Chernobyl Nuclear Explosion Disaster Explained (Hour by Hour)
Summary
TLDRThe script recounts the Chernobyl disaster on April 25, 1986, detailing the events leading up to the explosion, the immediate aftermath, and the long-term effects. It describes the initial joyous mood of workers, the design flaws and mismanagement that led to the catastrophe, and the harrowing experiences of those exposed to lethal radiation. The narrative follows key figures, the response of the Soviet government, and the global impact, highlighting the human and environmental toll of the tragedy.
Takeaways
- 📅 The Chernobyl disaster occurred on April 25, 1986, and had a profound global impact.
- 🛠️ A design flaw and subsequent mismanagement led to the catastrophic explosion at Reactor 4.
- 🚫 Soviet officials initially denied the severity of the incident and attempted to suppress information about the disaster.
- 🏭 The immediate aftermath involved a frantic response to contain the fires and radiation without full understanding of the risks involved.
- 🔒 The residents of Pripyat were uninformed about the true nature of the disaster during the evacuation, which was ordered to protect them from radiation.
- 🛑 The emergency shutdown (SCRAM) was initiated using the AZ-5 button, which inadvertently exacerbated the situation due to a design flaw in the control rods.
- 🤕 Many first responders and plant workers suffered from acute radiation sickness, with some dying shortly after exposure.
- 🏥 The health effects of the disaster were long-lasting, with increased cancer rates and other radiation-related illnesses affecting survivors.
- 🏢 The Soviet Union's lack of transparency and accountability contributed to the disaster's severity and the public's misperception of nuclear safety.
- 🏰 The abandoned town of Pripyat became a ghost town, with an eventual resurgence of wildlife in the exclusion zone.
- ⏳ The long-term effects of the disaster are still felt today, with the area around Chernobyl remaining largely uninhabited and contaminated.
Q & A
What was the date and location of the Chernobyl disaster?
-The Chernobyl disaster occurred on April 25-26, 1986, at the Chernobyl Power Plant located about 2 miles (3km) from Pripyat, a small town in northern Ukraine.
What was the initial mood among the workers at the Chernobyl power plant before the disaster?
-The initial mood among the workers was joyful, as it was a beautiful night following a sunny day, and the May Day holiday was approaching.
What were the safety concerns expressed by Natasha, the wife of Alexander Yuvchenko?
-Natasha had misgivings about the safety of nuclear power, but her fears were somewhat diminished by a Soviet official on TV claiming that nuclear meltdowns were extremely rare, possibly occurring only once every 10,000 years.
What was the purpose of the test that was being conducted at Chernobyl's reactor number 4?
-The purpose of the test was to determine if the slowing turbines after being turned off could create enough electrical power to keep the coolant pumps running during the gap before the backup diesel generators reached full capacity.
What was the AZ-5 button used for at Chernobyl?
-The AZ-5 button at Chernobyl was an emergency off-switch designed to make all of the control rods drop down to stop the nuclear reactions.
Why was the AZ-5 button considered a design flaw?
-The AZ-5 button was considered a design flaw because the control rods had a graphite tip which actually increased the reaction rate instead of stopping it, causing a surge in reactivity when the rods were inserted all at once.
What was the immediate consequence of the explosion at the Chernobyl reactor?
-The immediate consequence of the explosion was the ejection of the reactor's steel lid, the destruction of the roof and floor, and the release of radioactive materials and fuel into the environment, causing fires and exposing the core to the atmosphere.
What was the initial response of the local officials to the disaster?
-The initial response of the local officials was to hold meetings to discuss the situation, but they were not informed of the full extent of the disaster, and the town's evacuation was delayed.
What was the role of Valery Legasov in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster?
-Valery Legasov was the deputy director of the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy and led the commission to deal with the accident. He was responsible for testifying during the tribunal and exposing the Soviet Union's shortcomings in nuclear energy production.
What were the long-term effects of the Chernobyl disaster on the surrounding area and its inhabitants?
-The long-term effects included the formation of an Exclusion Zone, the abandonment of the town of Pripyat, the suffering and death of many due to radiation poisoning, and the contamination of the environment which led to a resurgence of wildlife in the area.
Outlines
🌆 Chernobyl's Fateful Night
The script opens with a scene set on April 25, 1986, at the Chernobyl Power Plant, highlighting the serene mood among workers before a catastrophic event unfolds. Alexander Yuvchenko begins his night shift, unaware of the impending disaster. The narrative delves into the flawed Soviet nuclear safety beliefs, the reactor's design issues, and the unpreparedness of the night shift crew. It outlines the reactor's operation, the control mechanisms, and the risky decision-making that leads to a sudden power surge and the explosion of Reactor 4, marking the start of a global crisis.
