Chernobyl Nuclear Explosion Disaster Explained (Hour by Hour)
Chernobyl Nuclear Explosion Disaster Explained (Hour by Hour)
The Chernobyl nuclear accident is one that haunted many of the survivors until their painful deaths from radiation poisoning. Just what went wrong that day at the nuclear facility that would change the lives of so many? Check out today’s epic new video that breaks down the events that led to one of the biggest nuclear accidents in history!
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Content
0.32 -> Hour 0
April 25, 1986.
3.52 -> Chernobyl power plant, located about 2 miles (3km)
from Pripyat, a small town in northern Ukraine.
9.2 -> At just before midnight the engineer-mechanic
Alexander Yuvchenko clocks on for his nightshift,
14.4 -> a shift that will go down on record as one of
the most controversial few hours in history,
18.72 -> creating a panic that will take over the planet.
21.04 -> The mood among the workers is joyful.
It’s a beautiful night after a sunny day
24.88 -> and the May Day holiday is just around the corner.
At home sleeping in his small apartment is his
29.52 -> wife Natasha, and his two-year-old son, Kirill.
The family is well taken of, and although Natasha
35.28 -> has some misgivings about the safety of nuclear
power, only recently those fears were diminished
39.68 -> when she heard a Soviet official on TV saying
nuclear meltdowns just don’t happen, or, if they
44.64 -> do, he said there might be one every 10,000 years.
In just over 24 hours from now, people who Natasha
50.48 -> knows will be out in the street looking into the
sky at a dazzling laser beam shooting up to the
54.96 -> stars. At exactly the same time, her husband
will be in a party of four men who are exposed
59.36 -> to deadly amounts of radiation after being sent
to assess damage at Chernobyl’s reactor number 4.
65.36 -> Three of them will die in excruciating pain,
their bodies destroyed from within. Alexander
70.4 -> will survive because he doesn’t enter the reactor
hall but only holds a door for his friends.
75.2 -> The arm and leg and shoulder that he uses
will later turn black. He’ll tell Natasha
79.36 -> with what he thinks could be his dying
words that he’s been turned into a mutant.
83.36 -> Alexander will see things the communist government
will want to keep secret. Death by radiation is
88.16 -> a monstrous thing to behold and the Chernobyl
power plant disaster will be one of the most
92.08 -> monstrous events in world history. At the heart
of the matter is a design flaw that the Soviets
96.8 -> will not want to admit. What the capitalists can
do, they can do just as well, or so they think.
102.4 -> One thing you don’t want at a nuclear
power station is a total shutdown.
106.08 -> If that happens, things can heat up,
and if an explosion follows, what you
109.84 -> have is a massive leakage of deadly radiation.
So, every reactor at Chernobyl has three backup
115.2 -> diesel generators that will kick in if power is
suddenly lost. The problem is that it takes 60 to
120.16 -> 75 seconds for them to fully power the coolant
pumps. The theory, and it is only a theory,
125.2 -> is that the slowing turbines after being
turned off will create enough electrical power
129.36 -> to keep the pumps running during that gap before
the generators are running at full capacity.
134.56 -> To know if this works, they need to do some
tests. The first came in 1982 and it wasn’t
139.6 -> successful. They tried again in 1984 and again
the results weren’t good. Then they tried in 1985,
145.2 -> and yet again, a message was sent back to Moscow
saying things hadn’t gone as planned. This was not
150.08 -> what the bigwigs wanted to hear, and they made
that known. The pressure was on…excuse the pun.
156 -> The realtor has already been slowed down to run at
about 25 percent of its normal power. Importantly,
160.88 -> the reactor’s emergency core cooling system
has been disabled so it doesn’t get in the way
165.36 -> of seeing if the turbines can power the
generators. More importantly, some of the
169.04 -> nightshift workers that have arrived haven’t been
properly briefed about the test. The reason is the
174.4 -> test should have happened on the day shift, but
there was a power outage earlier in the day at
178.56 -> a coal plant, so Chernobyl had to keep running
at full power to give people their electricity.
183.52 -> To fully appreciate this story, you need to know
how we get electricity from a nuclear power plant,
188.4 -> so here we’ll give you the very basics in laymans
terms. Inside the reactor, neutrons split uranium
193.92 -> atoms, and that makes more neutrons. They
split more atoms, and we have more neutrons,
198.56 -> and on and on and on. This is called a chain
reaction, and it produces a crapload of heat.
