Hubi
20th February 2003, 01:56 PM
I dont know whether this belong here or in the entertainment forum. I watched the movie K-19 this morning.
I had been avoiding it because I knew that I would be angry afterwards about HollyWoods failures when it comes to historic events... I wasn't wrong.
Yet the creative licensing taken in this film, as compared to others, is downright dangerous!
People have a great fear of radiation, and they should, but that fear must be based on realism rather than fantasy.
Radiation is dangerous and deadly, it must be dealt with seriously and carefully.
But it is not the boogyman that some would want us to believe.
And not knowing the facts could (and has) cause a great deal of damage.
This is an interesting article I found and thought you to read and discuss
<font color="blue">
In the film, a nuclear submarines core loses water and starts to overheat, the Russians must send in sailors to connect a cooling system in order to lower that temperature and prevent a meltdown.
So, they pick 6 men to enter the reactor room to complete this job (not the chamber, but a sub-chamber room).
They limit exposure to ten minutes, and send in two at a time.
When the first two exit, they are badly burned, choking and puking, weakened and....well.... they are obviously in very bad shape!
Seeing this, causes one sailor (a nuclear tech) to panic and refuse to enter the chamber, a nice HollyWood drama <img src="/threads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> effect for emotional impact, yet, completely misleading, concerning the actual dangers of radiation poisoning.
Because of films such as this, and the overall state of public ignorance, people assume things that simply aren't true about radiation, and nuclear war in general.
I also hear such nonsense as, "The USSR had enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world two times over!"
Or even funnier, "The United States nuclear weapons could destroy the world ten times over!"
Really?
And how could that happen?
The fact is that nuclear weapons are very bad, there is absolutely no doubt about it, but.... bad enough to kill every living human on earth? Not by a long shot!
In a nuclear blast, there are two kinds of radiation released.
The first is extremely deadly.
Gamma radiation, or flash radiation, is emitted during the blast, and travels with the wave of energy released by the blast.
Persons within ten miles, or so, of a megaton weapon would be exposed to the dangers of gamma radiation.
Gamma travels through the body and burns while entering, while inside, and while exiting.
It was this effect, combined with the blast itself, that left outlines of victims on the sidewalk and street in Hiroshima.
But "burns" is a poor choice of words, because it confuses those who think of heat burns in comparison to radiation poisoning.
The second form of radiation released would be in the form of fallout.
This form can be just as dangerous as gamma, if handled in ignorance.
Radiation is counted in rads, 100 rads is a lethal dose if received all at once.
But the victim doesn't feel harmed by receiving 100 rads of radiation.
If you have ever had an x-ray, you know exactly what it feels like to receive a lethal dose of radiation....you feel absolutely nothing... no burning sensation, no weakness, no stomach trauma... nothing.
The symptoms shown in the film K-19 are fairly accurate, but, they come later.
Getting radiation poisoning is much like getting a cold.
One starts to feel poorly over a space of time.
The victim begins to feel worse as time goes on, and the symptoms set in over time.
In reality, the men who left that radioactive environment fealt no different than when they entered.
It was later that they started to throw up.
It was later that they died.
Radiation counters (geiger) measured the amount of radiation each soldier received at the time.
A number of them received doses that would be considered lethal by todays standards in one sitting, with no noticable effect what so ever.
Many of those who received high doses died of cancer in their fifties.... thirty years after the fact.
We have extremely good data on them.
They had an increase in "faulty" offspring (birth defects) of around 3.7%, beyond what would be expected in normal rates.
They had an increase of adult cancer and organ malfunctions of over 50%, and in those who absorbed extreme amounts (accumulations of over 80 rads) had an increase of over 75% in these areas.
The fact is that people were struck by direct gamma radiation and flash burn effects at both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, yet are alive to this day!
Not the ogre that some would have us believe...very bad, no doubt about it, but the end of mankind?
Hiroshima is a lush island paradise today, not a lifeless wasteland.
Assuming that every nuclear weapon in the world were set off today, blast effects and gamma radiation effects would only cover about 600,000 square miles (only of course, is a relative term!), this is assuming that every weapon had the maximum range of a 40 mile radius blast, and does not account for geographical interference.
Enough to take out the state of Alaska, but not the whole world!
Fallout would have an extremely damaging effect, to say the least, but not the one that is commonly believed.
The "good" thing about fallout is that it quickly loses lethality.
Even those that receive extremely high rads of fallout would be able to move safely within a week of impact, but, the fact remains that 75% of the earth would not receive such high amounts, in fact, the majority of the worlds population would absorb an average lifetime increase of less than thirty rads due to a total global thermonuclear war.
Devistating? Yes! But total destruction? Hardly!
Nuclear war, and nuclear accidents, are something to be avoided, but the potential for panic is much worse than the actual damage that could be done.
