What's happening in Chernobyl right now? Why did the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explode and when? Consequences of the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Chernobyl has become a creepy tourist attraction
On April 26, 1986, at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in the 4th power unit, a huge explosion occurred, as a result of which the nuclear reactor was completely destroyed. This sad event will forever go down in human history as the “accident of the century.”
Explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Year 1986, April 26 - a black date in history
The most powerful nuclear power plant in the USSR became a source of release of extremely dangerous pollutants into the environment, due to which 31 people died within the first 3 months, and the number of deaths over the next 15 years exceeded 80. The most severe consequences of radiation sickness were recorded in 134 people due to severe radioactive contamination. The terrible “cocktail” consisted of a large list of elements from the periodic table, such as plutonium, cesium, uranium, iodine, strontium. Deadly substances mixed with radioactive dust covered a huge territory with a mud plume: the European part of the Soviet Union, the eastern part of Europe and Scandinavia. Belarus suffered greatly from the contaminated precipitation. The explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was compared to the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
How the explosion happened
During the investigation, numerous commissions repeatedly analyzed this event, trying to find out what exactly caused the disaster and how it happened. However, there is no consensus on this matter. A force capable of destroying all life in its path burst out from the 4th power unit. The accident was kept secret: the Soviet media remained deathly silent for the first days, but the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (1986) was recorded abroad as a colossal radiation leak and the alarm was raised. It became impossible to remain silent about the accident. The energy of the peaceful atom was intended to carry civilization forward, towards progress, but changed its trajectory and caused the invisible war between man and radiation.
The explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the date of which will be remembered by mankind for centuries, began with a fire in power unit No. 4, the signal about which was received by the control panel at 1.24 am. The fire brigade promptly began extinguishing the fire, successfully extinguishing the fire by 6 a.m., thanks to which the fire could not spread to block No. 3. The level of radiation in the halls of the power unit and near the station was unknown to anyone at that time. What happened in these hours and minutes with the nuclear reactor itself was also unknown.
Reasons and official versions
Analyzing the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the causes of which were inexplicable at first glance, experts put forward many versions. Having summed up the results of the investigation, scientists settled on several options:
1. Disruption and disruption of the operation of circular pumps due to cavitation (formation of a shock wave as a result of a chemical reaction) and, as a consequence, a pipeline breakthrough.
2. Power surge inside the reactor.
3. Low level of security in the enterprise - INSAG version.
4. Emergency acceleration - after pressing the "AZ-5" button.
The latter version, according to many industry experts, is the most plausible. In their opinion, the control and protection rods were brought into active operation precisely by pressing this ill-fated button, which led to the emergency acceleration of the reactor.
This course of events is completely refuted by experts from the Gospromatnadzor commission. Employees put forward their versions of the causes of the tragedy back in 1986, insisting that the positive reactivity was caused by the emergency protection being activated, which is why the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred.
Certain technical calculations that prove the cause of the explosion due to cavitation on an anti-aircraft missile system refute other versions. According to the chief designer of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, steam at the entrance to the reactor, as a result of boiling of the coolant in the air defense system, entered the core and distorted the energy-releasing fields. This happened due to the fact that the temperature of the coolant reached the boiling point during the most dangerous period. The emergency acceleration began precisely with active vaporization.
Explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Other reasons for the tragedy
In addition, opinions were often voiced about the cause of the explosion as an act of sabotage, which was planned by the United States and carefully hidden by the government of the USSR. This version is supported by photographs of the exploded power unit from an American military satellite, which miraculously found itself in the right place exactly when the explosion occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It is very difficult to refute or confirm this theory, and therefore this version remains a guess. It remains only to confirm that indeed in 1986 the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant resulted in the disabling of secret objects (over-the-horizon radar Duga-1, Chernobyl-2).
The earthquake that occurred at that moment is also cited as the cause of the tragedy. Indeed, shortly before the explosion, seismographs recorded a certain shock in the immediate vicinity of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It is the vibration that could provoke the accident that adherents of this version call the reason for the launch of irreversible processes. What seems strange in this situation is the fact that for some reason the neighboring power unit No. 3 was not damaged in any way and did not receive information about the seismic tremors. But no tests were carried out on it...
The most fantastic reason for the explosion has also been put forward - this is possible ball lightning, formed during the bold experiments of scientists. It was she who, if we imagine such a course of events, could well disrupt the operating regime in the reactor zone.
The consequences of the tragedy in numbers
At the time of the explosion, only 1 person died at the station. The very next morning, another employee died from very serious injuries. However, the worst thing began later, when literally within a month another 28 people died. They and 106 other station employees were at work at the time of the disaster and received the maximum dose of radiation.