🔴 The Cataclysm Unfolds
This section details the chaotic aftermath of the explosion at Chernobyl's Reactor 4. It describes the confusion and misjudgment among the plant operators, the erroneous activation of the SCRAM button, and the resulting design flaw exacerbating the situation. The narrative follows Alexander's experience, the shocking realization of the reactor's destruction, and the immediate, severe consequences for those exposed to the radiation. It also touches on the initial underestimation of the disaster's scale by authorities and the brave but ill-informed response of the firefighters.
🌃 The Dawn of a Disaster
The script shifts to the early hours following the disaster, painting a picture of the confusion and misinformation among local officials and the plant's management. It discusses the denial and disbelief about the reactor's explosion, the growing awareness of the severity among a few, and the initial containment efforts. The section also highlights the obliviousness of the nearby town's residents to the unfolding tragedy and the gradual recognition of the disaster's gravity by key figures like Valery Legasov and Boris Shcherbina.
🚨 Evacuation and Escalation
This part of the script describes the critical decision-making hours that lead to the evacuation of Pripyat. It outlines the飙升ing radiation levels, the frantic efforts to extinguish fires, and the realization that the disaster could have far-reaching consequences. The narrative captures the tension as officials grapple with the decision to evacuate, the implementation of the evacuation process, and the heartbreaking departure of residents from their homes, unaware they would never return.
🏚️ Abandonment and Aftermath
The script paints a stark picture of the abandoned town of Pripyat and the surreal experience of the evacuation. It discusses the immediate aftermath, the international detection of radiation, and the Soviet Union's attempts to control information about the disaster. The section also touches on the resilience of some residents, the 'liquidators' risking their lives for the cleanup, and the global panic sparked by the news of the disaster.
🛠️ Containment and Cleanup
This section delves into the massive undertaking of containing the disaster and the cleanup efforts. It describes the construction of the sarcophagus, the formation of the Exclusion Zone, and the long-term health effects on the liquidators. The narrative also addresses the misinformation about the disaster, the eventual recognition of the scale of the tragedy, and the legacy of Chernobyl on the perception of nuclear energy.
📚 Reflections and Lessons
The final part of the script reflects on the Chernobyl disaster's impact, the investigations into its causes, and the broader implications for nuclear safety. It recounts Valery Legasov's recordings, his warning about the systemic failures leading to the disaster, and his tragic death. The section concludes with a look at the long-term effects on the environment, the wildlife thriving in the Exclusion Zone, and a sobering reminder of the disaster's lasting legacy.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Chernobyl power plant
💡Nuclear meltdown
💡Radiation
💡Control rods
💡Graphite
💡Reactor core
💡Liquidators
💡Exclusion Zone
💡Sarcophagus
💡Radiation poisoning
💡Misinformation
Highlights
Chernobyl disaster is considered one of the most controversial and panic-inducing events in history.
Natasha's fears about nuclear power safety were alleviated by Soviet officials claiming nuclear meltdowns are extremely rare.
Alexander Yuvchenko's nightshift at Chernobyl leads to a catastrophic event, affecting him and his family.
A design flaw in the reactor's backup diesel generators and their delayed power-up time is revealed.
The reactor's emergency core cooling system was deliberately disabled for the test, increasing risk.
Miscommunication and lack of proper briefing among nightshift workers contributed to the disaster.
Xenon poisoning due to a slowdown in the reactor caused an unexpected power decrease.
The reactor's power surged dangerously high during the test, leading to a serious situation.
The AZ-5 button was mistakenly hit, exposing a critical design flaw in Chernobyl's control rods.
The explosion at Chernobyl released a massive amount of radioactive materials into the atmosphere.
Firefighters and plant workers were unaware of the radiation levels and potential dangers.
The Soviet government initially downplayed the severity of the disaster and attempted to control information.
Evacuation of Pripyat began with residents unaware of the long-term consequences of the disaster.
The 'Chernobyl Suicide Squad' risked their lives to drain water and prevent a potential larger explosion.
Misinformation about radiation dangers led to widespread fear and the killing of pets in the Exclusion Zone.
Valery Legasov's recordings revealed the truth about the disaster and the Soviet Union's unsafe nuclear power plants.
The long-term effects of the disaster on human health and the environment are still debated.
Pripyat has become a ghost town, with nature reclaiming the area over time.
Transcripts
Hour 0 April 25, 1986.
Chernobyl power plant, located about 2 miles (3km) from Pripyat, a small town in northern Ukraine.
At just before midnight the engineer-mechanic Alexander Yuvchenko clocks on for his nightshift,
a shift that will go down on record as one of the most controversial few hours in history,
creating a panic that will take over the planet.
