Kyle Greer > Recent Status Updates

Chapters 4-6

Mostly concerning the difficulties in maintaining a newly conquered principality. Introduction to virtù and fortuna as paths to power

Chapters 1-3

Outlines the basics of what a principality is. Chapter 3 concerning mixed principalities was fascinating. Shockingly easy to draw parallels with modern international relations.

Still having a fun time, pretty light read. Chapters 4-6 are about the very basics of how a nuclear reactor works, other power generation methods on submarines (Diesel and battery backups) As this book is from 1954, it’s a neat look at what the author believed the future of nuclear energy would be.

As an aside the story of Rudolf Diesel’s still unsolved disappearance was something I never knew.

Lovely read so far. Easy to follow even without a technical or maritime background. First several chapters are on the history of submarines as whole, beginning in the American revolution and continuing through the first and second world wars.

Preface covered the commissions mandate from the president, what the commission investigated, as well as what they did not.

Finished TMI, finally. Three Mile Island can really be thought of as a communications failure first and a PORV failure second. The lack of accurate information flow between even the PA governor and the NRC is shocking. It's not a surprise that the public was panicked.

President Carter's visit to Harrisburg is it's own long story, but it effectively marked the end of any anticipated danger in Middlestown.

The miscommunication and lack of clarity provided to the government and public around TMI was a nightmare

Midway through windscale. I liked the look into British politics in the 50s and their desire/need to keep in line with their American counterparts.

Interesting discussion of Wigner Effect and graphite moderated reactors.

Chapter 6: Mass Spectroscopy Continued
During this chapter I finally got myself up to speed on the spectroscopy basics, Maybe in the next one I’ll catch myself up on what I learned in this one.

Chapter 5: Radiotherapy

Most detailed explanation of radiotherapy as a means of cancer treatment I’ve ever read. (not a high bar) Generally surprised by how much of this chapter I was already familiar with.

Mass Spectrometry is confusing

Chapter 2: Introduction to radiocarbon and chronography through radiocarbon dating. Interesting to think that analysis of radiocarbon content in the atmosphere was one of the first discoveries of climate change.

Loved the descriptions of the De Vries and Suess effects.

Preface and Chapter 1: Brief history on the discovery of isotopes and the discovery of radioactive decay. Appreciated the description of the types of radioactive decay and their differences.

Took a few days to get through Kyshtym. This was due mostly to the abundance of locations to keep track of. Plokhy will sometimes switch between the old nomenclature used for locations, and the modern, which can be confusing as well. This was an event I had a passing familiarity with prior to reading, however I was not aware of the extent of the damages to the Ural area or surrounding villagers.

Interesting read about the Castle Bravo incident. I had heard the story of lucky dragon no.5 before, but never the rest of the story. To hear how poorly the US military treated the Marshall island natives before, during, and after the incident was upsetting.

The government coverups of past failings and underlying design flaws of RBMK reactors continued into the early 90’s, despite constant attempts from men like Valery Legasov and Anatoly Dyatlov to expose the truth. New Safe Confinement was completed in 2016 as a successor to the hastily constructed Sarcophagus. The idea being that the NSC would contain the radioactive corpse of the Chernobyl NPP for another 100 years

Despite it’s somewhat makeshift nature. The Chernobyl sarcophagus is perhaps one of the most impressive feats in modern civil engineering. Assembled away from the station and slid over top of reactor 4 in less than 8 months, a monumental achievement, even if it would need replaced by the New Safe Confinement in 2016.

Chapter 15: Details of both the criminal and technical investigations into the incident at Chernobyl NPP. The status of atomic titans of industry like Alexandrov was more or less unchecked amid talks of RBMK design flaws. Public blame was placed almost solely at the feet of plant operators and men like director Victor Bruhkanov.

Chapter 14: The liquidation efforts at the Chernobyl NPP and surrounding regions are truly a monumental human achievement. Knowing that the full military, economic, and academic weight of one of the world's superpowers was dispatched to Northern Ukraine and there was still doubts as to how to contain the situation really puts into context the severity of the accident.

Difficult reading about the patients of hospital number 6. Medical experts struggled to tend to the needs of the ~200 firefighters and engineers suffering from Acute Radiation Syndrome.

Chapter 9: Pripyat and its 51,000 citizens are finally evacuated. This is a monument our effort requiring 1,200+ buses, boats, and locomotives. The citizens were told this would be temporary.

The commission creates a chemical cocktail to dump on the burning corpse of reactor 4, with the intent to quench the fire.

Chapter 8: First real look at the disaster through the common man. Until now we had mostly followed nuclear plant workers, administrators, firefighters, etc.

In this chapter we finally start to see some humanity. Dozens of plant workers and firefighters admitted to Pripyat hospital, we see families worry for their loved ones. Administration of stable Iodine to citizens is first proactive step from administration.

Chapter 7: Introduction to Valery Legasov and the second task force

Ignorance and denial on display from those in charge of the disaster like Brukhanov and even Scherbina. The decision to not evacuate Pripyat is incredible.

Struggling to separate art from artist 😭

Chapters 2-3: Excellent discussion and introduction to the RBMK reactors and the bureaucracy of the Soviet Union. Established a lot of things that will come into play when we look at the actual “why” behind reactor 4s explosion including but not limited to positive void coefficients, RBMK reactors and the AZ-5 key, Inefficient education and simulations for engineers in the USSR, exhaustion of staff, etc.

Chapter 1: Interesting story about Brukanhov, the establishment of Pripyat, and its nuclear power station.

Good insight into central planning in the USSR and the strained conditions and deadlines forced onto workers. Established the ineffective education of Soviet nuclear engineers and eagerness of leadership to fudge results