The China Syndrome (1980) - Reactor Scram Scene

A fantastic scene from an excellent movie.

[@Jason.W.]

Those dot matrix printer really jack up the tension. Great dramatic tool.

[@mt3311]

Yes they do don't they. It is like the word coming down from on hgh. Like the word coming from God almighty. The dot matrix with its sounds, and movement makes everything sound so official. During the incident it ratchets up the tension, and you hold your breath, then it breaks the tension at the end with the words, "event duration." Then you know the tension is over and you can breathe again. Very good use of props.

[@JasonVictorEverett]

The lack of music was a really effective decision here.

[@prayforthe_1644]

Needs more Cowbell

[@bxpress6507]

They don't make movies like they used to here unfortunately

[@socaljarhead7670]

This scene is among Lemmon’s finest as an actor. Absolutely gripping. Wilford Brimley looked great before the Diabeetus got to him.

[@peterp2153]

Of course he looks great; he was like 26 here.

[@CoastalSphinx]

​@@peterp2153 Wilford Brimley was born in September 1934 and principal photography for The China Syndrome was in early 1978, so he was 44 at the time.

[@poshsteve3583]

@@peterp2153 Paper round must have been easy

[@-ShootTheGlass-]

* Diabetes (you literally have a computer to look it up ffs)

[@Hezkezl]

@@-ShootTheGlass- He knows how it's spelled. The joke/meme he was referencing by spelling it "beetus" went about a mile above your head just now.

[@MrShadowpanther3]

That inaudible mouthing 7:17 of "coming up" by Brimley, as if he is scared to say it and make it not be true, is an awesome touch.

[@fezmancomments]

Das Boot comes to mind.

[@Coffeeology]

ohh shit!! YES! I can totally see that. @@fezmancomments

[@stevenwatchorn9816]

I really admire how they do not stop to try to shoehorn in explanations for every little action to the audience. It reminds me of what a teacher I had in an Intro to Drama class many years ago told us about performing Shakespeare. The language can be poetically beautiful, but also hard to follow for an audience upon first hearing it. But the audience does not have to understand right away what everything means. What they need is to be convinced that the *performers* know what it means, and have the performers convey those feelings to the audience. Most of us probably have no idea what all the specific actions Goodell orders and takes mean, or how they relate to trying to solve the problem. But the actors are so good at convincing us THEY know what it means, and giving us the information we need to get emotionally inovlved in the scene. To this end, deciding to go without a score was a masterstroke. The sounds and editing of the film provide the "score," and it works spectacularly well.

[@capnskiddies]

There's a lad on here put a score to it as an assignment for a media course. It didn't detract from or overpower the scene. Quite subtle, but provided the cue to the audience that this was a serious problem, which it very certainly was.

[@stevenwatchorn9816]

@@capnskiddies I saw that. I don't know... I thought it was more stark and scary without it, though the score was definitely well done.

[@soccerguy2433]

Yeah. And it's boring and confusing. They doing good? Bad?

[@YoutubeIsRetarded689]

@@soccerguy2433 If a person who maintains a system every day starts looking nervous as something is going wrong, chances are its not great.

[@QUANTUMJOKER]

Your Drama teacher's explanation reminds me of the 2014 Ukrainian crime drama The Tribe. The film, which follows a teen gang in a school for the deaf, is performed entirely in Ukrainian sign language with no subtitles, and while you don't know what the characters are saying, through tone, expression, gesture and context, you can tell what they're talking about, and thus easily follow the narrative.

[@user-gn3ux7tu9f]

Oh boy ole Gil has really worked his way up to the top, got a great job in Nuclear Power, it’s all gonna be wine and roses from here!

[@SD-cw3gm]

I unliked this comment so that I could like it again.

[@bobsheppard8773]

Jack Lemmon should have won an Oscar from this scene alone.

[@bartsullivan4866]

Does more in this small scene than some actors do in an entire career.

[@preving]

One of the greatest actors.

[@Nostromo-hz1ud]

True. He ran the gamut of emotions - from cool plant chief to sheer panic to asking God for help.

[@andrewsmactips]

Put the coffee down. Coffee is for valve closers only.

[@floydturbo2184]

Obscure but gold

[@totallylegityoutubeperson4170]

You think I'm fucking with you?

[@thedrumbum1128]

Beautiful!

[@derekkimball6662]

Good catch ABC AIDA

[@SD-cw3gm]

Drakeclapping.gif

[@scarpfish]

This movie came out in 1979, not 1980. I'd normally ignore such, but the fact that this was in theatres just two weeks BEFORE the Three Mile Island accident is important.

[@freighter1097]

And why is that important? One had nothing to do with the other.

[@stewartlynch1284]

It was probably still showing in some cinemas around the world in 1980.

[@russell2952]

@@stewartlynch1284 The Wizard Of Oz is going to be in theatres. Doesn't mean it came out in 2024.

[@ryanm7263]

​@@freighter1097 The real incident at TMI had common characteristics with the fictional incident in the film, which was released just 12 days before. Both served to amplify the hysteria and fearmongering of the anti-nuclear lobby. Public opinion quickly soured. The industry became viewed as dangerous and corrupt, run by cost-cutting executives trading public safety for increased profits. Many reactor projects were subsequently cancelled, and investment in the industry quickly evaporated. The deployment of nuclear power ground to a halt. Both the film and TMI were major contributors to that outcome. Had neither occurred, or only one, America and the world might be on nearly 100% nuclear power today. If that were the case, climate hysteria and its resulting authoritarian push may have never materialized either. The world would have been flush with abundant and cheap energy, both of which are the foundation of freedom, peace and prosperity. By now Africa might have been an advanced, modern continent. War, terrorism, hunger, all may have come to an end by now. So the film and TMI definitely have something to do with each other. Their coincidental occurrence changed the course of history, and not for the better. Instead of Mars bases and world peace, we have the Gaza strip and Greta Thunberg.