Fire extinguishing
To extinguish the fire, when a fire was announced in power unit No. 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 69 employees included in the fire department, as well as 14 vehicles, were involved. People put out the fire, having no idea about the high level of pollution. The fact is that it was not possible to look at the background radiation meters: one was faulty, the second remained out of reach, under the rubble. That is why no one could even imagine the real consequences of the explosion at that time.
A year of death and sorrow
At approximately 2 a.m., some firefighters began to experience the first symptoms of radiation sickness (vomiting, weakness, and an incomparable “nuclear tan” on their bodies). After first medical aid, the patients were taken to the city of Pripyat. The next day, 28 people were urgently sent to Moscow (6th Radiological Hospital). All the efforts of the doctors were in vain: the fire tamers became so infected that they died within a month. Trees covering an area of almost 10 square meters also died from the huge release of radioactive substances into the atmosphere during the disaster. km. The explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the consequences of which were felt not only by the direct participants, but also by residents of three republics of the Soviet Union, forced to take unprecedented safety measures at all similar installations.
The famous international journalist Gerd Ludwig spent many years filming the consequences of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. In 1986, a series of mistakes at a nuclear power plant led to an explosion that forced about a quarter of a million people to flee their homes forever to escape radiation and fallout.
Ludwig, commissioned by National Geographic Magazine, traveled to the site and surrounding areas several times in 1993, 2005 and 2011 and documented how people and places were irrevocably changed by the tragedy.
In 2011, his trip was partially funded by Kickstarter. Now Ludwig has released an application for iPad, which features more than 150 photos, videos and interactive panoramic footage. Below is a small selection of the photographer's work made during the years of the ongoing tragedy.
1. On April 26, 1986, the operators of this turbine room of reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, while carrying out routine maintenance, made a series of fatal errors that led to the destruction of the reactor and the most serious accident in the history of world nuclear power. Today, the turbine hall of the fourth power unit is still abandoned, and there are still very high levels of radiation here.
2. Workers wearing respirators and plastic protective suits stopped briefly to rest. They are drilling holes to install additional piles inside the sarcophagus. It's a dangerous job: the radiation levels here are so high that they have to constantly monitor Geiger counters and dosimeters, and the permitted work time is limited to 15 minutes a day.
3. For many years, desperate attempts were made to strengthen the roof of the Shelter and prevent it from collapsing. Inside the sarcophagus, dimly lit tunnels lead to gloomy rooms littered with wires, pieces of twisted metal and other debris. Due to the collapse of the walls, everything around is covered with radioactive dust. Work to stabilize the sarcophagus has been completed, and today the radioactive insides of the reactor are waiting to be dismantled.
4. Previously, workers had to climb dangerous stairs to reach the area below the reactor's molten core, although the extremely high levels of radiation allow only a few minutes in this area. In order to speed up the descent, a gentle corridor was built, the so-called inclined staircase.
5. Workers who are building a new Shelter, costing about $2.2. billion, receive dangerous doses of radiation while near the sarcophagus. The new arch-shaped structure, weighing 29,000 tons, 105 m high and 257 m wide, will cover the existing sarcophagus and allow the dismantling of the outdated shelter. To create the strongest possible foundation for the new structure, 396 huge metal pipes will be driven into the ground to a depth of 25 m.
6. The roof of the Polesie Hotel in the center of Pripyat offers views of the ill-fated Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Previously, 50,000 people lived in Pripyat; now it is a ghost town, gradually overgrown with weeds.
7. Pripyat is located less than three kilometers from the reactor. The city was built in the 1970s. for nuclear scientists and employees of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Once the population of Pripyat was almost 50,000 people, life was in full swing here. The authorities did not immediately notify the population about the accident; the evacuation began only 36 hours after the explosion.
Abandoned school in Pripyat. Ukraine, 2005. Photo: Gerd Ludwig/INSTITUTE
8. When the authorities of the Soviet Union eventually announced the evacuation, many simply did not have time to gather. The Soviet Union officially declared the disaster only three days after the explosion, when the radioactive cloud reached Sweden and Swedish scientists in the laboratory discovered radioactive contamination on their shoes.
9. Nineteen years after the disaster, empty schools and kindergartens in Pripyat - once the largest city in the exclusion zone, with a population of 50,000 people - remain a silent reminder of the tragic events. Part of the abandoned school building has since collapsed.
10. On the day of the disaster, unsuspecting children were quietly playing in a kindergarten in Pripyat, a satellite city of the nuclear power plant. The next day they were evacuated. They had to leave everything, even their favorite dolls and toys.
11. The wind is blowing in an abandoned city. On April 26, 1986, the amusement park was preparing for the May Day holidays. At this time, less than three kilometers from here, the 4th reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded.