203.12 -> You harness that heat and make it turn water
into steam, and the steam runs those turbines
207.84 -> we’ve already talked about. As they move
all this energy becomes electricity that
212.08 -> ensures people like Natasha can cook, clean,
eat, see, watch TV, and stay warm in winter.
217.84 -> All that heat and energy, of course, can be
a bit unstable so you have to have control
221.68 -> mechanisms to make sure there isn’t an overload.
If not, the chain reactions would just keep going,
226.88 -> becoming highly dangerous. Control rods are the
things used to slow down the chain reactions.
231.84 -> These are a bunch of rods that can be inserted
into the reactor in different numbers or different
236.16 -> lengths allowing the nuclear technicians to
control the rate of the nuclear chain reaction.
240.4 -> They’re made out of special materials that can
absorb neutrons, so if all does suddenly go to
244.88 -> hell, you will hope those rods can come and save
the day. No one at Chernobyl doubts their safety,
251.36 -> or at least the less experienced operators don’t.
Hour 1
255.52 -> Now you know the night shift isn’t properly
prepared for the test and it might be their
259.68 -> fault that the power out of the plant falls too
much at 28 minutes past midnight on April 26.
265.12 -> They try to increase power, but something
is wrong. They’ve never seen this before.
269.28 -> This is partly because there’s been
a build-up of Xenon during the test.
272.48 -> You don’t need to know what Xenon is, and to be
frank, it’s too complicated to fully explain,
276.88 -> but when there is a build-up of the stuff it can
cause Xenon poisoning. Xenon would usually burn
281.44 -> away when the reactor is at full power, but the
slow down has caused the build-up and the build-up
286.32 -> has caused a further slowdown. This is not good.
It’s because of this overabundance of Xenon
291.36 -> that even when the guys take most of
the control rods out, 200 from 206,
295.92 -> they still can’t get enough power. As you know,
by taking out the rods, they should get more power
300.96 -> since the nuclear reaction isn’t hampered. Doing
this, though, can be pretty dangerous. In fact,
305.84 -> they shouldn’t be doing this in the first place.
A young operator gets on the phone and asks,
310.16 -> “‘What shall I do? In the program, there are
instructions of what to do, and then a lot
314.16 -> of things are crossed out.” The guy on the other
end pauses and then says, “Follow the crossed-out
318.72 -> instructions.”
Hour 2
320.72 -> At around 1.05 am, they have the power
stabilized, although the reactor is running
324.64 -> well below what the shift supervisor, Anatoly
Dyatlov, thinks is ideal. One day he’ll lie
329.76 -> and say he wasn’t in the room when mistakes
were made, but he was. Don’t forget his name.
334.4 -> The reactor is certainly running at
less power than is safe for a test,
337.36 -> but they carry on anyway on the orders of
Dyatlov. He doesn’t want a black mark against
341.84 -> his name in the form of another failed test.
At 1.24 and four seconds, the test really starts,
347.6 -> meaning they are going to simulate a
power outage and as we have explained,
351.2 -> see if the slowing turbines can power the
coolant pumps before the generators can turn on.
356 -> This is when all hell breaks loose. What happens
is a sudden and massive increase in power.
360.88 -> It’s dangerously high, and this
is now very serious. So serious,
364.72 -> that someone hits the SCRAM button. At
Chernobyl, this was the AZ-5 button.
369.92 -> It’s an emergency off-switch, which makes all of
the control rods drop down to stop the nuclear
374.32 -> reactions. This is a big mistake, and one which
exposes one of a few design flaws at Chernobyl.
380 -> The rods have a graphite tip, which in
short actually increases the reaction rate,
384.24 -> not the opposite, as is wanted.
The boron in the rods reduces reactivity, but
388.96 -> not those tips. As so many rods hit the reactor at
the same time there is a huge surge in reactivity.
394.4 -> The operators don’t know what they have done. The
graphite tips are fixed in position and the heat
399.44 -> creates a massive amount of hot steam,
in effect, a bomb. The operators are not
404 -> aware of this or they wouldn’t have dropped the
rods into a reactor already surging with power.
408.72 -> The man in the reactor hall watches this
as it happens and is shocked to see those
412.56 -> 200 rods and their caps, each weighing
772 pounds (350 kg), jumping up and down
417.76 -> within the reactor lid. It’s as if they
are being pushed by the power of a God.
421.84 -> The output of the reactor is now at
ten times the power it should be. And
425.2 -> that’s it. BANG. The bomb goes off. The world
will never be the same again after this moment.
430.96 -> The explosion causes the reactor’s
steel lid, weighing about 10,000
434.72 -> tons (2,000 medium-sized male African elephants)
to fly off and go straight through the roof.