[@johns8364]

@@freighter1097 The fact that a reactor had a real-life partial meltdown right after they released a disaster movie about a reactor was NOT good for the reputation of nuclear plants. Due to its timing, this film was probably the third most damaging event for the nuclear power industry behind Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. By the time Fukushima happened, nuclear's reputation had already been ruined.

[@dirdib69]

Jack Lemmon was a genius as embodying the normal guy in every situation - he was one of the easiest actors to identify with.

[@Barot8]

I remember seeing this in the theater when it came out and I was very disturbed by this scene. Like horror movie disturbed. The tension just keeps growing.

[@teddybetts3254]

And then, 12 days later, the Three Mile Island incident happened. I was 3 months old on Long Island.

[@sillyone52062]

​@@teddybetts3254And just like that, a multi billion dollar nuclear power plant was sold for $1.

[@Xenogears76]

​@@sillyone52062wait TMI unit #2 was sold for 1$?

[@hamsterdiving7593]

​@@teddybetts3254 Predictive programming

[@namenotavailable7365]

One of the all time great sh*t a brick scenes. I was imagining myself in that situation as one of the workers taking orders from Lemmon (who is absolutely superb, what a terrific actor he was). I was fairly terrified as I did. Truly great film viewer connection in conveying the tension. A very underrated movie.

[@bartsullivan4866]

Outstanding acting the tension in this scene should scare the hell out of you worse than any horror movie. So real as well the guys made an honest mistake they rarely make films like this anymore.

[@kevinmccarley7121]

Yes, very good point! I felt exactly the same way!

[@marcovargas4483]

I just watched this movie for the first time and I'm shocked at how good it was. Really well done. What a cast!

[@totallylegityoutubeperson4170]

It's a masterpiece.

[@dr.roberts4508]

When he prayed to God you feel the fear. Good job

[@MattK.-wx9xd]

Detailed and cleverly displayed by director Jim Bridges. The actors did a fine job presenting this chillingly suspenseful scene.

[@Nostromo-hz1ud]

Nobody plays panic like Jack. Terrific acting. I was glued to my seat.

[@adambowman4076]

This scene was so tense it almost gave me the diabetus....

[@jonathanwilliams1065]

Is the guy with the mustache the liberty medical guy?

[@user-lg4uj8cl4c]

Thankfully, "your diabetes testing supplies may be covered. Your monitors, your test straps, your lancets.. whether you use insulin or not..." 😉

[@bad74maverick1]

I read this in Hank Hill's voice.

[@PC_CERTIFIED]

🤣 you got me breathing heavily over here almost need compressed air

[@Smittyschannel]

lol that's not Wilford Brimley; It's Martin Mull

[@patrickmaloney7296]

Jack Lemmon is one of the finest actors to have ever lived.

[@ppuh6tfrz646]

He was brilliant at both comedy and drama.

[@777jones]

As somebody who operates big commercial systems, this scene will always be a timeless portrayal of how truly inadequate human beings are, and how we can be fooled.

[@YoutubeIsRetarded689]

I think the incident this was made off of changed how Nuclear Power is handled completely, the control rooms look much the same but they are way way more color coded and could probably be operated by people with very little experience if someone coached them on what to do.

[@mmd195401]

By Hollywood

[@DuffyF56]

Hardly.....Hollywood Anti-Nuclear Propaganda.

[@soonerdave01]

Sure ya do! 🤡🤡😂😂

[@irish89055]

1979....

[@ANOCKS]

Incredibly tense scene.jack lemon was a great actor,he made you believe it .

[@mryeti1887]

They shouldn’t have a guy in the control room talking about dia-beet-us.

[@ArchTeryx00]

Acting wise, you simply do not get better than Wilford Brimley and Jack Lemmon at their best here, perfect opposite personalities. When *Wilford Brimleys* character sh*ts a brick live and on camera you know just how serious the situation is. And if you know what actually is going on, you'll agree with him. My father used to design coolant loops for these things and taught me some about them. Nuclear reactors of the time had two redundant safety systems to prevent uncovering the core (and creating the conditions for an explosion and meltdown): HPCI and LPCI. HPCI is High Pressure Coolant Injection. Except (and it's hard to catch) the HPCI system is tagged out (offline) due to maintenance on the main valve. That leaves one thing: LPCI, Low Pressure Coolant Injection. And yet that's unusable for the reactor at full pressure, it's designed to keep coolant flowing in case of a pressure leak. So what to do? Jack figured that the only choice he had was to dump reactor pressure so LPCI could functtion. But that was taking a *terrible* chance - by dumping pressure, he *increased the flow of coolant out of the reactor vessel!* THAT is why Ted was sh*tting a brick: He knew that Jack was now committed to a race. Which would happen first? The core uncovering and blowing itself sky high? Or LPCI coming online and injecting coolant into the core? He was telling his people to let him know the second pressure reached LPCI limits so he could close the pressure relief valves and try to get the LPCI loop to refill the reactor. His terrifying all-in gamble paid off, but it revealed a flaw in the whole system: The main coolant pump, under full load, cavitated (vibrated) abormally, and that launched the plot of the whole movie, becaue Jack knew that if they attempted full load again, the pump may fail and bring everything down with it...