The mood among the workers is joyful. It’s a beautiful night after a sunny day
and the May Day holiday is just around the corner. At home sleeping in his small apartment is his
wife Natasha, and his two-year-old son, Kirill. The family is well taken of, and although Natasha
has some misgivings about the safety of nuclear power, only recently those fears were diminished
when she heard a Soviet official on TV saying nuclear meltdowns just don’t happen, or, if they
do, he said there might be one every 10,000 years. In just over 24 hours from now, people who Natasha
knows will be out in the street looking into the sky at a dazzling laser beam shooting up to the
stars. At exactly the same time, her husband will be in a party of four men who are exposed
to deadly amounts of radiation after being sent to assess damage at Chernobyl’s reactor number 4.
Three of them will die in excruciating pain, their bodies destroyed from within. Alexander
will survive because he doesn’t enter the reactor hall but only holds a door for his friends.
The arm and leg and shoulder that he uses will later turn black. He’ll tell Natasha
with what he thinks could be his dying words that he’s been turned into a mutant.
Alexander will see things the communist government will want to keep secret. Death by radiation is
a monstrous thing to behold and the Chernobyl power plant disaster will be one of the most
monstrous events in world history. At the heart of the matter is a design flaw that the Soviets
will not want to admit. What the capitalists can do, they can do just as well, or so they think.
One thing you don’t want at a nuclear power station is a total shutdown.
If that happens, things can heat up, and if an explosion follows, what you
have is a massive leakage of deadly radiation. So, every reactor at Chernobyl has three backup
diesel generators that will kick in if power is suddenly lost. The problem is that it takes 60 to
75 seconds for them to fully power the coolant pumps. The theory, and it is only a theory,
is that the slowing turbines after being turned off will create enough electrical power
to keep the pumps running during that gap before the generators are running at full capacity.
To know if this works, they need to do some tests. The first came in 1982 and it wasn’t
successful. They tried again in 1984 and again the results weren’t good. Then they tried in 1985,
and yet again, a message was sent back to Moscow saying things hadn’t gone as planned. This was not
what the bigwigs wanted to hear, and they made that known. The pressure was on…excuse the pun.
The realtor has already been slowed down to run at about 25 percent of its normal power. Importantly,
the reactor’s emergency core cooling system has been disabled so it doesn’t get in the way
of seeing if the turbines can power the generators. More importantly, some of the
nightshift workers that have arrived haven’t been properly briefed about the test. The reason is the
test should have happened on the day shift, but there was a power outage earlier in the day at
a coal plant, so Chernobyl had to keep running at full power to give people their electricity.
To fully appreciate this story, you need to know how we get electricity from a nuclear power plant,
so here we’ll give you the very basics in laymans terms. Inside the reactor, neutrons split uranium
atoms, and that makes more neutrons. They split more atoms, and we have more neutrons,
and on and on and on. This is called a chain reaction, and it produces a crapload of heat.
You harness that heat and make it turn water into steam, and the steam runs those turbines
we’ve already talked about. As they move all this energy becomes electricity that
ensures people like Natasha can cook, clean, eat, see, watch TV, and stay warm in winter.
All that heat and energy, of course, can be a bit unstable so you have to have control
mechanisms to make sure there isn’t an overload. If not, the chain reactions would just keep going,
becoming highly dangerous. Control rods are the things used to slow down the chain reactions.
These are a bunch of rods that can be inserted into the reactor in different numbers or different
lengths allowing the nuclear technicians to control the rate of the nuclear chain reaction.
They’re made out of special materials that can absorb neutrons, so if all does suddenly go to
hell, you will hope those rods can come and save the day. No one at Chernobyl doubts their safety,
or at least the less experienced operators don’t. Hour 1
Now you know the night shift isn’t properly prepared for the test and it might be their
fault that the power out of the plant falls too much at 28 minutes past midnight on April 26.
They try to increase power, but something is wrong. They’ve never seen this before.
This is partly because there’s been a build-up of Xenon during the test.
You don’t need to know what Xenon is, and to be frank, it’s too complicated to fully explain,
but when there is a build-up of the stuff it can cause Xenon poisoning. Xenon would usually burn
away when the reactor is at full power, but the slow down has caused the build-up and the build-up
has caused a further slowdown. This is not good. It’s because of this overabundance of Xenon
that even when the guys take most of the control rods out, 200 from 206,
they still can’t get enough power. As you know, by taking out the rods, they should get more power
since the nuclear reaction isn’t hampered. Doing this, though, can be pretty dangerous. In fact,
they shouldn’t be doing this in the first place. A young operator gets on the phone and asks,
“‘What shall I do? In the program, there are instructions of what to do, and then a lot
of things are crossed out.” The guy on the other end pauses and then says, “Follow the crossed-out
instructions.” Hour 2
At around 1.05 am, they have the power stabilized, although the reactor is running
well below what the shift supervisor, Anatoly Dyatlov, thinks is ideal. One day he’ll lie
and say he wasn’t in the room when mistakes were made, but he was. Don’t forget his name.