441.12 -> Shortly after, there’s another big explosion,
likely down to a build-up of hydrogen from
445.36 -> zirconium-steam reactions. Bits of radioactive
materials and fuel are sent everywhere.
450.16 -> Fires rage and the core is exposed to the
world. Right now, it’s not obvious to most
454.64 -> of the men in the plant what is happening.
They all think the reactor is still intact,
458.16 -> only because reactors normally don’t just blow up.
The roof is destroyed. The floor is in pieces.
464.24 -> Radioactive materials are lying about everywhere.
The air is filled with clouds of dust,
468.88 -> pieces of radioactive graphite
are flung great distances,
472 -> and radiation is now spilling into the atmosphere.
To say this is bad would be putting it lightly.
477.36 -> Soon a few men will know this, but the one that
knows it best will be too dead to tell the story.
482.4 -> Right now, Alexander is in a state of shock.
Just a moment ago, he was in his office with
486.4 -> some colleagues reading some documents but
now everything around them now is shuddering,
490.16 -> on the brink of what feels like imminent
collapse. His first thought is this is
493.68 -> war. The USA has attacked us! He’s not alone in
thinking this. What else could have happened?
498.56 -> The phone rings. It’s the guys from building
number three. “Bring some stretchers,” they
502.4 -> shout over the noise. Alexander takes off
down some dark corridors in search of the men
506.8 -> he knows are the closest to the explosion site.
As he gets closer to a deafening hissing sound,
511.36 -> he finds his buddy. His face is horribly
disfigured, so much so that he only knows who
515.92 -> it is when he hears the sound of his voice. More
people are injured, the guy tells Alexander.
520.56 -> He then meets with Yuri Tregub, who’s come
from control room number 4. He tells Alexander
525.6 -> that Deatlov has asked for the emergency
high-pressure coolant water to flood the area.
530.08 -> Deatlov still doesn’t know that the reactor has
blown and he won’t even believe it when he’s told.
534.96 -> Now waste deep in water, Alexander and a few other
men try to get to the coolant taps, but through
539.6 -> a door, they see that the giant water containers
have been blown apart. All the men are terrified.
544.64 -> This is worse than they thought. Alexander
looks around at what’s left of the room and
548.64 -> sees his colleague Khodemchuk on the floor, dead.
He then looks up at the roof, or where the roof
554.08 -> was, and he sees something magical. A great
beam of light is reaching to the heavens.
558.8 -> It’s magnificent and beautiful, and as things now
stand, Alexander is not aware of how deadly it is.
564.56 -> For a few seconds, he just stares at what
he doesn’t know are gamma rays and neutrons.
568.72 -> A more experienced colleague who knows what
it is grabs him by the shoulder and pulls
572.48 -> him away. He likely saves his life doing so.
Alexander sets off to control room number four
577.36 -> and there he meets three other guys who’ve
been ordered by Deatlov to go to the reactor
581.36 -> hall and lower the control rods by hand. This
is madness, sheer madness. Alexander screams,
587.44 -> “There is no reactor hall. The reactor has
blown up. There are no control rods. They’ve
592.16 -> blown up, too. There’s nothing left but space.”
The guys think he’s crazy. Reactors don’t explode.
597.68 -> Alexander has to admit that what he’s
seen, he’s seen only from the bottom floor.
602 -> The men tell him they need to assess the damage
from above to really know what’s happened.
605.76 -> The four of them head to the reactor hall upper
floor. Little do they know that this is a journey
610.08 -> to the end of the night, for three of them
anyway. As you know, Alexander only survives
614.64 -> because he’s the one that holds the door, being
the strongest of the four. When the guys come out,
619.04 -> they say nothing can be done. They look at
Alexander and tell him he’s right. They say
622.88 -> the reactor hall now looks like a volcano crater.
They understand that radiation levels are high,
628 -> of course, they do, it’s their job, but they don’t
know just how high. They look at the radiation
632.56 -> level reader device they have, the dosimeter,
and the needle is off the scales, but they
637.52 -> still don’t know how bad things are because
what is happening is just so unprecedented.
642 -> It’s still only just after 1.55 but the
firefighters are already outside on the
646.32 -> scene. They too don’t have much of an idea of the
gravity of the situation, and when they start to
650.96 -> try and put out the fires that have started
in various places, they are not even wearing
655.12 -> protective clothing. Some of them will die in
agony very soon. Others will pass away in a month,
660 -> their immune systems destroyed by the radiation.
Back in Piryrat, most people are in bed asleep,
665.28 -> although a few people are now standing
outside, mesmerized by the ethereal beam
669.2 -> in the sky that they don't know is caused by
irradiated air. They just think it looks cool.
673.76 -> In years to come, stories told in the West will
say there was a large group of them on a bridge,
678.16 -> watching radioactive blue dust fall like
snowflakes. This will be called “The Bridge
682.08 -> of Death.” The stories will say they all died,
but none of that is true. There was no Bridge
687.04 -> of Death. Most people were asleep at the time.
In the end, most people who actually were close
691.52 -> to the accident, recovered, with just 20 percent
of those who suffered acute radiation poisoning
696.32 -> biting the dust. As you’ll see again in this
show, it sometimes pays not to believe everything
700.56 -> you see on TV or in the newspapers.
If you don’t know, the way radiation
704.24 -> poisoning works on the body is it takes out
electrons from atoms in a person’s molecules,
708.48 -> destroying the chemical bonds and thus
damaging tissue. We don’t need to tell
712.16 -> you that this isn’t good for a person.
In short, after an hour or two,
715.84 -> diarrhea and vomiting can occur as tissue in the
GI tract breaks down and bacteria is let loose
721.28 -> on the body. Bone marrow stops producing white
blood cells, and infections can’t be fought,
725.92 -> since the person’s immune system is
incredibly weak. Without an immune system,
729.6 -> your countless bacteria eat you from within.
This might take some time, so even though the
734.56 -> person is covered in blisters and ulcers, they
could start to feel ok after a couple of days,
738.8 -> but then a blood infection
might lead to deadly sepsis.
741.92 -> For some at Chernobyl, even a blood transfusion
and bone marrow transplant won’t help them.
746.4 -> One of the town’s people is Lyudmila Ignatenko.
She’s already awake and has seen the glow. Her
751.68 -> husband, Vasily, is currently fighting the fires.
The two are due to have a child in two months.
756.48 -> Fast-forward a week, and his skin is covered
in boils, and when he turns on his pillow
760.32 -> he leaves skin and hair behind. The lesions spread
and some of his skin now looks like white film.
765.84 -> At one point he asks Lyudmila for a mirror but
when he sees his own disfigured face he cries
770.24 -> out in horror. Vasily will be buried in a zinc
casket under cement, his body still radioactive.
776.48 -> Lyudmila is lucky she even got to see him.
A nurse told her it was too dangerous.
780.16 -> She looked at Lyudmila and warned, “If you
start crying, I'll kick you out right away.
784.24 -> No hugging or kissing. Don't even
get near him. You have half an hour.”
788 -> Lyudmila will have much to say about this in
time to come, and she’ll also lose the child.
792.48 -> It will be born with congenital heart defects
and liver cirrhosis and die after a few hours.
797.52 -> Many people will criticize her for this,
asking why did she visit her dying husband.
801.92 -> The radiation from him contaminated her and
the fetus, they’ll say, but you can’t just
806.16 -> catch radiation from a cleaned person and
there’s no proof this is how the baby died.
810.48 -> A falsity that will be talked about for years
is that the baby somehow took the radiation
814.88 -> and that saved her. This is not scientific at all,
but it makes good newspaper copy and great TV.
820.8 -> The consequences of this misinformation will mean
the lives and lights of hundreds of thousands
824.64 -> of babies are put out before they get going.
We should say, though, that while seeing her dying
829.36 -> husband wasn’t the reason for the baby dying, it
was very likely radiation exposure from somewhere
834.16 -> else that led to the death. Back in 1986, the
nurse that told Lyudmila not to touch her husband
839.68 -> couldn’t have known radiation doesn’t spread to
people after they’ve been cleaned and are out of
843.68 -> their contaminated clothes. It’s not contagious.
We should also tell you that a person’s hand
848.56 -> can’t suddenly burn when they touch the hand of
a contaminated person. That’s TV, not reality.
854.16 -> One of the firefighters turns to his friend and
jokes, saying, “There must be an incredible amount
858.48 -> of radiation here. We’ll be lucky if we’re all
still alive in the morning.” As the survivors will
862.88 -> later testify, they were never told the reactor
was on fire, only that there were regular fires
867.6 -> to put out. Some of them kicked the radioactive
blocks, even picking them with their hands after
872.4 -> they’d doused them. They would never have done
any of these things had they known the truth.
876.8 -> One of the firefighters who survived
explained how little they knew,
880.08 -> saying some of his colleagues went up to the roof
to work from there. Soberingly, he said, “Then
884.56 -> those boys who died went up to the roof—Vashchik,
Kolya and others, and Volodya Pravik. They went up
890.88 -> the ladder ... and I never saw them again.”
Hour 3
894.16 -> Local officials have already arrived on the scene
to discuss what’s happening. When they’re told,
898.4 -> they’re not told the entire truth. That’s
because only a handful of people right now
902.32 -> truly understand that the reactor has blown
up, and some of them are now burned, vomiting,
906.96 -> so not in a meeting explaining what they’ve seen.
Dyatlov still thinks what he always has, that a
911.92 -> water tank has blown up and the radiation
currently making some people very sick
915.6 -> is from the contaminated water. He just can’t
believe the core would blow, even though some
920.32 -> people are starting to realise that a water tank
blowing up wouldn’t lead to so much destruction.
925.28 -> Hour 4
More firemen arrive to help with the fires.
928.64 -> The last thing anyone wants is reactor three to
set on fire, which is looking like a possibility.
933.76 -> It’s soon safely shut down, but reactors
1 and 2 keep going until the next day.
937.92 -> Inside reactor 4 is now a molten reactor core; a
large graphite and concrete slag that is burning
943.68 -> at around 1200 degrees Celsius.
Hour 5
946.96 -> Another meeting is held, now with experts.
Some ask about the high levels of radiation,
951.36 -> proffering a theory that the core might
have blown. Nonsense, says Dyatlov,
955.52 -> even though he’s not far from keeling over
himself. A second later, he throws up.
959.92 -> A decision is made that no one will leave the
town, not yet. Perhaps they can be evacuated in
964.64 -> three days. All the phone lines are blocked
in case anyone starts spreading rumors,
968.64 -> which one official calls “misinformation”
that can negatively affect the Soviet Union.
972.88 -> Police soon start blocking the roads, just as
soldiers pass them on their way in to help with
977.2 -> the clean-up job.
Hour 7
979.52 -> At 6.35 am, most of the fires are out, but
by no means does this mean the problems
984.24 -> are over. They’re only just beginning. Real
horror is taking place inside that reactor.
988.72 -> A man who understands this horror is Valery
Legasov, the deputy director of the Kurchatov
994 -> Institute of Atomic Energy and the man that will
lead the commission to deal with the accident.
998.4 -> He’ll also be the one that testifies during
the tribunal, and as you’ll see, he’s the guy
1002.88 -> that exposes the Soviet Union’s shortcomings
when it comes to producing nuclear energy.
1007.28 -> Hour 8
He’s called
1008.8 -> on the phone soon he’s at the airport with the
man who’ll manage the crisis, Boris Shcherbina.
1014.08 -> In time, both these men will suffer from radiation
poisoning, but for now, they still don’t know
1018.56 -> exactly what’s happened.
Hour 13
1021.2 -> It’s around midday when they attend a meeting
to discuss matters. Legasov already knows about
1026 -> the people in the hospital, suffering from
severe radiation burns, so he and others agree
1030.16 -> the town needs to be evacuated.
Hour 30
1033.36 -> Legasov is driven in an armored personnel carrier
to assess the damage for himself. It’s bad,
1038.72 -> very bad, and he says they have to
get that main fire under control or
1042.32 -> radiation will be taken by the wind for
many, many miles. Many parts of Europe,
1046.24 -> not just Ukraine, are at risk. This is
a disaster of unbelievable proportions.
1050.72 -> It’s agreed that dropping sand and boron on
the reactor fire from helicopters might be the
1054.96 -> best way to go, even though Legasov knows it
might not work. They have no choice, he says,
1059.84 -> something needs to be done right now.
The military will need to help with the cleanup,
1063.36 -> and many men will be expected to risk their
lives. These people will become known as the
1067.36 -> liquidators and many of them will suffer
long-term health effects from their work.
1071.36 -> Hour 33
Shcherbina
1073.28 -> gets on the phone with Moscow and reports,
“We’ve measured the radiation. Prypiat has
1077.84 -> to be evacuated. Immediately. The station
is close by, and it’s emitting radioactive
1082 -> contagion. And people in the city are living
it up full blast; weddings are going on.”
1086.8 -> Levels of radioactivity in the town are rising at
an alarming rate. Earlier in the day, the level
1092 -> was between 14-140 milliroentgens per hour, but
that has gone up to 180 and 300 milliroentgens,
1098.88 -> and in areas closer to the plant,
600. 50 milliroentgens or more
1102.96 -> per year can be dangerous with 400
milliroentgens per year can kill you.
1106.72 -> The people in that town now have a
much higher risk of developing cancer,
1110.24 -> and they have no idea about this. Still,
in parts of the plant, the level reached
1114 -> an astounding 20,000 milliroentgens per hour, and
that’s why some men died so soon after exposure.
1119.92 -> How 36
Sometime in the morning,
1122.16 -> the first helicopters start dropping the sand and
boron on the fire. It’s a perilous job. Getting
1127.2 -> too close to the hole where the reactor
was can lead to acute radiation sickness.
1131.04 -> It’s dangerous enough anyway, as can
be seen when one helicopter collides
1135.04 -> with a chain and crashes, killing the men onboard.
1138.4 -> Hour 38
The evacuation begins
1141.44 -> From speakers all over the town comes a woman’s
voice, saying the same thing over and over again.
1146.4 -> “Attention! Attention! In connection with the
accident at the Chernobyl atomic power station,
1151.2 -> unfavorable radiation conditions are
developing in the city of Prypiat.
1154.88 -> In order to ensure complete safety for
residents, children first and foremost,
1158.56 -> it has become necessary to carry
out a temporary evacuation.”
1161.84 -> They are told to take everything with them that is
important, including all their personal documents.
1166 -> They don’t know it, but they are never going
back to their homes. Just one hour before
1170 -> this announcement, families were enjoying the
weekend. In the cafeteria in the shopping mall,
1174.64 -> kids and their mothers were hanging out and
eating ice cream. For them, it was just a normal
1178.48 -> day. There were kids playing on the bumper cars,
then suddenly they were told the ride is over.
1183.44 -> Now they are taken aback when
they hear the speakers say,
1185.68 -> “Comrades, on leaving your dwellings, please
do not forget to close windows, switch off
1189.6 -> electrical and gas appliances and turn off water
taps. Please remain calm, organized, and orderly.”
1194.96 -> What’s startling is these people have not
been told the full story and certainly
1198.8 -> aren’t given any protective clothing, in
spite of the fact that Soviet officials
1202.56 -> know about the dangerous levels of radiation.
So far, they don’t want to cause too much panic,
1206.96 -> or for the word to get out about the disaster.
Hour 42
1211.04 -> Shcherbina calls Premier
Nikolai Ryzhkovand and explains,
1214.72 -> “There are no people left in Pripyat.
There are only dogs running around.”
1218.56 -> What happens to the mutts, in the end,
is awful, but that’s a few days away yet.
1222.72 -> Shcherbina’s not exactly correct
about all the people leaving.
1225.92 -> Some young folks have hidden so they can stay
together in their parents’ apartments and get
1230.24 -> it on for once with some privacy. They don’t care
about some little radiation leak. Old folks, too,
1235.92 -> have stayed behind, or some of them have. They’re
well past the age of moving away and they’re too
1240 -> tough to worry about radiation. Some have lived
through wars, famine and Stalin’s reign of terror.
1245.44 -> Hour 46
116,000 people have
1248.48 -> left, but about 1,200 have stayed behind, mostly
the aged, and many of them women – babushkas as
1253.76 -> they say in Russian. They have refused to budge,
and it’s hard to argue with a stubborn babushka.
1259.12 -> One woman, Hanna Zavorotnya is given a stern order
to leave after she’s been found by a soldier.
1264.24 -> She looks him square in the face and
says, “Shoot us and dig the grave,
1267.44 -> otherwise we’re staying.” After listening to
the soldier explain the danger, she replies,
1271.36 -> “Radiation doesn’t scare me. Starvation does.”
The world still doesn’t know the extent of what’s
1275.84 -> happened, and you can be sure the Soviet leaders
are determined to try and keep matters within a
1279.84 -> fairly small circle. The KGB is told to stop
the “spread of panicky rumors and unreliable
1284.64 -> information” getting out, although nothing
they can do can prevent what happens next.
1289.04 -> Hour 52
1290.4 -> The Soviets get word that Sweden has detected
radiation and it has been identified as coming
1295.2 -> from Chernobyl. On top of this, soon the USA
will have satellite photos of the disaster.
1300.08 -> The news carries as fast as the radiation,
with presenters all over the world telling
1303.92 -> people that this major accident, something
that’s never happened before on this scale,
1308 -> could mean dangerous radiation being carried
from Ukraine to other European countries.
1312.4 -> As the children of Chernobyl settle into their new
surroundings, school kids in Germany are kept home
1317.12 -> in fear of radiation poisoning. Panic reverberates
from North America back to Europe and into Asia.
1322.8 -> Hour 55
It’s not until the evening
1325.52 -> that the official news is shown on Russian TV.
A report states, “There has been an accident at
1329.92 -> the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. One of the
nuclear reactors was damaged. The effects of
1334 -> the accident are being remedied. Assistance
has been provided for any affected people.
1338.24 -> An investigative commission has been set up.”
More Russian news follows, and this time with
1342.64 -> in-depth discussions. Not surprisingly, experts
talk about the Three Mile Island nuclear accident
1347.36 -> of the USA and some other American nuclear
mishaps. What the news doesn’t talk about is
1351.92 -> what could happen at Chernobyl right now, a
new kind of disaster could be in the works.
1356.64 -> Hour 58
It was thought that the water tanks were empty,
1359.6 -> which isn’t actually the case. To make things
worse, fire hoses have been filling the place
1363.52 -> with more water. Soviet scientists are now saying
that if that smoldering graphite, remember heated
1368.56 -> to about 1,200 °C (2,190 °F), hits the water,
there could be another massive explosion,
1373.36 -> even bigger than the last one, and that could
mean Europe being hit with even more radiation.
1378.08 -> They don’t know it yet, but it’s highly unlikely
this explosion will happen. They think it could,
1382.72 -> and so tell three men who know the area
inside out that they will have to drain
1386.4 -> the 20,000 tons of water through a sluice gate.
These men know that there’s a good chance they
1391.04 -> might not make it out, and even if they do, they
may not live very long after. Hence the name,
1395.68 -> the Chernobyl Suicide Squad: Alexei
Ananenko, Valeri Bezpalov and Boris Baranov.
1401.92 -> Hour 60
Finding the valves in the dark is
1404.8 -> like finding a needle in a haystack, but they do
it in the end. For them, it is just another day at
1409.36 -> work. They knew they’d be fired if they didn’t do
as asked, and unlike what will be said in years to
1414.4 -> come, they didn’t get any reward for their work.
As we’ve explained, there will be a lot of western
1419.12 -> misinformation flying about in regard
to the Chernobyl disaster. One falsity
1423.04 -> told time and again is that these men all died
shortly after they succeeded in their mission,
1427.52 -> but they didn’t. They lived long, healthy lives
after their time in the darkness of Chernobyl.
1432.56 -> Hour 66
The Soviet government
1434.88 -> is now worried that the molten core will burn
through the cement and get to the groundwater,
1438.88 -> thereby contaminating it and spreading radiation
into the rest of Ukraine and into Europe,
1443.2 -> possibly making some places uninhabitable.
A mining team is brought in to dig a huge
1447.44 -> tunnel below the reactor to act as a cooling
system. They are given respirators for the work,
1452.08 -> but it’s hard to breathe with
them on. It’s also very hot,
1455.2 -> but they don’t work naked, as
will be told on TV in the future.
1458.8 -> Again, it’s a big job and risky job for
the 400 or so miners. The Soviets don’t
1463.28 -> have to be too concerned because the
core won’t melt through the concrete.
1466.72 -> Obviously, they don’t know that yet
and have to take all precautions.
1470.64 -> Hour 100
The debris removal starts. At first,
1473.92 -> the 100 tons of radioactive material is said to
be so dangerous that men shouldn’t go near it.
1478.48 -> They opt to use robots, but most of the robots
break as soon as deployed due to the radiation.
1483.52 -> The liquidators are chosen to do the job,
men who are now camping close to the plant.
1487.92 -> Thousands of them are there, and in time, 600,000
or so of them will help with this clean-up.
1492.96 -> They’re given protective clothing, but still told
they shouldn’t stay on the roof for longer than
1496.72 -> 40–90 seconds since the graphite and other
materials up there are about as radiative
1501.2 -> as you can get. Of the 5,000 men who do the
job, some will go up as many as six times,
1505.68 -> but it’s hard to say how many will
have health problems because of it.
1508.96 -> Alexander, as you know, survives.
1510.96 -> He’s flown to Moscow. His hair falls
out and he finds it hard to breathe.
1514.56 -> His eyes, nose, and most of his face
hurts, but then after a couple of days,
1518.16 -> he and the other men all start to
feel pretty good. As you already know,
1521.44 -> this doesn’t mean they are good.
One day he’s in pain again and he
1525.44 -> pulls back his bedsheets to see massive ulcers
and necrotic skin on his shoulder, hip, and calf,
1530.72 -> all the bits exposed when he held that door open.
He is turning black and feels like he’s a monster,
1535.68 -> telling himself he looks like
some kind of radioactive mutant.
1538.72 -> Luckily for him, his body accepts the skin grafts,
and blood transfusions and bone marrow transplants
1543.84 -> do the rest. His arm is in really bad shape and
will stay in bandages for years. In the hospital,
1548.72 -> ever so often someone walks in the room and
tells him another of his colleagues is dead.
1553.04 -> One of them first goes blind, and then the
infection in his blood finishes him off. For
1557.44 -> two months, Alexander lies in bed close to death
thinking about when it will be his turn to die.
1563.04 -> He will later be awarded medals for
his bravery, but once he’s better,
1566.24 -> he’ll keep his Chernobyl experience mostly to
himself. For many years to come, people in this
1570.8 -> part of the world will cross the street if they
see a Chernobyl survivor walking toward them.
1575.44 -> These people, not educated about
radiation, wrongly assume the
1578.64 -> survivors are still contaminated. This
fear has devesting consequences.
1587.36 -> Chernobyl, in fact, will make much of the world
wrongly over-estimate the dangers of producing
1591.6 -> nuclear power. This will go on for decades and
is still a factor in some people’s minds today
1596.4 -> when they think about nuclear energy.
What or who is to blame for the disaster
1600.56 -> is the question that the Soviets and
many other countries will be asking
1603.84 -> for some time to come. The investigations at the
start will mostly blame human error rather than
1609.12 -> technical error and pick out a few names to
shame and send to prison, such as Mr. Dyatlo.
1614.56 -> Sure, he messed up a bit, as did others at
the plant, but the fault lies in many people,
1619.68 -> going right up to the top brass
in the Communist government.
1622.88 -> 1 year later
It's now 1987 and Legasov is very
1627.36 -> ill from radiation poisoning and is in and out of
hospital all the time. He knows he’s going to die,
1632.4 -> so he records himself on tape telling the whole
truth about how and why this disaster happened.
1637.36 -> Part of the tape goes:
“The Chernobyl disaster is an apotheosis,
1641.12 -> the pinnacle of all the mismanagement that has
been carried out for decades in our country…
1645.36 -> When one looks at the chain of events, why
someone acted in this way and another in that way,
1649.68 -> and so on, it is impossible to point to
a single culprit, an initiator of all
1653.68 -> the unpleasant events that led to the crime.
Because it is a chain that links to itself.”
1658.32 -> He finishes off by warning that as he speaks,
the Soviet Union does not have safe nuclear power
1663.6 -> plants, not because the production of energy is
dangerous in itself, but because too many mistakes
1668.48 -> have been made and too many corners have been cut.
He says when you can’t hold the state accountable
1673.12 -> then the state is broken.
2 years later
1676.08 -> In 1988, the day after the second anniversary of
the accident, he is found dead in his apartment.
1681.76 -> Shcherbina, who had become a close friend,
said, “Valery was too great, I loved him
1685.84 -> more than all the people I knew, he gave all of
himself to work, to Chernobyl. He burnt out.”
1690.96 -> Of the 237 people that suffered acute radiation
sickness, 31 died within a couple of months. The
1696.64 -> amount of people that died from cancer due
to radiation poisoning reached around 4,000,
1701.04 -> and many more survived cancer. Still,
the health effects of the disaster
1704.64 -> have been argued about for many years.
As for reactor 4, it was covered with a
1708.72 -> giant steel and concrete building called
the sarcophagus containment structure.
1713.6 -> An Exclusion Zone was formed, covering an
area of around 1,000 sq. miles (2,600 km2) of
1717.68 -> Ukraine. Over the years, the town of
Pripyat became home to life again,
1721.44 -> but of the wild animal kind, not the human kind.
1724.32 -> 20 years later
As for all those pet
1726.64 -> dogs and cats, they were killed by special
teams not long after the disaster became
1730.88 -> worldwide knowledge. Some may have survived,
though, because in the years to come, dogs in
1735.44 -> the town will be seen alongside wolves, brown
bears, dear, badgers, lynx, bison, and moose.
1741.2 -> In 20,000 years, the town of Pripyat might be
safe again for humans to go and live there.
1746.16 -> You can visit now, but experts recommend you
don’t eat the wild mushrooms or other plants
1750.24 -> you can find there, and wear something you’re
prepared to throw away later. Radiation sucks,
1754.88 -> but we can’t live without it.
Now you need to watch,
1757.52 -> “What If There Was A Nuclear War Between
the US and Russia?” Or, have a look at,
1761.28 -> “Man Receives Highest Dose of Nuclear
Radiation - This Is What Happened To Him.”
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uJhjqBz5Tk