[@-ShootTheGlass-]

And oil the analog gauges …..

[@ArchTeryx00]

​@@-ShootTheGlass-Yep. I remember them well. Dot matrix printer printing off the event logs, too. Scary thing is, even though the *gauges* don't stick like they did in this scene, the floats that actually communicate data to the digital gauges *can* still stick or malfunction, and that actually happened with a recent refinery explosion in Texas City, TX.

[@AriochThe]

won't closing relief valves just rise the pressure arresting LPCI again? AFAIR LPCI just cannot "fight against" reactor's full, operational pressure. Actually, to be reliable and fast, it usually is just a pressurized tank. What has no "switches" or "engines" can not break, so to say.

[@ArchTeryx00]

@@AriochThe The pressure wasn't increasing at the time of the incident, but stable, IIRC. The reactor was SCRAMed, still generating heat but less than normal, and the LPCI loop would draw off more of that heat. What Godell did was relieve the back pressure from the turbine trip which opened the LPCI loop. The real problem was that the release of pressure also increased the rate of vaporization of the coolant, so the coolant loss rate increased pretty drastically. All of this is pretty simplified from real reactor operation and is subject to IIRC. From my readings, nowadays if HPCI is out of service or malfunctions, there's an automatic depressurization system (ADS) that will automatically do what Godell was doing manually, which will bring LPCI and the Core Spray systems in to get coolant to the core before it's exposed, and in a much safer way. The real problem was the Primary Reactor Coolant Pump and its abnormal cavitation, which the incident exposed. The pump was faulty, the utility had faked the inspection records, and they wanted to cover it up at all costs.

[@AriochThe]

@@ArchTeryx00 Perhaps you are right. My understanding was they kinda re-enacted 3MI, that everyone in the room just *forgot* the relieves were still open. They opened when thinking too much coolant, and when they "unstucked" the gauge marker and panic ensued, and they forgot to close them until almost too late. But your explanation is better.

[@thomasmoody8708]

As a person involved with nuclear plant operations, it's almost hilarious to see 1) the amount of RO's that they had (board operators) and 2) them just standing around awaiting the resolution on the water level in the reactor. They ALL would have been super-busy getting the secondary plant shutdown and going through the procedures for offline system alignments...

[@AndreaMcMaster]

This movie, in one of the single most astonishing example of Art imitating life, came out shortly before 3 mile Island. After this superbly written and acted scene with no one getting into explanations, the faces on everyone sold that they were in a possibly disastrous situation, you feel they know what they are doing but it may be out of their control already - the TV crew get the film developed and show it to a nuclear engineer/scientist and he explains that they came close to the "China Syndrome" with a core meltdown that, if it had happened, would render an area the size of Pennsylvania uninhabitable. My parents saw the movie in the theater after the 3 mile island accident and said when that scene came on there was an audible gasp from the audience. You hear the dot matrix printer going, it was said at 3 mile island it took the printer 2 days to catch up.

[@TechTokOffical]

Was it before? I was curious if those events were the inspiration for this.

[@connorbranscombe6819]

@@TechTokOffical It was before yes, this movie is mainly remembered today for "predicting" TMI (pretty liberal use of the word but bear with me)

[@chieffirefigherplays]

@@TechTokOfficalthis movie was released 12 days before the 3 Mile Island Incident.

[@stevenshea990]

Except there was virtually no chance that TMI would have had a full meltdown. The only person who was ever injured by Three Mile Island was physicist Edward Teller, who had a heart attack while campaigning in support of nuclear power after the accident. Thanks anti-nuclear power movement stopping the replacement of fossil fuel power with nuclear, *millions* of people have died since TMI from the effects of climate change, many orders of magnitude more than have died from nuclear accidents.

[@jimmyguitar2933]

You mean life imitating art. Obviously the movie was in the making months to a year before TMI but was released 12 days before. Made the movie a lot bigger!

[@RobARug]

Ensign Pulver: It is I, Ensign Pulver. I threw the firecracker under the old man's reactor.

[@user-dz6ex3tt8u]

The acting was not only superb, I found myself captivated and on the edge of my seat throughout the whole film. Catches your attention, and stirs the imagination. Reactors and nuclear missile silos are top notch security and absolute attention to security and operations. Still, provocative. Bravo. The China Syndrome means burning clear through to China. A euphemism that causes the need for thought.

[@seikibrian8641]

What I find interesting is that this movie was released on March 16th, 1979. In the movie, a meltdown is described as being capable of rendering an area the size of Pennsylvania uninhabitable. 12 days later, the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania suffered a partial meltdown when a feedwater pump problem caused a turbine trip in one of the reactors in a scenario much like what happens in the movie. Until Chernobyl and Fukushima, Three Mile Island was the world's worst nuclear disaster, and it was predicted by Hollywood 12 days before it happened.

[@Thedutchjelle]

The disaster at Mayak happened well before TMI, but it wasn't known publicly.

[@Ralph-yn3gr]

There was also the Windscale Fire. A British plutonium production reactor that was graphite moderated and cooled by air sucked into the core from the environment and then vented through a filter and out a chimney caught fire. Not as bad as Mayak, but still a significant accident. President Carter privately told staff that TMI wasn't a disaster, just a serious accident. It's had no negative health or environmental effects that can be statistically observed.

