When Sayid and Jack were underneath the hatch, looking for a way in the concrete, what did Sayid compare it too? He said the last time he had seen were someone put concret over everything was? He campared it to something. I didn't catch it. Anyone?

He said that the last time he had heard of concrete poured in this manner, it was at Chernobyl.

Thanks!

Chernobyl
(chĭrnō´byēl) , Ukr. Chornobyl, abandoned city, N Ukraine, near the Belarus border, on the Pripyat R. Ten miles (16 km) to the north, in the town of Pripyat, is the Chernobyl nuclear power station, site of the worst nuclear reactor disaster in history. On Apr. 25, 1986, during an unauthorized test of one of the plant's four reactors, engineers initiated an uncontrolled chain reaction in the core of the reactor after disabling emergency backup systems. On Apr. 26, an explosion ripped the top off the containment building, expelling radioactive material into the atmosphere; more was released in the subsequent fire. Only after Swedish instruments detected fallout from the explosion did Soviet authorities admit that an accident had occurred. The reactor core was sealed off by air-dropping a cement mixture, but not before eight tons of radioactive material had escaped.


Twenty firefighters died immediately from overexposure to radioactivity, while hundreds suffered from severe radiation sickness. Pripyat, Chernobyl, and nearby towns were evacuated. People who lived near the plant in Ukraine and Belarus at the time have seen a greatly increased incidence of thyroid cancer, and genetic mutations have been discovered in children later born to exposed parents. Ukraine has estimated that as many as 8,000 people died as a result of the accident and during its cleanup. The agricultural economies of E and N Europe were temporarily devastated, as farm products were contaminated by fallout. One Chernobyl reactor remained in operation until Dec., 2000, when the complex was shut down.

Yup. IMO Swan Hatch is a Nuke reactor and Sayid improperly called it a Geothermal generator. I think it is in fact a reactor. The hot pipes are for cooling and steam generation. A lot of people mistakenly believe that reactors generate electricity in som magical fashion. They infact just generage LOTS of steam which power generators.

This massive need for electricity feeds my theory that the Swan hatch is conducting some Philidelphia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Project)type experiments at this electromagnetically unique site. You need a big magnet and lots of juice, so this would make sense.

just a theory

I agree - also, did anyone else notice a hissing sound while they were in the underground part? I'm going back to rewatch, but my daugther watched last night and said that she noticed a valve when Jack and Sayid were down there, and there was a small bit of what looked like steam that escaped from it? A possible leak or something? More of the "black cloud" monster??

I thought that some of the sounds I heard when they were down there kind of sounded like the mechanical monster, maybe it was just the pipes and what not but I thought I heard something similar.

Geothermal generator would make sense on a volcanic island, and once in place would require little human intervention. Seems like a nuclear reactor would need a staff of technicians to keep it running and not blow-up.

Kate told Jack she noticed a sulfur smell when she was in the shower. That would be in line with the geothermal theory. (And it also would mean there's unlimited hot water, yay!)

But it would make no sense to enclose the hot spring or whatever it is in concrete. And if there's a volcano under there, ten feet of concrete isn't going to help a bit.

And if the site is radioactive, it would make to sense to make it (of all places on the island) somebody's living quarters. Let alone somebody who's supposed to be saving the world.

Geothermal generator would make sense on a volcanic island, and once in place would require little human intervention. Seems like a nuclear reactor would need a staff of technicians to keep it running and not blow-up.

Or some guy pressing a button every 108 minutes? hmmm...

[QUOTE=LostMyMarbles;542101]Kate told Jack she noticed a sulfur smell when she was in the shower. That would be in line with the geothermal theory. (And it also would mean there's unlimited hot water, yay!)=QUOTE]

When I lived in the boonies we had a well and our water smelled like sulfur, also Kate mentioned that the water went cold for a bit.....

Or some guy pressing a button every 108 minutes? hmmm...


I'm suddenly remebering a Simpsons episode where Homer intentionally become obese so he could work from home and had to vent the reactor all day long by "pressing a button on a computer"

Interesting

oh my god!! that's right! hahahaha... Simpson's did it!

I also really like the theory that Philadelphia type experiments are going on at this station. There was also (supposedly) an experiment in time travel done called the Montauk Project. It used the same basic prinicpals and science as the Philadelphia Experiment, and (I think) was done around the same time. In any case, Montauk could be an explaination for the Black Rock.

He said that the last time he had heard of concrete poured in this manner, it was at Chernobyl.


And Chernobyl did not prevent a reactor meltdown. It is still uninhabitable almost 20 years later. TMI was as close to a reactor melt down that this country ever went thru.

Hummmm....what about a nuclear-fusion/geothermal station....we can't do fusion yet BUT there are a lot of scientists trying....geotherm is available in quite a few places and the "hypothesis" goes that a combo might work better.....

I'm suddenly remebering a Simpsons episode where Homer intentionally become obese so he could work from home and had to vent the reactor all day long by "pressing a button on a computer"

Interesting

The Simpons have done everything anyone can think of, it's crazyness.

Hmm... It was my impression that the hissing and the steam came from exactly what Jack followed it to - Kate in the shower.

Other than that, someone asked in a thread I read earlier where the discharge from the reactor was released... I'm willing to bet it's released in the Dark Territory and is what made Danielle's crew sick ... but it was in small amounts so she had to be humane and kill them off. It may also explain the hatch's occupants having to push the button - it makes the discharge happen so it doesn't explode into the hatch. Which would toss out the psych experiment aspect and put Desmond's theory of everyone going to die on par with what would actually happen... not the whole world, but the whole world as the hatch occupants (and perhaps the whole island) knows it.

There was also an episode of Outer Limits , the new version, where a guy was in a bunker and he had to push a button every few hours to prevent nuclear missles from launching. The idea was that it was a fail safe in case aliens took over the planet. So if there was no one to push the button because the aliens killed everyone, at least the missles would destroy the aliens.