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[Random_Dragon]

It just occured to me that he's caused himself an additional problem. Spreading "fake news" about the war is now a specific crime in Russia. Imagine that someone found themselves in a position of having made many public statements about what is happening, which turn out to be untrue!

(Not his biggest problem. It'd be the Elliot Ness solution, assuming there's any recourse to take at all.)

When the government gets to set their own self-serving definition of what news qualifies as fake, then logic has already gone out the window. :V

[Max™]

You know what exageration is right Max? While it would not blow up like a nuclear bomb, other explosions are not out of the question.

Given the design of the reactor, yeah, it isn't merely exaggeration to suggest it has anything at all to do in any way with a nuclear bomb. It is dangerously horribly wrong.

Even the most dangerously designed reactors have absolutely nothing in common with the bombs beyond "there is radioactive shit involved" and like I said, a nuclear power plant is a box of rocks that make water (or salts/other liquids) hot enough to extract work via turbines and thermocouples and whatnot.

You insert stuff that slows down neutrons released as the rocks do their thing, this raises the rate at which other rocks release neutrons, you tweak this to get a stable reaction going, and this causes them to heat up.

All but some very early designs had failsafe functionality so the default state for the reactor is to shut down, possibly in a way that is harmful for the core itself, but never in a way that involves ever greater reaction rates.

Dramatic enough events or bad design flaws can cause problems IF the coolant system fails and the control rods aren't inserted somehow and in those cases you can get a meltdown, which again has NOTHING remotely in common with something like a nuclear bomb, it is literally just when the core MELTS down into and/or through the bottom of the containment vessel.

Not ideal, but lots of bullshit shows and games and fearmongering have given the impression wrongly that "nuclear meltdown" involves any sort of nuclear explosion.

A steam explosion or hydrogen explosion (if the water gets cracked by the heat as in Fukushima) can happen, and it is bad, but again, literally nothing at all like a bomb. It's a pressure cooker popping. If your water heater had radioisotopes and it burst you'd be worried about the steam and water everywhere AND the radioactive material being spread around, but your house wouldn't fucking blow up and take out the nearby city.


This has been a pet peeve of mine for decades now, I mean, it isn't like it is easy to make a nuke even if you have loads of enriched plutonium and uranium sitting around.

If you don't know how to arrange everything and perform the implosion/gun mechanism perfectly the best you can do is make a cool light show, probably start a fire, and dose the nearby area.

The various nuclear powers got really good at making all that shit happen properly and STILL had fizzles. There is literally no way under any set of conditions for a reactor to EVER undergo anything resembling a nuclear explosion unless you put an actual warhead in it and set it off.

[Robsoie]

Latest IAEA press release about the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant situation :
https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/update-11-iaea-director-general-statement-on-situation-in-ukraine

[Starver]

When the government gets to set their own self-serving definition of what news qualifies as fake, then logic has already gone out the window. :V

Oh, I didn't mean it was an issue for him currently (unless, somehow, it helps spur on the political manouvering towards some form of actual departure), just that if enough sanity[1] returns to the Russian system then it's yet another reason that whatever corner of the world he fleas to really needs to be beyond legal recourse.

It certainly adds a further pressure that may mean he intends to die in offfice (one way or other, or yet another), whether or not he's actually constructed the legacy he seems to wish to leave after him. But decoding his intentions is way above my pay-grade. I'm just looking at possibly unintentional consequences, here.


[1] Or a different kind of insanity that doesn't care for Putin. Although given the tools readily available to the State, I then wouldn't give the hope of a damp-paper bag in hell for any kind of "retiring quietly to a small Siberian dacha" fate - possibly not even 'officially'.

[LordBaal]

Nuclear reactors can still explode (if you consider a steam explosion not a explosion proper it's clear you never missused a preasure pot before), or be exploded by weapons as is the case here. Either could release ungodly amounts of radioactive crap into the atmosphere and enviroment in general. Its a dirty bomb waiting to happen.