[@rogerw-interested]

12 days? hardly, do you realize how long it takes to bring an idea from concept to theater? yrs. even from start of shooting, could still take to 2yrs to hit theaters

[@seikibrian8641]

@@rogerw-interested What do you mean, "hardly"? Yes, it was EXACTLY 12 days. Read again what I wrote. I didn't say that the Three Mile Island accident happened 12 days after the concept of the movie began being developed, and I didn't say that Three Mile Island happened 12 days after the movie started shooting. I said that Three Mile Island happened 12 days after the RELEASE of the movie. Are you that chronologically challenged? From March 16th to March 28 is 12 days.

[@rogerw-interested]

@@seikibrian8641wow, relax, take a chill pill

[@scottavery1751]

One of my favorite movies. Thank you.

[@billyponsonby]

Suspenseful and terrific performance is why this is the scene clipped for KZbin videos.

[@StefanoBorini]

It's incredible how the Americans did three miles island as a viral marketing ad for this excellent movie.

[@TheKurtsPlaceChannel]

Very entertaining and fun to watch. Thanks for posting this.

[@ReaverLordTonus]

Still a better run control room than Chernobyl's.

[@coreybabcock2023]

Definitely agree

[@kleetus92]

2:45 minute event, not great, not terrible.

[@mdjones4]

raise the power......

[@PenisMcWhirtar]

2:23 "you can't do that, Jack - the book says you can't do it!" "Well, screw the book - we're almost up to the steam lines" This is not Comrade Dyatlov - this is a reasonable, sane discussion in a democratic country.

[@PC_CERTIFIED]

@@mdjones4 I won't do it it's not safe

[@billrea66]

Seen this movie 5 times ... and counting .

[@ClarkBR549]

As a former board operator in a refinery, I know that feeling at 6:30 when he's waiting for the level to come back up and wondering if he made the right move or screwed the world up.

[@ryanmccarthy8625]

The difference is the severity of contamination. With crude oil and petrochemicals, you don't have to worry about high levels of gamma radiation that have the capacity to kill for thousands of years.

[@Deer_Dodger]

I’m a panel operator in a large oil facility myself. You never really get used to a plant trip, and your entire panel lights up like a Christmas tree. I’m talking constant noise and it’s impossible to differentiate alarms because they’re coming in that fast. The scene is quite brilliant actually, and it captures the nervousness and utter chaos that can erupt moments after everything was quiet as a mouse. Bonus points if it’s 2:00am in the morning and you’re exhausted trying to keep your eyes open when it happens.

[@karlreinke]

I program HMI screens and control automation for big dairy plants. It's always a debate when we're setting up process alarming as to giving operators too much information or not enough. I'm old enough to have started my career with the old school annunciation panels before touch screens.

[@davecrupel2817]

​@@karlreinke Aircraft mechanic here. If it's any solace to you, annunciators & annunciator panels are alive and well in aviation. At least on the civilian side. I can't speak for the military haha.

[@Nill757]

“The world “? You think your actions are about the world? People I work with know it’s about the people next to me, and I can’t do anything about the world.

[@myfriendcaffeine-tb2fn]

One of the best movies ever made. The acting, writing and direction is amazing.

[@DuffyF56]

Anti-nuclear propaganda

[@noellecox3952]

Brilliant film to watch three brilliant actors in this movie and a nice supporting cast as well and a great song by Stephen bishop

[@bobbyricigliano2799]

Preventing a nuclear meltdown, living in the moment, and not a cellphone in sight.

[@TheEvilCheesecake]

ok boomer

[@DuffyF56]

The film was shot in 1978 and released in 1979 LONG before cellphones were widely available.

[@bobbyricigliano2799]

@@DuffyF56 Say it ain’t so!

[@billg7813]

This movie came out 2 years after the book, "The Prometheus Crisis" was published and 12 days before 3 Mile Island. If you like this movie, read that book. Prometheus is the name of a Greek god best known for defying the Olympian gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, knowledge, and more generally, civilization.

[@krashd]

I always mistake Prometheus for the father of Icarus because he also stole something from the gods to bring Icarus back to life. That might have been Dedalus.

[@cnault3244]

And Prometheus was sentenced to be chained to a rock for eternity, having a bird eat out his liver during the day, flying off at sunset, then having his liver regrow overnight so the bird could continue eating it at dawn. Prometheus made a much greater sacrifice for humanity than Jesus did.

[@wegotlumpsofitroundtheback5065]

That book is great! They were going to adapt it into a film, but I guess China Syndrome beat them to the market.

[@jcas]

Even so, nuclear energy is still the safest type of energy the humans have created. Incredible.

[@georges3799]

The only thing missing is Homer munching on a donut.

[@stevetheduck1425]

This movie is why Homer has that job. ;-)

[@klovenkane5982]

😂

[@bartsullivan4866]

LOL hilarious and just pushing random buttons

[@theconservative1967]

D'OH😂

[@47of74]

Well they do have a guy there who would go on to tell us all about diabeetus.

[@andrewsmactips]

Fun Fact: Apart from a song on the radio in a car, this movie has no music. Doesn't need it neither.

[@bradspringer2372]

Right! Even then end credits rolled in silence.

[@mattgiguere5638]

RIP JACK LEMMON!!❤

[@asdfjklol]

The damage that this film did to the climate by fear-mongering about nuclear power is incalculable.

[@CICatinga]

As engineer I am, I’ve feel the same thrill (3:54 like when you feel your breakfast is about to burst your bottom… ) when you realize a stupid issue is about to doom your work; and also I’ve seen this same “relief face” (at 7:30) in myself, several times (not handling a nuclear reactor, of course…. But satisfaction is the same when technical difficulties are solved at last…). Thanks for share!

