mile Island, the containment building duly contained the steam and other bad effects of the meltdown. No pyrotechnics; in fact, the radiation released from Three Mile Island was less then the radiation \'\'coming from your computer monitor.\'\'
** Purity of material is directly related to this. While reactor-grade fuel can be used in a nuclear device, much more of it is required than for weapons-grade fissile material -- so much more that it is not really useful for a direct military application.
# Any amount of radiation renders an area a physically unapproachable deathtrap for thousands of years. Radiation in videogames might approach lava in terms of lethality, or even be used as an ersatz InsurmountableWaistHeightFence to define the edge of a stage.
** People live in Hiroshima and Nagasaki \'\'right now\'\' despite the best efforts of a pair of horribly primitive and inefficient strategic nuclear weapons. Weapons that would have left a much larger and more concentrated amount of radioactive fallout than more efficient weapons.
** It\'s also perfectly possible to walk around in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone without dropping dead in seconds or growing a third arm.
*** Maybe that one should be a new trope: YouFailHealthPhysicsForever
* Very nicely averted in \'\'Hammer and Sickle\'\' when, in the next to last mission, the main character says something like \
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Trimmed a ton of redundant explanation. Also removed heaps of apologist trivia, such as the following:
[[foldercontrol]]
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* Very nicely averted in \'\'Hammer and Sickle\'\' when, in the next to last mission, the main character says something like \
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* Very nicely averted in \\\'\\\'Hammer and Sickle\\\'\\\' when, in the next to last mission, the main character says something like \\\"When we find the nuke, just shoot it, or throw grenades at it.\\\" When the other characters complain that it\\\'s going to blow, he tells them getting a nuke to go off is a very difficult process, and that it\\\'s very unlikely that the bad guys ship it around armed and ready to go off. You get a nice dose of radiation poisoning that quite quickly drains your hit points though.
* \\\"Fallout\\\" is used as a substitute for walls in the Chernobyl stage of \\\'\\\'{{Call of Duty}}: ModernWarfare\\\'\\\'. This is one of many things the stage copies from \\\'\\\'{{Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl}}\\\'\\\', which [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] the ridiculously deadly radiation as a physics anomaly, not regular fallout.
* Most games of \\\'\\\'{{Doom}}\\\'s\\\'\\\' era tended to have [[NoOSHACompliance open pools of radioactive waste]] as a type of [[GrimyWater hurt floor]], typically shown as being slightly less dangerous than lava.
[[/folder]]
Aside from the fact that getting tiny (hurriedly summarized) operating details of particular models of nuclear reactor exactly right verges on splitting hairs, saying that small amounts of radiation are perfectly safe ignores the fact that LARGE amounts of radiation are very dangerous, and is thus a meaningless statement. Unless an example is added where a specific quantity in Grays is falaciously deemed sufficiently dangerous for a knowledgable individual to go out of their way in avoiding, this sort of nonsense shouldn\\\'t be here.
** Fusion power tends to be depicted as operating in exactly the same way as nuclear power; while the reactor set / prop might look futuristic, expect talk of chain reactions and meltdowns in relation to a fusion plant, even though neither term could possibly be applied to any practical nuclear fusion plant.
Once again, nobody has built a fusion generator, nobody knows if it\\\'s possible to do so, and our current experiments with tokamaks may thus prove to be a complete dead end. Don\\\'t confuse science fiction with science fact.
** Also, a nuclear explosion in a visual medium will often produce a series of vertical lines of smoke. These are copied from nuclear tests, but are not actually anything to do with the explosion; they\\\'re trails from rockets fired to give a visible indication of the shockwave.
While this is mildly interesting, it is also trivia with zero examples.
[[folder:Irrelivant sob story]]
* Chernobyl\\\'s reactor mediator was defective by design. The investigators were ordered to hide this fact and blame everything on the crew. The design was approved by Eugene Adamov, who nearly failed to graduate from the university, then went on to construct reactors and eventually became the Minister of Atomic Energy.
** Almost everyone involved in Chernobyl is to to blame to some extent -- it was a combination of gross mal-operation as well as major design flaws.