The reactor is certainly running at less power than is safe for a test,
but they carry on anyway on the orders of Dyatlov. He doesn’t want a black mark against
his name in the form of another failed test. At 1.24 and four seconds, the test really starts,
meaning they are going to simulate a power outage and as we have explained,
see if the slowing turbines can power the coolant pumps before the generators can turn on.
This is when all hell breaks loose. What happens is a sudden and massive increase in power.
It’s dangerously high, and this is now very serious. So serious,
that someone hits the SCRAM button. At Chernobyl, this was the AZ-5 button.
It’s an emergency off-switch, which makes all of the control rods drop down to stop the nuclear
reactions. This is a big mistake, and one which exposes one of a few design flaws at Chernobyl.
The rods have a graphite tip, which in short actually increases the reaction rate,
not the opposite, as is wanted. The boron in the rods reduces reactivity, but
not those tips. As so many rods hit the reactor at the same time there is a huge surge in reactivity.
The operators don’t know what they have done. The graphite tips are fixed in position and the heat
creates a massive amount of hot steam, in effect, a bomb. The operators are not
aware of this or they wouldn’t have dropped the rods into a reactor already surging with power.
The man in the reactor hall watches this as it happens and is shocked to see those
200 rods and their caps, each weighing 772 pounds (350 kg), jumping up and down
within the reactor lid. It’s as if they are being pushed by the power of a God.
The output of the reactor is now at ten times the power it should be. And
that’s it. BANG. The bomb goes off. The world will never be the same again after this moment.
The explosion causes the reactor’s steel lid, weighing about 10,000
tons (2,000 medium-sized male African elephants) to fly off and go straight through the roof.
Shortly after, there’s another big explosion, likely down to a build-up of hydrogen from
zirconium-steam reactions. Bits of radioactive materials and fuel are sent everywhere.
Fires rage and the core is exposed to the world. Right now, it’s not obvious to most
of the men in the plant what is happening. They all think the reactor is still intact,
only because reactors normally don’t just blow up. The roof is destroyed. The floor is in pieces.
Radioactive materials are lying about everywhere. The air is filled with clouds of dust,
pieces of radioactive graphite are flung great distances,
and radiation is now spilling into the atmosphere. To say this is bad would be putting it lightly.
Soon a few men will know this, but the one that knows it best will be too dead to tell the story.
Right now, Alexander is in a state of shock. Just a moment ago, he was in his office with
some colleagues reading some documents but now everything around them now is shuddering,
on the brink of what feels like imminent collapse. His first thought is this is
war. The USA has attacked us! He’s not alone in thinking this. What else could have happened?
The phone rings. It’s the guys from building number three. “Bring some stretchers,” they
shout over the noise. Alexander takes off down some dark corridors in search of the men
he knows are the closest to the explosion site. As he gets closer to a deafening hissing sound,
he finds his buddy. His face is horribly disfigured, so much so that he only knows who
it is when he hears the sound of his voice. More people are injured, the guy tells Alexander.
He then meets with Yuri Tregub, who’s come from control room number 4. He tells Alexander
that Deatlov has asked for the emergency high-pressure coolant water to flood the area.
Deatlov still doesn’t know that the reactor has blown and he won’t even believe it when he’s told.
Now waste deep in water, Alexander and a few other men try to get to the coolant taps, but through
a door, they see that the giant water containers have been blown apart. All the men are terrified.
This is worse than they thought. Alexander looks around at what’s left of the room and
sees his colleague Khodemchuk on the floor, dead. He then looks up at the roof, or where the roof
was, and he sees something magical. A great beam of light is reaching to the heavens.
It’s magnificent and beautiful, and as things now stand, Alexander is not aware of how deadly it is.
For a few seconds, he just stares at what he doesn’t know are gamma rays and neutrons.
A more experienced colleague who knows what it is grabs him by the shoulder and pulls
him away. He likely saves his life doing so. Alexander sets off to control room number four
and there he meets three other guys who’ve been ordered by Deatlov to go to the reactor
hall and lower the control rods by hand. This is madness, sheer madness. Alexander screams,
“There is no reactor hall. The reactor has blown up. There are no control rods. They’ve
blown up, too. There’s nothing left but space.” The guys think he’s crazy. Reactors don’t explode.
Alexander has to admit that what he’s seen, he’s seen only from the bottom floor.