[@richiebear1969]

An intense and nervous Jack Lemmon in China Syndrome and Missing

[@cac_deadlyrang]

If anyone’s wondering, SCRAM is the Western equivalent of the AZ-5 function in Soviet NPPs. 0:44 Also, there’s an alarm used in The Day After here.

[@jogman262]

Jack Lemon should have gotten an Academy Award for this.

[@gantmj]

To anyone who watches USCSB videos: "And then a valve was opened."

[@teddybetts3254]

12 days after this movie came out, the Three Mile Island incident happened. I was 3 months old on Long Island.

[@rileydwyer6696]

Must be why you got no hair on ya nuts

[@SusanKay-]

I bet you slept like a baby.

[@matthewdunham1689]

What a great cast. ❤

[@user-tn9hg7zk4m]

I remember when this movie came out. The nuclear commission poo-pooed it, saying such a thing would never happen. 12 days later, 3 Mile Island happened, and it played out almost exactly as depicted in the movie.

[@fergus247]

thanks for the upload

[@PileOfGarbage]

No worries. It's a great movie extremely underrated.

[@jimfish5981]

The old technician tap...

[@madmanmapper]

Percussive maintenance.

[@bbeen40]

Smack Calibration

[@KevinWindsor1971]

@@madmanmapper The Fonzarelli

[@stuglenn1112]

The correct technical term is called "dithering". What's never explained is how did that recorder pen get that high on the chart to get stuck there to begin with.

[@jimfish5981]

@@stuglenn1112 That's an excellent point.

[@pettymike45]

Top ten movie list material here. Such a great movie.

[@johngibson2884]

The fact that 3 mile island happened. 12 days after this movie came out ... no coincidence. This is predictive programming.

[@mikerowave1986]

So much stress, no wonder he turned into a grumpy old man

[@gregoryknox4444]

I had recently completed Nuclear Warfare School in the Army Special Forces when this movie was release. We were put on alert. I loved the movie.

[@christianlarsson1212]

Great scene love it, perfecly shot and the acting is fantastic.

[@h.a.9880]

This movie's release apparently predates the Three Mile Island by less than two weeks. Then we have Chernobyl and of course the Fukushima desasters. The Fukushima Desaster is especially eerie, cause the technicians in that NPP kept track of the waterlevels in their reactor after the earthquake and tsunami as well and got it all wrong, kinda like in this clip here. Basically, the reactor they operated has two sensors to gauge waterlevels in the reactor: One inside the reactor itself and one with a vertical tube, that's connected to the reactor. The vertical tube has a fixed amount of water inside and thus the difference in waterpressure between the reactor and the tube can be used to measure the amount of water inside the reactor. The reactor got so hot, it boiled off the water inside the tube. Say, the tube has a regular column of water of 3m with a corresponding amount in the reactor, the sensors will give you that value correctly. When the reactor has 2m and the tube 3m (as usual), the sensor will give you a value of 2m for the reactor. But when there's only 1m inside the tube and 1m inside the reactor (which is way too little to cool the core), the sensor will think it's 3m of water, cause there's no difference in water pressure between the two. The technicians of Fukushima didn't know this and thought the water levels were _rising_ when they were actually _dropping._ To this day, the reactor command center has sharpie markings on the walls where they wrote down the water levels that they measured and the last couple readings indicated, that the water inside the reactor was now technically higher than the containment vessel itself. A lot of incompetence on full display from many sides of TEPCO that day.

[@AlexKarasev]

At an IAEA function at Fukushima a couple years prior to the disaster, following the Ukrainian delegation's update the Fukushima plant's officials approached them and said, "you know, this could never happen here." The common element in most man-made disasters, from Chernobyl to Fukushima to Challenger to Columbia to Nedelin to countless others, is human hubris. In fields of endeavor ranging from banking to aerospace, from oil/gas to cryptos, people who do things "by the book" tend to lag behind those who plunge ahead unencumbered by crossing all the T's. Hence, captains of industry are simply the more egregious of those folks with long enough lucky streaks. Then, when the disasters do happen, we wonder on a case by case basis how could such asinine choices have ever gotten enshrined in the organization's culture. In fact, they're not a bug, they're a feature.

[@summer7603]

Considering it has recovered since then and it took a literal act of god to disable the plant's entire failsafe system I'd say the engineers did an amazing job preventing that from becoming worse than Chernobyl.

[@h.a.9880]

@@AlexKarasev Absolutely. And it's certainly icing on the cake that like 90% of TEPCO plant employees were merely daywage men. The important technical stuff was done by a fixed crew, everyone else was hired on a day-to-day basis literally off the local streets. But even the fixed crew wasn't up to snuff. Another example: There's an emergency cooling circuit in the Fukushima NPP, that runs entirely passive based on reactor heat (water gets warm, rises, goes through a cooling basin and back into the reactor). The engineers feared that the water in the system would boil off and cause a radioactive leak, therefore when the water levels in that passive system got low, they switched it off. Thing is: That system is made expressively for situations like the one Fukushima was in and even without water, it still cools down the reactor a tiny bit. If a leak happens, it's contained inside the cooling system, which is bad, but still way less of a problem than not cooling the reactor and having the core melt or the containment vessel blow up. The engineers should have just kept it running, but they didn't, cause they didn't know. It's simply mind blowing, these three issues alone: 1) The engineers didn't know how their reactor measures water levels and based certain decisions around data they should have known is false. 2) They didn't understand how their emergency cooling system works and shut it off when they shouldn't have. 3) 95% of plant employees were hired off the streets on a daily basis.