*** The story in a nutshell: reactor was due to stop for a maintenancy and it was thought as a good opportunity to test if cheap-and-dirty diesel plus usual water pumps work if specialized bells-and-whistles SAOR (\\\'\\\'\\\'s\\\'\\\'\\\'ystem for \\\'\\\'\\\'a\\\'\\\'\\\'utomatic \\\'\\\'\\\'r\\\'\\\'\\\'eactor \\\'\\\'\\\'c\\\'\\\'\\\'ooling) fail. An experiment was planned, everyone prepared, but \\\'\\\'another\\\'\\\' reactor had some troubles and there was not enough power in the energy system during the day. So, instead of experienced people from day shift, an experiment was conducted by night shift of \\\"young specialists\\\". At first, these jerkwads didn\\\'t handle the reactor properly and dropped it from 1600 MWt to almost zero (instead of the 700-1000 MWt planned). \\\'\\\'And\\\'\\\' they didn\\\'t stop the reactor as they should have; instead, they removed nearly all control rods and stabilized the reactor at ~200 MWt, leaving in active zone about 6-8 (it\\\'s not a violation, it\\\'s a crime). And then they took the experiment further, disabled one of the main generators \\\'\\\'and\\\'\\\' disabled the SAOR. Water stopped circulating in the reactor and heat started to rise. Suddenly realizing that exterminatus is coming soon, the staff pulled SCRAM. The lower part of control rods was made from graphite to decrease latency when operated properly, but pulling them back into active zone resulted in increased reactivity of the reactor. Guess what happened when two hundred rods were dropped into an already overheating unstable reactor?
** The fact that the Chernobyl disaster is physically impossible with modern reactors doesn\\\'t stop today\\\'s opponents of nuclear power from [[WallBanger citing Chernobyl in their reasoning.]] It\\\'s the equivalent of GodwinsLaw in nuclear power debating circles.
*** Three Mile Island gets a lot of this too. In that one the safeties actually worked. Despite a partial core meltdown occurring, the total amount of radiation exposure to anyone outside the plant was less than what you\\\'d pick up from a chest X-ray.
** You\\\'ll get some supposedly genuine documentaries about Chernobyl throwing out ridiculous numbers either for the sake of drama or some vague antinuclear message. Example1: Saying the thermal explosion that could have occurred if the melted reactor material had come in contact with the water under the core would have be equivelent to a multi-megaton detonation. Not unless a cubic kilometer of water somehow magically flashed to steam. Example2: Saying radiation in the town nearby was [[{{BeyondTheImpossible}} 10,000 roentgens per hour!]]. The reactor waste itself was only giving off 1,500 roetgens per hour at max, 10,000 roetgens would melt you into a puddle.
** Our misleading radiation count is OVER 9000!
** What, 9000? There\\\'s no way that could be right!
[[/folder]]
Wow, \\\'\\\'that\\\'\\\' had nothing to do with the trope at all.
[[center:Eric,]]
* \\\"Fallout\\\" is used as a substitute for walls in the Chernobyl stage of \\\'\\\'{{Call of Duty}}: ModernWarfare\\\'\\\'. This is one of many things the stage copies from \\\'\\\'{{Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl}}\\\'\\\', which [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] the ridiculously deadly radiation as a physics anomaly, not regular fallout.
* Most games of \\\'\\\'{{Doom}}\\\'s\\\'\\\' era tended to have [[NoOSHACompliance open pools of radioactive waste]] as a type of [[GrimyWater hurt floor]], typically shown as being slightly less dangerous than lava.
[[/folder]]
Aside from the fact that getting tiny (hurriedly summarized) operating details of particular models of nuclear reactor exactly right verges on splitting hairs, saying that small amounts of radiation are perfectly safe ignores the fact that LARGE amounts of radiation are very dangerous, and is thus a meaningless statement. Unless an example is added where a specific quantity in Grays is falaciously deemed sufficiently dangerous for a knowledgable individual to go out of their way in avoiding, this sort of nonsense shouldn\\\'t be here.