12. When the reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded on April 26, 1986, this amusement park in Pripyat with a race track and a Ferris wheel was preparing for the May 1 celebration. 25 years have passed since then, and the dilapidated park has become a symbol of the abandoned city. Now it is one of the attractions for tourists who have flooded Pripyat recently.
13. In 2011, the Ukrainian government officially allowed tourist travel to the exclusion zone. In the photo: tourists wander through the garbage-strewn corridors and empty classrooms of one of the Pripyat schools. The dining room floor is littered with hundreds of discarded gas masks. One of the tourists brought his own - not for protection from radiation, but for the sake of a funny photo.
14. The nuclear disaster led to radioactive contamination of tens of thousands of square kilometers. 150,000 people within a 30 km radius were forced to flee their homes in a hurry. Now almost all wooden huts in the villages that fell into the exclusion zone stand abandoned, and nature is gradually taking over these remnants of civilization.
15. 92-year-old Kharitina Decha is one of several hundred elderly people who have returned to their villages in the exclusion zone. It is important for her to die on her own land, even if abandoned and forgotten by everyone.
16. In the sink are tomatoes from the garden of an elderly couple, Ivan Martynenko (he’s 77) and Gapa Semenenko (she’s 82). They are both deaf. After being evacuated, several hundred elderly people returned to their home. These people live mainly on what they can grow in contaminated soil.
17. Oleg Shapiro (54 years old) and Dima Bogdanovich (13 years old) are being treated for thyroid cancer at the Minsk hospital. Here similar operations are performed every day.
Oleg is a liquidator of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant; he received a very large dose of radiation. This is already his third operation.
Dima’s mother is sure that her son got cancer due to radioactive fallout, but his doctors take a more cautious point of view. Officials are often ordered to downplay the dangers of radiation.
18. Sixteen-year-old Dima Pyko is being treated for lymphoma at the Children's Oncology Center (Oncology and Hematology Center) near Minsk in the village. Lesnoye. The center was built with serious financial support from Austria after the number of childhood cancers sharply increased in those regions of Belarus where there was a lot of radioactive fallout after the Chernobyl disaster.
19. Five-year-old Igor was born with serious mental and physical defects. His parents abandoned him, and now he, along with 150 other disabled children, lives in a specialized orphanage.
This is just one of similar institutions in southern Belarus that is supported by the international charity organization “Children of Chernobyl”. It was created by Edie Roche in 1991 to help child victims of the worst nuclear disaster in the world.
20. Veronica Chechet is only five years old. She suffers from leukemia and is undergoing treatment at the Center for Radiation Medicine in Kyiv. Her mother, Elena Medvedeva (29 years old), was born four years before the Chernobyl disaster near Chernigov - after the explosion, a lot of radioactive fallout fell on the city. According to doctors, the illnesses of many patients are directly related to the release of radiation as a result of the accident.
21. A mentally retarded boy smells a tulip in one of the orphanages in Belarus.
It is believed that in regions where radioactive fallout occurred, more children are born with various developmental defects and mental disabilities. This belief is shared by many—but not all—in the scientific community. International charities created after the disaster continue to help families in need of support and orphanages where children affected by radioactive fallout live.
22. Every year on the anniversary of the accident - April 26 - a nightly memorial service is held at the Firefighters Monument in memory of all those who died as a result of this disaster. Two people died directly during the explosion, another 28 firefighters and nuclear power plant employees died shortly after the disaster, having received a lethal dose of radiation. Since then, many thousands more have died from cancer and social upheaval due to mass evacuation.
Translation from English by Olga Antonova
The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people and crippled the lives of hundreds of thousands, is now bringing money to the tourism industry. People who want to see the “end of the world” with their own eyes are lining up
The 30-kilometer exclusion zone is simply terrible! Once you go there, you will definitely grow a third (or even a fourth, there have been cases) arm, a second nose, or even an eye. Don't believe me? Ask the Americans! This is exactly how they present Chernobyl in most of their films. What is really going on there, Telegraph found out after visiting the excursion.
Myth No. 1. Chernobyl is an abandoned city
No matter how it is! Approximately 4 thousand people now live in it. All of them are city employees. They live in apartments and dormitories that were abandoned by local residents after the disaster. Chernobyl has everything you need for life: shops, cafes, hotels, post office, police station, fire department, cultural center and, importantly, hot water all year round and heating. Now the city’s infrastructure resembles a small town or a regional center. What employees really don't have is leisure. Therefore, there is a law in the city - alcohol is only after 19:00. By the way, the roads here... mmm, we would like these in Kremenchug. All around is museum cleanliness and order: the benches are painted, the trees and borders are whitewashed, there is no garbage.