[@h.a.9880]

@@summer7603 The plant was built with a containtment vessel, that did what it was supposed to (for the most part). That's the biggest difference to the Chernobyl desaster, where there simply was no containtment vessel. The engineers, however, were not up to snuff and I've highlighted in two posts what blatant errors they made, based on their lack of understanding of how their own reactor works. This lead them to some decisions that were simply and plainly wrong. Want another example of the Fukushima NPP's engineer's incompetence? Mistakes/delays in venting overpressure caused explosions in all 4 reactor buildings. However the layout of the Fukushima Daiichi NPP was a problem as well in one very significant way, that increased the severity of the incident: The emergency generators and the emergency batteries, two indipendent supplies of emergency power, were both taken out by flooding due to their placement in a basement with doors and hatches FACING THE OCEAN, that allowed water free passage into the basement. The NPP lost external power due to the earthquake and tsunami, and their two sources of emergency power were not protected against flooding at all. It was one of the strongest earthquakes on record and a devastating tsunami with a height of 13m, but putting all your emergency power literally in the same building below ground, where both can get taken out by flooding, is beyond being moronically careless. Especially and precisely when you build an NPP on a coastline that's threatened by tsunamis. Keep in mind: The tsunami protection originally only took into consideration tsunamis of a height of 3.1m. In like 2009, they increased that protection to a whooping 5.7m... TEPCO knew that there could be tsunamis of over 9m and even up to 15m. TEPCO *_K N E W._* And they did nothing to prevent their emergency power from being wiped out, let alone increase the height of tsunami protection barriers.

[@richardfrench2863]

The root cause of fuk is they lost their emergency power and diesel engines. since the knuckeheads put the batteries, the safety related bus, and the diesels below grade in he basement. The wave flooded it and it was lost. The design for emergency cooling with steam powered pumps is for a limited time. It is assumed you will not lose the safety related bus. Everyone knew to the minute when the core would uncover. The other plants at fuk had their safety related bus, batteries, and diesels at a high level and had no issues.

[@torque395]

That damn dot matrix printer was part of the problem at three mile island. They are sooo slow and unbelievably noisy. The TMI operators needed info from the printouts but there was so much data to process and print out and it was all so slow to happen that some of the information they needed wasn't available for hours. Computers back then were only about 1 or 2 mhz (megahertz, not gigahertz). And that printer was probably capable of no more than 1 page per minute depending on the page coverage and how dark it printed. Not to mention the condition of the ribbon. They made the old color ink jet printers look blazing fast.

[@SpencerLemay]

Needed an IBM hammer printer lol

[@aivokallo77]

The greatest everyman in the history of Hollywood! - There are others. Two Academy Awards! - Jack Nicholson got three. An inspiration to numerous actors! - Well, you could say the same about so many other contemporaries. You don't understand Osgood! Aaah! I'm Jack Lemmon!! - Well, nobody's perfect.

[@samcole4103]

Crazy fact about The China syndrome is three mile island happened two weeks after the first opening night of the movie.

[@CoCotheTurtle]

How many opening nights did the movie have?

[@samcole4103]

@@CoCotheTurtle It was released March 16th 1979 and three mile island happened March 28th 1979.

[@CoCotheTurtle]

@@samcole4103 Any details about the second opening night of the movie, or the third opening night of the movie? Or just the first opening night of the movie?

[@SpencerLemay]

@@CoCotheTurtle Movies are usually released by region and do in fact have multiple opening nights.

[@ArcherIndustries]

ruined our chances at a nuclear powered future unfortunately

[@BritishEngineer]

I was thinking this, but of course, we have a future like this in the uk. Not sissy america.

[@pendragonshall]

yep,, sadly

[@pendragonshall]

@@BritishEngineer what the hell are you spouting???

[@radscorpion8]

@@pendragonshall lol sissy america

[@SlashvsAdamSadler]

​@@BritishEngineerYou can't even carry butter knives let alone turning into a new type of Pakistan . Settle down pie n' mash boy .

[@highlander723]

This movie did More damage to the nuclear industry than environmental terrorists would hope to do in a lifetime.

[@obsidianwing]

This movie gave me more nightmares than a Scream. This Sience Horror is way more efficient

[@michaelbrent5950]

This is damn fine filmmaking.

[@Verycoolraces]

Correction in your title. the movie was released in 1979, not 1980. March 16, 1979 to be precise. This was 12 days before the nuclear accident and T.M.I. in Pennsylvania.

[@bukboefidun9096]

Hey kids the movie came out early 1979... a few days prior to THREE MILE ISLAND

[@dandelatorre1870]

An over dramatization that changed the way we think about nuclear energy. Keep in mind everyone, this is a MOVIE, it’s NOT REAL.

[@StarX81]

It became all too real on 28 March 1979 with the Three Mile Island accident.

[@randomnickify]

Nope, Chernobyl in the News did it.

[@ryanhodin5014]

​@StarX81 3MI, as far as nuclear incidents go, isn't much of an event. Really, in my opinion it shows how safe a well-designed plant is - The core was destroyed, half the fuel melted, and the radiation released was... Inconsequential, despite what the media said about it. No one died from it, the average exposure was equivalent to a chest x-ray, and even under models like LNT that suggest low doses of radiation are much more dangerous than they probably actually are, the health impact of the accident was probably nil, except for that resulting from the elevated stress brought on by worrying about it.