The men tell him they need to assess the damage from above to really know what’s happened.
The four of them head to the reactor hall upper floor. Little do they know that this is a journey
to the end of the night, for three of them anyway. As you know, Alexander only survives
because he’s the one that holds the door, being the strongest of the four. When the guys come out,
they say nothing can be done. They look at Alexander and tell him he’s right. They say
the reactor hall now looks like a volcano crater. They understand that radiation levels are high,
of course, they do, it’s their job, but they don’t know just how high. They look at the radiation
level reader device they have, the dosimeter, and the needle is off the scales, but they
still don’t know how bad things are because what is happening is just so unprecedented.
It’s still only just after 1.55 but the firefighters are already outside on the
scene. They too don’t have much of an idea of the gravity of the situation, and when they start to
try and put out the fires that have started in various places, they are not even wearing
protective clothing. Some of them will die in agony very soon. Others will pass away in a month,
their immune systems destroyed by the radiation. Back in Piryrat, most people are in bed asleep,
although a few people are now standing outside, mesmerized by the ethereal beam
in the sky that they don't know is caused by irradiated air. They just think it looks cool.
In years to come, stories told in the West will say there was a large group of them on a bridge,
watching radioactive blue dust fall like snowflakes. This will be called “The Bridge
of Death.” The stories will say they all died, but none of that is true. There was no Bridge
of Death. Most people were asleep at the time. In the end, most people who actually were close
to the accident, recovered, with just 20 percent of those who suffered acute radiation poisoning
biting the dust. As you’ll see again in this show, it sometimes pays not to believe everything
you see on TV or in the newspapers. If you don’t know, the way radiation
poisoning works on the body is it takes out electrons from atoms in a person’s molecules,
destroying the chemical bonds and thus damaging tissue. We don’t need to tell
you that this isn’t good for a person. In short, after an hour or two,
diarrhea and vomiting can occur as tissue in the GI tract breaks down and bacteria is let loose
on the body. Bone marrow stops producing white blood cells, and infections can’t be fought,
since the person’s immune system is incredibly weak. Without an immune system,
your countless bacteria eat you from within. This might take some time, so even though the
person is covered in blisters and ulcers, they could start to feel ok after a couple of days,
but then a blood infection might lead to deadly sepsis.
For some at Chernobyl, even a blood transfusion and bone marrow transplant won’t help them.
One of the town’s people is Lyudmila Ignatenko. She’s already awake and has seen the glow. Her
husband, Vasily, is currently fighting the fires. The two are due to have a child in two months.
Fast-forward a week, and his skin is covered in boils, and when he turns on his pillow
he leaves skin and hair behind. The lesions spread and some of his skin now looks like white film.
At one point he asks Lyudmila for a mirror but when he sees his own disfigured face he cries
out in horror. Vasily will be buried in a zinc casket under cement, his body still radioactive.
Lyudmila is lucky she even got to see him. A nurse told her it was too dangerous.
She looked at Lyudmila and warned, “If you start crying, I'll kick you out right away.
No hugging or kissing. Don't even get near him. You have half an hour.”
Lyudmila will have much to say about this in time to come, and she’ll also lose the child.
It will be born with congenital heart defects and liver cirrhosis and die after a few hours.
Many people will criticize her for this, asking why did she visit her dying husband.
The radiation from him contaminated her and the fetus, they’ll say, but you can’t just
catch radiation from a cleaned person and there’s no proof this is how the baby died.
A falsity that will be talked about for years is that the baby somehow took the radiation
and that saved her. This is not scientific at all, but it makes good newspaper copy and great TV.
The consequences of this misinformation will mean the lives and lights of hundreds of thousands
of babies are put out before they get going. We should say, though, that while seeing her dying
husband wasn’t the reason for the baby dying, it was very likely radiation exposure from somewhere
else that led to the death. Back in 1986, the nurse that told Lyudmila not to touch her husband
couldn’t have known radiation doesn’t spread to people after they’ve been cleaned and are out of
their contaminated clothes. It’s not contagious. We should also tell you that a person’s hand
can’t suddenly burn when they touch the hand of a contaminated person. That’s TV, not reality.
One of the firefighters turns to his friend and jokes, saying, “There must be an incredible amount
of radiation here. We’ll be lucky if we’re all still alive in the morning.” As the survivors will
later testify, they were never told the reactor was on fire, only that there were regular fires
to put out. Some of them kicked the radioactive blocks, even picking them with their hands after
they’d doused them. They would never have done any of these things had they known the truth.
