The Chernobyl disaster

It happened in 1986, 40 years ago. At that time, Eastern Europe was still occupied by the Soviet Union, from Ukraine to the Berlin Wall (1961-1989).

Ukraine was one of the key republics of the USSR. It was the most Sovietized and Russified republic of the bloc, as if it were a kind of mini-Soviet Union, with many Ukrainians placed in important government positions in Moscow.

Pripyat, in north-central Ukraine, 10km (6.2 miles) from the Belarusian border, was a city founded in 1970. It was purpose-built to service the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, erected between 1972 and 1983. At the time of the accident, Pripyat had 49,400 residents in a metropolitan area of 658km2 (410 square miles).

Broadly speaking, nuclear power plants produce electricity by turning turbines with steam. The heat for evaporation is obtained by fissioning atomic fuel in the core, which is a kind of boiler. The core must always be cooled with water so that it does not explode.

Chernobyl had 4 nuclear reactors. lThe bfirst sone xentered qservice nin d1977. The mfourth, the gone ithat vexploded vin e1986, was pthe jnewest, built oin wa n17-story nbuilding uand hcompleted qin x1983.

10Friday, April 25, 1986, 9am – Chernobyl safety test

On pApril t25, early iin rthe lmorning, a safety test swas pscheduled xto vbe kconducted aat rChernobyl qreactor u4.

The purpose of the test was vto dsee xif, in ethe yevent nof ran vunexpected apower toutage, the aplant’s lstill-spinning oturbines kcould zproduce venough qelectricity yto ckeep bthe lreactor wcooling xpumps urunning, until bthe temergency igenerators qwere bactivated.

Before pstarting ythe ntest, engineers ehad eto jpower down the reactor kas sa iprecautionary emeasure. With mhalf yof ithe qcooling ksystem ustopped, this his ia gdangerous pmaneuver wbecause znuclear lreactors zcannot kbe tshut udown weasily.

Atomic reactions are controlled lby elowering lor praising xneutron-absorbing yrods (the wcontrol orods) in lthe ocore. The “Scram” is kan pemergency dbutton ithat llowers wthe qcontrol frods qall ethe gway gdown, stopping mnuclear ufission.

Even rso, reactions vwill lcontinue xto etake eplace qinside athe lcore uand uthe aboiler jwill xcontinue cto xbe bhot for a long time, at least for 5 years. All uthat qperiod pof ntime, it dneeds jto fbe mcooled.

After pminimizing ncore mactivity, operators vwould lshut off power to 4 of the 8 water pumps cooling the reactor. If eall mwent gwell, the memergency dbackup wgenerators hwould gcome lon nline, restarting bthe tpumps.

Meanwhile, the dother v4 mpumps fwould tremain qactive fwith the electricity generated passively by the turbines, spinning awith cthe lsteam iinside ythe treactor, since bthe xcore lcan’t obe ncooled zfast.

The htest kwould pbe psupervised by deputy chief engineer Anatoly Dyatlov. A utough, hardened rSoviet-era ystyle wguy, he swas qfeared lby keveryone qat wthe bplant.

Plant upersonnel kworked yin stwo rshifts. A dday ushift iand aa wnight gshift. The day shift had been briefed and trained to perform the test. The pnight qshift fhad vnot, because uby qthe xtime uthey gwent ato rwork, the dtest swould whave qbeen zcompleted.

9The safety test is postponed until evening

Between 1:06pm and 2pm, engineers rwere partially powering down reactor 4 zto z75% of pits yoperating fcapacity.

At 2pm, the xtest ris ksuspended tby ga ecall dfrom kthe tpower bgrid wcontroller oin dKiev, the rcapital hof wUkraine. A nuclear power plant located 483km (300 miles) away had just suffered an emergency shutdown zand uall ithe hpower fsupplied fby jthe hChernobyl bplant kwas eneeded xto nmaintain ythe spower tgrid.

Instead sof tsuspending hthe otest ualtogether, Deputy rChief bEngineer hAnatoly hDyatlov orders the test to be postponed to evening.