Myth No. 2. Hedgehogs the size of mammoths and apples the size of watermelons
Meet Semyon the fox
There is an anecdote: the Chernobyl plantain heals even open fractures, but before that you need to catch up with it. Our guide and part-time Chernobyl employee, Yuri, laughed when we asked how true this was. Naturally, all this is a lie, but with a small grain of truth. The fish here are really huge, it’s hard to put into words how big it is. But this is far from due to radiation. Simply because no one catches her here - because it is prohibited. Moreover, she is not afraid of people. There is a bridge right next to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant from which you can feed fish (like human-sized catfish) bread. Another wonderful local resident is Semyon the fox. The tame fox who ate my last sandwich and calmly took it from my hands.
Myth No. 3. What excursions? There's radiation there!
Well, well... There are two zones that are called “Chernobyl”. 30-kilometer and 10-kilometer. So, in the “thirty” the level of gamma radiation is the same as in Kyiv - approximately 0.1-0.2 microsieverts/hour (μSv/h) with an acceptable norm of 0.3 μSv/h. Occasionally, metal objects generate noise. In the “ten” everything is a little more complicated. Quite often there are 1.5 and 2 μSv/h. In addition, there are so-called “dirty spots” where you can catch 50 μSv/h with a dosimeter. A one-day excursion to Chernobyl and Pripyat is equivalent to a 40-minute plane flight in terms of exposure.
Pripyat is sad
When we arrived at Chernobyl, we were a little upset at first. The most ordinary city, just without new buildings and with a slight “smell” of the USSR. Pripyat is a completely different matter. This is no longer a city, but a real forest. A forest in which high-rise buildings have grown instead of mushrooms. Over the course of 30 years, nature took its toll. Trees grew literally everywhere. Here we are driving along a narrow path, just the width of the bus, and the guide announces that this is the main street of Pripyat. Everything is abandoned, stolen, broken and very sad. Not because there is nothing to do, but because here comes the realization of WHAT the local residents have experienced. Documents, money, jewelry and a set of things for 3 days - the standard set of any evacuated resident of Pripyat. They were going to leave for 3 days... The lives of these people remained where they return once a year - on April 26, on the anniversary of the disaster. The city was built on a large scale. At that time, there was everything your heart desired, and in the best possible way. In 1986, the amusement park was just completed: a race track, boats, a carousel and the famous Ferris wheel. By the way, it is the only attraction that has worked at least once. The park was supposed to open on the May holidays and Victory Day in 1986. But this never happened. On April 27, 1986, the day after the disaster, the Ferris wheel was launched for the first and last time. For what? To reduce panic.
Stadium in Pripyat. This place used to be a football field, but now it is a real forest.
Samosely. Every year there are fewer and fewer of them
Self-settlers are those people who, despite all the prohibitions, live in a 30-kilometer zone. They are all over 80 years old. These are people who returned to live out their lives. As of April 2017, there are 104 of them. They have vegetable gardens, and a car with food arrives twice a week, where they can buy what they need. In addition, they are visited by tourists who never leave empty-handed. Samosel residents treat them to canned cucumbers grown in the exclusion zone and moonshine, also of local origin. Every year there are fewer and fewer of these people. Despite their choice to stay at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, many of them lived long lives.
“The extent of the USSR’s fear of the USA”
This is what our guide called the famous “Arc”. Perhaps the expression is not new, but it conveys the atmosphere of this object well. Duga, scientifically speaking, is a Soviet over-the-horizon radar station for an early detection system for intercontinental ballistic missile launches. Simply put, scientists built a “colossus” with which they managed to look 3 thousand kilometers ahead. It was a top-secret facility located deep in the forest. It is reached by a perfectly straight road, just over 7 kilometers long, which was previously used as a runway for small military aircraft. There are two installations in Chernobyl (or rather at the Chernobyl-2 facility). One high-frequency antenna is 100 meters high and about 250 meters long, the other is low-frequency - up to 150 meters high and up to 500 meters long. There were similar installations in Nikolaev and Komsomolsk-on-Amur, but both were dismantled.
New sarcophagus: only six months old
Based on what was told every year at school, it always seemed that that same sarcophagus was a huge arch that was built immediately after the disaster over the reactor. In fact, it was “stretched” only six months ago - November 29, 2016. “Shelter-2” is its correct name. Construction took almost 10 years, despite the fact that the facility was planned to be put into operation in 2012-2013. The blame for everything, as always, is insufficient funding. The first “Shelter” was built in 206 days, immediately after the accident. In 2013, the slabs above the turbine room of the power unit collapsed. Due to the danger of destruction of the first sarcophagus, construction continued more actively. The facility is planned to be fully completed in November 2017. After this, they plan to begin dismantling the old “Shelter” and the structures of the reactor itself.
Cooling pond near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. From the railway bridge you can feed huge fish that are not afraid of people.