[@adamsolomon9353]

it's been a minute since I've navigated BWR EOPs (Emergency Operating Procedures)...come to think about it, this is why we have EOPs. Don't shut off high pressure injection if HPCI (High Pressure Coolant Injection) is out for maintenance (they likely had another system as well). If you open relief valves so your LPCI (Low Pressure Coolant Injection) system(s) can inject, don't shut the valves as soon as they start to inject. Even if you uncover fuel, steam still provides enough cooling until you get injection back. Routine turbine trip compounded in complexity by interesting operational decisions (easy for me to say after 40 years of industry learning though)

[@thomasmoody8708]

If you knew about EOP's, you'd know that there would be NO WAY that BOTH Trains of HPCI would be allowed to be tagged out while the plant was at power. This was obviously something ignored here to add drama...

[@adamsolomon9353]

@@thomasmoody8708 exactly!

[@colindangelo997]

Not many realize, but this move came out around 10 days before the Three Mile Island incident. Just think about that.

[@kilted911]

Yup, that scene stressed me out long ago, and it stressed me out yet again.

[@ppuh6tfrz646]

This version doesn't have the music and sound effects which takes away some of the tension but it's easier to hear what's being said.

[@saladbreath607]

This is the real McCoy. Any version you've heard with music is not true to the original.

[@mistofoles]

Jack Lemmon is great in this - Just watch how his expression changes from smugness to shock as the reality of the situation hits him.

[@danielpittman889]

0:05 "Was that an earthquake? Nooo, it was Ramon!"

[@Rickinsf]

This movie was released just before the Three Mile Island near-miss, I remember it well. It was a bad springtime for the nuke industry.

[@tomking1890]

No way you are just going to have one L&N recorder showing water level.

[@kevm7815]

It’s a movie 😅 there actually multiple of them to make sure there is no way to miss the level

[@kubanpanzer]

In the movie they stated there were two.. but the crew became disoriented and didn’t look at it.

[@fluggaenkoecchicebolsen]

They didn't they had two thafs what caused the confusion. I don't blame you for not noticing, this moving roasts your brain it's very poorly written

[@roseymalino9855]

@@kubanpanzer They weren't disoriented, they were distracted dealing with wacko Jack Goddall carrying on and deciding he knew more than the engineers and do what the book and Ted Spindler says NOT to do.

[@neilkurzman4907]

@@roseymalino9855 It’s funny that everyone forgets how poorly run nuclear reactors were back then. And how poorly train the crews were. No comment about the reactor operating with critical equipment tagged out? Remember, shortly after this movie came out 3 mile island happened. Pretty much following this script.

[@torque395]

Oh and btw this video is from 1979, not 1980. If i remember correctly It was released 12 days before the three mile island accident (which happened on March 28th 1979), which would make the video release date March 16th.

[@kyk4593]

I’m a Power Station Control Room Operator, and let me assure you there’s nothing routine about a turbine trip nothing! A shut down is routine not an emergency trip!

[@colloquialsoliloquy6391]

When it comes to tension, this movie is the goat.

[@Zackarco]

What's tragic about this, is only 6 years later the worst nuclear disaster in history unfolded at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

[@LuizRanieri.]

Seems a incredible well made movie...

[@chrisharmon]

When I saw this as a first run I was disappointed that it didn't end with a complete meltdown

[@MemoWardwell]

They were building San Onofre N.P.P. when this came out. They're finally decomming it this year.

[@jeffshriber6120]

Yet in real life 3 mile island had a partial melt down of reactor number2.due to a stuck open relief valve.

[@rickmaldoo4205]

Jack Lemmon really took me on a roller-coaster

[@Fuhrious]

Sitting in a power plant control room (not a nuke) as the control room operator And watching this. Makes me nervous.

[@kanervatie]

I remember when we watched this movie when I was a kid, and I had no idea what the hell we were watching.

[@12345fowler]

Now I see how the jurassic park trambling coffee mug scene comes from

[@r.m.809]

Truly a great movie.

[@AFSD519]

As a kid, I used scenes from this movie for a special project on nuclear power pros and cons. I got an A on the project. It was nice to see this scene again.

[@markbrown4039]

"Oh, please God, cover it... COVER IT!!!!!" The only reason Jack Lemmon didn't win his third Oscar that year was because Dustin Hoffman was in the way.

[@Khono]

Everyone keep in mind that this film came out well in advance of the events at Chernobyl.

[@proscriptus]

Every Boomer in the US saw this movie and thought it was a documentary, and between that and Three Mile Island, it set nuclear power back in the United States by 100 years

[@Rotorhead1651]

I remember seeing this right around the time of the incident at 3-Mile Island in Harrisburg (which, coincidentally, is within sight of Harrisburg International Airport). Thank GOD this was nowhere near as bad as Chernobyl. NYS has/had a nuclear power plant at Indian Point in the upstate region. It's practically sitting on a geological fault line.

[@Youre_Right]

It could never be as bad as Chernobyl. American reactors had safety protocols and containment buildings. TMI was an incident and nothing more. There was never a threat to the general public. It’s bullshit that it was used along with Chernobyl as anti nuclear energy propaganda.

[@imadequate3376]

Japan is one big fault line and they operate multiple nuclear reactors. Fukushima was a fluke 1 in a 100 year tsunami and quake. I've seen photos of their set up at Fukushima, act of God, however TEPCO and the Japanese government didn't help the situation. Japan built their reactors to take a 7.0 quake or something to that effect.

[@MattBuild4]

Indian Point was also rated for a 5.6 magnituide earthquake. You mind reminding be the last time New York had an earthquake above 3.0?