** Fusion power tends to be depicted as operating in exactly the same way as nuclear power; while the reactor set / prop might look futuristic, expect talk of chain reactions and meltdowns in relation to a fusion plant, even though neither term could possibly be applied to any practical nuclear fusion plant.
Once again, nobody has built a fusion generator, nobody knows if it\\\'s possible to do so, and our current experiments with tokamaks may thus prove to be a complete dead end. Don\\\'t confuse science fiction with science fact.
** Also, a nuclear explosion in a visual medium will often produce a series of vertical lines of smoke. These are copied from nuclear tests, but are not actually anything to do with the explosion; they\\\'re trails from rockets fired to give a visible indication of the shockwave.
While this is mildly interesting, it is also trivia with zero examples.
[[folder:Irrelivant sob story]]
* Chernobyl\\\'s reactor mediator was defective by design. The investigators were ordered to hide this fact and blame everything on the crew. The design was approved by Eugene Adamov, who nearly failed to graduate from the university, then went on to construct reactors and eventually became the Minister of Atomic Energy.
** Almost everyone involved in Chernobyl is to to blame to some extent -- it was a combination of gross mal-operation as well as major design flaws.
*** The story in a nutshell: reactor was due to stop for a maintenancy and it was thought as a good opportunity to test if cheap-and-dirty diesel plus usual water pumps work if specialized bells-and-whistles SAOR (\\\'\\\'\\\'s\\\'\\\'\\\'ystem for \\\'\\\'\\\'a\\\'\\\'\\\'utomatic \\\'\\\'\\\'r\\\'\\\'\\\'eactor \\\'\\\'\\\'c\\\'\\\'\\\'ooling) fail. An experiment was planned, everyone prepared, but \\\'\\\'another\\\'\\\' reactor had some troubles and there was not enough power in the energy system during the day. So, instead of experienced people from day shift, an experiment was conducted by night shift of \\\"young specialists\\\". At first, these jerkwads didn\\\'t handle the reactor properly and dropped it from 1600 MWt to almost zero (instead of the 700-1000 MWt planned). \\\'\\\'And\\\'\\\' they didn\\\'t stop the reactor as they should have; instead, they removed nearly all control rods and stabilized the reactor at ~200 MWt, leaving in active zone about 6-8 (it\\\'s not a violation, it\\\'s a crime). And then they took the experiment further, disabled one of the main generators \\\'\\\'and\\\'\\\' disabled the SAOR. Water stopped circulating in the reactor and heat started to rise. Suddenly realizing that exterminatus is coming soon, the staff pulled SCRAM. The lower part of control rods was made from graphite to decrease latency when operated properly, but pulling them back into active zone resulted in increased reactivity of the reactor. Guess what happened when two hundred rods were dropped into an already overheating unstable reactor?
** The fact that the Chernobyl disaster is physically impossible with modern reactors doesn\\\'t stop today\\\'s opponents of nuclear power from [[WallBanger citing Chernobyl in their reasoning.]] It\\\'s the equivalent of GodwinsLaw in nuclear power debating circles.
*** Three Mile Island gets a lot of this too. In that one the safeties actually worked. Despite a partial core meltdown occurring, the total amount of radiation exposure to anyone outside the plant was less than what you\\\'d pick up from a chest X-ray.
** You\\\'ll get some supposedly genuine documentaries about Chernobyl throwing out ridiculous numbers either for the sake of drama or some vague antinuclear message. Example1: Saying the thermal explosion that could have occurred if the melted reactor material had come in contact with the water under the core would have be equivelent to a multi-megaton detonation. Not unless a cubic kilometer of water somehow magically flashed to steam. Example2: Saying radiation in the town nearby was [[{{BeyondTheImpossible}} 10,000 roentgens per hour!]]. The reactor waste itself was only giving off 1,500 roetgens per hour at max, 10,000 roetgens would melt you into a puddle.
** Our misleading radiation count is OVER 9000!
** What, 9000? There\\\'s no way that could be right!
[[/folder]]
Wow, \\\'\\\'that\\\'\\\' had nothing to do with the trope at all.
[[center:Eric,]]
