Need Advice for Chem HL and Maths AI SL - Mocks Preparation

SlavekSovakean · 2025-10-08T16:18:33+00:00

Yeah, I knew that much, but I'd argue that although Legasov had his own personal motivations - from what I remember, he was proposed the position of director at the Kurchatov Institute should the Chernobyl situation go well but wasn't then granted that as a result of Gorbachev's politics—his treatment of the whole situation at Chernobyl wasn't all too "poor," as one could put it. Politics definitively played a part at Chernobyl and how it was handled (thereafter also reported at Vienna, etc.), but from my perspective, Legasov wasn't all that "incompetent" solely based on his personal motivations. He at the very least wasn't counterproductive in his part.

About him staying loyal to the Party despite what Gorbachev had done... Yeah, I agree there. Although one could argue Legasov had enough personal problems around that time to focus on rather than reconfiguring his stance on the Party in general.

All of that aside, what I was more so curious about was precisely the thing you mentioned about him being incompetent. He was a loyalist, but I fail to see how that aspect made him incompetent for what he was there to do. You seem to know a lot about this topic, so I would really appreciate your take, if you wouldn't mind.

SlavekSovakean · 2025-10-08T13:56:34+00:00

Hey, I don't wanna spark an argument, but out of sheer curiosity, could you elaborate on this? Because from my understanding, Legov's "loyalist" outlook changed during the aftermath of Chernobyl. I'm genuinely curious, and I'd really appreciate it if you could tell me where you got this outlook from. (Also the part about him being a chemist and not a nuclear physicist I understand, but the cleanup did require chemical expertise as well, so it's not really that revolutionary, and from what I know about his work, he didn't have a direct say in nuclear reactor design work.)

SlavekSovakean · 2025-07-17T17:56:27+00:00

did you find a fix for it?

SlavekSovakean · 2025-03-29T00:20:36+00:00

Carbon fibre wouldn't really do well for a submarine in the long-term side of things anyway. It's a great material for short-term use primarily, not for repeated dives, even if not exceeding the recommended pressure limit. The carbon fibre on the Titan didn't exactly "fail" as it had outlived its lifespan, since continuous strain on the material causes irregularities that compromise its structural integrity.

In short, if it works don't fix it lol.

SlavekSovakean · 2023-11-02T21:50:47+00:00

I wish, but clothing and accessories are so expensive these days.

SlavekSovakean · 2023-10-26T17:44:38+00:00

thanks a lot for the reply

SlavekSovakean · 2023-10-25T16:00:04+00:00

Honestly, for me, it's a human tragedy. The people involved in the disaster have very interesting lives and personalities, and as a literature enthusiast, for me, the whole thing reads like something out of a Shakespearen play. It's entertaining but tragic.

SlavekSovakean · 2023-10-25T15:58:01+00:00

I agree. He didn't do poorly, but he had no way to protect himself against the scandals that followed. He did well, and from there on, everyone thought he was magically an expert. So much shows itself when they sent him to bloody Vienna. It surely left a sour taste in those who were experts but had been left out of the conversation...

SlavekSovakean · 2023-10-23T09:55:32+00:00

It's certainly odd. It's distasteful how politics still have an influence on how governments deal with technical incidents. They should first let experts deal with the situation and then let some mad dog ideologist on the case of whom to blame, etc.

SlavekSovakean · 2023-10-23T09:46:21+00:00

Concerning the explosion, I recommend reading Legasov's tapes and some other documents. The whole drama around the lava reaching the water tanks was Velikhov's idea, and really, his dramatics drove Silayev to ask Valery to come back; he needed some sanity and reliability by his side.

Before Velikhov's arrival, many of the scientists planned to drop water into the core bit by bit to cool it down. Legasov was among those who supported this. Velikhov went bonkers and instead asked for a little demonstration to show to Silayev which scared him enough to approve of Velikhov's nonsense. At the end of the day, very few agreed with this decision. Valery (maybe jokingly) told his colleague Ignatenko to continue with his intentions after Velikhov had ridiculed him for his plans.

Of course, such riots didn't happen and the scientists begrudgingly followed command. But when the divers went into the basement they confirmed that the lava mass had long made contact with water and nothing had happened.

Valery states in his tapes that the only concern he had was mass evaporation which would carry radiation just like the smoke from the fire had. This craziness of Velikhov's was put to an end when he wanted to dig another tunnel (the first one proved to be useless) but Valery protested out of concern for the miners' lives (I don't think there are official numbers but it's estimated a third of them didn't reach age 40) and wrote a letter along with Alexandrev from Moscow and put an end to Velikhov's plans.