Now the Chernobyl nuclear power plant looks like the most ordinary enterprise. As beautiful as the Kremenchug factories are, within their capabilities, the area around the nuclear power plant is just as beautiful. Neat lawns, benches, monuments... Having never seen photographs on the Internet and not knowing what happened thirty years ago, I would never have thought that a disaster had occurred here. By the way, the sarcophagus is allowed to be photographed only from one angle – from the observation deck. Otherwise, the nuclear power plant security may greet you and simply take away your equipment.
Checkpoint “Dytyatki”: stand like on the border with Poland
The Dytiatki checkpoint can be compared to Polish customs. Stand and stand. Maybe we were so lucky, but we really stayed there for an hour. All this time we stood in a queue of buses that were also taking people on an excursion. An hour later we were lined up and the checkpoint worker went through everyone, checking their passports against the list. You can’t just drive through, the tour operator submits documents with the details of the tour participants in advance. The entire document verification procedure took about five minutes. We stood there for an hour. I’m telling you, it’s a real customs house. Leaving the exclusion zone is much easier and faster. At the border with the “ten” and at the “Dityatki” checkpoint, everyone must again go through a frame that determines whether you are carrying a little “excess” radiation on yourself. According to the guides, there were cases when the frame showed that a person’s clothes were “dirty” (radioactive). This happened to “smart guys” who climbed where it was strictly forbidden to walk. In such cases, they first try to wash the clothes. If this fails, the dirty piece is simply cut out. If this does not help, the item remains in the exclusion zone forever. According to the guide, a week before us, some foreigner went to Kyiv barefoot, having lost his sneakers at the checkpoint.
The price of pleasure
There are no excursions from Kremenchug. But they transport it from Kyiv. At the very least, such a pleasure costs 800 hryvnia (680 UAH for the excursion and 120 for insurance). There are excursions for 2-3 days. But they are much more expensive. For residents of Ukraine, prices start from $89 (approximately 2,450 hryvnia). During the two-day excursion, tourists stay in a hotel and are fed at a local cafe. But it’s worth considering that you still won’t be able to walk around abandoned Pripyat at night. It is prohibited to walk around the area at night. There are patrols everywhere. If they get caught, there will be big trouble.
Abandoned amusement park, Pripyat
Memory Alley. The plaques symbolize 191 villages and 3 cities whose residents were forced to relocate due to the disaster. Some settlements are located within a 30-kilometer zone in Ukraine, some are in Belarus
Probably the last monument to Lenin in Ukraine. Decommunization did not affect Chernobyl
They make money from tourists. For 500 hryvnia you can buy a T-shirt with the Chernobyl logo
Exhibition of equipment that participated in the liquidation of the Chernobyl accident. After she served her purpose, she was deactivated
A little humor from the employees. Near the radar station
Abandoned kindergarten in Kopachi. One of two buildings that have survived to this day. The village itself was completely buried underground due to severe pollution.
On April 26, 2016, the whole world lit candles and remembered the terrible disaster that divided history into before and after: 30 years of the Chernobyl tragedy. April 26 is the day when people on planet Earth learned how a “peaceful” atom can behave. Almost all European countries felt the consequences of the explosion at Chernobyl
Black date
The Chernobyl tragedy - the explosion and destruction of the fourth nuclear reactor - occurred at the Chernobyl power plant. The explosion occurred on the night of the year, at 01:24. In the dead of night in the town, all the residents were sleeping, and no one suspected that this date would change the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
Since then, every year in the territory of the former republics of the USSR the day of remembrance of the Chernobyl tragedy is celebrated as the most monstrous and largest accident in the field of nuclear energy.
Brief characteristics of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
The Chernobyl tragedy occurred at the (Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant), located on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine), just three kilometers from the city of Pripyat and some hundred kilometers from Kyiv, the capital of the republic of the Ukrainian SSR and modern Ukraine. At the time of the accident, almost 50 thousand residents lived in Pripyat, and most of them worked at the nuclear power plant, which fed almost the entire city.
On the day of the disaster, four power units were operating at the station, a malfunction of one of which caused the accident. Two more power units were under construction and were due to go into operation soon.
The Chernobyl power plant was so powerful that it provided 1/10 of all the electricity needs of the Ukrainian SSR.
Fourth power unit accident
The Chernobyl tragedy occurred in 1986. This happened on Saturday, April 26, at half past two in the morning. As a result of a powerful explosion, the fourth power unit was completely destroyed and could no longer be repaired. In the first seconds, two station workers, who were at that moment in close proximity to the reactor, died. A fire started immediately. The temperature in the reactor was so high that everything that was there (metals, concrete, sand, fuel) melted.
The day of the Chernobyl tragedy became black for hundreds of thousands of people. The release caused severe radioactive contamination not only in the Ukrainian SSR, but throughout Europe.
