DDE

Hopefully this will embed https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FMtBJU7WQAAbV6P?format=jpg&name=large

Yeah, about that... some are arguing thats it's the airframe on fire in the limited footage available. Pro-Russian sources broke the news well over a day before Ukrainian ones. Also, due to certain factors, the Ukranian government has limited awareness of what is going on in Gostomel. In their original statement, they said something along the lines of "We're going to build a new plane, and we're going to get Russia to pay for it".

The other units can probably be reconditioned, rebuilt and kept in operation for quite a while. №4, meanwhile... this the top plate of the reactor: As you can see, it's taken quite a long flight before getting stuck into the old pressure vessel, sideways. The entire building and the original 1986 Shelter built around it are structurally unstable. The top plate falling over can lead to a nasty dust generation event.

Ain't all fun and roses either

The biggest factor is usually the ability to refuel the reactor without shutting it down, because plutonium harvesting is basically done from underused fuel rods. RMBKs - those found in Chernobyl - allow the fuel rods to be yanked out of the top plate of the reactor at any time, and are directly derived from specialist plutonium generation reactors. All of Ukraine's remaining reactors are VVERs, a Soviet counterpart to PWRs, which are safer in both the usual sense and the proliferation sense because they operate under pressure. That leaves you with the need to chemically extract plutonium from a mixture of hideously radioactive decay products... whereas Ukraine doesn't even have a native reactor fuel production industry.

Found them dubious at face value. They called Yuzhmash a ballistic missile manufacturer, which it hasn't been for longer than I'm alive, and thus it wouldn't merit a long-range strike.

Actual history, I believe, was, "That's as high as it goes." "Where's the one with greater range?" "In the staff room. Which is locked." "And the key?" "Under six feet of rubble." However, by that time, the witnesses could taste the air ionization and feel it be thick with radioactive noble gasses. Edit: I've read through Medvedev; it's the room itself that got trashed.

More importantly, most of the fallout would go completely the wrong way. Meanwhile, the notion of deliberate meltdowns was brought up by a seemingly genuine account of the Zaporozhskaya NEP last autumn, and made a lot of rounds on the Russian web. https://t.me/zaes_energoatom/498 We've seen a whole war started under a much flimsier pretext. However, the post feels a bit tongue-in-cheek. We'll soon find out. Twitter seems down right this very moment so I don't have end-of-day maps to check, but I believe the above-mentioned NEP with its six reactors has already changed hands. Ultimately, @Arugela, you're a little bit late to the party - the fighting has already moved further south, Chernobyl was just a stepping stone. US says the Russians are holding the sarcophagus crew hostage, the Russians say the Ukranian force there has flipped and is cooperating in keeping the site secure. Additionally, Russian troops have always emphasized CBRN defense training with alarming gusto, so decontamination after passage should not be a significant problem. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/24906/russia-uses-these-crazy-antique-jet-engine-equipped-trucks-to-blast-away-chemical-agents

Not all of it. Enough has been published about Nebo-M: it's a trio of meter, decimeter and centimeter-wave radars with the explicit goal of counter-stealth.

Why low-kiloton, though? I know that this can double the range of the delivery platform, but as yesterday's events show, conventional cruise missile barrages can be deadly enough, and allow you to penetrate across the entire strategic depth. And space-related facilities are pretty damned sensitive.

I think you're conflating marines and frogmen. You may notice the Soviets/Russia are overrepresented in that list, mostly because of an entire dedicated corps of anti-frogmen who never get to see the beach. I think the problem is less about spacedrops and more about... non-cooperative embarkation. On "vacuum worlds" orbital bombardment would be king; you'd basically only send infantry to claim habitats that you don't want destroyed (whether you'd want the potentially non-cooperative people inside to stay alive a different question), or to act as "tunnel rats" against ultra-deep underground installations. Even then, "liberation through destruction" may be a less costly option than infantry action.

The problem you then run into is assymetric interest. The runner-up may be willing to risk a Kessler Syndrome to unseat the leader. Allow me to stick a needle into that. http://www.hisutton.com/Covert_Shores_Guide_to_Underwater_weapons.html

Wait, how the heck did I miss this question being asked!?

In 1703, travelling with Peter I a Dutchman named Cornelis de Bruijn recorded with absolute puzzlement a plethora of elephant teeth found by the village of Kostyonki in Southern Russia. At the time, the best explanation the Tsar was able to come up with was... war elephants lost by the army of Alexander the Great The truth is far woolier.

Yes. SA became the only country to have ever produced nuclear weapons, and have then given them up.

An interesting, if hawkish article. Belongs in this thread due to a pronounced viewpoint. https://thespacereview.com/article/4336/1

Mi-10

Roscosmos completes teardown of a number of Protons recalled over faulty bolts in summer of 2020; Ekspress launches to likely resume https://ria.ru/20220222/rakety-1774276489.html

Didn't know it wasn't just Rogozin

Your first mistake was trying to do a serious video in a cat cafe

Meanwhile just outside the borders of Rome

Also I find it dubious that this mindset would afflict all humans as well. Refer to Fukuyama's Last Men striving to undo the End of History.