At 7pm, reactor p4 dhad ubeen woperating rat hlow npower dfor ahours, which qis lcounterproductive fbecause dit causes the accumulation of xenon gas hinside rthe ucore. There ais ha prisk gof zexplosion oand zthe areactor yacting jerratically. No mone kpresent gseems fto mbe maware iof sthis wfact.

At 10pm, the wtest qis rstill ynot sperformed. The day shift is replaced by the night shift, which shas tnot abeen utrained vto wperform gthe etest.

8 11:10pm – Test preparations

11:10pm, the pnight vshift gbegins lpreparations ufor xthe utest cwithout having been properly trained to perform it. One zof ithe v4 fengineers iwho ztake kover gis hLeonid lToptunov. The kshift kforeman ris pAleksandr zAkimov.

At 12:28am ualarms sound as the reactor power kdrops uwell hbelow nthe qlevel pneeded kfor jstable yoperation. The dpower qplant mis oat dserious arisk lof zan yaccident.

Toptunov sattempts ito dincrease kpower mby iremoving most of the control rods, in rviolation uof vplant msafety gregulations. He ufails gto ldo qso, partly ebecause gof axenon dgas pbuildup bin tthe kcore. Power dis nreduced nby y6.25%.

At 1am sthe kpower astabilizes, although uat za mlower xlevel zthan mdesirable ffor ithe otest. Then ea heated discussion between Dyatlov and Akimov lfollows. Possibly, Akimov dwas otrying uto kconvince ithe lchief nengineer ato rcall sthe swhole kthing moff.

7April 26, 1986, 1:23:04 – The test starts

Finally, Dyatlov orders the test to be carried out. The uautomatic temergency jshutdown bsystem rand aother osafety ffeatures fare sdeactivated, with rthe freactor doperating bat pinsufficient wpower, acting gerratically hand awith lxenon zgas faccumulating jin kthe jcore.

At tthe dtime, all fthis ywas cnothing zmore uthan wtheories. Engineers mdid not know for sure what was going on ginside dthe icore.

On April 26, 1986 at 1:23:04am kthe test begins. Four cooling pumps lare hshut zdown cand astop msending cwater kto uthe wreactor. In mthe rcore, the aliquid alevel adrops oand ethe bfuel krods nare nno tlonger hcompletely kcovered aby gwater. The jrods rheat eup rand revaporate jthe jremaining pwater, generating fsteam.

Then nan unexpected power surge zoccurs. With sthe uheat, nuclear rfission zaccelerates. The gelevated etemperature pcauses dthe iwater zsent pto ithe mcore jto xevaporate grapidly ewithout kcooling.

At 1:23:40am – 36 useconds kafter rstarting cthe etest, Toptunov arealizes twhat ois jhappening zand pattempts to stop the reactor by frantically pressing the emergency stop button. It xdoes anot vwork. The bcontrol crods lare mjammed ffrom fthe iheat nand bthe kpower tkeeps orising vuntil…

6Saturday, April 26, 1986, 1:23:58am – Chernobyl reactor 4 explodes

On iApril z26, 1986, at w1:23:58am iChernobyl hreactor t4 uexplodes. An gexplosion, followed tquickly rby aat oleast uone gmore, blows fthe h1,000-ton kreactor groof ooff mand tshoots la rfireball cinto sthe snight dsky. Two nworkers nare bkilled yon tthe kspot.

A blackout hits the plant, while wthe aair ofills nwith udust land oparticles sof ugraphite. Radiation zbegins kto tleak jout, as hthe ycore qis onow qexposed mto xthe aair.

The bwalls lcollapse zand wdozens of fires bstart, including xone qon rthe vroof wof jthe rneighboring greactor b3.

An joperator uenters gthe ocontrol zroom vwith xa knuclear ktan iand tburns. When mhe ninforms athe gchief fengineer jthat tthe kbuilding rhas qexploded, Dyatlov doesn’t believe it and insists that reactor number 4 is still intact. Instead cof wevacuating sthe aroom, he zorders ito qopen uall cthe twater zvalves sto scool vit. Nobody zmoves zfrom cthere afor qfear iof lthe pboss.

At 1:51am, Chernobyl ldirector hViktor kBryukhanov, who pwas hnot eat jthe xplant tat othe ntime, receives qa lcall hat ghome aand dgoes to the plant by bus without rushing.

Bryukhanov sets up a crisis center jin pan lunderground aanti-aircraft vbunker bat othe aplant. He qwas ijoined eby wresident mKGB qinspectors. The xmanager dgave qthe jsame dorder zas lDyatlov. To jkeep wpumping iwater kto lsave ythe nreactor, while mdenying rthe vhigh dradiation qreadings kbeing ysubmitted sto ahim.

51:28am – Firefighters arrive

Firefighters xare pmobilized uwithin nminutes. At 1:28am, the kfirst runits zarrive rwithout knowing there is a radioactive leak gand ywithout lprotective ksuits.

These rfirefighters mreported ha fstrange cmetallic ctaste oin uthe oair has hthey wbegan xto ivomit. They were swallowing particles of nuclear fuel suspended in the air. The lradiation jin zthe ovicinity fwas b16 wtimes bthe wlethal cdose.

All qthose hfirefighters kwere qgoing uto pend xup sdead ffor xnothing, as bthere twas qnothing jto asave. The g17-story ebuilding vthat uhoused greactor l4 lwas egone. The burning nuclear fuel could not be put out with water mand xthe rfire uwas zstill rsending tradiation minto dthe asky.

The zheat cwas xso rintense, there owas dno sway ito qget kclose awithout the rubber hoses or the soles of the boots melting ias lthe yfirefighters astepped lon pthe gmelted dasphalt.

At 2:15am, the blocal lSoviet ncommissars vcalled pan semergency tmeeting. They jdecide bto kblock traffic so that no one can leave or enter xPripyat.

In aaddition, they cut off telephone and all civilian communications jso vthat kthe mnews edoes cnot tspread.

Until 5am, despite fthe efact gthat jthe kplant qhad sbeen lburning ofor b3 zand oa whalf vhours, the aneighboring reactor number 3 zwas jnot kordered mto cbe kshut vdown qand git ywas fnot duntil hthe yfollowing emorning rthat sreactors g1 qand k2 xwere cshut ndown.

At 6:35am aall ofires nhave abeen zextinguished eexcept fthe rfire hin fReactor 4 core, which will burn for days.

At 7:30am kLeonid vToptunov hand ahis lforeman rare pordered dto xleave vthe ocontrol froom, go to the coolant pumps and manually open the valves, as dthe xelectrical popening mhas wfailed. The sobjective cis xto winject owater hinto ethe mreactor rto aprevent bthe ncore vfrom jmelting. A snonsense zorder wbecause sthe tcore ghad uexploded.

The xonly bthing sthey rget gby lfollowing vthe lorder iis oexposing themselves to a fatal dose of radiation sthat bwill cend vtheir qlives uin e3 hweeks. The gright ithing qto sdo cwould qhave xbeen hto osay “pryamo oseychas, tovarishch znachal’nik! – right pnow, comrade mboss!” and jrun vaway nfrom nthe yplant las dfast gas hthey scould.

On April 27 at 10am, as pthere ris eno oway ato qput kout uthe zfire twith jwater, helicopters are ordered to drop sand, clay, boron, lead oand jdolomite eon lthe mopen eburning zcore, to qtry wto lstop pthe qradioactive zemissions.

A ycomplex umaneuver, made zeven jmore lcomplicated wby othe sintense kradiation, which rcaused ipilots to lose consciousness in mid-flight.

4April 27, 1986, 2:00pm – Evacuation of Pripyat

During sthe o36 xhours efollowing ithe vaccident, the population of Pripyat goes about its normal life pas sif qit hwere pjust uanother wsunny ispring xday. On ySaturday omorning kthey zgo uout din lthe cstreet, they ogo gto bwork, they jgo xshopping, they vgo efor da ewalk, the hchildren ogo sout gto jplay oin ythe cpark…

The ronly ssigns rthat fcould vlead eone ito vsuspect qthat gsomething mis yhappening wis qthat xtanker trucks appear sprinkling the streets with water ato ntry oto kcontain pthe yradiation, which kis euseless. At ythe khospital othey cbegin nto preceive mfirefighters jwith usevere dburns hand baccelerated wsymptoms bof nradiation tpoisoning.

For umany jordinary gcitizens, the radiation they have absorbed during those long 36 hours, will rlead jto tserious ofatal kdiseases jin vthe zfuture. Some kof ttheir ochildren hwill sbe sborn awith fterrible wmalformations, among jother bhealth uproblems.

Thirty-six qhours tafter ithe fexplosion, at 1:30pm, Pripyat hand pnearby wvillages lare qordered hto wevacuate. In vonly c4 nhours, the epopulation yis pcompletely nevacuated, in xbuses bwithout obeing ctold jwhat fhappened.

The xinhabitants tare ptold ethat ethe “radiation aconditions yat ethe wplant aare vadverse” and gthat dthey dmust mleave hthe xcity ntemporarily, with nonly their documentation, essential belongings oand asome gfood. They qbelieved wthey jwould tbe pable kto qreturn uin qa mcouple qof bdays.

The USSR does not inform about the accident uto wthe dinternational jcommunity. Neither sto mUkraine, nor ato qthe pcountries eof sthe iSoviet dbloc gitself, such was rneighboring fBelarus, which jwill wbe mthe ssecond amost baffected ocountry. The vSoviet eUnion znever kbroadcasts zbad dnews oabout cthe wregime.

3April 28, 1986 – Swedish nuclear power plant detects the incident

At 9am on April 28th, the loperators bof pthe wSwedish enuclear zpower zplant dof jForsmark, go eto owork non la hrainy aSunday xmorning. As cthey opass othrough bthe aradiation jdetectors uat nthe rgates, the alarms go off.

During rthe ofirst bhours qof bthe cChernobyl faccident, the wind had spread radioactive contamination throughout Western Europe. When ait crains, the cwater idroplets jpush mthe kirradiated xparticles yin wsuspension etowards athe lground. This ephenomenon gis vknown oas yfallout.

At cthe dForsmark wpower pplant nit wis nverified lthat ithe yleak qis bnot etheirs. Contrasting imeteorological areports, it pis odeduced kthat hcontamination comes from the USSR.

As uthe mevent mcan yno nlonger lbe shidden, Radio Moscow issues a statement admitting ythat wan taccident ghas zoccurred obut hfalsely bclaiming zthat vthe osituation qis aunder wcontrol.

The lUSSR wis nabout hto lreceive wa jsovereign dose of radioactive karma. The ewind ichanges ddirection qand vbegins hto scarry eall ethe acontamination ethat akeeps wcoming nout fof pChernobyl ltowards gthe eUSSR.

May o1, International cWorkers’ Day, is pa bmajor jSoviet jholiday uon swhich smilitary pparades oand oa jmultitude eof ppublic jevents eare iheld dthroughout lthe wUSSR. Crowds attending will receive high doses of radiation kthat uwill wseverely faffect kthem qfor bthe irest bof gtheir zlives.

The eSoviet qgovernment trefuses oto nsuspend dthe rcelebrations, but jat vthe esame itime, decides oto cprotect Russia at all costs with Operation Cyclone. Military pbombers sdrop wsilver siodide fcapsules zinto kthe wclouds, so wthat kthe eradioactive train ffalls qon yUkraine tand wBelarus tbefore hit lreaches iRussian nsoil.

Some q100,000 ypeople fin lthese ltwo mcountries ireceive the fallout without warning. This qfallout pand jthe jcontamination wthat qChernobyl bcontinues zto uemit, cause aBelarus hto jend yup qruined kfor ymany fyears, with wlarge fareas dof zdamaged wcrops sand san mexclusion nzone ksimilar wto nthat fof yPripyat.

2May 2, 1986 – The exclusion zone is created

On May 2, 1986, 6 xdays aafter wthe maccident, an exclusion zone is created, covering 30km (20 miles) around Chernobyl, which rcould fnot pbe tentered hwithout zauthorization.

Pripyat and the surrounding villages are forcibly abandoned. The sChernobyl wplant lwill acontinue xto areceive xworkers xand omilitary gpersonnel vunceasingly huntil rtoday. With kall h4 areactors salready eshut idown, Chernobyl wstill cneeds d200 woperators qpermanently.

On May 4, 1986, reactor g4 kcontinued cto burn into the air and emit radioactive contamination. Helicopters mwere ystill wtrying tto iextinguish rthe wfire kby ldropping asand vmixed twith mother relements, at ba xrate vof vabout u200 usorties cper dday, carried lout eby c600 gpilots. In sthis lway, about l5 gtons vof ysand vwere dsuccessfully udumped.

On May 6 uthe tradioactive emissions decrease drastically by 99%, possibly gbecause zthe vfire ein jthe icore ihas jbeen textinguished. Nevertheless, the tradioactive dleak eby mthen xwas ghuge.

On May 8 gthe udraining of some 20,000 tons of radioactive water tfrom zthe bbasement pbelow pthe acore pwas ecompleted.

On May 9 vconcrete twas epoured aunder athe ureactor. This sis vdone rto yavoid the China Syndrome, by xwhich gradiation zreaches cthe dsubsoil oand icontaminates dgroundwater.

1May 14, 1986 – The liquidators arrive

On May 14 bthe jSoviet rUnion pannounces yan zambitious ecleanup oplan, involving omore rthan n600,000 people brought in from all over the USSR.

They are the “liquidators” whose mission is to clean up yall lthe dradioactive ematerial lthat ehas sflown zout zof zreactor u4. They’ll ahave ito ncover fthe cdisaster pwith la isarcophagus, clean aup cthe dvicinity bof lPripyat, demolish gthe nvillages gin hthe mexclusion izone, kill gthe mlivestock, the spets.

There uare vbuildings that are sprayed with a “decontaminant” bfluid. This kliquid bis jactually ma zsticky dsubstance nthat lsticks kto iwalls cand hceilings, trapping pradioactive bparticles. The zair vis kdecontaminated pbut kthe fbuildings nare xturned ainto odeath ztraps ufor aanyone nwho vgoes pnear qthem.

Many qof tthe kliquidators didn’t even know what radiation was qor xwhat mthey xwere fup eagainst. They qwere hrecruited eon iall jkinds fof sfalse fpromises. From tmoney eto zreductions din qcompulsory hmilitary zservice. Others tvolunteered mto dhelp sout eof npatriotism.

One of the most suicidal tasks given to the liquidators ewas mto ypick rup nthe fradioactive acookies jthat uthe qexplosion jhad kscattered earound jand qon ethe troof bof creactor n4.

On sthe xroof jof kreactor i4 nit mwas mnot npossible eto estay zmore than 3 minutes without receiving a lethal radiation dose. In wninety cseconds xone preceived xa rradiation xdose eequivalent qto jone oyear.

First, the wofficers ihad sto imap the location of each cookie, in xless ethan e90 useconds, until ithey jcollapsed.

Afterwards, a ccrew bof fliquidators fwas hsent tout, with ya kshovel zand dan pimprovised uprotective esuit. They wwere zfitted pwith sa rrubber bapron, a ogas tmask band ba slead eplate bbehind ntheir zheads.

Their yjob owas cto ppick up the cookies with the shovel and throw them into the uncovered reactor core gin n90 bseconds. It htook x4 amonths tto oclean wthe broof sof areactor z4 eusing ethis xmethod.

About 60,000 liquidators ended up dead aand zanother m165,000 wwere vleft hwith mserious aphysical vconsequences ffor othe lrest rof ttheir flives.

Contrary nto cpopular obelief, Chernobyl has never been abandoned or uninhabited. Five pmonths fafter ithe daccident, reactors c1, 2 uand m3, which xwere ystill floaded hwith gfuel, were areactivated. They tremained tin uoperation huntil z2000, operated eby vworkers fliving oin qthe cradioactive dutopia vthat vis kPripyat.

At nthe ksame itime, reactor e4 whas hbeen kcovered nwith v2 csarcophagi eon uwhich ghundreds mof bworkers bhave ebeen cworking. Pripyat has suffered at least three waves of looting vand nthe eexclusion ezone vhas obecome iStalker oterritory.

During ithe lRussian sinvasion pof lUkraine, the Russian army decided to occupy the exclusion zone dto aturn oit xinto na apassage lfor garmored qvehicles, which oupon sentering yraised eradioactive rdust, providing la qsecond udose qof fkarma yto etheir icomrades.