[Random_Dragon]

I can understand the point of arguing the point of a steam explosion vs. a nuclear explosion, however. Equating the danger a reaction meltdown poses with nuclear bombs is a big factor in public perception of nuclear power, which has seriously undermined development of reactors when we kinda need all the non-coal/gas power generation we can get these days.

[LordBaal]

Im all pro nuclear power plants. All against shooting at them.

But this was hardly an discussion, just Max correctly pointing out nuclear plants cant become nuclear bombs to my exageration over it. Im saying they can be bombs (as is parts of them can explode), with nuclear material dispersed, dirty bombs in practice, should have pointed that from the beggining.

[Starver]

I haven't checked specifically, but it seems not to be a liquid sodium reactor, at least. PPE: I have actually decided to check. The reactors in question are PWR designs. Which makes the threat different. (Though if it were liquid-metal coolant, they could at least be rendering it inoperative by slipping some tin into the mix.)

Not that there aren't concerns, nor that there are definite ones. But, to quote Marco Ramius: "Be careful what you shoot at. Most things in here don't react too well to bullets." This probably applies at least as much to oil-refineries/gas-storage facilities, and while it might take a special kind of person to deliberately damage a reactor complex, we've seen that the bar is far lower for petrochemical facilities.

[The_Explorer]

Its bothered me a bit so I'll just post it.

But I find NATO standing up and applauding when Ukraine asked to be part of NATO and their speech they did...a bit more like them standing up and clapping Ukraine's demise. I mean imagine leader of a nation being invaded, putting up a great fight but almost for sure will be conquered. All NATO can do is clap for you some failing encouragement instead of actually doing anything that would actually prevent a big bully invading you, since sanctions aren't really doing anything to prevent that. Kinda sad to me more than anything. But anything that can be actually done would just be world war 3...still...it bothered me a bit enough to post. And especially since NATO refused the no fly zone over Ukraine...makes it more like just like they clapped Ukraine's demise, even though wasn't really intended to be that kinda gives it off that vibe to me.

Dunno if I was being conquered or beat to death, I wouldn't want people standing around clapping for me some encouragement. I'd want to be defended personally if someone was beating me to death.

[martinuzz]

Russia has decided to block Facebook from it's country.

EDIT: Meanwhile, BBC is withdrawing all it's reporters from Russia because the new 15-years prison for spreading fake news law does not exclude foreign journalists.

[McTraveller]

I think this highlights the problem with "state run media" - too bad it can't be outlawed everywhere.

I've been reading the reports from BBC and Aljazeera about how there are people in Ukraine calling relatives in Russia telling them about the fighting and those living in Russia are like "oh no Russia wouldn't do that, it must be the Ukrainians attacking themselves."  Literally on the phone with people with explosions in the background.

Astonishing to think how effective that propaganda is.

I mean to my western mind, I can't fathom how anyone would believe that "we're going to arrest people for spreading lies" and "we're now outlawing Facebook" could indicate anything besides the authorities trying to hide something.  If the numbers are indeed true, how can anyone think that arresting 8000+ people for protesting can be anything other than oppression?

Just... I can't even conceive of how that can happen, even over time... it suggests massive long-term propaganda and world-view building...

[TamerVirus]

Russia has decided to block Facebook from it's country.

You can now add Twitter to that block list now too
Edit: Now YouTube. Going full walled garden

[LordBaal]

And of course they get to decide what is fake and what is not.

[martinuzz]

The mayor of Mariepol is begging for help.
He says his city doesn't have any running water, electricity or heating anymore, and food is running out too, while the bombs keep hitting the city.
He pleads for a humanitarian corridor to evacuate 400000 inhabitants before they die of thirst and exposure.

[Random_Dragon]

I mean to my western mind, I can't fathom how anyone would believe that "we're going to arrest people for spreading lies" and "we're now outlawing Facebook" could indicate anything besides the authorities trying to hide something.  If the numbers are indeed true, how can anyone think that arresting 8000+ people for protesting can be anything other than oppression?

Just... I can't even conceive of how that can happen, even over time... it suggests massive long-term propaganda and world-view building...

Same kinda brain worms that convince plenty of idiots, even here in the west, that we haven't been in a middle of a pandemic this whole time.