[@Youre_Right]

There could never be anything close to Chernobyl in America. TMI wasn’t anything more than an incident. A small amount of radioactive steam was released into the atmosphere. Everything else was contained in the containment building. It’s a shame because Chernobyl and BS propaganda caused America to get scared and shy away from nuclear power. Which is far cheaper, cleaner and safer. The death toll from fossil fuel based energy production dwarfs the amount that have died procinlobine

[@sayhitosteve2785]

I can't figure out which is stranger, a skinny Wilford Brimley or a serious acting Jack Lemon.

[@Brian6587]

Love this movie. Jack Lemmon did a excellent job and so did Jane Fonda and a young Michael Douglas!

[@nothingissimplewithlloyd]

6 years after this was made: Diatlov says “hold my beer.”

[@JasonHauser125]

I had flashbacks to the Chernobyl show watching this.

[@TallcloudNZ]

The option to override involuntary meltdown expires in t- 5 minutes...

[@mistofoles]

Jack Lemmon is a great actor - You can almost hear his butt cheeks squeak when the water level gauge drops !

[@frankbieser]

The tragedy of this movie is most people think this is what happened at 3 mile island. It wasn't. Closer to what happened in Chernobyl, which was the result of the Soviet leadership actively burying information regarding the design flaw in their "perfect" reactor (and then proceeded to lie about most everything else along the way making things even worse).

[@AlexKarasev]

That's not that'd happened at Chernobyl either.

[@frankbieser]

@@AlexKarasev Overly simplified, but essentially what happened. During a maintenance test, the technicians managed to create the circumstances that blew up the core, something that had been advertised as something that could never happen (except for a paper that was created that explained how it could happen, but was then suppressed). When they finally turned to the west for help, they lied about the level of radiation present which destroyed a robot the German's provided. What happened there was preventable if only the technicians knew there was a way to cause the reactor to fail.

[@AlexKarasev]

@@frankbieser >"During a maintenance test" It wasn't one. It was a proficiency test - the final & most complex one to pass so the Block 4 & its crew were considered fit for service and the entire plant, commissioned on time. The test is to safely bring down the reactor's power to near-zero, powering up the huge cooling water pumps using ONLY the kinetic energy stored in the turbine - no other power source. As the turbine slows down providing this power, its voltage, current, and frequency all change and you balance it with the cooling demand and the heat and mechanics of the reactor, steering the cooling to where it's needed. The whole point of the test is you're on top of all this as there's no time to look anything up. The test is started from a fairly low reactor level to provide a modicum of safety - more on that later. >"the technicians managed to create the circumstances that blew up the core" By removing one of the control panels and disabling a key safety feature inside. >"When they finally turned to the west for help" Here we go. That same hubris. In reality this is no different from Linda Ham denying sat photos request of the stricken orbiter - and then denying the denial. And by the way, unlike the Soviets, they never did manage to step over own egos to finally turn to the east for help. >"What happened there was preventable if only the technicians knew there was a way to cause the reactor to fail." The plant becoming fully operational on time meant an Order of Lenin for the plant director. The previous 3 reactors have already scooped up the most qualified cadre who'd lived in the area or were willing to relocate. Block 4 got the leftovers. They'd failed the proficiency test multiple times before - so they had just one day left to complete it & be on time. As misfortune would have it, an unrelated steam plant was having an issue and they needed all 4 Chernobyl's reactors' power to fill in the shortfall, hence eventually putting the test into the night shift's lap. What's the night shift anywhere? A snooze. Who gets to serve on the night shift? Mostly, new guys, losers, weird folks, so in Chernobyl's case, the bottom of the barrel. On the other hand we've that Order of Lenin, entitling one to a lifetime use of a waterfront summer residence (in Chernobyl's case would have been river Dnipro or the Black Sea), lifetime shopping at the Western goods store (things like Italian shoes, Japanese electronics, French perfumes, American jeans etc etc - all at absurdly low prices due to the volume deals negotiated and subsidies - folks in the West would never ever see such prices on those same goods in retail), oh, and I almost forgot, a one-time bonus in the amount of his annual salary. Do you reckon the plant director's family just might want for their patriarch to earn that Order of Lenin, and might he put an itsy bitsy bit of pressure on the night shift? What % of managers right in your place of work do you know who'd turn down all those incentives? Had it been Linda Ham there, knowing what she'd done even without, I don't know, she might have packed a bunch of extra people in Columbia's payload bay if that meant a better shot at all this. The RBMK is a giant reactor with controls akin to a super-tanker rudder. It won't turn on a dime. The water volumes, heat masses, and energies are just too great. So when the night shift ran out of time to begin bringing the power down to where it was appropriate to start the test and still complete the test on time, strings were pulled behind the scenes and they proceeded to free up what can only be called a Berserker mode, intended for operating a partially loaded RBMK with just a small % of rods in place and I don't know what other reasons. I wouldn't put it past those night crew Russians to have not bothered properly training for their night duties yet taken a keen interest in the Berserker mode, but I suspect this info was handed down to them - and good luck finding out by whom. The rest was 100% as expected. They'd WAY overshot the starting power level, poisoned the reactor, and then WAY, WAY overshot bringing the power back up - when it'd busted through the xe135 cap there was no stopping it utterly regardless of control rod design etc. The rest of what you can read about the accident (save for some evacuation protocols and dealing with the plunderers in the exclusion zone) is reasonably accurate.

[@shannon1967]

"blew up the core".....that's technical......look up prompt critical.@@frankbieser

[@richardfrench2863]

@@frankbieser It was a steam explosion. They rapidly increased Rx heat, which heated the water, boiled it to high pressure, blew the reactor vessel..and everything it in.