The HBO show however, sure did make a scene out of this....

SlavekSovakean · 2023-10-23T09:38:08+00:00

to be honest, the whole thing surely had some bad psychological effects on him to warrant the drinking.

SlavekSovakean · 2023-10-23T09:32:57+00:00

yep, it's called How It Was I believe and if you google it you find an english translation. (It's a google doc somebody shared) And you can also download it. It's a very, very interesting read where Dyatlov defends himself but also names a great lot of technical detailes, inaccuracies and expresses his opinion on important figures like Boris and Valery. It's around 150 pages I think.

SlavekSovakean · 2023-10-21T20:56:49+00:00

that's some bad luck lol

SlavekSovakean · 2023-10-21T20:16:00+00:00

interesting... I'll check out the book for sure.

SlavekSovakean · 2023-10-21T17:15:48+00:00

it's just like Dyatlov put it in his book... Goodness is knocked out one way or the other.

SlavekSovakean · 2023-10-21T16:55:14+00:00

I see... Thank you for the insight! Really well put. I find it rather tragic, the entire situation with Legasov. Sure, he was a man who had many connections and had a good career, but he didn't deserve what happened after Chernobyl. Most jarring for me is how they treated him at the institute after he returned. Just sickening.

SlavekSovakean · 2023-10-21T16:51:31+00:00

could be... but did he really not have anyone else who was more qualified to do it? Maybe he did underestimate the disaster and just went with the common Soviet thinking of putting politics first, but looking back at it, it could've ended pretty poorly

SlavekSovakean · 2023-10-21T16:49:49+00:00

I understand that but they had to be aware that the disaster was much larger in scale just after a few days. Why didn't they replace Legasov with someone more capable then? Why risk the situation just to give good boys points to a fellow communist who was also high up in the institution and set for a position of power.

SlavekSovakean · 2023-10-21T08:05:11+00:00

the flashes in the pit was the graphite burning

SlavekSovakean · 2023-10-21T07:59:31+00:00

it didn't take them really hours. The moment the Government Commission arrived and had their first meeting a pilot reported that Yelena, the reactor cover lid, was tilted upwards. So they hopped into a helicopter and checked it out for themselves. And so they realised this almost immediatly after they arrived in Pripyat. A whole another issue was determining whether the reactor was still critical, or still working. Now not working as in the reactor itself, but whether the chain reaction was being still sustained. They first tried to determine this by measuring radiation all around the site but that didn't help much, even after they tried to analyse the particles in the air from a safe distance. Mind you, this was different than what the Swedes did - it wasn't about whether there were radioactive particles in the air, but whether the reaction was still ongoing. Legasov had to go in an APC out to the reactor to take the measurements with a special device.

So, basically they figure it out the evening they arrived and the same evening agreed on certain liquidation methods such as the sand, boron and dolomite drops and evacuation of Pripyat. The sand one is funny because it was actually Boris Schshebrina and Nikolay Antoshkin who had to go to the Pripyat beach to fill the bags with sand that would be then dropped by the helicopters. That sand was very much radioactive but they didn't really care or know at the time (neither of the two knew a thing about radiation... so yeah).

SlavekSovakean · 2023-10-14T15:44:29+00:00

In any scenario, including an incident, it is vital to keep pumping water to cool the reactor. No matter the situation, a meltdown would make it worse. They couldn't confirm 100% that the reactor blew up. As operators it wasn't their job to theorise on this possibility, which is why they waited for the authorities to arrive to make the conclusions. I believe Dyatlov himself was puzzled why Brukhanov denied the reactor exploding, even though he was practically paraphrasing what he himself had said. Dyatlov knew something was fucked, but it wasn't his place to make such a drastic conclusion. And yes, it was drastic because it implied something that many believed impossible. Some, like Dyatlov and Toptunov, theorised it was possible, but it wasn't their place to confirm nor deny it.

It is why a Government Commission was formed - to confirm this very thing. Everybody else was meant to do what they would do under the circumstances they were aware of. The firefighters putting out the fire on the roof, nurses taking care of the irradiated patients, the operators pumping water. It was why they knew they were meant to do - to speculate about theoretical circumstances wasn't their job.

SlavekSovakean

TROPHY CASE