Chronology of the accident
On April 25, planned repair work in the reactor was to take place, as well as testing of the new operating mode of the reactor. Before repair work according to the protocol, the reactor's power was significantly reduced; at that time it was operating at only 20-30% of its efficiency. In connection with the repair, the emergency cooling system of the reactor was also turned off. As a result, the power unit's power dropped to 500 MW, while at full capacity it could reach 3,200 MW. At about half past midnight, the operator was unable to keep the reactor power at the required level, and it dropped to almost zero.
The staff took measures to increase power, and their attempts were crowned with success - it began to grow. However, ORM (operational reactivity margin) continued to fall. When the power reached 200 MW, eight pumps were turned on, including additional ones. But the flow rate of water cooling the reactor was small, which is why the temperature inside the reactor began to gradually increase, and soon it reached the boiling point.
The planned experiment to increase the reactor power began at 01:23:04. The launch was successful, and the power began to grow rapidly. Such an increase was planned, and the station staff did not pay due attention to it. Already at 01:23:38 an emergency signal was given, and the test had to be stopped, all work immediately stopped and the reactor returned to its original state. But the experiment still continued. A few seconds later, the system received emergency signals about a rapid increase in reactor power, and at 01:24 the Chernobyl tragedy occurred - an explosion was heard. The fourth reactor was completely destroyed, and radioactive substances began to be released into the atmosphere.
Possible causes of the accident
A 1993 report stated the following causes of the reactor accident:
- Many mistakes by the power plant personnel, as well as their violation of the experimental regulations.
- Continuation of work, despite the fact that the reactor was behaving incorrectly, the staff wanted to complete the experiment at all costs.
- The reactor itself did not meet safety standards, as it had a number of significant design problems.
- The young staff did not understand all the peculiarities of working with the reactor.
- Poor communication between reactor operators.
Be that as it may, the Chernobyl tragedy happened due to an uncontrolled increase in the power of a nuclear reactor, the growth of which was no longer possible.
Some people look for the cause of the accident not in an operating error, but in the whims of nature. At the moment when the explosion occurred, a seismic shock was recorded, that is, according to one version, a small earthquake caused instability of the reactor.
There is another version of the cause of the accident - sabotage. The USSR leadership was looking for saboteurs only to avoid recognizing the fact that the reactor was built with violations, and the personnel working there were not so qualified to conduct such tests.
Consequences of the Chernobyl tragedy
The day of the Chernobyl tragedy claimed many lives. Two station employees died from the explosion itself: one from the collapse of a concrete floor, the second died in the morning from his injuries. Those who were involved in eliminating traces of the accident suffered greatly - 134 station employees and members of rescue teams were exposed to severe radiation exposure. All of them developed radiation sickness, and 28 of them died due to radiation poisoning several months later.
City firefighters immediately responded to the sound of the explosion. Major Telyatnikov took command. The desperate actions of Telyatnikov and his team helped stop the spread of the fire, otherwise the consequences would have been even more catastrophic. Telyatnikov himself survived only thanks to a complex brain operation that was performed on him in England. The first to arrive at the scene of the accident were members of the brigade of Lieutenant Pravik, who died due to severe radiation exposure. At the same time, Lieutenant Kibenok, who arrived immediately after Pravik, also died.
By six o'clock in the morning, firefighters managed to suppress the fire. All the liquidators that night did not know when leaving that the reactor had exploded, and therefore did not even wear anti-radiation protection.
The firefighters performed a feat that night that must be remembered even now. It was only thanks to their heroism and self-sacrifice that the third reactor, which was connected to the fourth and was located in close proximity to it, did not explode. If not for the bravery of the firefighters, the consequences of another reactor explosion would be difficult to imagine. Therefore, any event dedicated to the Chernobyl tragedy should honor the memory of the firefighters who sacrificed their lives in the fight against the fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. They saved the world from a great disaster.
Just an hour after the accident, the liquidators began to fall from radiation sickness, and most of those who were on the front line died. On April 26, the Chernobyl tragedy claimed many lives.
What happened next? Evacuation
On the morning of April 27 (36 hours had passed since the accident, when the population needed to be evacuated immediately), a message was broadcast by radio so that the residents of Pripyat were ready to leave the city. Then they did not yet know that they would not return to their native places.
On April 28, the first message was transmitted that a tragedy had occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but it was not said that the entire reactor had exploded. A few days later, the population within a 30 km radius was completely evacuated. However, residents were told that they could return here in three days. Thirty years have already passed, but it is still impossible to live in Pripyat and the outskirts of Chernobyl.
The Soviet government did its best to keep silent about the fact of the reactor explosion; there was no talk about it in the media; the whole country then celebrated the first of May - Workers' Day.