One of the firefighters who survived explained how little they knew,
saying some of his colleagues went up to the roof to work from there. Soberingly, he said, “Then
those boys who died went up to the roof—Vashchik, Kolya and others, and Volodya Pravik. They went up
the ladder ... and I never saw them again.” Hour 3
Local officials have already arrived on the scene to discuss what’s happening. When they’re told,
they’re not told the entire truth. That’s because only a handful of people right now
truly understand that the reactor has blown up, and some of them are now burned, vomiting,
so not in a meeting explaining what they’ve seen. Dyatlov still thinks what he always has, that a
water tank has blown up and the radiation currently making some people very sick
is from the contaminated water. He just can’t believe the core would blow, even though some
people are starting to realise that a water tank blowing up wouldn’t lead to so much destruction.
Hour 4 More firemen arrive to help with the fires.
The last thing anyone wants is reactor three to set on fire, which is looking like a possibility.
It’s soon safely shut down, but reactors 1 and 2 keep going until the next day.
Inside reactor 4 is now a molten reactor core; a large graphite and concrete slag that is burning
at around 1200 degrees Celsius. Hour 5
Another meeting is held, now with experts. Some ask about the high levels of radiation,
proffering a theory that the core might have blown. Nonsense, says Dyatlov,
even though he’s not far from keeling over himself. A second later, he throws up.
A decision is made that no one will leave the town, not yet. Perhaps they can be evacuated in
three days. All the phone lines are blocked in case anyone starts spreading rumors,
which one official calls “misinformation” that can negatively affect the Soviet Union.
Police soon start blocking the roads, just as soldiers pass them on their way in to help with
the clean-up job. Hour 7
At 6.35 am, most of the fires are out, but by no means does this mean the problems
are over. They’re only just beginning. Real horror is taking place inside that reactor.
A man who understands this horror is Valery Legasov, the deputy director of the Kurchatov
Institute of Atomic Energy and the man that will lead the commission to deal with the accident.
He’ll also be the one that testifies during the tribunal, and as you’ll see, he’s the guy
that exposes the Soviet Union’s shortcomings when it comes to producing nuclear energy.
Hour 8 He’s called
on the phone soon he’s at the airport with the man who’ll manage the crisis, Boris Shcherbina.
In time, both these men will suffer from radiation poisoning, but for now, they still don’t know
exactly what’s happened. Hour 13
It’s around midday when they attend a meeting to discuss matters. Legasov already knows about
the people in the hospital, suffering from severe radiation burns, so he and others agree
the town needs to be evacuated. Hour 30
Legasov is driven in an armored personnel carrier to assess the damage for himself. It’s bad,
very bad, and he says they have to get that main fire under control or
radiation will be taken by the wind for many, many miles. Many parts of Europe,
not just Ukraine, are at risk. This is a disaster of unbelievable proportions.
It’s agreed that dropping sand and boron on the reactor fire from helicopters might be the
best way to go, even though Legasov knows it might not work. They have no choice, he says,
something needs to be done right now. The military will need to help with the cleanup,
and many men will be expected to risk their lives. These people will become known as the
liquidators and many of them will suffer long-term health effects from their work.
Hour 33 Shcherbina
gets on the phone with Moscow and reports, “We’ve measured the radiation. Prypiat has
to be evacuated. Immediately. The station is close by, and it’s emitting radioactive
contagion. And people in the city are living it up full blast; weddings are going on.”
Levels of radioactivity in the town are rising at an alarming rate. Earlier in the day, the level
was between 14-140 milliroentgens per hour, but that has gone up to 180 and 300 milliroentgens,
and in areas closer to the plant, 600. 50 milliroentgens or more
per year can be dangerous with 400 milliroentgens per year can kill you.
The people in that town now have a much higher risk of developing cancer,
and they have no idea about this. Still, in parts of the plant, the level reached
an astounding 20,000 milliroentgens per hour, and that’s why some men died so soon after exposure.
How 36 Sometime in the morning,
the first helicopters start dropping the sand and boron on the fire. It’s a perilous job. Getting
too close to the hole where the reactor was can lead to acute radiation sickness.
It’s dangerous enough anyway, as can be seen when one helicopter collides
with a chain and crashes, killing the men onboard.
Hour 38 The evacuation begins
From speakers all over the town comes a woman’s voice, saying the same thing over and over again.
“Attention! Attention! In connection with the accident at the Chernobyl atomic power station,
unfavorable radiation conditions are developing in the city of Prypiat.
In order to ensure complete safety for residents, children first and foremost,
it has become necessary to carry out a temporary evacuation.”
They are told to take everything with them that is important, including all their personal documents.
They don’t know it, but they are never going back to their homes. Just one hour before
this announcement, families were enjoying the weekend. In the cafeteria in the shopping mall,
kids and their mothers were hanging out and eating ice cream. For them, it was just a normal
day. There were kids playing on the bumper cars, then suddenly they were told the ride is over.
Now they are taken aback when they hear the speakers say,
“Comrades, on leaving your dwellings, please do not forget to close windows, switch off
electrical and gas appliances and turn off water taps. Please remain calm, organized, and orderly.”
What’s startling is these people have not been told the full story and certainly
aren’t given any protective clothing, in spite of the fact that Soviet officials
know about the dangerous levels of radiation. So far, they don’t want to cause too much panic,
or for the word to get out about the disaster. Hour 42
Shcherbina calls Premier Nikolai Ryzhkovand and explains,
“There are no people left in Pripyat. There are only dogs running around.”
What happens to the mutts, in the end, is awful, but that’s a few days away yet.
Shcherbina’s not exactly correct about all the people leaving.
Some young folks have hidden so they can stay together in their parents’ apartments and get
it on for once with some privacy. They don’t care about some little radiation leak. Old folks, too,
have stayed behind, or some of them have. They’re well past the age of moving away and they’re too
tough to worry about radiation. Some have lived through wars, famine and Stalin’s reign of terror.
Hour 46 116,000 people have
left, but about 1,200 have stayed behind, mostly the aged, and many of them women – babushkas as
they say in Russian. They have refused to budge, and it’s hard to argue with a stubborn babushka.
One woman, Hanna Zavorotnya is given a stern order to leave after she’s been found by a soldier.
She looks him square in the face and says, “Shoot us and dig the grave,
otherwise we’re staying.” After listening to the soldier explain the danger, she replies,
“Radiation doesn’t scare me. Starvation does.” The world still doesn’t know the extent of what’s
happened, and you can be sure the Soviet leaders are determined to try and keep matters within a
fairly small circle. The KGB is told to stop the “spread of panicky rumors and unreliable
information” getting out, although nothing they can do can prevent what happens next.
Hour 52
The Soviets get word that Sweden has detected radiation and it has been identified as coming
from Chernobyl. On top of this, soon the USA will have satellite photos of the disaster.
The news carries as fast as the radiation, with presenters all over the world telling
people that this major accident, something that’s never happened before on this scale,
could mean dangerous radiation being carried from Ukraine to other European countries.
As the children of Chernobyl settle into their new surroundings, school kids in Germany are kept home
in fear of radiation poisoning. Panic reverberates from North America back to Europe and into Asia.
Hour 55 It’s not until the evening
that the official news is shown on Russian TV. A report states, “There has been an accident at
the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. One of the nuclear reactors was damaged. The effects of
the accident are being remedied. Assistance has been provided for any affected people.
An investigative commission has been set up.” More Russian news follows, and this time with
in-depth discussions. Not surprisingly, experts talk about the Three Mile Island nuclear accident
of the USA and some other American nuclear mishaps. What the news doesn’t talk about is
what could happen at Chernobyl right now, a new kind of disaster could be in the works.
Hour 58 It was thought that the water tanks were empty,
which isn’t actually the case. To make things worse, fire hoses have been filling the place
with more water. Soviet scientists are now saying that if that smoldering graphite, remember heated
to about 1,200 °C (2,190 °F), hits the water, there could be another massive explosion,
even bigger than the last one, and that could mean Europe being hit with even more radiation.
They don’t know it yet, but it’s highly unlikely this explosion will happen. They think it could,
and so tell three men who know the area inside out that they will have to drain
the 20,000 tons of water through a sluice gate. These men know that there’s a good chance they
might not make it out, and even if they do, they may not live very long after. Hence the name,
the Chernobyl Suicide Squad: Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bezpalov and Boris Baranov.
Hour 60 Finding the valves in the dark is
like finding a needle in a haystack, but they do it in the end. For them, it is just another day at
work. They knew they’d be fired if they didn’t do as asked, and unlike what will be said in years to
come, they didn’t get any reward for their work. As we’ve explained, there will be a lot of western
misinformation flying about in regard to the Chernobyl disaster. One falsity
told time and again is that these men all died shortly after they succeeded in their mission,
but they didn’t. They lived long, healthy lives after their time in the darkness of Chernobyl.
Hour 66 The Soviet government
is now worried that the molten core will burn through the cement and get to the groundwater,
thereby contaminating it and spreading radiation into the rest of Ukraine and into Europe,
possibly making some places uninhabitable. A mining team is brought in to dig a huge
tunnel below the reactor to act as a cooling system. They are given respirators for the work,
but it’s hard to breathe with them on. It’s also very hot,
but they don’t work naked, as will be told on TV in the future.
Again, it’s a big job and risky job for the 400 or so miners. The Soviets don’t
have to be too concerned because the core won’t melt through the concrete.
Obviously, they don’t know that yet and have to take all precautions.
Hour 100 The debris removal starts. At first,
the 100 tons of radioactive material is said to be so dangerous that men shouldn’t go near it.
They opt to use robots, but most of the robots break as soon as deployed due to the radiation.
The liquidators are chosen to do the job, men who are now camping close to the plant.
Thousands of them are there, and in time, 600,000 or so of them will help with this clean-up.
They’re given protective clothing, but still told they shouldn’t stay on the roof for longer than
40–90 seconds since the graphite and other materials up there are about as radiative
as you can get. Of the 5,000 men who do the job, some will go up as many as six times,
but it’s hard to say how many will have health problems because of it.
Alexander, as you know, survives.
He’s flown to Moscow. His hair falls out and he finds it hard to breathe.
His eyes, nose, and most of his face hurts, but then after a couple of days,
he and the other men all start to feel pretty good. As you already know,
this doesn’t mean they are good. One day he’s in pain again and he
pulls back his bedsheets to see massive ulcers and necrotic skin on his shoulder, hip, and calf,
all the bits exposed when he held that door open. He is turning black and feels like he’s a monster,
telling himself he looks like some kind of radioactive mutant.
Luckily for him, his body accepts the skin grafts, and blood transfusions and bone marrow transplants
do the rest. His arm is in really bad shape and will stay in bandages for years. In the hospital,
ever so often someone walks in the room and tells him another of his colleagues is dead.
One of them first goes blind, and then the infection in his blood finishes him off. For
two months, Alexander lies in bed close to death thinking about when it will be his turn to die.
He will later be awarded medals for his bravery, but once he’s better,
he’ll keep his Chernobyl experience mostly to himself. For many years to come, people in this
part of the world will cross the street if they see a Chernobyl survivor walking toward them.
These people, not educated about radiation, wrongly assume the
survivors are still contaminated. This fear has devesting consequences.
Chernobyl, in fact, will make much of the world wrongly over-estimate the dangers of producing
nuclear power. This will go on for decades and is still a factor in some people’s minds today
when they think about nuclear energy. What or who is to blame for the disaster
is the question that the Soviets and many other countries will be asking
for some time to come. The investigations at the start will mostly blame human error rather than
technical error and pick out a few names to shame and send to prison, such as Mr. Dyatlo.
Sure, he messed up a bit, as did others at the plant, but the fault lies in many people,
going right up to the top brass in the Communist government.
1 year later It's now 1987 and Legasov is very
ill from radiation poisoning and is in and out of hospital all the time. He knows he’s going to die,
so he records himself on tape telling the whole truth about how and why this disaster happened.
Part of the tape goes: “The Chernobyl disaster is an apotheosis,
the pinnacle of all the mismanagement that has been carried out for decades in our country…
When one looks at the chain of events, why someone acted in this way and another in that way,
and so on, it is impossible to point to a single culprit, an initiator of all
the unpleasant events that led to the crime. Because it is a chain that links to itself.”
He finishes off by warning that as he speaks, the Soviet Union does not have safe nuclear power
plants, not because the production of energy is dangerous in itself, but because too many mistakes
have been made and too many corners have been cut. He says when you can’t hold the state accountable
then the state is broken. 2 years later
In 1988, the day after the second anniversary of the accident, he is found dead in his apartment.
Shcherbina, who had become a close friend, said, “Valery was too great, I loved him
more than all the people I knew, he gave all of himself to work, to Chernobyl. He burnt out.”
Of the 237 people that suffered acute radiation sickness, 31 died within a couple of months. The
amount of people that died from cancer due to radiation poisoning reached around 4,000,
and many more survived cancer. Still, the health effects of the disaster
have been argued about for many years. As for reactor 4, it was covered with a
giant steel and concrete building called the sarcophagus containment structure.
An Exclusion Zone was formed, covering an area of around 1,000 sq. miles (2,600 km2) of
Ukraine. Over the years, the town of Pripyat became home to life again,
but of the wild animal kind, not the human kind.
20 years later As for all those pet
dogs and cats, they were killed by special teams not long after the disaster became
worldwide knowledge. Some may have survived, though, because in the years to come, dogs in
the town will be seen alongside wolves, brown bears, dear, badgers, lynx, bison, and moose.
In 20,000 years, the town of Pripyat might be safe again for humans to go and live there.
You can visit now, but experts recommend you don’t eat the wild mushrooms or other plants
you can find there, and wear something you’re prepared to throw away later. Radiation sucks,
but we can’t live without it. Now you need to watch,
“What If There Was A Nuclear War Between the US and Russia?” Or, have a look at,
“Man Receives Highest Dose of Nuclear Radiation - This Is What Happened To Him.”
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