<!--color-->[/color]
I had been avoiding it because I knew that I would be angry afterwards about HollyWoods failures when it comes to historic events... I wasn't wrong.
Yet the creative licensing taken in this film, as compared to others, is downright dangerous!
People have a great fear of radiation, and they should, but that fear must be based on realism rather than fantasy.
Radiation is dangerous and deadly, it must be dealt with seriously and carefully.
But it is not the boogyman that some would want us to believe.
And not knowing the facts could (and has) cause a great deal of damage.
This is an interesting article I found and thought you to read and discuss
<font color="blue">
In the film, a nuclear submarines core loses water and starts to overheat, the Russians must send in sailors to connect a cooling system in order to lower that temperature and prevent a meltdown.
So, they pick 6 men to enter the reactor room to complete this job (not the chamber, but a sub-chamber room).
They limit exposure to ten minutes, and send in two at a time.
When the first two exit, they are badly burned, choking and puking, weakened and....well.... they are obviously in very bad shape!
Seeing this, causes one sailor (a nuclear tech) to panic and refuse to enter the chamber, a nice HollyWood drama <img src="/threads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> effect for emotional impact, yet, completely misleading, concerning the actual dangers of radiation poisoning.
Because of films such as this, and the overall state of public ignorance, people assume things that simply aren't true about radiation, and nuclear war in general.
I also hear such nonsense as, "The USSR had enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world two times over!"
Or even funnier, "The United States nuclear weapons could destroy the world ten times over!"
Really?
And how could that happen?
The fact is that nuclear weapons are very bad, there is absolutely no doubt about it, but.... bad enough to kill every living human on earth? Not by a long shot!
In a nuclear blast, there are two kinds of radiation released.
The first is extremely deadly.
Gamma radiation, or flash radiation, is emitted during the blast, and travels with the wave of energy released by the blast.
Persons within ten miles, or so, of a megaton weapon would be exposed to the dangers of gamma radiation.
Gamma travels through the body and burns while entering, while inside, and while exiting.
It was this effect, combined with the blast itself, that left outlines of victims on the sidewalk and street in Hiroshima.
But "burns" is a poor choice of words, because it confuses those who think of heat burns in comparison to radiation poisoning.
The second form of radiation released would be in the form of fallout.
This form can be just as dangerous as gamma, if handled in ignorance.
Radiation is counted in rads, 100 rads is a lethal dose if received all at once.
But the victim doesn't feel harmed by receiving 100 rads of radiation.
If you have ever had an x-ray, you know exactly what it feels like to receive a lethal dose of radiation....you feel absolutely nothing... no burning sensation, no weakness, no stomach trauma... nothing.
The symptoms shown in the film K-19 are fairly accurate, but, they come later.
Getting radiation poisoning is much like getting a cold.
One starts to feel poorly over a space of time.
The victim begins to feel worse as time goes on, and the symptoms set in over time.
In reality, the men who left that radioactive environment fealt no different than when they entered.
It was later that they started to throw up.
It was later that they died.
Radiation counters (geiger) measured the amount of radiation each soldier received at the time.
A number of them received doses that would be considered lethal by todays standards in one sitting, with no noticable effect what so ever.
Many of those who received high doses died of cancer in their fifties.... thirty years after the fact.
We have extremely good data on them.
They had an increase in "faulty" offspring (birth defects) of around 3.7%, beyond what would be expected in normal rates.
They had an increase of adult cancer and organ malfunctions of over 50%, and in those who absorbed extreme amounts (accumulations of over 80 rads) had an increase of over 75% in these areas.
The fact is that people were struck by direct gamma radiation and flash burn effects at both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, yet are alive to this day!
Not the ogre that some would have us believe...very bad, no doubt about it, but the end of mankind?
Hiroshima is a lush island paradise today, not a lifeless wasteland.
Assuming that every nuclear weapon in the world were set off today, blast effects and gamma radiation effects would only cover about 600,000 square miles (only of course, is a relative term!), this is assuming that every weapon had the maximum range of a 40 mile radius blast, and does not account for geographical interference.
Enough to take out the state of Alaska, but not the whole world!
Fallout would have an extremely damaging effect, to say the least, but not the one that is commonly believed.
The "good" thing about fallout is that it quickly loses lethality.
Even those that receive extremely high rads of fallout would be able to move safely within a week of impact, but, the fact remains that 75% of the earth would not receive such high amounts, in fact, the majority of the worlds population would absorb an average lifetime increase of less than thirty rads due to a total global thermonuclear war.
Devistating? Yes! But total destruction? Hardly!
Nuclear war, and nuclear accidents, are something to be avoided, but the potential for panic is much worse than the actual damage that could be done.
<!--color-->[/color]