Elimination of consequences. Unknown heroes
To eliminate the consequences of the accident and in order to “seal” the reactor, a special commission was created, whose members decided to dump a special mixture of lead, dilomites and boron-containing substances onto the reactor. Ten days later, a large contingent of military personnel arrived in the 30-kilometer zone in order to avoid the penetration of civilians, along with scientists and liquidators of the consequences of the accident.
In the first year, the number of accident liquidators has already reached almost 300 thousand people. Until our time, the number of liquidators has increased to 600 thousand people. People worked in shifts because they could not stand the effects of radiation for long, some left, and new ones were brought in to take their place. In order to permanently fence off the destroyed nuclear reactor, it was decided to build a so-called “sarcophagus” over it. The first sarcophagus took 206 days to build and was completed in November 1986.
This event took place for almost a year. The Chernobyl tragedy is known all over the world, but many of the liquidators are unknown to anyone. These are not actors, not public bright celebrities who act out false courage and nobility on stage. These are real heroes who did everything to reduce the level of radiation contamination as much as possible. They saved us at the cost of their own lives.
Reaction of the world community
The Chernobyl tragedy (photos can be seen in the article) soon became known to the whole world: European countries noted an unprecedentedly high level of radiation, sounded the alarm, and the truth was revealed. After the whole world learned about the Chernobyl disaster, construction in many countries practically stopped. The USA and Western European countries did not build a single one until 2002. Scientists all over the world began to work on alternative energy sources. In the USSR itself, before the accident, it was planned to build 10 more similar power plants and dozens of other reactors in already operating plants, but all plans were closed after the events of April 26. The Chernobyl tragedy showed how deadly it can be
Exclusion Zone
In addition to Pripyat itself, hundreds of small settlements were abandoned. The 30-kilometer zone around the station began to be called the “Exclusion Zone.” A zone of 200 km was heavily polluted. The Zhitomir and Kiev regions in Ukraine suffered the most, as well as in Belarus - the Gomel region, in Russia - the Bryansk region. Foci of radiation damage were discovered even in Norway, Finland and Sweden, and forests were especially affected.
The number of people suffering from cancer has increased dramatically since the accident. Most people began to suffer from thyroid cancer, which is the first to bear the blow of radiation.
Doctors began to say that children born to parents from those regions suffer from birth defects and mutations. For example, in 1987 there was an outbreak of Down syndrome.
The further fate of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
After the whole world learned about the Chernobyl accident, its operation ceased due to the threat of powerful radiation contamination. But after a few years, the first and second power units began operating again, and later the third power unit was launched.
In 1995, the decision was made to permanently cease operation of the power plant. Following this plan, the first power unit was shut down in 1996, the second in 1999, and the station was finally closed in 2000.
A few years later, a government decision launched a project to create a new sarcophagus, since the first one does not completely protect the environment from the effects of radiation. Thus, in 2012, the Ukrainian government officially announced that work on the construction of a new protective structure had already begun. It should completely seal the power unit, and, according to scientists, the radioactive background will not pass through the walls of the new sarcophagus. Construction is due to be completed by 2018, and the estimated cost of this project is more than US$2 billion.
In 2009, the Ukrainian government developed a program for the complete decontamination of the station, which will take place in four stages. The last stage is planned to be completed by 2065. By this time, the authorities want to completely dispose of all traces of the presence of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant at this site.
Memory
On April 26 of each year, the Chernobyl Tragedy Remembrance Day is held. The memory of the liquidators and victims of the accident is revered not only in the CIS countries, but also in many countries of Western Europe. In France, in Paris, not far from the Eiffel Tower, a small event is held on this day, where people bow their heads to the heroism of firefighters.
Every April 26, schools hold an information hour where they talk about the terrible tragedy and the people who saved the world. Children read poems about the Chernobyl tragedy. The poets dedicate them to the fallen and surviving heroes who stopped radiation contamination, as well as to the thousands of innocent people who became victims of the accident.
The memory of the Chernobyl tragedy is the basis of dozens of documentaries and feature films. Films are not only domestically produced, many foreign studios and directors have covered the Chernobyl disaster in their works.
The Chernobyl disaster has a central place in the STALKER game series, and also serves as the plot for a dozen fiction novels of the same name.
Most recently, the Chernobyl accident turned 30 years old, but the consequences of the disaster over these years have not yet been eliminated; the decay of some substances will continue for thousands of years. This accident will be remembered by the world as the most terrible energy accident in history.
What happened and what has changed in the exclusion zone nearby - read in the educational material.
Chernobyl disaster: super-powerful explosion
The radiation leak as a result of the explosion at the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is equated to the explosion of 500 atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
And the spread of reactive material was so widespread that radioactive rain fell throughout Europe, and even in Ireland.
