# Please explain the Chernobyl disaster?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-chernobyl-disaster/962359>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 5, 2022, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-chernobyl-disaster/962359 "2022-04-05T23:44:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 66

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**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\
**Post date:** [April 18, 2023, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-the-chernobyl-disaster/962359/66 "2023-04-18T21:32:22Z")

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I didn’t realize this thread had been bumped.

And just to be clear on my own opinion about nukes.  
I’m slightly in favor, and more research is needed. I grew up aprox. 10 miles from a double reactor. After **Three Mile Island** we got packs of Iodine tablets and a receiver box with an alarm sent to our house, since we were considered (among thousands others) to be in the immediate risk zone. When Sweden held a referendum in 1980 about continuation of nuclear power, I voted Yes. I think the risks and panic are greatly exaggerated.

However, I do not think that nukes are going to be a viable option to a fossil free world in the short term. In fact, [I wrote a rather lengthy post about it some time ago](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-power-news-and-debates/979176/31) some of what I wrote there is repeated here.

In 2006 BBC aired an episode of **Horizon** - their prestigious popular science documentary - called **Nuclear Nightmares**. It was an epiphany to me. It says - among a lot of other really interesting stuff - that radiophobia is doing a lot more harm than radiation it self. And from my understanding, the HBO show played heavily into that radiophobia.

[I actually found the episode online. It’s about 50 minutes long and well worth watching.](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x226eff)

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