From PaulUSKP:
A wall of the sarcophagus at Chernobyl has collapsed (updated, with photos)
The media report that it is nothing serious, background radiation has not increased, but one of my friends sent me a message:
My uncle called me. They were working on repairs for the sarcophagus, but they had not yet finished the roof. The old one was still in place. Well, that’s where the roof collapsed. I don’t know how serious it is, but the French immediately cleared out, and our scientists have been evacuated as well.
I will update this post if there is any new unofficial information.
Update: on the Ukrainian Pravda forum, they’re discussing a photo taken after the explosion in 1986:
[…]
Hey there guys, look at the photo, lower left hand side …
That’s the roof (the “roof” of the machine room. It’s got loads of large holes in it. Because that’s where all the shit from the explosion broke through all over the roof and fell into the machine room … There in the middle of the machine room (in that ruined section), no decontamination has taken place, purely because the strength of the radioactive shit there is too strong. Instead, they put a “light” roof on the top of this ruined section. It’s obvious in the photo that they have already put in supports (see the lower photo, the greenish bit) on which they then laid this “light roof” from a distance as part of the sarcophagus. But now it looks like this roof is f*cked. That’s what the problem is.
Update 2: An official statement from the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station (AES) with photos
On 12.02.13 at 14:03, there was a partial collapse of the wall panels and the light roof of the non-operational machine room in block 4, over 28m along axes 50-52 from row A to row B. The area that was destroyed equates to about 600 m2. This construction is not part of the “Shelter” object. There has been no violation of the safe operating limits and conditions of the “Shelter” construction. There has been no change in the radiation levels in the Chernobyl AES operating zone, or in the exclusion zone. Nobody has been injured.
There was not too much snow on the roof, but they have already blamed the snow for causing the incident.
Comments from PaulUSKP’s LiveJournal:
raddan:
So, am I to understand that my trip there is worth postponing “until the dust settles”?
samsobipan:
So what direction is the wind blowing today? Where do people need to leg it, and where can they wait it out?
diana_ledi:
There’s no wind today. Calm and quiet.
man_with_cats:
“The media report that it is nothing serious, background radiation has not increased”.
In 1986 they also said that all was well … if you believe what the state-run media say, you have no self-respect)
fstrange: (responding to above)
What is there to be scared of? The majority is inside the sarcophagus. The “hottest” waste has already decayed. Caesium-137 and strontium-90 have already almost reached their half-life.
anonymus:
Has it begun? Have the mutants climbed out? Hurray!
tektosmit:
Bullshit …
operator_r330bm:
Time to make a new mod for Stalker.
dimoheha:
The snow was made of lead.
modest_so_zvezd: