Chernobyl: memories of eyewitnesses of a tragedy that would have been better off not having happened

On April 26, 1986, a series of explosions destroyed the reactor and the building of the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It became the biggest technological disaster of the 20th century.

Svetlana Alexievich’s book “Chernobyl Prayer” contains memories of the participants in this tragedy. Memories of the disaster. About life, death and love.

About love

He began to change - every day I met a different person... The burns came to the top... In the mouth, on the tongue, on the cheeks - first small ulcers appeared, then they grew... The mucous membrane came off in layers... In white films... Face color... Body color... Blue... Red... Gray -brown... And it’s so all mine, so beloved! This cannot be said! This cannot be written! And even to survive... What saved me was that all this happened instantly; there was no time to think, no time to cry.

I loved him! I didn’t yet know how much I loved him! We just got married... We are walking down the street. He'll grab me in his arms and spin me around. And kisses, kisses. People walk by and everyone is smiling... Clinic of acute radiation sickness - fourteen days... In fourteen days a person dies...

About death

Before my eyes... In full dress uniform, he was stuffed into a plastic bag and tied up... And this bag was already placed in a wooden coffin... And the coffin was tied with another bag... The cellophane is transparent, but thick, like oilcloth... And all this was already placed in a zinc coffin... They squeezed ... One cap remained at the top... We were received by an emergency commission. And she told everyone the same thing: we cannot give you the bodies of your husbands, your sons, they are very radioactive and will be buried in a Moscow cemetery in a special way. And you must sign this document...

I feel like I'm losing consciousness. I’m hysterical: “Why does my husband have to be hidden? He who? Murderer? Criminal? Criminal? Who are we burying?” At the cemetery we were surrounded by soldiers... We walked under escort... And they carried the coffin... They didn’t let anyone in... We were alone... We fell asleep instantly. "Fast! Fast!" - the officer commanded. They didn’t even let me hug the coffin... And - straight into the buses... Everything was stealthily...

Lyudmila Ignatenko, wife of deceased firefighter Vasily Ignatenko

About the feat

They took a non-disclosure agreement from us... I was silent... Immediately after the army I became a disabled person of the second group. At twenty-two years old. He grabbed his... They carried graphite in buckets... Ten thousand roentgens... Rowed with ordinary shovels, shuffles, changing up to thirty “Istryakov petals” per shift, people called them “muzzles”. They poured the sarcophagus. A giant grave in which one person is buried - senior cameraman Valery Khodemchuk, who remained under the rubble in the first minutes of the explosion. The pyramid of the twentieth century... We still had three months to serve. We returned to the unit without even changing clothes. We wore the same tunics and boots that we wore at the reactor. Until my demobilization... And if they were allowed to talk, who could I tell? Worked at a factory. Head of the workshop: “Stop being sick, otherwise we’ll make you redundant.” They cut it. I went to the director: “You have no right. I am a Chernobyl survivor. I saved you. Protected! - “We didn’t send you there.”

At night I wake up from my mother’s voice: “Son, why are you silent? You’re not sleeping, you’re lying with your eyes open... And your light is on...” I’m silent. No one can speak to me in a way that will make me respond. In my language... No one understands where I came from... And I can’t tell...

Victor Sanko, private

About motherhood

My girl... She is not like everyone else... When she grows up, she will ask me: “Why am I not like that?” When she was born... It was not a child, but a living sac, sewn up on all sides, not a single crack, only the eyes were open. The medical card says: “a girl born with multiple complex pathologies: aplasia of the anus, aplasia of the vagina, aplasia of the left kidney”... This is how it sounds in scientific language, but in ordinary language: no pussy, no ass, one kidney... People like her, If they don’t live, they die immediately. She didn't die because I love her. I won't be able to give birth to anyone else. I don't dare. I returned from the maternity hospital: my husband will kiss me at night, I’m trembling all over - we can’t... Sin... Fear..

Only four years later I was given a medical certificate confirming the connection between ionizing radiation (low doses) and its terrible pathology. They refused me for four years, they kept telling me: “Your girl is a disabled person from childhood.” One official shouted: “She wanted Chernobyl benefits! Chernobyl money!” How did I not lose consciousness in his office... They couldn’t understand one thing... They didn’t want to... I needed to know that it wasn’t my husband and I who were to blame... It wasn’t our love... (Can’t stand it. Cries.)