Number
According to various sources, from 600 to 800 thousand people from all over the USSR took part in eliminating the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Between 4,000 and 10,000 people died from the consequences of the explosion. More than 70 thousand of them became disabled.
1.9 million people in Ukraine were exposed to radioactive radiation as a result of the Chernobyl explosion. In total - 8.4 million people in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and other countries, in particular Europe.
Chernobyl disaster in numbers
47,500 residents of Pripyat were evacuated. Currently, 140 people, the so-called self-settlers, live in the exclusion zone.
Some 7 million people in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus are receiving compensation.
At that time, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant with its four units provided 10% of Ukraine’s electricity needs. And the government wanted to build two more power units, but never had time.
Chernobyl accident: special markings
The Chernobyl disaster is so global that it was assigned danger level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) - the events at Chernobyl became a local disaster with global consequences.
By the way, the 7th danger level was also assigned to the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant in Japan, which occurred in 2011 as a result of an earthquake.
Not Ukraine
It was not Ukraine that suffered the most from the Chernobyl disaster, but Belarus, which received 70% of the radiation pollution from Chernobyl. The consequences for the country were estimated at 235 billion US dollars.
The Chernobyl disaster occurred in 1986
Residents of the country have felt the effects of radiation pollution; a fifth of the land is considered weakly contaminated with radiation, which has made the soil unsuitable for growing crops.
Cases of leukemia and thyroid cancer have increased in the country, and people are more often turning to doctors for cardiovascular diseases.
"Heart" of Hasidism
The city of Chernobyl in the second half of the 18th century was one of the main centers of Hasidism, not inferior in importance to Uman. At the end of the 19th century, the city's population was more than 10 thousand people, of whom two thirds were Jews. There were about 10 synagogues in the city.
What is Hasidism? This mystical branch of Judaism, which arose on the territory of Ukraine in the first half of the 18th century, as an opposition to dogmatic-ritual formalism and rabbinic orthodoxy, and quickly spread throughout Eastern Europe.
Chernobyl accident: red forest
A powerful radiation leak has “painted” the forest near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant a bright red color. Since then it has been called "Red Forest".
Red forest in Chernobyl
Danger zones
Radiation does not spread evenly around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but settles in islands. Some areas in the 10-kilometer zone are tens of times more dangerous than the area adjacent to the nuclear power plant.
In particular, one of these zones is the stele of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant named after V.I. Lenin - here the radiation background can reach as much as 1200 microroentgen/hour, when near the station itself the background does not exceed 300 microroentgen/hour.
For comparison, the background radiation in Kyiv as of now is about 11 microR/hour.
Project "Shelter"
Construction of a “shelter” in the form of an arch over the destroyed reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. started in 2012.
Its width is 257 meters, length – 150 and height 108 meters. The weight of the structures reaches 29,000 tons. About 3,000 people worked daily on the construction of the arch.
Construction of a “Shelter” over the destroyed reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
European roads
Yeah, now you will be surprised or won’t believe it at all, but the roads in the exclusion zone are perfectly smooth, without a single pothole.
A smooth asphalt surface is laid to prevent the scattering of radioactive waste, which is transported in trucks for research or storage. The maximum speed for a waste truck is 40 km/h.
Chernobyl disaster: new life
Nature, devoid of human influence for 30 years, Chernobyl is teeming with wild animals.
Chernobyl is teeming with wild animals
The population and diversity of species in the exclusion zone can rival the most famous nature reserves and national parks in the world.
In the exclusion zone, scientists also recorded lynxes, wild boars, moose, hares, river otters, roe deer, owls, cranes and other animals.
Also in the exclusion zone there are several species of bats that are listed in the international Red Book.
Chernobyl is teeming with unique animals
The Chernobyl accident: the film "Arch"
Many films have already been made about Chernobyl, but the short post-symphony film "Arch", filmed entirely in the Chernobyl zone, has collected prestigious awards around the world.
The film is based on the story of a boy who grew up in Pripyat, newsreel footage, as well as music specially written for the film.
Teaser for the film "Arch" – video
Clips in the exclusion zone
In 2014, the cult band Pink Floyd presented a video for the song “Marooned”, filmed in the ghost town of Pripyat. It was watched 19 million times on the group’s channel.
Pink Floyd – Marooned: watch the video
Also, the story of Chernobyl was included in a short film-journey of Scottish pop-rock singer Paolo Nutini. The video was filmed for the song "Iron Sky". The video has been viewed more than 2 million times.
Paolo Nutini – Iron Sky: watch the video
In the summer of 2018, the British Britpop rock band Suede presented a video for the song "Life Is Golden". The video has received more than 845,000 views on YouTube.
Suede – Life Is Golden: watch video
What happened at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant - video