Where did the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant take place? The legend of the Chernobyl "experiment": what actually happened at the nuclear power plant and why in the USSR they lied about the cause of the disaster predicted by the designers. Consequences for people

Chernobyl

The Chernobyl accident. Chronology of events. April 26, which divides the history of Ukraine into two periods - before and after the crash.

Here brief chronology of the most important dates associated with the Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Nuclear Power Plant in Chernobyl.

Accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant per minute, the years of events from 1970 to 2016 are also included.

1966

The Council of Ministers of the USSR issues a resolution of June 29, 1966, which approves the plan for commissioning nuclear power plants throughout the entire USSR.

According to preliminary calculations, the commissioned nuclear power plants were supposed to generate 8000 MW, which compensates for the shortage of electricity in the central region of the southern part.

1967

From 1966 to 1967, work was underway to find suitable territories. The work was carried out by the Kyiv branch of the design institute "Teploelektroproekt". As part of the research, sixteen territories were studied, mainly in the Kyiv, Vinnitsa and Zhytomyr regions.

Territory surveys continued until January 1967. As a result, it was decided to stop on the territory in the Chernobyl region, on January 18, 1967, the territory was officially approved by the Board of the State Planning Committee of the Ukrainian SSR.

On February 2, 1967, the Board of the State Planning Committee of the Ukrainian SSR approved the project for the construction of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

On September 29, 1967, reactors were approved to be installed at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

Three of them have been approved:

• graphite-water reactor RBMK-1000;
• graphite-gas reactor RK-1000;
• pressurized water reactor VVER.
• Based on the results of the considered options, it was decided to choose the RBMK-1000 graphite-water reactor.

1970

The Directorate of the Chernobyl NPP was formed. Projects and urban planning plans for the city of Pripyat were approved, and its construction began.

May 1970 the marking of the first pit for the first power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was made.

1972

The formation of a special water tank begins to cool the reactors. The reservoir was formed by changing the riverbed and building a dam in this channel, as a result, in addition to the dam, the Pripyat River acquired a wide navigable canal.

1976

October 1976 tank filling procedure started.

1977

May 1977 start-up and adjustment work at the first power unit.

1978

1979

Pripyat receives city rights.

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant produced 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity.

1981

1982

On September 1, a malfunction of reactor No. 1 was recorded. Slight contamination of some damaged evaporation fuel units.

On September 9, the fuel assembly was destroyed and an emergency rupture of process channel No. 62-44 occurred.

Due to the rupture, the graphite stack of the core was deformed, and a significant amount of radioactive substances from the destroyed fuel assembly was thrown into the reactor space.

The reactor was repaired and restarted. Information about the accident was published only in 1985.

1983

The construction of reactor No. 4 has been completed.

1984

On August 21, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant produced 100 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity.

1986

“The probability of the destruction of the core occurs once every 10,000 years. Power plants are safe and reliable. They are protected from destruction by three security systems,” said Vitaliy Sklyarov, Minister of Energy and Electrification of Ukraine.

Start of preparations for the reactor 4 turbocharger test. The reactor power has been reduced.

The reactor power has been reduced to 1600 MW, which is half the nominal value.

Reducing the power intended for the reactor's own needs. Generator shutdown 2.

At this hour, the reactor power is expected to reach only 30 percent. Power, at the request of the dispatcher of the Kyiv Energy District, was reduced for several hours. 23:00 the reactor was operating at 50 percent. Rated power.

The reactor power was reduced to 1600 MW, at which the experiment was carried out. From the operator "Kievenergo" made a ban on further reduction of capacity.

The ban on power reduction has been lifted, and a new stage of power reduction has begun.

26 April

The night shift took over the reactor.

The reactor power was reduced to the planned 700 MW.

The reactor power dropped to 500 MW. Due to the complexity of the steering, the xenon core was "poisoned", as a result of which the thermal power of the reactor decreased to 30 MW. To increase the power of the reactor, the crew removed the control rods. Only 18 rem remained in the core, but at least 30 rem is needed.

The reactor power was increased to 200 MW. To prevent automatic shutdown of the reactor, the personnel blocked the safety system.

A sharp decrease in the reactivity of the reactor.

Start of testing of the turbogenerator. Turbine valves have been cut off. The power of the reactor began to grow uncontrollably.

The emergency braking of the control rods did not work because they jammed the channels (and reached a depth of 2-2.5 m instead of a full thrust of 7 m).

A rapid increase in steam power and reactor power (within a few seconds, the power was about 100 times higher than the required value).

The fuel overheated, the zirconia surrounding it ruptured and the molten fuel leaked, and then the pressure channels ruptured. This began to lead to an exothermic reaction.

An emergency signal has been given

The first explosion happened

There was a second explosion - water vapor was released first, then hydrogen was released. The reactor and parts of the structure were destroyed.

As a result of the explosion, a 2000-ton plate was thrown back onto the reactor vessel. Waste graphite core and molten fuel are discarded.

It is estimated that about 8 out of 140 tons of fuel leaked from the reactor.

The fire brigade accepted the call from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and moved out to extinguish the fire.

An additional fire brigade left the city of Pripyat.

A fire alarm has been issued. Employees tried to start the reactor's cooling systems, hoping that they had not been damaged during the explosion.

Arriving firefighters of the first crew begin to put out the fire on the roof of the turbine hall.

The absence of a measuring device was established, the first device was damaged during the explosion. The second is located in a zone cut off by rubble. The second fire brigade arrived, some of the firefighters are engaged in extinguishing the fire, the other part of the fire brigade is analyzing the rubble for access to the measuring equipment.

Firefighters begin to vomit, the skin begins to burn under clothing.

The Department of the Ministry of the Interior manages the crisis personnel meeting.

It was decided to put blocks on the road. Fire and police brigades are called.

The officers are not well trained - they do not have dosimeters and protective clothing.

Viktor Bryukhanov, plant manager, arrives at the crisis management center located in a bunker under the administration building of the gym.

The authorities notified the central authorities about what happened in Moscow.

The ignition is blocked, the possibility of the fire spreading to other rooms is excluded.

Other firefighters arrived from Polesye and Kyiv.

The fire is completely extinguished.

188 firefighters were called to the scene of the accident.

The exposed firefighters were evacuated to the Radiological Hospital No. 6 in Moscow. Air ambulances were used for evacuation.

The morning shift came to the power plant. Construction work began at the construction site of reactors 5 and 6. 286 people worked there.

A decision was made to supply water to the area of ​​the damaged reactor.

A status report was sent to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

The government commission was headed by Valery Legasov. The specialists who arrived at the scene did not expect to see parts of the graphite fuel channels.

The data of measuring instruments were received, the level of pollution was established, and a decision was made to evacuate the population.

Requests were sent to neighboring districts and the city of Kyiv for the allocation of transport for the evacuation of the population.

The transport department of the city of Kyiv gives an order to remove all suburban buses from the routes and direct transport to the city of Chernobyl.

Checkpoints have been set up on roads within a radius of 30 kilometers to prevent the movement of civilians across the infected area.

Reactors 1 and 2 are disabled.

The administration of the city of Pripyat collects all administrative personnel.

The administrative personnel of hospitals, schools, kindergartens are instructed.

The processing of the city begins. Laundry soap and additional water tanks were placed in all toilets of the city. It was necessary to repeat the processing of the premises every hour.

All schools began to work, without fail all children were measured with a radiation device, medical personnel issued tablets containing iodine.

The processing of the forest area around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant has begun.

Police officers were briefed. The district police officers made a detour and counted residential buildings, taking into account the number of people living in them.

The first emissions of sand, boron and lead began over the destroyed reactor No. 4.

Two thousand buses and more than a hundred units of military equipment have been assembled on the border of the city of Chernobyl.

Schoolchildren were sent home with instructions to stay in their apartments. A general briefing has begun in the city.

Momentary drop in radioactivity around the power plant.

Conducted briefing in the city police department. The city is divided into six sectors. A responsible person was assigned to each, two police officers were assigned to each entrance of a residential building.

Police officers arrived at their places and began briefing and collecting residents.

An official announcement about the accident and the planned evacuation of the population was broadcast on the radio.

The evacuation of people from Pripyat began. Almost 50 thousand. People left their homes within 3.5 hours. For this purpose, 1,200 buses were used.,

Police officers examined the city of Pripyat, recorded the absence of civilians.

Increased radioactivity in the air around the Swedish nuclear power plant in Forsmark.

Moscow television reported on an "incident" at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

The Danish Institute of Nuclear Physics reported that it is most likely that the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant completely melted the reactor.

The Soviet media reported the death of two people as a result of the accident, the destruction of the reactor unit and the evacuation of the population.

At that time, American spy satellites took the first photographs of the destroyed reactor.

Analysts were shocked by what they saw - a damaged reactor roof and a glowing mass of molten reactor core.

To date, more than 1,000 tons of material have been dropped from helicopters into the destroyed reactor block.

The wind changed direction, and the radioactive cloud began to move towards Kyiv. Solemn processes were held on the occasion of the May 1 holiday.

May 2

The employees of the liquidation commission found that the core of the exploded reactor is still melting. At that time, the core contained 185 tons of nuclear fuel, and the nuclear reaction continued at a terrifying rate.

Beneath the 185 tons of molten nuclear material was a reservoir of five million gallons of water. This water was needed as a coolant, and a thick concrete slab separated the nuclear fuel and the water tank.

For molten nuclear fuel, a thick concrete slab was not a sufficient obstacle, the melting core burned through this slab, going down to the water.

If the hot core of the reactor comes into contact with water, a massive, radiation-contaminated steam explosion will occur. The result could be the radioactive contamination of much of Europe. In terms of the death toll, the first Chernobyl explosion would have looked like a minor incident.

Engineers have developed a plan according to which it is possible to avoid a steam explosion. To do this, drain the water in the tank. To drain the water, it is necessary to open the valves located in the flooded radioactive zone.

Three people volunteered for the task:

• Alexey Ananenko senior engineer
• Valery Baspalov mid-level engineer
• Boris Baranov shift supervisor

All of them understood that the dose of radioactive substances that they would receive during the dive would be fatal for them.

It was about opening the valves in the water tank, which was located under the damaged reactor, in order to prevent another explosion - a mixture of graphite and other materials with a temperature of more than 1200 degrees Celsius with water.

The scuba divers plunged into a dark pond and with difficulty found the necessary valves, manually opened them, after which the water was drained. After their return, they were taken to the hospital, by the time of hospitalization they had an acute stage of radiation sickness, they could not be saved.

Work has begun on the construction of a tunnel under reactor No. 4 in order to install a special cooling system there.

A 30-kilometer zone was created around the reactor, from which 90,000 people were evacuated.

A special embankment was built to protect it from pollution.

Reducing radioisotope releases.

Firefighters pump water from the basement under the reactor core.

From radiation in Chernobyl, they began to give Lugol's drug.

It was decided to start building a sarcophagus over the destroyed reactor block No. 4.

The Chernobyl Atomic Energy Board was fired, accusing it of "lack of responsibility and gaps in the supervision of the reactor."

Russia sent the first report after that to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

There it was discovered that an extraordinary sequence of events, negligence, mismanagement and security breaches led to the disaster.

Reactor #1 was turned on again.

Work continued on the construction of reactors 5 and 6.

Reactor No. 2 was turned on. Hans Blixa, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, visited Chernobyl.

The work on assembling the sarcophagi for reactor block 4 has been completed, they are designed for 30 years of radiation protection.

400 thousand tons of concrete and more than 7 thousand tons of metal were used.

1987

Reactor #3 started producing electricity again.

Work on the construction of reactors 5 and 6 was stopped.

1989

Shutdown of reactor No. 2 after a turbine fire. Importantly, there was no risk of infection.

The final decision was made to stop the construction of reactors 5 and 6.

1991

Fire in the turbine hall of reactor No. 2.

Power unit No. 2 was put into operation after a major overhaul. While reaching the set power level, one of the turbine generators of the power unit spontaneously turned on.

The reactor power was 50% of the thermal power - at that time one turbine generator of the unit (425 MW) was operating.

The second turbogenerator, which spontaneously turned on, worked in the “motor” mode for only 30 seconds.

As a result of work in the turbogenerator, large axle loads arose, which led to the complete destruction of the turbogenerator shaft bearings.

The destruction of the bearings led to depressurization (decompression) of the generator, which led to the release of a large amount of oil and hydrogen. As a result, there was a big fire.

During the subsequent investigation of the causes of the accident, it was found that the inclusion of the turbogenerator was caused by the fact that the turbogenerator was not protected from the mode of connection to the network on the run-out of the rotor.

Spontaneous closing occurred as a result of loss of insulation between the cable controlling the closing of the circuit breaker and the cable through which the signal about the disconnected state of the circuit breaker is transmitted.

A defect was made in the installation of cables - signal and control cables are placed in one tray.

This accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant did not lead to significant pollution of the territory of the exclusion zone. The specific activity of the release is estimated within 3.6*10 -5 Ci.

1992

The Ukrainian authorities are announcing a competition for new construction, which will include a hastily built sarcophagus on reactor building 4.

There were 394 proposals, but only one was considered worthwhile - the construction of a sliding installation.

Assembly testing of structures in Italy. Delivery of the first components for the construction of the sarcophagus.

Raised the first eastern fragment of the dome (5300 tons, 53 m)

2013

A fragment of the roof over reactor block 4 was destroyed by snow pressure. Fortunately, the construction was not compromised.

The second operation to lift the first eastern fragment (9,100 tons, 85.5 m)

The third operation to raise the first eastern fragment (11,516 tons, 109 m)

October November

Construction of a new and dismantling of the old chimney for power unit No. 3.

2014

The first part of the structure was completed and moved to the car park (12,500 t, 112 m)

The first operation to raise the second western fragment of the sarcophagus (4,579 tons, 23 m)

The second operation to raise the second western fragment (8352 tons, 85 m).

The third operation to raise the second western fragment of the dome (12,500 tons, 112 m)

2015

The beginning of the raising of the inclined side walls of the sarcophagus.

Work began on the electrical and ventilation systems inside the dome.

Docking of two parts of the new sarcophagus.

Introduction of new equipment for the dome.

2016

Beginning of the ladle shift operation above reactor block 4 and the old sarcophagus.

Solemn completion of work on the construction of a new dome over the 4th reactor block.

THE CATASTROPH AT THE NUCLEAR NPP: THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EVENTS OF THE NUCLEAR NIGHT OF APRIL 26, 1986 2019-04-26 11:40 35098

33 years ago, on April 26, 1986, the world was shocked by the largest nuclear disaster in history - the fourth power unit exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Many questions about the causes of the emergency and the details of what happened remain unanswered to this day. We propose to trace the chronology of events and try to understand at what point and why "something went wrong ..."

Due to the fact that, on the orders of Bryukhanov and Fomin, they continued to pour water into the destroyed reactor until 9 am, all day on April 26, firefighters had to pump it out into the cooling pond. The radioactivity of this water did not differ from the radioactivity of the water in the main cooling circuit of the reactor during its operation.

The available instruments had a measurement limit of only 1000 microroentgens per second (that is, 3.6 roentgens per hour) and went off scale en masse, in connection with which there were suspicions of their serviceability.

Mikhail Lyutov, curator of the nuclear safety department, doubted for a long time that the black substance scattered everywhere was block graphite. Victor Smagin recalls: “Yes, I see ... But is it graphite? ..” Lyutov continued to doubt. This blindness in people has always driven me to madness. See only what is beneficial to you. Yes, this is death! “What is it?!” I started yelling at my boss. “How many of them are there?” Lyutov finally came to his senses.

From the rubble left after the explosions, people were fired with gamma rays with an intensity of about 15 thousand roentgens per hour. People burned their eyelids and throats, the skin of their faces tightened, and they took their breath away.

- Anna Ivanovna, dad said that there was an accident at the station ...

“Children, accidents happen quite often. If something serious had happened, the city authorities would have warned us. We have a topic: "The Communist Movement in Soviet Literature." Lenochka, come to the blackboard...

This is how the first lesson began on April 26 at the Pripyat school, Valentina Barabanova, a French teacher, recalls this in her book “On the Other Side of Chernobyl”.

The water, which continued to be supplied to the fourth block of the nuclear power plant, finally ran out.

Anatoly Sitnikov, deputy chief engineer for the operation of the first stage of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, received a deadly task from Viktor Bryukhanov: to climb onto the roof of Unit B and look down. Sitnikov obeyed the order, as a result of which he saw a completely destroyed reactor, twisted fittings, and the remains of concrete walls. In a couple of minutes, Sitnikov took on a huge dose of radiation. Later he was sent to a Moscow hospital, but the transplanted bone marrow did not take root, and the engineer died.

Sitnikov's message that nothing was left of the reactor only caused additional irritation to Viktor Bryukhanov and was not taken into account. Water continued to be poured into the reactor.

In further memoirs, Viktor Smagin describes that, walking along the corridor, he felt strong radiation with his whole body. In the chest appeared "spontaneous panic feeling”, but Smagin tried to control himself.

“How much work, guys?” I asked, interrupting their skirmish. “The background is a thousand micro-roentgens per second, that is, 3.6 roentgens per hour. Work five hours at the rate of recruitment of twenty-five rem!” “All this is nonsense,” summed up Samoylenko. Krasnozhon was furious again. “Well, don’t you have any other radiometers?” I asked. - “There is in the supply room, but it was filled up with an explosion,” said Krasnozhon. “The authorities did not foresee such an accident ...”

"Aren't you bosses?" I thought and went on,” writes Smagin.

- I listened and realized that they were swearing because they could not determine the radiation situation. Samoilenko puts pressure on the fact that the radiation is huge, and Krasnozhon - that you can work five hours at the rate of 25 rem (the biological equivalent of X-ray is outdated off-system unit radiation measurements).

“I quickly changed my clothes, not yet knowing that I would return from the block to the medical unit with a strong nuclear tan and with a dose of 280 rads. But now I was in a hurry, put on a cotton suit, shoe covers, a cap, “petal-200” and ran along the long corridor of the deaerator shelf (common for all four units) towards the control room-4. There is a failure in the Skala computer room, water is pouring from the ceiling onto cabinets with equipment. At that time I did not know that water is highly radioactive. There is no one in the room. Yura Badaev, apparently, has already been taken away. Went further. In the room of the dosimetry shield, Krasnozhon, the deputy head of the service of the Republic of Belarus, was already in charge. There was no Gorbachenko. So, he was also taken away or is walking around the block somewhere. The head of the night shift of dosimetrists, Samoylenko, was also in the room. Krasnozhon and Samoylenko swore at each other,” Viktor Smagin recalls.

“First I went into Bryukhanov’s empty office. I saw complete carelessness. The windows are open. I found people already in Fomin's office (Nikolai Fomin - Chief Engineer NUCLEAR POWER STATION). To the question "What happened?" I was again answered: "The rupture of the steam pipeline." But, looking at Fomin, I realized that everything was more serious. Now I understand that it was cowardice coupled with a crime. After all, they already had some real picture, but they didn’t tell us honestly about the danger. Maybe then some of our employees would not have ended up in the hospital, ”writes Berdov.

A new shift of doctors arrives at the Pripyat hospital. However, the most severely injured were sent to the capital's hospitals only in the evening.

“I will say right away that the Pripyat city department of internal affairs did everything possible to exclude radiation damage to people,” recalls Major General Berdov. The whole city was quickly cordoned off. But we have not yet fully orientated ourselves in the situation, since the police did not have their own dosimetric service. And from the Chernobyl station they reported that a steam-and-water release had occurred. This wording was considered the official point of view of the management of the nuclear power plant. I got there at eight o'clock in the morning."

In the "glass" (conference room), Viktor Smagin found overalls, shoe covers, "petals". Smagin realized that since he was asked to change clothes right in the conference room, it means that there was radiation at ABK-2. Through the glass, Smagin saw Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Berdov, who was walking to Viktor Bryukhanov's office.

The treated and dressed victims are being brought to the hospital.

“I ran outside to the bus stop. But the bus didn't come. Soon they filed a "rafiq", they said that they would not be taken to the second checkpoint, as usual, but to the first block. Everything there was already cordoned off by the police. The ensigns did not let through. Then I showed my round-the-clock pass to the leading operational personnel, and they reluctantly let me through. Near ABK-1 I met Bryukhanov's deputies Gundar and Tsarenko, who were heading to the bunker. They told me: “Go, Vitya, to control room-4, change Babichev. He changed Akimov at six in the morning, he probably already grabbed ... Don't forget to change into a "glass bag" ... ", writes Viktor Smagin.

“At the time of the accident, I was passing through Pripyat,” recalls Vladimir Bronnikov, in 1976-1985 he was the deputy chief engineer of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. — The first house on the outskirts of the city. I had a family with me, children - they had not yet managed to move to a new place of my work. I didn't see the explosion. At night, I realized that some kind of event had happened - too many cars were driving past the house, in the morning I saw that the roads were being washed. I understood the scale of what had happened only on the night of April 27, when some of the personnel arrived home from the station in the evening and told what had happened. I did not believe, I thought they were lying. And on the morning of April 27, I took up the duties of the chief engineer of the station. My task was to localize the accident. It took my group about five days to understand the scale of what had happened.”

“I had to change Alexander Akimov at eight in the morning on April 26, 1986. I slept soundly at night, I did not hear explosions. I woke up at seven in the morning and went out on the balcony to smoke, - recalls Viktor Smagin, shift supervisor of block No. 4. - From the fourteenth floor, I can clearly see the nuclear power plant. I looked in that direction and immediately realized that the central hall of my native fourth block was destroyed. Fire and smoke above the block. I realized that it's bullshit.

I rushed to the phone to call the control room, but the connection had already been cut off. To keep information from leaking. I was about to leave. He ordered his wife to close the windows and doors tightly. Don't let the kids out of the house. Don't go out on your own either. Stay at home until I return ... "

The staff of the Pripyat hospital was exhausted. Despite the fact that by morning all the doctors, including surgeons and traumatologists, had joined the reception of the victims, there was not enough strength. “I called the chief medical officer: “Why aren’t patients treated at the station? Why are they brought here "dirty"? After all, there, at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, is there a sanitary inspection room?”, Tatyana Marchulaite writes. This was followed by a half hour break.

A special group of the Civil Defense Headquarters arrives at the nuclear power plant to check the dosimetric situation. The chief of staff himself went to the other end of the region to conduct "responsible exercises."

Complete elimination of the fire.

From the explanatory note of the third guard fireman V. Prishchepa: “Upon arrival at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, the second department put the autopumps on the hydrant and connected the sleeves to the dry pipes. Our car drove up from the engine room. We laid a main line that led to the roof. We saw - there is the main hearth. But it was necessary to establish the whole situation. Lieutenants Pravik and Kibenok went on reconnaissance ... The boiling bitumen of the roof burned boots, splashed on clothes, and ate into the skin. Lieutenant Kibenok was where it was more difficult, where it became unbearable for someone. Insuring the fighters, he fastened the ladders, intercepted one or the other trunk. Then, descending to the ground, he lost consciousness. After a while, having come to his senses, the first thing he asked was: “How is it?” They answered him: "Extinguished."

“The burnt Shashenok remained in my memory. He was the husband of our nurse. The face is so pale. But when consciousness returned to him, he said: “Get away from me. I'm from the reactor room, step back." Surprisingly, he still cared about others in such a state. Volodya died in the morning in intensive care. But we haven't lost anyone else. Everyone was on droppers, everything that was possible was done, ”recalls one of the employees of the hospital in Pripyat.

Vladimir Shashenok, the adjuster, about whom Anatoly Dyatlov wrote, dies in the hospital. So far, 108 people have been hospitalized.

“On the morning of 26, the director of the timber industry calls, - recalled the forester Ivan Nikolaevich. - He names himself and is silent ... After a while he says: “Listen, Ivan Nikolayevich ... There has been a disaster ...” And again he is silent ... I am also silent. And I think to myself: “Is it really war” ?! A minute later, the director finally squeezes out of himself: "There was an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant." Well, I think it's nothing special... However, the director's anxiety was transmitted to me. After some time, the director says more decisively: “Urgently remove all equipment from this area. Just don't tell me why."

“An impressive view presented itself to us from the broken window of the deaerator shelf at the 14th mark in the area of ​​​​the eighth turbine: parts of the reactor and elements of graphite masonry, its internal parts were randomly scattered throughout the surrounding area,” says a member of the emergency commission of the Ministry of Energy, Dr. technical sciences Evgeny Ignatenko. - During the inspection of the nuclear power plant yard, the readings of my dosimeter reached 10 roentgens for no more than 1 minute. Here for the first time I felt the impact of large fields of gamma radiation. It is expressed in some kind of pressure on the eyes and in the feeling of a slight whistle in the head, like a draft. These sensations, the dosimeter readings and what I saw in the yard finally convinced me of the reality of what had happened... In a number of places, the radiation level exceeded a thousand (!) X-rays.”

“There were many doctors among the victims that night of the accident. After all, it was they, who arrived at the station from all over the region, who took out firefighters, physicists, and everyone who was at the station. And their ambulances drove right up to the fourth block ... A few days later we saw these cars. They could not be used because they were heavily infected…,” recalls science journalist Vladimir Gubarev, who arrived at the scene of the accident a few hours after a series of explosions. Impressed by what he saw, he wrote the play "Sarcophagus", which was staged in 56 theaters around the world and was a huge success, especially in Japan. In the UK, the play was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theater Award.

Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR, Major-General of Militia GV Berdov arrives in Pripyat. He took over the leadership in the protection of public order and the organization of the service of the State traffic inspectorate. Additional forces were called in from the area.

Firefighters were able to contain the fire.

Only between 4 and 5 o'clock in the morning the leaders of the nuclear power plant gradually gathered their forces and called officials. Responsible leaders begin to arrive at the scene of the accident.

In the apartment of the deputy chief engineer of the station for science and the curator of the nuclear safety department, Mikhail Lyutov, a telephone rang. The call, however, was interrupted, and Lyutov himself found out about what happened at the station.

It has been established that radiation levels in the area adjacent to the destroyed reactor significantly exceed the permissible levels. Firefighters began to be placed five kilometers from the epicenter and brought into the danger zone in shifts.

An operational group of the Fire Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR arrived in the area of ​​the accident under the leadership of Colonel of the Internal Service V. M. Gurin. He took charge of the next steps.

15 fire departments arrived at the scene of the accident with their special equipment from various districts of the Kyiv region. Everyone was involved in extinguishing the fire and cooling the structures that collapsed after the accident in the reactor room.

Checkpoints were created, the roads leading to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were blocked, and additional squads of the patrol and search service were formed.

Senior paramedic Tatyana Marchulaite recalled: “I was surprised that many of those who entered were in the military. These were the firemen. The face of one was purple, the other, on the contrary, white as a wall, many had burnt faces and hands; some had chills. The sight was very difficult. But I had to work. I asked the arrivals to put their documents and valuables on the windowsill. There was no one to copy all this, as it should be ... A request was received from the therapeutic department that no one should take anything with them, even a watch - everything, it turns out, has already undergone radioactive contamination, as we say - “fonilo”.

An operational group of the Fire Department of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Kyiv Regional Executive Committee arrived at the scene of the accident, headed by Major of the Internal Service V. P. Melnik. He took over the firefighting leadership and called other fire departments to the scene of the accident.

The first shift of those who started the elimination of the fire received high doses of radiation. People began to be sent to the hospital, new forces arrived.

Not everyone was aware of the danger of radioactive radiation. So, an employee of the Kharkov Turbine Plant A.F. Kabanov refused to leave the block, as there was a vibration measurement laboratory in the engine room, which simultaneously measured the vibration of all bearings, and the computer produced good visual printouts. Kabanov was sorry to lose her.

The senior paramedic of the Pripyat hospital Tatyana Marchulaite meets the first victims in the emergency room.

“Petro Palamarchuk, a hefty man, carried and seated Volodya Shashenok, engineer of the commissioning enterprise, into the chair,” writes Anatoly Dyatlov. “He was watching the emergency equipment in the twenty-fourth room, and he was scalded with water and steam. Now Volodya was sitting in an armchair and only slightly moved his eyes, no cry, no groan. Apparently, the pain exceeded all conceivable boundaries and turned off consciousness. Before that, I saw a stretcher in the corridor, suggested where to get them and carry him to the first-aid post. P. Palamarchuk and N. Gorbachenko were taken away.”

The fire on the roof of the reactor compartment was extinguished, and the fire in the room of the main circulation pumps of the fourth power unit was extinguished.

NPP Director Viktor Bryukhanov could not take any concrete action - his condition was like a shock. The work of collecting information from dosimetrists on radiation levels and compiling the corresponding certificate was undertaken by the secretary of the party committee of the nuclear power plant, Sergei Parashin, who arrived at the shelter at about 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Those who watched the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant from afar did not really suspect anything serious. The memories of the night of April 26, 1986 of those who were directly at the station are completely different: “There was a blow. I thought that the turbine blades flew. Then another blow. Looked at the cover. It seemed to me that it should fall. We went to inspect the 4th block, saw destruction and glow in the reactor area. Then I noticed that my feet were slipping on some kind of suspension. I thought: is it not graphite? I also thought that this is the most terrible accident, the possibility of which no one has described.”

Firefighters brought down the fire on the roof of the engine room.

“On the evening of April 25, my son asked me to tell him a story before going to bed. I began to tell and did not notice how I fell asleep with the child. And we lived in Pripyat on the 9th floor, and the station was clearly visible from the kitchen window. The wife was still awake and felt some kind of shock at home, like a slight earthquake. I went to the window in the kitchen and saw above the 4th block, first a black cloud, then a blue glow, then a white cloud that rose and covered the moon.

My wife woke me up. There was an overpass in front of our window. And along it, one after another - with the alarm turned on - fire engines and ambulances raced. But I could not think that something serious had happened. He reassured his wife and went to bed, ”recalls an eyewitness to the events.

NPP director Viktor Bryukhanov arrives at the station.

“Despite the night and poor lighting, you can see enough. The roof and two walls of the workshop were gone. In the premises, through the openings of the missing walls, water flows, flashes of short circuits on electrical equipment, and several fires are visible in places. The gas-cylinder room is destroyed, the cylinders are awry. There can be no talk of any access to the valves, V. Perevozchenko is right. There are several hearths on the roof of the third unit and the chemical workshop, which are still small. Apparently, the fire was caused by large fragments of fuel thrown out of the core by the explosion, ”recalls Anatoly Dyatlov.

Firefighters fought the fire in canvas overalls and helmets. They did not know about the radiation threat - the information that this was not an ordinary fire began to spread only after a few hours. By morning, firefighters began to lose consciousness, 136 employees and rescuers who found themselves at the station that day received a huge dose of radiation, one in four died in the first months after the accident.

The Pripyat hospital receives a call from the ambulance control room. They said that there was a fire at the nuclear power plant, there were burnt people.

“I quickly walked a few more meters along the corridor at the tenth mark, looked out of the window and saw - or rather, did not see, it was not there - the wall of the building. Over the entire height from the seventieth to the twelfth mark, the wall collapsed. What else is not visible in the dark. Further along the corridor, down the stairs and out of the building outside. I slowly walk around the building of the reactors of the fourth, then the third blocks. I look up. There is something to see, but, as they say, my eyes would not look ... at such a spectacle, ”says the book“ Chernobyl. How it was".

The first fire brigade arrived at the scene of the explosion.

“Part of the roof of the hall collapsed. How? I don't know, three hundred or four hundred square meters. The slabs collapsed and damaged oil and feed lines. Blockages. From the twelfth mark, I looked down into the opening, there, at the fifth mark, there were feed pumps. From broken pipes to different sides jets of hot water hit electrical equipment. Steam around. And there are sharp, like a shot, clicks of short circuits in electrical circuits. In the area of ​​the seventh TG, oil leaked from damaged pipes caught fire, operators with fire extinguishers ran there and unwound fire hoses. Flashes of fire are visible on the roof through the openings formed, ”recalls Anatoly Dyatlov, who went out into the engine room immediately after the explosion.

Four seconds later, an explosion shook the entire building. Two seconds later, a second explosion. The reactor lid flew up, turned 90 degrees and fell. The walls and ceiling of the reactor hall collapsed. A quarter of the graphite located there, fragments of red-hot fuel rods, flew out of the reactor. This debris fell on the roof of the engine room and other places, creating about 30 fires.

“At 01:23:40 a press of the button A3 (emergency protection) of the reactor was registered to shut down the reactor at the end of operation. This button is used in both emergency and normal situations. CPS rods in the amount of 187 pieces went into the core and, according to all the canons, had to interrupt the chain reaction, ”recalls Anatoly Dyatlov.

Three seconds after pressing the reactor shutdown button, the control panel begins to receive alarms about an increase in power, an increase in pressure in the primary circuit. The power of the reactor jumped sharply up.

“At 01:23:04, the control system recorded the closing of the shut-off valves supplying steam to the turbine. An experiment on the run-out of the TG has begun, - writes Anatoly Dyatlov. — Up to 01:23:40 no parameter changes are noted on the block. The run is going smoothly. It is quiet at the control room (block control panel), no conversations.

The station personnel block the emergency protection signals of the reactor due to the critically low water level and steam pressure in the separator drums. The report of the International Advisory Group on Nuclear Safety says that in fact this could have happened as early as 00:36.

The eighth pump is connected.

A seventh pump is connected to the six operating pumps to increase the ballast load.

The thermal power of the reactor reached 200 MW. Recall that for the experiment, the reactor had to operate at a power of 700-1000 MW.

Despite this, the operational reactivity margin (essentially, the degree of reactivity of the reactor) continued to decline, due to which the manual control rods were gradually removed.

NPP employees gradually raised the thermal power of the reactor, as a result of which it was possible to stabilize it at 160-200 MW.

“I returned to the control panel at 00:35,” he writes in his book “Chernobyl. How it was” Anatoly Dyatlov, former deputy chief engineer for the operation of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. - I set the time after according to the reactor power recording diagram. From the door I saw bent over the reactor control panel, except for the operator L. Toptunov, the head of the unit shift A. Akimov and trainees V. Proskuryakov and A. Kudryavtsev. I don't remember, maybe someone else. He came and looked at the instruments. Reactor power - 50 ... 70 MW. Akimov said that during the transition from LAR to a regulator with side ionization chambers (AR), there was a power failure of up to 30 MW. Now they are raising the power. It didn't bother me or bother me at all. By no means out of the ordinary phenomenon. He allowed the rise further and moved away from the console.

At this time, there is a transition from the local automatic control system to the general control system. The operator could not keep the reactor power even at 500 MW, and it dropped to 30 MW.

On April 25, 1986, the shutdown of the 4th power unit was scheduled for scheduled repairs. During such shutdowns, equipment tests are usually carried out, for which the reactor power had to be reduced to 700-1000 MW, which is 22-31% of the total reactor power. About a day before the accident, the power of the reactor began to be reduced, and by 13:00 on April 25, it was reduced to about 1600 MW (50% of full power). At 14:00, the reactor's emergency cooling system was blocked, which means that during the following hours the reactor was operated with the cooling system turned off. At 11:10 p.m., the reactor power began to decrease to the planned 700 MW, but then there was a jump, and the power fell to 500 MW.

REFERENCE:

Chernobyl nuclear power plant named after V.I. Lenina is located in northern Ukraine, 11 km from the border with Belarus on the banks of the Pripyat River. The site for the nuclear power plant was chosen in 1965-1966, and the first stage of the station - the first and second power units - were built in 1970-1977.

In May 1975, a commission was established to launch the first power unit. By the end of 1975, due to a significant delay in the timing of work, round-the-clock work was organized at the station. The act of acceptance of the first power unit into operation was signed on December 14, 1977, and on May 24, 1978, the unit was brought to a capacity of 1000 MW.

In 1980, 1981 and 1983, the second, third and fourth power units were launched. It is worth noting that the first accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred in 1982. On September 9, after a scheduled repair, the fuel assembly was destroyed and the technological channel No. 62-64 at the reactor of the first power unit was ruptured. As a result, a significant amount of radioactive substances was released into the reactor space. There is still no consensus among experts on the causes of that accident.

Almost 25 years have passed since the terrible event that shocked the whole world. The echoes of this catastrophe of the century will stir the souls of people for a long time to come, and its consequences will touch people more than once. The catastrophe at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant - why did it happen and what are its consequences for us?

Why did the Chernobyl disaster happen?

Until now, there is no unambiguous opinion about what caused the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Some argue that the reason is defective equipment and gross errors during the construction of nuclear power plants. Others see the cause of the explosion in the failure of the circulating water supply system, which provided cooling for the reactor. Still others are convinced that the experiments carried out at the station on that ominous night on the permissible load, during which there was a gross violation of the rules of operation, were to blame. Still others are sure that if there had been a protective concrete cap over the reactor, the construction of which had been neglected, there would not have been such a spread of radiation that occurred as a result of the explosion.

Most likely, this terrible event occurred due to a combination of these factors - after all, each of them had a place to be. Human irresponsibility, acting "at random" in matters relating to life and death, and deliberate concealment of information about what happened from the side Soviet authorities led to consequences, the results of which will echo for a long time to more than one generation of people around the world.

Chernobyl disaster. Chronicle of events

The explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant happened late at night on April 26, 1986. A fire brigade was called to the scene. Courageous and courageous people, they were shocked by what they saw and immediately guessed what had happened from the off-scale radiation meters. However, there was no time to think - and a team of 30 people rushed to fight the disaster. From protective clothing, they were wearing ordinary helmets and boots - of course, they could in no way protect firefighters from huge doses of radiation. These people have long been dead, they are all in different time died a painful death from a cancer that struck them.

By morning the fire was extinguished. However, pieces of uranium and graphite emitting radiation were scattered throughout the territory of the nuclear power plant. The worst thing is Soviet people did not immediately learn about the disaster that occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. This allowed them to remain calm and prevent panic - this is exactly what the authorities wanted, turning a blind eye to the cost of their ignorance for people. The ignorant population, for two whole days after the explosion, calmly rested in the territory, which had become deadly dangerous, went out into nature, to the river, on a warm spring day, children were outside for a long time. And everyone absorbed huge doses of radiation.

And on April 28, a complete evacuation was announced. 1100 buses in a column took out the population of Chernobyl, Pripyat and other nearby settlements. People abandoned their houses and everything in them - they were allowed to take only identification cards and food for a couple of days with them.

A zone with a radius of 30 km was recognized as an exclusion zone unsuitable for human life. The water, livestock and vegetation in the area were deemed unfit for consumption and dangerous to health.

The temperature in the reactor in the first days reached 5000 degrees - it was impossible to approach it. A radioactive cloud hung over the nuclear power plant, which circled the Earth three times. To nail it to the ground, the reactor was bombed from helicopters with sand and water, but the effect of these actions was meager. There were 77 kg of radiation in the air - as if a hundred atomic bombs were simultaneously dropped on Chernobyl.

A huge ditch was dug near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It was filled with the remains of the reactor, pieces of concrete walls, and the clothes of the workers who liquidated the disaster. Within a month and a half, the reactor was completely sealed with concrete (the so-called sarcophagus) to prevent radiation leakage.

In 2000, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was closed. Until now, work is underway on the Shelter project. However, Ukraine, for which Chernobyl became a sad "legacy" from the USSR, does not have the required money for it.

The tragedy of the century that they wanted to hide

Who knows how long the Soviet government would have covered up the "incident" if it hadn't been for the weather. Strong winds and rains, so inopportunely passed through Europe, carried the radiation around the world. Ukraine, Belarus and the south-western regions of Russia, as well as Finland, Sweden, Germany, and the UK most of all “got it”.

For the first time, unprecedented figures on the radiation level meters were seen by employees of the nuclear power plant in Forsmark (Sweden). Unlike the Soviet government, they rushed to immediately evacuate all people living in the surrounding area before establishing that the problem was not in their reactor, but the USSR was the alleged source of the outgoing threat.

And exactly two days after the Forsmark scientists announced a radioactive alarm, US President Ronald Reagan was holding pictures of the Chernobyl disaster site taken by artificial satellite CIA. What was depicted on them would make even a person with a very stable psyche horrified.

While periodicals around the world trumpeted the danger posed by the Chernobyl disaster, the Soviet press got off with a modest statement that there had been an "accident" at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Chernobyl disaster and its consequences

The consequences of the Chernobyl disaster made themselves felt in the very first months after the explosion. People living in the territories adjacent to the site of the tragedy died from hemorrhages and apoplexy.

The liquidators of the consequences of the accident suffered: out of the total number of liquidators of 600,000, about 100,000 people are no longer alive - they died from malignant tumors and destruction of the hematopoietic system. The existence of other liquidators cannot be called cloudless - they suffer from numerous diseases, including cancer, disorders of the nervous and endocrine systems. The same health problems have many evacuees, the affected population of the adjacent territories.

The consequences of the Chernobyl disaster for children are terrible. Developmental delay, thyroid cancer, mental disorders and a decrease in the body's resistance to all kinds of diseases - that's what awaited children who were exposed to radiation.

However, the most terrible thing is that the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster affected not only people living at that time. Problems with pregnancy, frequent miscarriages, stillborn children, frequent birth of children with genetic abnormalities (Down's syndrome, etc.), weakened immunity, a striking number of children with leukemia, an increase in the number of cancer patients - all these are echoes of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the end of which will come yet not soon. If it comes...

Not only people suffered from the Chernobyl disaster - all life on Earth felt the deadly force of radiation on itself. As a result of the Chernobyl disaster, mutants appeared - the descendants of people and animals born with various deformations. A foal with five legs, a calf with two heads, fish and birds of unnaturally large size, giant mushrooms, newborns with deformities of the head and limbs - photos of the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster are horrific evidence of human negligence.

The lesson presented to humanity by the Chernobyl disaster was not appreciated by people. We are still careless about our own lives, still striving to squeeze the maximum out of the riches bestowed on us by nature, everything we need “here and now”. Who knows, perhaps the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was the beginning, to which humanity is moving slowly but surely...

Film about the Chernobyl disaster
We advise everyone who is interested to watch the full-length documentary film "The Battle for Chernobyl". This video can be watched right here online and for free. Happy viewing!

Look for another video on youtube.com

On the night of April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, a radioactive cloud covered dozens of countries the wind carried it over a vast territory. The approximate number of victims reaches four thousand people. These are not only the liquidators of the disaster, but also those who died from exposure.

More than 30 years have passed since the tragedy, but the events of those days are still terrifying. We have collected nine stories, each of which could be a plot for a movie. Alas, all this actually happened.

Read below

nuclear tan

One of the terrible signs of that time people with "nuclear tan". Those unfortunate enough to catch a large dose of radiation wondered why the skin suddenly turned brown, even under clothes. The body had already been damaged by intense radiation. Not everyone was aware of the danger: on the day of the accident, many sunbathed on the roofs and on the river near the nuclear power plant, and the sun increased the effect of radiation.

From an eyewitness account: “Our neighbor, Metelev, at eleven o’clock climbed onto the roof and lay down there in swimming trunks to sunbathe. Then once he went down to drink, he says the tan sticks perfectly today! And it invigorates very much, as if he missed a hundred grams. In addition, from the roof you can clearly see how the reactor is burning there ... And in the air at that time it was already up to a thousand millirems per hour. And plutonium, and cesium, and strontium. And iodine-131! But we didn't know that at the time! By evening, a neighbor who was sunbathing on the roof began to vomit violently, and he was taken to the medical unit, then further to Kyiv. And still, no one got worried: the man probably overheated. It happens…"

Doctors who received the first irradiated people determined the most affected precisely by the “nuclear tan”.

Invisible Death

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant took everyone by surprise. No one really knew how to respond to a disaster of this magnitude. The authorities not only concealed full information, but they themselves were not able to quickly and adequately assess the situation. There was no system in the country that would monitor real-time information about the background radiation over vast territories.

Therefore, in the first days after the accident, people already in the affected area did not yet know about the danger.

From an eyewitness account: “April 26 in Pripyat was a day like a day. I woke up early: warm sunbeams on the floor, blue sky in the windows. Good at heart! I went out to the balcony to smoke. The street is already full of children, the kids are playing in the sand, the older ones are riding bicycles. By lunchtime, the mood was even more cheerful. And the air began to feel sharper. Metal is not metal in the air ... something sour, like holding an alarm clock battery in your cheek.

From an eyewitness account: “A group of neighbor boys rode bicycles to the bridge, from where the emergency block was clearly visible: they wanted to see what was burning there at the station. All these kids then had severe radiation sickness.”

First short official communication about the state of emergency was reported on April 28. As Mikhail Gorbachev later explained, it was decided not to cancel the festive May Day demonstrations in Kyiv and other cities due to the fact that the country's leadership did not have a “complete picture of what had happened” and was afraid of panic. People with balloons and carnations walked in the radioactive rain. Only on May 14 did the country learn about the true extent of the disaster.

The death of the first firefighters

The firefighters who were the first to respond to the call did not know about the severity of the emergency at the fourth power unit. They had no idea that the smoke rising from the burning reactor was extremely dangerous.

They went to their death without realizing it. The radiation power from the debris from the core was about 1000 roentgens per hour with a lethal dose of 50. The firefighter became ill almost immediately, but they attributed it to smoke and heat, no one thought about radiation. But then they began to lose consciousness.

When the first group of victims was brought to the medical unit of Pripyat, they had a very strong "nuclear tan", swelling and burns, vomiting, and weakness. Almost all of the first liquidators perished. The heroes had to be buried in sealed coffins under concrete slabs - their bodies were so radioactive.

Look inside the reactor

Immediately after the explosion, nuclear power plant workers did not yet understand what exactly had happened. It was necessary to find the place of emergency and assess the damage. Two engineers were sent to the reactor hall. Unaware of the danger, they approached the site of the explosion and saw red and blue fire beating from the mouth of the destroyed reactor. There were no respirators or protective clothing on people, but they would not have helped - the radiation reached 30 thousand roentgens per hour. It burned his eyelids, throat, caught his breath.

A few minutes later they returned to the control room, but they were already tanned, as if they had been roasting on the beach for a month. Both soon died in the hospital. But at first they did not believe their story that the reactor was no more. And only then it became clear that it was useless to cool the reactor - it was necessary to extinguish what was left of it.

Remove graphite in 40 seconds

When the fourth power unit exploded, pieces of nuclear fuel and graphite from the reactor were scattered around. Part fell on the roof of the engine room, on the third power unit. These debris had an outrageous level of radiation. In some places it was possible to work no more than 40 seconds otherwise death. The equipment could not withstand such radiation and failed. And people, replacing each other, were cleaning graphite from the roof with shovels.

From an eyewitness account: “We opened a view of the 4th power unit from above. The spectacle was incredible! Understand, the power unit was floating! It looked like all the air above him was trembling. And there was such a smell ... It smelled like ozone. As if in a medical room after quartzization. It's unexplainable".

Three heroes saved the world

A few days after the explosion, it turned out that the core of the destroyed reactor was still melting and slowly burning through the concrete slab. And under it is a huge reservoir of water. If a stream of molten metal came into contact with it, a gigantic radioactive explosion would occur - tens of tons of nuclear fuel would have to fall into the air. The consequences are hard to imagine, but experts believe that most of Europe would be infected, entire cities would die out.

At all costs it was necessary to get to the shut-off valves and open them. Three divers volunteered: Alexei Ananenko, Valery Bespalov and Boris Baranov. They knew that it would most likely cost them their lives, but they went to the reactor anyway knee-deep in radioactive water and drained the pool. All they asked before they went to their deaths was to take care of their families after their death.

But the heroes managed to survive! They took six dosimeters with them and constantly checked the readings so they managed to bypass the most dangerous areas, no one received a lethal dose.

"Angels of Chernobyl"

One of the most difficult missions at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant went to the pilots. They were supposed to put out the red-hot graphite rods inside the reactor. Helicopters made hundreds of flights over the core and dropped thousands of bags of lead, sand, clay, dolomite and boron. The pilots hovered over the reactor at an altitude of only 200 meters. And from below the heat beat and a cone of radioactive smoke rose.

At the same time, neither the helicopters nor the people inside had proper protection and devices for dropping cargo. They defended themselves as best they could in the cabin they lined the floor with lead, wrapped the seats around them. Many pilots vomited after only two or three sorties, coughed, and the taste of rusty iron was felt in their mouths.

From an eyewitness account: “For many, the skin acquired an unhealthy tan these were the first signs of radiation sickness. I can say one thing about myself: I didn’t feel anything, only very tired. I wanted to sleep all the time."

From an eyewitness account: “I emphasize all the time that this was not an order. But it is difficult to call it a voluntary decision. In Chernigov we were lined up and told that there had been an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, that the wind was blowing towards Kyiv, and there were old people and children. And offered to those who do not want to participate in rescue operation, break down. For combat officers, this is a forbidden technique. Of course, no one came out."

The pilots who extinguished the reactor were nicknamed "the angels of Chernobyl." They managed to suppress the main source of radiation contamination. After the elimination of the fire in the reactor, it was already possible to start work on the ground.

Cemetery of luminous technology

A lot of equipment was brought to Chernobyl it very quickly gained radiation and failed. It was impossible to work like this. Abandoned cars were collected in special septic tanks. Some samples "shone" at a transcendent level for example, a German radio-controlled crane, which was used to collect "blotter filters" from the reactor. And the same helicopters that hovered over the emergency reactor, absorbing lethal doses of radiation. As well as irradiated buses, trucks, fire engines, ambulances, armored personnel carriers, excavators they were left to rust in the cemeteries of dead equipment.

It is not known what they were going to do with it later, but looters got to the cars. They took away first the engines, and then the fittings and cases. Spare parts were then sold at car markets. A lot went to scrap. These landfills were striking in their size, but over time, almost all the luminous equipment "evaporated" deadly radiation did not stop anyone.

red forest

One of the most mysterious and scary places in the zone Red Forest. Once it was an ordinary pine tree, it separated the nuclear power plant and the city of Pripyat. Tourists walked along it, local residents picked mushrooms and berries. On the night of the accident, this forest was the first to receive a radioactive blow it was covered by a cloud from the destroyed reactor. The wind blew towards Pripyat, and if not for this living barrier, the city would have received a terrible dose of radiation.

Dozens of hectares of forest have absorbed radioactive dust like a sponge: pines have a denser crown than deciduous trees, and they worked like a filter. The level of radiation was simply monstrous 500010000 rad. From such a deadly radiation, the needles and branches acquired a rusty-red hue. This is how the forest got its name. There were rumors that at night the radioactive trees of the Red Forest glowed, but there is no reliable information on this.

From an eyewitness account: “I had Adidas sneakers, made in Tver. I played football with them. So, in these slippers, I walked through the "red forest" to the industrial zone of the station in order to shorten the path. After Chernobyl, he drove the ball in them for another year, and then an academician friend asked me to measure the sneakers for radiation. And he didn’t return them ... They were concreted. ”

It was decided to destroy the Red Forest because it was too dangerous. After all, dead dry trees could flare up at any moment and the radiation would again be in the air. The trees were cut down and buried in the ground. Later, new pine trees were planted at this place, but not all of them took root - the level of radiation here is still too high.

Staying in this area is prohibited dangerous to life.

Chernobyl: 9 creepy stories from the radioactive zone

Saturday, 26 Apr. 2014

The “explosion” of the fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was not, in fact, a “reactor explosion”, but an explosion of a portable nuclear charge placed under the reactor. The Chernobyl disaster is a planned sabotage aimed at the systematic destruction of the USSR, a superpower that stood in the way of the United States in enslaving the whole world ... They don’t talk about the main instigators of an environmental accident! Who organized the “tests at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant” on April 26, 1986?!

How many times have they told the world ... but, alas, it is incorrigible.

(Based on the fable of I.A. Krylov).

Unfortunately, today there is no exact data (not to mention reliable information) regarding the Chernobyl "catastrophe" in the public domain, so we have no choice but to simply deal with the refutation of the existing fraudulent data.

The Chernobyl nuclear "catastrophe" (also called "misfortune" [in English]) was actually planned with two main goals, although the second goal itself, in turn, additionally added to the first:

1) This was one of several other death blows (along with the provocation of the Soviet leadership to invade Afghanistan, the Korean Flight 007, the so-called "Perestroika", the well-organized sharp drop in oil prices, the "anti-vodka campaign", and several other blows ) which was inflicted on the weakening Soviet Union with the aim of ensure its complete collapse. Because "someone" simply hated the Soviet Union.

2) It was a very competent provocation, designed discredit peaceful nuclear energy in general, in the eyes of a gullible layman, however, as well as in the eyes of gullible politicians. "Someone" simply hated nuclear power plants and wanted them to die out like dinosaurs. In addition, the sharp decline in civilian nuclear energy that followed the Chernobyl events added to the colossal economic losses already suffered by the Soviet Union as a result of the sharp drop in oil prices, and thus added, in turn, to the first reason, described above.

Although the Chernobyl "catastrophe" was planned mainly against the former Soviet Union, she dealt an almost fatal blow to France, which before this event had spent huge resources on its own nuclear research and to develop its own peaceful nuclear power industry. As a result of this "catastrophe", France lost almost all of its former clients from among the "civilized" countries.

If any country is still eager to buy French nuclear reactors today, it will most likely be a so-called "rogue state" - like North Korea or Iran - that just wants to use such a reactor to stockpile weapons-grade plutonium for its atomic bomb.

Most of the so-called "civilized" countries have completely curtailed any long-term plans to develop their own nuclear programs and have mostly dismantled all nuclear power plants that existed before.

But the people stubbornly do not want to understand that it was a deliberate sabotage that took place in Chernobyl, and not at all an accidental “industrial incident”.

To understand what happened in Chernobyl, it is not at all necessary to be a "specialist in reactors." But you need to know absolutely for sure that they do not explode either in an ordinary explosion, much less a nuclear one. So in order to understand what happened in Chernobyl, one does not need to know the design of a nuclear reactor. It is enough just to be a free-thinking person who is friends with elementary logic and does not pay the slightest attention to what they write in the newspapers and say in a zombie box.

And on the other hand, you can be a specialist in reactors three times, and four more times in nuclear weapons, and even be a direct, and even honored participant in the liquidation of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but still not understand anything ... Due to being crushed by slave complexes and unwillingness to turn the toggle switch to turn on their brains to the “On” position

• Details and investigation in the article by Dmitry Khalezov "Comparison of the so-called "Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster" in 1986 with the thermonuclear disaster in 2001 in Manhattan".

• If you have not yet read Dmitry Khalezov about the demolition of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center using underground thermonuclear explosions, then first read this article of his, and only then return to the article about Chernobyl, because otherwise, much of the article below may be incomprehensible to you! This is a very serious warning and please take it seriously! We kindly request - DO NOT READ this article until you have read the previous one!

Read and draw conclusions whether in this scenario there could have been an “accidental industrial accident” or the nuclear explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was a planned action, about which some people knew in advance.

And then think for yourself - do nuclear reactors accidentally explode with nuclear explosions(if specialized atomic bombs and then produce a nuclear explosion with great difficulty) or not. And could anyone know IN ADVANCE that nuclear reactors can produce such nuclear explosions.

Whatever it is, whether you like it or not, there is no "radiation" in Chernobyl, and most importantly, there never was. Although this is absolutely not the case in the case of the nuclear demolition of the Twin Towers in Manhattan - since there was an abundance of radiation there. What can you learn from the relevant articles about the nuclear demolition of the World Trade Center in New York.

Chernobyl is the biggest bluff of the 21st century

At 00:37 on April 26, a powerful explosion occurred at the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Was released into the atmosphere a large number of radioactive substances.

Panic, which was greatly increased by the censorship of the USSR protecting access to information, swept the world. "Chernobyl catacombs", "Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Chernobyl", "Death from Chernobyl" - these were the titles of articles in the Western press. “In Chernobyl, the bodies of thousands of people are buried in ditches,” important daily and weekly publications informed. The atmosphere of fear that then filled everything, and today paralyzes public opinion.

In fact, the explosion of a nuclear reactor in Chernobyl did not become one of the biggest tragedies of the 21st century. Due to the explosion thousands of people did not die, huge tracts of land were not seriously infected for hundreds of years. The doses of radiation to which the inhabitants of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus were exposed had practically no effect on health.

People did not get sick with leukemia more often, the number of children born with genetic abnormalities, did not increase.

Such conclusions can be drawn on the basis of the latest report of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Nuclear Radiation (UNSCEAR). This report was prepared by 142 top experts from 21 countries.

After 15 years, we see that the Chernobyl accident was splendidly used primarily by environmental organizations and opponents of nuclear energy. Its development "thanks" to Chernobyl was slowed down for decades.

Death from fear, or how many people actually suffered as a result of the Chernobyl explosion

Only 134 people - nuclear power plant workers and members of rescue teams - were exposed to really high doses. ionizing radiation, causing them to develop acute illness, according to the authors of the UNSCEAR report.

28 of them died as a result of exposure, and two from burns. These are all deaths!

About 381 thousand people who were involved in the aftermath of the accident were exposed to radiation slightly exceeding 100 mSv (minisieverts). A dose of 1000 mSv is considered hazardous to health. Examinations of those people who participated in the aftermath of the accident show that they are even healthier than those who were not exposed to radiation, says Zbigniew Jaworowski from the Central Laboratory of Radiological Protection, who has represented Poland in UNSCEAR since 1973. He is one of the co-authors of the report.

“Fourteen years after the accident at Chernobyl, there are no scientific evidence that the number of cancer cases has increased, mortality has increased, or other diseases have appeared that may be associated with radiation,” we read in the report.

But at the same time, a significant increase in cases of psychomatic diseases, diseases of the respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract and nervous system. Their cause is not radiation, but fear. People are afraid that they have received a dose of radiation or that they live on contaminated land and are about to get cancer. Scientists have never published the nonsense that appears in the media, says Prof. Leonid Andreevich Ilyin of the Russian Health Ministry's Institute of Biophysics. He participated in the aftermath of the disaster and represents UNSCEAR in Russia. “The media exaggerated the extent of the tragedy, spreading the opinions of various “specialists”. “The worst consequences are psychological in nature. They were caused by fear and eviction from territories that were recognized, often very hastily, as dangerous, ”says Ilyin.

Chernobyl or creeping paranoia

Similar conclusions have been made before. In March 1996, The Economist published an article titled "Chernobyl, Cancer, and Creeping Paranoia." It indicated that the direct effect of radiation on the body was negligible. “The consequences of fear and ignorance are much worse. People did not know and still do not know what the real danger and threat is. This is the biggest health problem,” wrote The Economist.

Immediately after Chernobyl, thousands of pregnant Ukrainians and Belarusians decided on their own or were persuaded by doctors to have an abortion. In 1986-87. in these two republics, many abortions were carried out, the number of which amounted to 1/3 of all children born in this period in Eastern Europe. In some regions, the number of miscarriages increased by 25%. Why? Women were afraid to give birth to mutants. Dr. Herwig Paretzke claims that there is no increase in the birth of children with severe defects in Ukraine. UNSCEAR experts argue that the growth of genetic diseases was impossible, because after the very high dose of radiation that people received in Hiroshima and Nagasaki (which is hundreds of times higher than in Chernobyl, and received in a fraction of a second), the offspring of the Japanese who survived nuclear explosions, no genetic abnormalities were noted.

The only consequence of the catastrophe may be 1,800 cases of children with thyroid cancer in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. But these data raise some doubts. Thyroid cancer, which is caused by radiation, develops in a latent form for 6 to 9 years. And the increase in the number of cancers is observed already a year after the disaster. No relationship has been established between the various doses of radiation to which children were exposed and cases of thyroid cancer. UNSCEAR experts say there may be other reasons for the increase in cancer. They do not give clinical signs until the very last stage. In Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, such studies were not conducted before the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, so medical experts discovered what already existed, regardless of the disaster.
Similarly, in Poland, in the light of recent knowledge, the threat was much less than we expected ...

Safe contaminated zone, or How much land was really contaminated as a result of the Chernobyl explosion

The heavily contaminated zone around the nuclear power plant has an area of ​​only about half a square kilometer. This follows from the maps that were presented in the UNSCEAR report. Most of the area around the station is safe for human health. Why were people evicted from the city of Pripyat? Why is it still closed today? Large-scale migration was accomplished very quickly. Within 11 days (from April 27 to May 7, 1986), 116 thousand people had to change their place of residence. “When making the decision to evict, they did not take into account the opinion of Russian scientists, who suggested that the majority of the population around the station be left alone,” says Dr. Michal Waligorski, head of the Department of Physical Medicine at the Oncology Center in Krakow. “The settlers did not die from lethal doses of radiation, but because of severe stress. We observed similar reactions to stress in Poland during the floods in 1997…”

It is possible to live in the city of Pripyat and in most of the closed 30-kilometer zone. The results of measurements carried out by international experts clearly show that the level of radiation in this area is safe for people. Average level in the contaminated area is only 8 mSv per year. in places of the strongest infection, it ranges from 30 to 80 mSv. In 1999, each Pole received an average dose of 3.3 mSv.

How the Chernobyl lie appeared

When the Ukrainian authorities solemnly closed the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in late 2000, the media around the world spread the apocalyptic picture of the catastrophe. In the reports of the Polish Press Agency one could read: “In Ukraine, the number of deaths caused by a nuclear explosion has exceeded 4,000. 3.5 million people are sick due to exposure to radiation ... ”And today there is no data on the number of deaths. The number varies from 15 to 30 thousand.

In May, the American press reported that 80 people died immediately in the explosion, and 2,000 died on the way to the hospital. Allegedly, they were buried not in a cemetery, but in the village of Pirogovo, where a warehouse of radioactive waste is located. The NewYork Post came out with an editorial titled "Mass Grave - Bodies of 15,000 People Bulldozed into Ditches in Kyiv." Such absurd stories appeared not only at a time when the Soviet authorities prevented the receipt of objective information, they appear even now. One of the most authoritative Norwegian magazines "Aften Posten" in 1990 published a long article called "Chernobyl - an eternal nightmare." After 5 years, Reuters reported on October 13, 1995 about 800,000 children who suffered as a result of the Chernobyl accident.

In October 2000, French television showed the film "Chernobyl: an autopsy of the cloud." French scientists protested against this program. The letter to the chairman of television was signed by the chairmen of the largest scientific communities and organizations related to biophysics, nuclear medicine and nuclear physics. Two years earlier, a similar protest was written on Polish television by Polish scientists. It was associated with the screening of the British film "Igor - the child of Chernobyl". The film shows a child with deformed limbs and claims that the Chernobyl accident is the cause. According to the authors of the film, such anomalies develop in millions of children in the contaminated areas.

“All this information is a lie,” scientists say. “The seeds of fear of the consequences of the accident fell on fertile ground. It can be said that people expected bad news. This was primarily due to the fear of atomic bomb”, explains Professor Kazimierz Obuchowski from the Institute of Psychology of the Academy of Bydgoszcz. “The catastrophe happened when there was still a conflict between the nuclear powers, and various organizations were shouting about what the consequences would be. nuclear war. People were waiting for information that supposedly confirmed their concerns and fears. Only such information they considered plausible.

Chernobyl or profitable myth

Why is the Chernobyl myth so effectively supported?

Firstly, it is about money, secondly, about money, and thirdly, about money. Ukraine and Belarus inherited a heavy burden from the USSR. It was recognized that 600 thousand people (who were recognized as victims of the accident) should receive compensation payments in the amount (in terms of) a few dollars in connection with the loss of health caused by radiation. Not a single politician will dare to withdraw these payments and benefits. By 2015, impoverished Belarus will spend only on Chernobyl payments - $86 billion.

Here we must also add the costs of ensuring the safety of the reactor itself. The construction of the supersarcophagus will cost $300 million. To date, the US is too lazy and Western Europe transferred $800 million to eliminate the consequences of the explosion, and the EBRD plans to spend 2.3 billion euros for this purpose. According to Kyiv, to cope with the consequences of the accident, over the next 20 years, $ 5 billion will be needed. Opinions are increasingly appearing in Ukraine that the intensity of the demands of Ukrainian politicians applying for financial assistance is explained by the desire to patch up holes in their own budget. Some of that money goes into pockets.

Therefore, Chernobyl is still presented in the blackest colors. In 1995, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine issued a press release stating that 125,000 people had died as a result of the Chernobyl disaster in 9 years. This message caused a strong protest from the World Health Organization. Valery Pishchikov, who deals with the consequences of the disaster in the Ukrainian ministry, recently publicly stated that “the most serious diseases that Ukrainians suffer from as a result of the nuclear power plant accident are cancer and various diseases of the blood, respiratory tract, food and nervous system.” In turn, Vladislav Ostapenko, director of the Belarusian Republican Institute of Radiation Medicine, told Reuters that due to the Chernobyl explosion, his country is facing a demographic catastrophe, because for several years the death rate exceeds the birth rate. Every year, 2.5 thousand children are born with genetic defects. Ostapenko, however, does not mention that almost all countries of the former USSR, including the Asian part, are experiencing a demographic decline. In addition, if we take into account the number of residents of Belarus, then there should be 5 times more severe genetic defects in newborns. But they have nothing to do with radiation, especially Chernobyl. In each population, there are about 6% of such defects.

Chernobyl is a big hoax by international environmental organizations

The Chernobyl disaster from the very beginning was the main weapon of environmental organizations in the fight against nuclear energy. The accident and its supposedly terrible consequences should be a warning to all those who were going to build nuclear power plants. The campaign turned out to be very successful. The German Parliament, in which the Greens and Social Democrats have a majority, has decided to eliminate all nuclear power plants. In France, where there was no radiation phobia before, environmentalists are also forcing a similar decision. At the same time, the environmentalists who are so fiercely fighting against nuclear energy are accused by the nuclear lobby of receiving money from oil and gas concerns interested in eliminating existing nuclear power plants and suspending the construction of new ones. Environmental organization Greenpeace has more money than the budgets of some African countries. Where does this money come from?

Professor Zemovid Sujkowski, director of the Institute for Nuclear Problems in Warsaw, says: “Greenpeace is one of the most active organizations fighting against nuclear power. This organization is known for carrying out a number of positive actions for the sake of environmental protection. But with regard to nuclear power plants, she is deeply mistaken. Maybe these people are being manipulated... People who call themselves ecologists cannot but hear rational arguments. Nuclear energy is the least dangerous for the environment, in contrast to energy based on combustion. Fear of radiation arises primarily from ignorance. Radiation is associated with something mysterious and overly dangerous.”

Talking about the catastrophe in Ukraine, environmental organizations reluctantly recalled a similar accident at the Three Mile Island power plant in Pennsylvania in 1979. Thanks to an appropriate security system, radioactive substances did not enter the atmosphere, no residents were injured, and several workers received doses of radiation that did not pose a threat to life. As it turned out, the problem is not in the radioactive fuel, but in an adequate security system.

The data that scientists conduct do not support the thesis that nuclear power plants are a mortal danger to people and surrounding nature. During the combustion of a million tons of coal (without filters), 20,000 tons of dust, 25,000 tons of sulfur oxide, 6,000 tons of nitrogen oxides, and 2,000 tons of carbon monoxide are released into the atmosphere. It's easy to imagine the health implications of this way of getting energy. For comparison, a nuclear power plant with a capacity of 1,000 MW produces only 30 tons of highly radioactive waste during the year. “If all electricity was produced in Britain at nuclear power plants, then the radioactive waste would fit on a football field,” says Professor Tursky from the Center for Theoretical Physics and the School exact sciences in Warsaw. In his opinion, the problem with waste is another myth that is used to convince that nuclear energy is bad.

Chernobyl was blown up to destroy the USSR

The tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was deliberately provoked with the aim of the collapse of the USSR and the separation of Ukraine from Russia.

These are the results of an independent physical and technical investigation conducted by nuclear physicist Nikolai Kravchuk (graduated from the Department of Theory atomic nucleus Faculty of Physics, Moscow State University M.V. Lomonosov).

The results of the study are presented by him in the work "The Mystery of the Chernobyl Disaster", published in 2011 in Moscow, where it received a certain response. Even before the publication of the book, after the first leaks in the Ukrainian press, Kravchuk was fired immediately at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Kravchuk's conclusions were supported in the review of the book by the professor, Doctor of Technical Sciences. I.A. Kravets, and Dr. Sci. V.A. Vyshinsky. However, the results of the scientist's work did not reach the general Ukrainian public.

Kravchuk turned to representatives of the Kyiv Russian Club for support. The Kyiv Russian Club considers it necessary to bring its results to the public of Ukraine.

The scientist claims that the explosion of the reactor was pre-planned and carried out under the leadership of the Gorbachev Central Committee of the CPSU, and the blame was carefully dumped on the station staff, who turned out to be a "scapegoat". Then the nuclear workers were forced to justify themselves in the conditions of mutual responsibility and pressure from the "perestroika". Which was indirectly recognized before the world community by the Gorbachev leadership, to which all the threads lead.

“In August 1986, the official version of the unfolding of events at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was presented at the IAEA session, and here is its main conclusion: “the root cause of the accident is a very unlikely combination of violations of the order and operation mode, committed by the personnel of the power unit,” notes Nikolai Kravchuk. That is, the plant personnel simply could not have blown up Chernobyl without pre-planned external intervention.

Neither the Ministry of Energy of the USSR, nor the Ministry of Atomic Energy of Russia, nor the State Atomic Energy Agency of Ukraine, guided by corporate solidarity in the extremely closed nuclear industry, were interested in an objective investigation, and did everything to prevent it from taking place, in particular, they manipulated the operational logs of the plant. As a result, so far it has not been possible to adopt a substantiated official version.

From April 1 to April 23, 1986, “the state of the reactor core has changed significantly. Such changes did not happen by accident, but as a result of well-planned, pre-implemented actions,” writes Kravchuk. The fourth power unit contained the maximum amount of radioactive materials at 1,500 Mki. By the time of testing, the reactor was in an extremely unstable state with power drops. In addition, some cells of the reactor contained more highly enriched fuel from nuclear submarines (plutonium-239), which led to a sharp increase in power and temperature in the core. At the same time, the supply of graphite rods that muffle the reactor was exhausted. Qualified specialists of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (A. Chernyshev) were not allowed to work on the day of the tests, and those who were then at the station “asked to convince the head of the tests A. Dyatlov to IMMEDIATELY stop the tests, stop the reactor.” Alas, in vain, since he received exactly the opposite instructions.

In addition, most of the reactor's emergency protection facilities were disabled. “The experiment was carried out with exactly the turbogenerator (TG-8) on which the bearing was broken, and not with a serviceable TG-7.” Vibration tests on enhanced vibration were carried out simultaneously with idle operation of the turbine with a decrease in frequency and an increase in the amplitude and power of vibrations. After a steam explosion that occurred due to a malfunction of technical systems (bearings) that could not withstand the overload from resonance during the test, “the reaction of turning water and steam into an explosive hydrogen-oxygen mixture (that is, the second stage of the explosive process) occurred,” the scientist claims.

After a hydrogen volumetric explosion in the closed space of the reactor, nuclear fuel from “two or more polycells” was compacted to the walls, for some reason it ended up in excess in the reactor, and a local critical mass was reached, which led to a “quasi-nuclear” explosion. And only he could move the “top cover” of the “pan” weighing more than 2000 tons, located above the active zone, by 90 degrees”, “a plasma cloud with a temperature of 40 thousand degrees formed inside the block”, which was noted by external eyewitnesses of the accident. The presence of highly enriched uranium 238U hidden by personnel “manifested itself in the presence of an excess of californium in the products of the accident” on the first day, says Nikolai Kravchuk, “it was he who gave 17% of gamma activity, turning again into plutonium-239 (with a half-life of a little more than 2 days - which is essential for the next)! It is worth noting the seismic impact of an explosion of such force, of such magnitude, which shook the building of a block weighing tens of thousands of tons - it certainly could induce a local earthquake, ”which was registered. However, contrary to this clear evidence, the fact nuclear explosion, as well as its symptoms, tried not to recognize.

By itself, this explosion did not immediately lead to widespread radioactive contamination. The sharp increase in radiation over the next day was due to a gradual increase in the reaction of plutonium and a series of explosions, greatly enhanced by improper extinguishing with water and sand, in the expectation that the contents of the reactor were intact.

“If there was an immediate understanding of the essence of what happened, then it was clear what to do - no backfilling, except perhaps throwing bags of boric acid!” “It was then, from April 27, that the radiation pollution of the surrounding area increased dramatically - dozens of times, so that what happened on the evening of April 26 was inevitable, and no boric acid would have helped at that moment ... And if it were clear right away, it would become obvious that the highest priority was: to focus on the immediate evacuation of the population from the 50-kilometer zone. However, this was not done either.

Noteworthy is the fate of one of the direct culprits of the disaster, Anatoly Dyatlov, who gave criminal orders and was also aware of other tests on the block, which, according to the plan of the leaders behind him, were guaranteed to “finish off” Chernobyl, even if this had not been done at the previous stage (this, alas, succeeded). What, according to Kravchuk, “allows us to understand both his actions and behavior after the accident - as if he had a guarantee against too heavy punishment?” 4 years later, in October 1990, after official letters signed by academician Sakharov, Elena Bonner, and other prominent liberal gravediggers of the USSR, he was released early due to illness. He was treated at the burn center in Munich. He died in 1995 from a heart attack. And Dyatlov was given commands by Georgy Kopchinsky, then the head of the nuclear energy sector of the CPSU Central Committee in the Department of Heavy Industry and Energy of the CPSU Central Committee, who previously worked at the Chernobyl NPP, the former head of the Department of Nuclear Energy and Industry of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, then the former deputy chairman of the State Committee of Ukraine for Nuclear and radiation safety, and finally, in 2000 - the general director of the State Atomic Energy Agency of Ukraine - and now giving advice in the field of nuclear safety!

Perhaps he is one of the initiators of the persecution and silence of Nikolai Kravchuk. Both Dyatlov and Kopchinsky published their own descriptions of the Chernobyl disaster, which do not contain any clear versions of its causes.

Nonsense as a way of disinformation

In fact, one of the first official publications of the version of "Sabotage" was the publication in the newspaper "Trud" No. 74 in 1995. In it, the author tried to substantiate it by the fact that by that time incomprehensible "yellow spots" appeared in the "Shelter" object, which, in his interpretation, were the remains of TNT or plastic explosives. This hypothesis immediately aroused a very skeptical attitude on the part of atomic scientists (the author of this "sensation" in the Trud newspaper is neither a scientist nor an atomic scientist). For they were well aware that TNT has a pale yellow color, and new spots in the "Shelter" object in the beams of lanterns shimmered with bright yellow hues.

However, their formation on the surface of "nuclear lava" was a new and unexpected phenomenon. Therefore, the researchers urgently took samples and conducted their chemical and radiochemical analyzes. It turned out that the "yellow spots" are sediments of water-soluble uranium salts, with which the miners of uranium mines are well acquainted, and, as expected, they have nothing to do with TNT. It's just that water, during long contact with uranium itself, partially converts it into water-soluble forms and transfers it through the smallest cracks to other places where they are deposited in the form of bright yellow spots. This was the clue to their origin.

But what then can explain experimental results E. Sobotovich and S. Chebanenko (DAN USSR, vol. 315, No. 4), who reported on the presence in the Chernobyl region of a large number of samples of a finely dispersed form of highly enriched uranium? Isn't that proof? The authors themselves then expressed themselves very carefully, as befits real scientists, that "the source of income in environment this finely dispersed form of uranium: not yet established."

Indeed, this source was not scientifically reliably established right away. And this gave rise to all sorts of speculations and, in particular, about the alleged secret loading into the reactor core of special fuel elements, secretly and specially made from highly enriched weapons-grade uranium for the explosion of the reactor of the 4th unit.

About the Chernobyl disaster

About Henry Ford and his publications, about the forces behind the disaster

5N32 (32D6) - over-the-horizon radar station (ZGRLS) "Duga"

Another hypothesis is that not far from Chernobyl there was a Soviet over-the-horizon radar station "Duga", designed for early detection of launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Details.

The station was built a year before, and in April 1986 it was undergoing state tests. According to some reports, 7 billion Soviet rubles were invested in its development and construction, which is twice as expensive as the Chernobyl nuclear power plant itself. Near the radar, built in the vicinity of the city of Chernobyl, the town of Chernobyl-2 was created, in which the military and their families lived. The authors of this hypothesis believe that the target of the tectonic weapon was not a nuclear power plant, but a radar station, but by some chance the radar station was not damaged by the shock, but it was the reactor that suffered.

However, the authors of this hypothesis imply the excessive nobility of our enemies. In fact, it was the station that became the target, and the push was made at the moment preventive work by no means accidental. The Duga, on the other hand, became an additional, bonus target - it was clear to the authors of the sabotage that the personnel would be forced to leave the radar station, which would be in the infection zone.

The shock caught the reactor at the most critical moment of its operation. The operators, in order to prevent an unscheduled shutdown, turned off the emergency protection. At the moment of the shock, the emergency system nevertheless worked, but the emergency protection rods jammed and they did not have time to shut down the reactor.

Of course, one can write off the version of the “specially organized sabotage” at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant as a “passion for conspiracy theories,” but on March 25, 2012, at a meeting in the State Duma, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Natural Resources and Nature Management and Ecology I.I. Nikitchuk said : “As a person who has worked in the nuclear industry for almost 30 years, I am inclined to consider the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant as a diversion”.

Speech by the First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee

on natural resources, environmental management and ecology

People left to boil in a cauldron of panic rumors

S.P. Yarmonenko - professor, doctor of biological sciences, laureate of the State Prize of the USSR, works at the Russian Cancer Research Center. N.N.Blokhina RAMS, editor and publisher of the scientific journal "Medical Radiology and Radiation Safety" writes:

"Now about the genetic consequences. The risk of their occurrence under the conditions of Chernobyl radiation is extremely unlikely. In fact, none of the accidents, including radiation incidents at Southern Urals and the Japanese bombings, genetic effects in generations were not registered, although the doses there were higher by an order of magnitude or more. The history of radiation-genetic risk assessments dates back to the 1950s. The first data at that time were obtained on Drosophila and seemed terrifying - the "mutation fraction" was 100%. From this it followed that the frequency of genetic diseases in children should double if the parents were exposed to radiation at a doubling dose, which at that time was accepted for a person as 0.4 Gy. In further experiments, already on mice, these data were not confirmed. The genetic risk due to exposure has firmly moved to a place much less significant than the carcinogenic risk. In practice, it is not registered at all in humans even at significantly higher doses.

And about one more absolutely far-fetched side of the Chernobyl myths. All print and electronic media are full of information about the increase in the number of various somatic diseases - diseases of the cardiovascular system, gastrointestinal tract, psychogenic disorders, as well as an increase in general and infant mortality, a decrease in the birth rate, etc., etc. And all this is associated with radiation. In fact, according to 100 years of scientific and practical experience, it is known that radiation does not cause such health disorders, especially at low doses. Objective statistical analysis did not reveal either an increase in mortality or a decrease in the birth rate in any category of persons exposed to radiation, compared with the same indicators in non-irradiated persons.

The carriers of the "nightmare mood" are not only journalists, but also some "specialists" who are not burdened with sufficient knowledge in the field of quantitative radiobiology and radiation medicine. Here are some good examples of this. Everyone remembers an eight-legged foal from the long-suffering Ukrainian village of Narodichi, who did not leave the TV screens for many years, the reason for the doubling of the legs of which was attributed to the effects of the Chernobyl explosion. Meanwhile, 2 days after the accident in a neighboring village, a foal with six legs was born, the extra pair of which, of course, did not grow during these 2 days. In the autumn of 1991, I happened to meet the progressive writer and publicist Ales Adamovich. I deeply respected his civic position on many issues, but I wanted to find out the reasons for Alexander Mikhailovich's intransigence towards those professional scientists who tried to unbiasedly assess the radiological consequences of Chernobyl. Adamovich spoke seriously about Belarusians falling like oaks, about their rectum falling out - and all this from Chernobyl radiation. I gave him my textbook on radiobiology, but I could not convince him.

And another example. Magazine "Knowledge is power" No. 8 for 1988. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine D.M. Grodzinsky. "Radiation damages DNA. But in the Chernobyl tragedy, just other processes come into the arena, oddly enough, not related to the formation of tumors or the manifestation of genetic abnormalities in the offspring. Surprisingly, some common diseases develop such as pneumonia, heart attacks, nervous diseases - the most probable consequences of such accidents. Further, even more stunning data is given: "Herds of chickens formed. For some reason, roosters began to form new families, their aggressiveness increased. Chickens and roosters stopped being afraid of foxes. The same story can happen with people." Comments are superfluous.

The allegations of increased mortality among the liquidators and the population of Belarus and Russia are groundless. These figures do not exceed the average of the unexposed population of the same age in the vast majority of regions in both countries. The irresponsibility of those who disclose these data comes to the point that they put such ridiculous information into the mouths of authoritative personalities, including members of the government. For example, the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations S.K. Shoigu bitterly told the cemetery about the death of 16,000 liquidators. But without statistical comparative analysis it doesn't say anything. As an example, we can cite the results of a qualified analysis of the mortality of 105 liquidators who lived in the Kaluga region for 10 years after the accident, conducted by a prominent pathologist E.F. Lushnikov: “The mortality rate among the liquidators for 8 years turned out to be lower than that among men of the region of all ages, and for 7 years - men of working age. associated with alcohol use and socio-economic circumstances". According to special registers that keep records of liquidators throughout Russia, there has also been no increase in their mortality in any region.

The harmful consequences of the spread of panic myths are not limited to their detrimental effect on the health of the population living in regions contaminated with radionuclides. Because of the fear of receiving additional radiation exposure, they began to limit the use of radiation for diagnostic purposes. Meanwhile, early diagnosis is a top priority in modern medicine. Here's an example for you. An outstanding neurosurgeon Academician A.N. Konovalov, one of the ten largest surgeons in the world. He superbly operates on the brain, including with its tumors. One of his demonstrative operations was attended by the largest neurosurgeons in the world, who admired his brilliant operating technique. But then one of the guests said: "What we see deserves the highest praise in terms of professionalism, but for us such huge tumors are a rarity due to the development of methods for diagnosing them at an early stage." Even more important is the early diagnosis of tuberculosis and cancer of the internal organs. And the fact that it is now possible to implement it, in particular in the zone of Chernobyl fallout (due to saturation with X-ray diagnostic equipment), is a blessing, since one can count on the detection of the early stages of these diseases.

The overwhelming majority of the population of 5 million living in the territories contaminated with radionuclides, as well as hundreds of thousands of liquidators, should not be afraid of the adverse effects on their health of accidental exposure. Of course, one cannot ignore the upheavals of the last 15 years after the accident: from false and belated information to senseless mass resettlement, distrust of the government, administrative bodies and even the healthcare system. Therefore, it's time to stop branding people "victims of Chernobyl radiation", because in this case the next generation born in 1986-1987 will be considered the same victims and demand benefits that the state must pay for another 50-60 years. The people who survived this tragedy, through no fault of their own, turned out to be socially affected, which they also cannot be all their lives. After all, they are not considered as such all their lives, for example, fire victims. It is simply necessary to solve the urgent tasks of social and medical rehabilitation of persons who have suffered the impact of the harmful factors of the accident and the development of contaminated territories.

PS. The "Chernobyl Syndrome" that has developed in the CIS countries arose on the wave of an unrestrained anti-nuclear campaign and suboptimal decisions of the previous governments. But we haven't learned anything. People were left to boil in a cauldron of panic rumors and are kept in this hell to this day, and after all, the closure of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the multimillion-dollar costs associated with it, I am sure, will cause irreparable harm to the population of Ukraine.

Chernobyl. big lie

Alla Yaroshinskaya - philosopher, politician, novelist wrote a documentary story "Chernobyl. Top secret".

In this novel, she reveals secret documents about the criminal concealment of the truth by the Soviet authorities about the global consequences of a nuclear catastrophe that "covered" not only 75 million people in former USSR, but also in Europe and on other continents, publishes the results of research by independent doctors, stands up for the Chernobyl victims forgotten by the authorities:

“Recently, a unique document came into my hands marked “Top Secret. (Working record.) Ex. the only one.” Meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU on April 29, 1986 It seems that this is the first meeting at which the issue of Chernobyl was considered. On the third day after the explosion.

It was led by Gorbachev himself. All members of the Politburo were present. Here, for the first time, it was decided what information to give to the world and the country. After the report by V.I. north and south", they began to discuss the problem of "how to give information."

“Gorbachev M.S. (…) The more honest we are, the better.” (Bravo, Mikhail Sergeevich!) But after a paragraph: "When we give information, I must say that the station was put under scheduled repairs so that a shadow does not fall on our equipment." But what about perestroika and new thinking? They did not apply to the Chernobyl accident. Isn't that why Chernobyl became a catalyst for the collapse of the communist empire?

From the protocol, the throwing of the members of the "noble assembly" is clearly visible. They invent how best to deceive the world and their own people. Plans are coming along.

“Gromyko A.A. It is necessary (...) to give the fraternal countries more information, and to give certain information to Washington and London. Appropriate explanations should have been given to the Soviet ambassadors as well.

Aliyev G.A. Maybe give information to our people?

Ligachev E.K. Maybe you shouldn't do a press conference.

Gorbachev M. S. Probably, it is advisable to make one information about the progress of work to eliminate the accident.

Yakovlev A.N. Foreign correspondents will be looking for rumors. (…)

Ryzhkov N.I. It is advisable to give three messages: for our people, for the socialist countries, as well as for Europe, the USA and Canada. A man could be sent to Poland.

Zimyanin M.V. It is important to note in the information that there was no nuclear explosion, but only a radiation leak as a result of the accident.

Vorotnikov V.I. We can say that there was a violation of tightness during the accident.

Dobrynin A.F. Correctly. After all, Reagan probably already has photographs on his desk. (…)

Gorbachev M.S. The resolution has been adopted."

Handwritten under the protocol: "A. Lukyanov." The same Anatoly Lukyanov, who a few years later, at the suggestion of Gorbachev, headed the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and then in August 1991 became an accomplice to the communist revenge coup.

The mood and decisions of this meeting of the Politburo were strictly observed in the work of its task force on Chernobyl. Journalists were not allowed to attend its meetings. Only once, on May 26, 1986 (protocol No. 18 of the operational group), editors of central newspapers were invited. They were given a party order: "The main attention should be paid to the measures taken by the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Government to ensure normal working and social conditions for the evacuated population, to eliminate the consequences of the accident, and to widely reflect the active participation of workers in the implementation of these measures."

At almost every meeting, messages for the media were discussed. All texts were approved by voting, with a specific publication date.

“Secret. Minutes No. I. April 29, 1986 (...) 10. Approve the text of the Government Communication for publication in the press. Approve the text of the information to the leaders of a number of capitalist countries about the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the measures being taken to eliminate its consequences. Approve the text to the leaders of a number of socialist countries on the state of affairs in the aftermath of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

On that very day, the Politburo also considered this issue. The resolution notes: “4. (...) prepare information on the progress of work to eliminate the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant for the population of our country, the leadership of the fraternal parties of the socialist countries, as well as the heads of state and government of other European states, the United States and Canada (texts are attached).

Everything, as suggested by the head of government Nikolai Ryzhkov at the first meeting of the Politburo on Chernobyl. For internal use - one information, or rather disinformation, for brothers in socialist reason - another, for the "damned" capitalists - a third.

One of the appendices already gives specific instructions: “Sofia, Budapest, Berlin, Warsaw, Bucharest, Prague, Havana. Belgrade - Soviet Ambassador. Urgently visit comrade Zhivkov (Kadar, Honecker, Jaruzelsky, Ceausescu, Husak, Castro, Zharkovic or the person replacing him, and, referring to the order, pass the following (...) Explain that similar information will be transmitted to the leadership of the United States and a number of Western European countries. Add that, if necessary, from our side it will be transferred to friends Additional Information».

An interesting nuance - "additional information" will be "transferred to friends." And not friends?

“Secret. Protocol #3. May 1, 1986 (...) Send a group of Soviet correspondents to the areas adjacent to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in order to prepare materials for the press and television, indicating the normal life of these areas. An essay on a given topic.

Izvestia journalist from Belarus tried to draw the attention of the country's leadership to the plight of people living in radioactive zones. His note is attached to the minutes.

“Secret. Teletypewriters. Do not show this telegram to anyone except the editor-in-chief. Destroy the copy. (...) I inform you for your information that the radiation situation in Belarus has become much more complicated. In many districts of the Mogilev region, radioactive contamination was detected, the level of which is much higher than the level of those districts we wrote about. According to all medical canons, living in these areas is associated with a huge risk to life. I got the impression that our comrades are confused and do not know what to do, especially since the relevant Moscow authorities do not want to believe in what happened (...) I am telling you this by telex, because all telephone conversations on this subject are categorically prohibited. July 8, 1986 N. Matukovsky.

And here is how carefully they prepared for press conferences for Soviet and foreign journalists.

“Secret. June 4, 1986 (...) Annex to Protocol No. 21. Directives for the coverage at the press conference of the main issues related to the causes and course of liquidation of the consequences of the accident at the fourth unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (...) 2. When covering the course of liquidation consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant: to show the successful implementation of large-scale technical and organizational measures aimed at eliminating the consequences of the accident (...) environmental and material damage caused by the spread of small amounts of radioactive substances with air masses from the zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Well, why not “strengthen propaganda measures aimed at exposing the false fabrications of the bourgeois information agencies and special services about the events at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant”? This instruction from the secret circular of the Central Committee of the CPSU dated May 22, 1986 wanders in different presentations from document to document. Well, we must at least somehow fight radiation! And now the main communist of Ukraine, Volodymyr Shcherbitsky, reports in a secret message to the Kremlin: “Public opinion is carefully studied, regular informing of the party activists and the population is organized (the party activists no longer seem to belong to the population, some kind of higher caste. - A. Ya .), the fictions of bourgeois propaganda, various kinds of rumors are exposed.

And how was it not disgusting for them to write and say all this?

Secret false instructions to officials, ambassadors and pocket press what, to whom and how to present about a nuclear catastrophe in the USSR became a kind of good tradition for many years. AT Soviet time On the eve of each Chernobyl anniversary, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU developed and approved the "Plan of the main preventive counter-propaganda measures." Comrade Falin, who headed the
1987, the KGB press agency Novosti, fearing "possible attempts by the subversive centers of imperialism to use the anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to launch another large-scale anti-Soviet campaign" (appendix to the top secret protocol of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the CPSU No. 42 dated 26.02.87.).

Apparently, this was credited to him, because soon Falin was elevated to the rank of secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Today he himself dug himself into one of these "subversive centers" in Germany, now modestly presenting himself as a "historian". Egor Kuzmich Ligachev, the most odious figure in the Politburo, personally edited the “plan” for counter-propaganda actions. For the planned lie on the eve of the first anniversary of the disaster, on April 10, 1987, at a meeting of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the CPSU, they voted, as always, unanimously (top secret protocol No. 46): “... Voted: tt. Gorbachev is for, Aliev is for, Vorotnikov is for, Gromyko is for, Ligachev is for, Ryzhkov is for, Solomentsev is for, Chebrikov is for, Shevardnadze is for, Shcherbitsky is for.”