Larisa Z., mother

About childhood

Such a black cloud... Such a downpour... The puddles turned yellow... Green... We didn’t run through the puddles, we just looked at them. Grandmother locked us in the cellar. And she herself knelt down and prayed. And she taught us: “Pray!! This is the end of the world. God's punishment for our sins." My brother was eight years old, and I was six. We began to remember our sins: he broke a jar of raspberry jam... But I didn’t admit to my mother that I got caught on the fence and tore my new dress... I hid it in the closet... I remember how a soldier was chasing a cat... On the cat, the dosimeter worked like an automatic machine: click, click... Behind her are a boy and a girl... This is their cat... The boy did nothing, and the girl screamed: “I won’t give it up!!” She ran and shouted: “Darling, run away! Run away, dear!” And the soldier is with a large plastic bag...

Mom and Dad kissed and I was born. I used to think that I would never die. And now I know that I will die. The boy was lying with me in the hospital... Vadik Korinkov... He drew birds for me. Houses. He died. Dying is not scary... You will sleep for a long, long time, you will never wake up... I had a dream about how I died. In my dream I heard my mother crying. And I woke up..

Memories of children

About life

I'm used to everything. I’ve been living alone for seven years, seven years since people left... Not far away, in another village, a woman also lives alone, I told her to come to me. I have daughters and sons... Everyone is in the city... But I don’t want to go anywhere from here! What about going? It's good here! Everything grows, everything blooms. From the midge to the beast, everything lives. A story happened... I had a good cat. Name was Vaska. In winter, hungry rats attacked, there is no escape. They crawled under the blanket. Grain in a barrel - a hole was gnawed. So Vaska saved... Without Vaska she would have died... We'll talk to him and have lunch. And then Vaska disappeared... Maybe hungry dogs attacked and ate him somewhere? My Vaska passed away... And I waited a day, and two... And a month... Well, it was completely, I was left alone. There is no one to talk to. I walked around the village, calling to other people’s gardens: Vaska, Murka... I called for two days.

On the third day, he’s sitting under the store... We looked at each other... He’s happy, and I’m glad. He just won't say a word. “Well, let’s go,” I ask, “let’s go home.” Sits... Meow... Let me beg him: “Why are you going to be here alone? The wolves will eat you. They will tear it apart. Went. I have eggs and lard.” How can I explain this? The cat doesn’t understand human language, but how did he understand me then? I walk in front, and he runs behind. Meow... “I’ll cut off your bacon”... Meow... “We’ll live together”... Meow... “I’ll call you Vaska”... Meow... And now we’ve already spent two winters with him...

Zinaida Evdokimovna Kovalenko, self-settler

About the living

I had to shoot point-blank... The bitch was lying in the middle of the room and there were puppies all around... The bullet immediately attacked me... The puppies were licking my hands and petting me. They're fooling around. I had to shoot point blank... One dog... A little black poodle... I still feel sorry for him. We loaded them with a full dump truck, with the top on. We are taking us to the “burial ground”... To tell the truth, it is just an ordinary deep hole, although you are supposed to dig in such a way as not to reach groundwater and cover the bottom with cellophane. Find a high place... But this matter, you understand, was violated everywhere: there was no cellophane, they didn’t look for a place for a long time.

If they are not killed, but only wounded, they squeak... They cry... They poured them out of the dump truck into the hole, and this poodle is climbing. Climbs out. No one had any cartridges left. There was nothing to finish off with... Not a single cartridge... They pushed him back into the hole and covered him with earth. It's still a shame.

Victor Verzhikovsky, hunter

And again about love

What could I give him besides medicine? What hope? He didn't want to die that much. The doctors explained to me: if the metastases had struck the body inside, it would have died quickly, but they crawled on horseback... Over the body... Over the face... Something black had grown on it. The chin disappeared somewhere, the neck disappeared, the tongue fell out. Vessels burst and bleeding began. “Oh,” I shout, “there’s blood again.” From the neck, from the cheeks, from the ears... In all directions... I bring cold water, put lotions - they don’t help. Something creepy. The whole pillow will flood... I’ll put the basin in from the bathroom... The streams hit... Like a milk pan... This sound... So peaceful and rustic... I still hear it at night... I call the ambulance station, but they already know us, they don’t want to go . Once I called, an ambulance arrived... A young doctor... He approached him and immediately backed away and backed away: “Tell me, is he by any chance from Chernobyl? Not one of those who went there?” I answer: “Yes.” And he, I am not exaggerating, cried out: “My dear, I wish this would end soon! Hurry! I saw Chernobyl victims die.”

