Nuclear

In 1986, the USSR was still an Eastern European entity, and this blog never existed (because this blogger was 5yro (and blogging wasn't yet cool (yes, I just called blogging cool; deal with it))).  So, all the references to Chernobyl got this blog thinking that some further digging might be educational.  Especially in light of the "New Safe Confinement" (NSC) structure slated to send a steel rainbow of preventative safety over the existing Chernobyl nuclear sarcophagus.

Scientific American  cites the new structure's dimensions as being taller than the Statue of Liberty, extending 3 footfall fields, and weighing more than 29,000 metric tons.  That's a significant structure.  It's significant because it is designed to entomb the site of what is referred to as the "worst nuclear disaster in history".  The current structure, known as the "Shelter Object" (a less glamorous name than its anticipated replacement), is composed of 7,000 metric tons of metal and 400,000 metric tons of concrete.  Don't let those hefty figures throw you though; the structure was erected so rapidly in response to the disaster that, subsequently, it's assembled much like a house of cards.  Cue the NSC.

Fire up the time machine: on April 26, 1986 at 1:23am, a catastrophic power increase elicited an explosion at the core of reactor four at the Chernobyl plant.  This resulted in dispersing huge amounts of radioactive fuel and core materials into the atmosphere.  One blast lead to another; a highly combustible graphite moderator was ignited (bad news); significant "excitation" occurred...at about his point the "SCRAM" alert goes off which is the emergency shutdown of a nuclear reactor.  Thus, "fallout" has initiated; fallout being the bright red term for "residual radiation hazard".  Fast forward 25 years (yes, it's the anniversary of), and it's time for NSC to keep all that potential residual radiation hazard on lock-down.  Any questions?  (Let's hope so.)