I still have his watch, military ID and Chernobyl medal... (After silence.)...I was so happy! In the morning I feed him and admire how he eats. How he shaves. As he walks down the street. I'm a good librarian, but I don't understand how anyone can love work. I loved only him. One. And I can't live without him. I scream at night... I scream into my pillow so that the children don’t hear...

Valentina Panasevich, wife of the liquidator

Want to receive one interesting unread article per day?

On April 26, 1986, I turned seven years old. It was Saturday. Friends came to visit us and they gave me a yellow umbrella with a letter pattern. I’ve never had anything like this before, so I was happy and really looking forward to the rain.
The rain happened the next day, April 27. But my mother did not allow me to go under it. And she generally looked scared. That was the first time I heard the heavy word “Chernobyl”.

In those years we lived in a military town in the small village of Sarata, Odessa region. Chernobyl is far away. But still scary. Then cars with liquidators pulled out from our unit in that direction. Another difficult word, the meaning of which I learned much later.

Of our neighbors, who shielded the world from the deadly atom with their bare hands, only a few remain alive today.

There were more of these people in 2006. A week before my birthday, I received an assignment - to talk with the remaining liquidators and collect the most interesting episodes. By that time, I was already working as a journalist and living in Rostov-on-Don.

And so I found my heroes - the head of the anti-shock department of the North Caucasus Civil Defense Regiment Oleg Popov, Hero of Russia Captain II Rank Anatoly Bessonov and sanitary doctor Viktor Zubov. These were completely different people, united by only one thing - Chernobyl.

I'm not sure if they are all alive today. After all, eleven years have passed. But I still have recordings of our conversations. And, from which the blood still runs cold.

Story one. Abnormal summer.

On May 13, 1986, Oleg Viktorovich Popov, head of the anti-shock department of the North Caucasus Civil Defense Regiment, had a birthday. Relatives congratulated us, friends called, even a messenger came. True, instead of a gift he brought a summons - tomorrow morning he had to come to the military registration and enlistment office.

We celebrated quietly, and the next day I went according to the agenda. I didn’t even know where I was being called, so I put on a light shirt and took money to buy milk home. But my milk never arrived. “I returned only at the end of summer,” Oleg Popov told me.

He remembered Chernobyl for its abnormal temperature. During the day, already in May, it was below forty, at night it was so cold that it was impossible to touch a tooth. The liquidators were given canvas suits as protection. Heavy and not breathable. Many could not stand it and fell from heatstroke. But it was necessary to “remove the radiation,” so the suits were removed and disposed of as best they could - with their bare hands.

People started getting sick. The main diagnosis is pneumonia.

Then I had another shock. We were delivered boxes with red crosses - medicines. We opened them, and there, beyond words, was something that had been lying in warehouses for decades. Over time, the bandages disintegrated into threads, the tablets were yellow, and the expiration date on the packaging was barely visible. The same boxes contained gynecological instruments and instruments for measuring growth. And this is all for the liquidators. What to do? How to treat people? The only salvation is the hospital,” recalled Oleg Viktorovich.

The fight went on day and night. And not only with the reactor, but also with the system, and with ourselves.

On the website “Chernobylets of the Don” there is the following information about Popov:

“In a 30-kilometer zone, I worked in my specialty; I had to treat and put back on their feet mostly soldiers and officers of my regiment. There was a lot of work, and Oleg Viktorovich was actually the main person responsible for the health of the regiment’s personnel. After all, soldiers and officers were called up in a hurry, often without medical examination. Popov O.V. recalls that there were cases of being called up for training camps with peptic ulcers and other diseases. Some even had to be sent to a hospital or hospital. And, of course, it was possible to provide psychological assistance to soldiers and officers, because it is clear that there was no full-time psychologist in the unit. His work in the regiment was appreciated, and from then on he retained the warmest memories of his comrades, of the regiment commander N.I. Kleimenov. and unit officers.
After completing the special training and returning home, Oleg Viktorovich, by profession and work, treated the liquidators of the Chernobyl accident and was always ready to help them in word and deed.
He has government awards: the Order of the Badge of Honor and the Order of Courage.”

Only in May 1986, and only from the Rostov region, about thirty thousand liquidators came to Chernobyl. Many returned with a load of 200. Many carried a poisonous charge in their blood.

Oleg Popov brought leukemia to the Don. He arrived with tests that would not have accepted him even at the oncology center - 2,800 antibodies in his blood.

But I didn't plan to give up. I decided to live. And he lived - he studied chess, English, I became interested in photography, began to travel, wrote poetry, designed websites. And, of course, he helped his own guys, guys like me, who were sent into this hell,” he said.

I typed the name of Oleg Viktorovich Popov on the Internet. And I was happy to discover that he also lives in Rostov, runs his own website, his photography is recognized with high awards, and his literary work has many admirers. This year, according to the regional government website, the liquidator was given another award. And in 2006, the head of the anti-shock department of the North Caucasus Civil Defense Regiment, Oleg Popov, was awarded the Order of Courage.
Then he told me that he didn’t think he was worth this high award.

The real heroes are those guys who were at the reactor, erected the sarcophagus with their bare hands, and did the decontamination, so to speak. It was criminal stupidity that claimed thousands of lives. But who thought about it then? Who knew that it was impossible to bury, neutralize, bury radioactive substances by digging up stadiums, washing the roofs and windows of houses?! At that moment there was nothing else...

The second story. Sweet roads of death.

Memories sanitary doctor Viktor Zubov a little different. When they first announced the gathering to eliminate the accident, he joked that they would go to war against tanks with sabers. It turned out that I was not mistaken. In fact, that’s what happened.
On the morning of June 21, sanitary doctors from the Rostov region left for Pripyat.

At first, to be honest, we did not understand the full scale of the tragedy. We drove up to Pripyat, and there was beauty! Greenery, birds singing, mushrooms in the forests, apparently - not visible. The huts are so neat and clean! And if you didn’t think about the fact that every plant is imbued with death, then – heaven! – Viktor Zubov recalled. “But in the camp where we arrived, I felt fear for the first time - I was told that the doctor, in whose place I was sent, had committed suicide. My nerves went away. Couldn't stand the tension.

Zubov's most vivid memories include sweet roads. Ordinary roads, which were watered with sugar syrup in order to bind the deadly dust under the sweet crust. But it was all in vain. After the first car, the sugar ice burst and poison flew into the faces of the liquidators who were driving behind.

We still didn’t fully understand what we were going to do. And on the spot it turned out that we had few patients. And all seventy doctors came for decontamination,” he explained. – The protective equipment included an apron and a respirator. They worked with shovels. In the evening there is a bathhouse. What they were doing? We washed house windows and helped at nuclear power plants. We slept in rubber tents and ate local food. By that time we already understood everything. But there was no choice, we hoped for the best.

Viktor Zubov stayed in Chernobyl for six months. At home, the doctor realized that now he, a young man, had become a regular client of the clinic and the owner of a bunch of diseases. You’ll get tired of listing the diagnoses.

At the time of our interview (let me remind you, this was 11 years ago) Victor was living on medication. But he carried on well - he played the Beatles on the button accordion, walked with his grandchildren, and made something around the house. I tried to live in such a way that it would not be excruciatingly painful.

To be continued

Currently, the HBO series “Chernobyl” is at the peak of popularity and the whole world has finally learned what happened at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Viewers were amazed at how quickly radiation kills people and everything alive that gets in its way and now they want to know more. We have collected for you 20 frightening facts about Chernobyl that will help you learn more about the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

It is difficult to estimate, but the final death toll from the Chernobyl accident could be between 4,000 and 90,000 people.

This number would include two immediate deaths from the initial explosion, 29 deaths from acute radiation sickness in the following months, and thousands who may die in the future from radiation-related causes.

Vasily Ignatenko, one of the first firefighters to respond to the disaster (appearing as a character in the TV series Chernobyl), suffered a horrific, slow two-week death from radiation exposure

At Ignatenko's funeral, his body was so swollen and deformed that his shoes and clothes no longer fit him

In the photo is Ignatenko’s wife Lyudmila.

Doctors identified those who received a large dose of radiation by “nuclear tanning.” Their skin was brown, even under their clothes

As a result of radiophobia, approximately 100,000–200,000 abortions were performed in Europe after the Chernobyl accident

Radiophobia is a complex of neurosomatic mental and physiological disorders, sometimes difficult to treat, expressed in fear of various sources of ionizing (radiation) and non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation (radio).

The area around Chernobyl became known as the Red Forest because of all the dead trees

The high dose of absorbed radiation led to the death of the trees and their coloring in a brownish-red color, which occurred within 30 minutes after the explosion. During work to decontaminate the area, the forest was bulldozed and buried.

Chernobyl, Pripyat (a nearby city with a large number of inhabitants) and many surrounding areas are now known as the Exclusion Zone

And you can't live there.

Even though the Exclusion Zone is still guarded by the Ukrainian military and is still highly radioactive, thousands of people have returned to their homes illegally

It is estimated that 130–150 people live there. Many of them are older women who still work the land.

And life in the Exclusion Zone is gloomy

There are no schools or hospitals there, and it's definitely not safe to live there because the place is still radioactive.

Residents were not allowed to take pets with them during the evacuation in 1986

And, as in the series, squads were sent there to kill the animals.

But hundreds of stray dogs still survive in the forests of Chernobyl and in the Exclusion Zone

They are the descendants of those who stayed in Pripyat and survived.

Unfortunately, these dogs have a significantly reduced life expectancy due to radiation.

Few of them live more than 6 years.

But you can visit the Exclusion Zone - in fact, thousands of people have done so

Travel agencies have reported a 40% jump in day trip bookings since the HBO series aired.

Things you can see in Pripyat today include a school canteen filled with discarded gas masks lying on the floor

Or these mysterious dolls that are neatly laid out on beds in Chernobyl

But, as they say, this is a production.

But the school notebooks in Pripyat are real

In many, children write about their plans for the summer.

There are even creepy drawings that have appeared on various buildings

And an abandoned park in Pripyat that looks very ghostly

In Ukraine, in the first five years after the disaster, the incidence of cancer among children increased by more than 90%

And during the first 20 years after the accident, about 5,000 cases of thyroid cancer were reported among people under 18 years of age in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

A shelter was built over the 4th power unit, where the accident occurred, to prevent further spread of radioactive dust

In February 2013, several concrete panels collapsed at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The shelter itself was not damaged, and this incident did not affect the level of radiation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. However, there were fears that the shelter itself could collapse, like this roof.

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is the most powerful man-made disaster on Earth. Its negative consequences for nature and people are difficult to overestimate. Humanity feels the echoes of that terrible accident even now - almost 30 years after the explosion at the nuclear power plant.

Radiation like 500 atomic bombs

50 million curies is the total yield of radioactive materials. This sum is equal to the consequences of the explosion of 500 atomic bombs that the Americans dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. The column of smoke from combustion products reached several meters in height. 90% of the Chernobyl nuclear fuel ended up in the Earth's atmosphere.

Firefighters are heroes

The fire at the nuclear power plant was extinguished by more than 100 firefighters from the satellite city of Pripyat. It was these people who had to take on the largest dose of radiation. According to Soviet data, 31 people died during the fire.

Atomic flame

The fire was also extinguished using helicopters. They dumped sand and clay onto the reactor, as well as special mixtures for extinguishing and preventing a chain reaction. No one knew then that all these actions may have increased the temperature of the blazing reactor even more. The fire was completely controlled only on May 9.

Immediately after the accident

Most of the residents of Pripyat learned about the accident only in the middle of the day on April 26. While people lived their previous lives, radiation spread at lightning speed with the help of the wind.

Affected area

The total area of ​​contaminated Ukrainian territory is 50 thousand square kilometers in 12 regions of the country. In addition, the Chernobyl disaster made 150 thousand square kilometers around the plant uninhabitable.

Ghost town

The entire population of Pripyat, 47,500 people, had to leave the city the day after the accident. But about 300 residents wanted to return home after a month. The territory where they settled was later called the Exclusion Zone. Relatives were not allowed to visit the people living on this land for 20 years.

Accident victims

A total of 250 thousand people were evacuated by the end of 1986 from the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. But the exact number of victims of the terrible man-made accident is still unknown. According to various sources, this ranges from several thousand to 100 thousand people.

The first people to die from radiation sickness

Radiation sickness was discovered in 134 people present at the emergency block on the first day after the explosion. Within a month, 28 of them died.

Radioactive exposure

In total, 8.4 million residents were exposed to radioactive radiation - not only in Ukraine, but also in Belarus and Russia.

Deaths from the explosion

The exact number of deaths from the consequences of the explosion is still unknown. According to various sources, this is from 4 to 10 thousand people.

Who liquidated it?

About 600 thousand people from all over the USSR took part in eliminating the consequences of the disaster.

Sarcophagus

The issue of non-proliferation of radiation is still acute. To do this, they are going to build a new sarcophagus over the 4th power unit. Donor countries pledged to provide money for construction. In particular, Canada promised to allocate $7 million for this purpose.

Will there be another Chernobyl?

To this day, there are 11 Chernobyl-type rectors operating in the Russian Federation: 4 units each at the Leningrad and Kursk NPPs and 3 units at the Smolensk NPP. But over the past 20 years, changes have been made to their work that eliminate the possibility of a repetition of the disaster. International experts share a similar opinion.

Chernobyl - a tourist Mecca

In recent years, the abandoned city of Pripyat and the reactor have turned into a kind of Mecca for extreme tourists. Travelers to this zone are accompanied by so-called stalkers. They offer to look at abandoned residential buildings, schools, and hotels. But the sarcophagus itself and thousands of vehicles abandoned at the scene of the accident can only be seen from a distance. Trucks, armored vehicles and helicopters are so heavily contaminated with radiation that approaching them is still risky. Tourists will also meet with self-settlers - elderly residents of villages located in the Exclusion Zone. These people returned to their land, despite the authorities’ ban, and managed to adapt to new conditions. The cost of the excursion is about $350.

New life

For some time after the accident, two units continued to operate at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. They were serviced by several hundred workers and engineers. For them, as well as for other employees of the nuclear power plant who lost their jobs and housing after the accident, the authorities were forced to build a new city - Slavutich. Now it is the youngest settlement in Ukraine. And the favorite joke of its residents is the phrase: “Life is wonderful, but very short!”

On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl disaster occurred. The consequences of this tragedy are still felt throughout the world. It gave rise to many amazing stories. Below are ten stories that you probably didn’t know about the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster.

Buried village of Kopachi

After the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) and the evacuation of residents of the surrounding area, the authorities decided to completely bury the village of Kopachi (Kiev region, Ukraine), which was heavily contaminated with radiation, in order to prevent its further spread.

By order of the government, the entire settlement was demolished, with the exception of two buildings. After that, all the debris was buried deep in the ground. However, this move only made matters worse as radioactive chemicals leaked into local groundwater.

Currently, the territory of the former village of Kopachi is overgrown with grass. The only thing left of it is radiation warning signs that stand near every place where a building was buried.

The cause of the Chernobyl accident was a successful experiment

The experiment using the reactor of the 4th power unit, which directly led to the disaster, was in fact intended to improve the safety of its operation. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant had diesel generators that continued to power the cooling system pumps even when the reactor itself was shut down.

However, there was a one-minute difference between the reactor shutting down and the generators reaching full power - a period that did not sit well with nuclear power plant operators. They modified the turbine so that it would continue to spin after the reactor was shut down. Without approval from higher authorities, the director of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant decided to launch a full-scale test of this safety feature.

However, during the experiment, the reactor power dropped below the expected level. This led to instability of the reactor, which was successfully countered by automated systems.

And although the test was a success, the reactor itself experienced a powerful surge of energy, which literally blew the roof off it. This is how one of the most terrible disasters in human history occurred.

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant continued to operate until 2000

After work to eliminate the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was stopped, the Soviet Union continued to operate the remaining reactors until its collapse and the declaration of independence of Ukraine. In 1991, the Ukrainian authorities announced that in two years they would completely close the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

However, chronic energy shortages forced the Ukrainian government to delay the closure of the nuclear power plant. However, the country did not have money to pay nuclear power plant workers, so at least 100 safety incidents occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant every year. In 2000, 14 years after the Chernobyl disaster, the President of Ukraine, under strong pressure from leaders of other countries, finally decided to close the nuclear power plant permanently. In exchange, he was promised one billion dollars to build two new nuclear reactors. They allocated money, but no reactors, no money...

In 1991, a second fire occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Given the gross violations of safety regulations, poor maintenance and insufficient professional training of personnel at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, it is not surprising that after the 1986 disaster there was another tragedy at one of the remaining steam generators.

In 1991, a fire broke out at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after the steam turbines producing electrical energy at the 2nd reactor were switched to scheduled maintenance. It was necessary to shut down the reactor, but instead, automated mechanisms accidentally rebooted it.

A surge of electrical energy caused a fire in the turbine hall. The roof caught fire due to the release of accumulated hydrogen. Part of it collapsed, but the fire was extinguished before it could spread to the reactors.

The consequences of the Chernobyl disaster are costly for national budgets

Since the disaster was radioactive in nature, a huge amount of money was initially spent on protecting the exclusion zone, relocating people, providing medical and social assistance to the victims, and much more.

In 2005, almost twenty years after the disaster, the Ukrainian government continued to spend 5-7 percent of the national budget on Chernobyl-related programs, spending sharply reduced after new President Poroshenko came to power. In neighboring Belarus, authorities spent more than 22 percent of the national budget in the first year after the collapse of the Soviet Union to recover costs related to the consequences of the Chernobyl tragedy. Today this figure has decreased to 5.7 percent, but this is still a lot.

It is clear that government spending in this regard will be unsustainable in the long term.

The myth of brave divers

And although the fire resulting from the first explosion was extinguished quickly enough, molten nuclear fuel continued to remain under the ruins of the reactor, which posed a huge threat. If it reacted with the coolant (water) under the reactor, it could destroy the entire facility.

According to legend, three volunteer divers, in the face of deadly radiation, dived into a pool of water located under the reactor and drained it. They died soon after, but they managed to save the lives of millions of people. The real story is much more mundane.

Three men actually went down under the reactor to drain the pool, but the water level in the basement of the building was only knee-deep. In addition, they knew exactly where the water drain valve was located, so they completed the task without any difficulties. Unfortunately, the fact that they died soon is true.

Swedish radiation detectors

On the day of the Chernobyl disaster, the “Radiation Hazard” alarm went off at the Swedish Forsmark nuclear power plant. Emergency protocols were activated and most workers were evacuated. For almost a day, Swedish authorities tried to establish what was happening at Forsmark, as well as other nuclear facilities in the Scandinavian countries.

By the end of the day, it became clear that the likely source of radiation was located on the territory of the Soviet Union. Only three days later did the USSR authorities inform the world about what happened at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. As a result, the northern countries received a significant part of Chernobyl radiation.

The exclusion zone has turned into a nature reserve

You might think that the exclusion zone (the vast area around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant that is off-limits to the public) is something of a nuclear desert. Actually this is not true. The Chernobyl exclusion zone has actually turned into a wildlife reserve. Since people no longer hunt here, all kinds of animals thrive in the exclusion zone, from wolves to voles and deer.

The Chernobyl disaster had a negative impact on these animals. Under the influence of radiation, many of them underwent genetic mutations. However, three decades have passed since the tragedy, so the level of radiation in the exclusion zone is steadily decreasing.

The Soviet Union tried to use robots during the liquidation of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

Radiation destroyed the lives of thousands of brave people who took part in eliminating the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The Soviet authorities sent 60 robots to help them, but the high level of radioactivity instantly destroyed them. Also, remotely controlled bulldozers and modified lunar rovers were involved in eliminating the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Some robots were resistant to radiation, but the water used to disinfect them rendered them unusable after the first use. However, robots were able to reduce the number of people needed to eliminate the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant by 10 percent (the equivalent of five hundred workers).

The United States of America had robots that could cope better than the Soviet ones with the work to eliminate the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. But since relations between the USSR and the USA were tense, America did not send its robots to Chernobyl.

Samosely

You will be surprised to learn that people continue to live in the Chernobyl exclusion zone decades after the disaster. The houses of most of them are located ten kilometers from the 4th power unit of the nuclear power plant. However, these people, mostly elderly, are still exposed to high levels of radioactive substances. They refused to be resettled and were left to fend for themselves. At the moment, the state is not providing any assistance to self-settlers. Most of them are engaged in agriculture and hunting.

Many self-settlers are already 70-80 years old. Today there are very few of them left, since old age does not spare anyone. Oddly enough, those who refused to leave the Chernobyl exclusion zone live on average 10-20 years longer than people who moved to other places after the nuclear power plant accident.