Chernobyl hydroelectric power station. Chernobyl accident. Briefly about what happened and the consequences. Chernobyl is the biggest bluff of the 21st century
The first to be evacuated were women and children. In this corner of the former Soviet Union, there was a problem of a shortage of buses. Buses from other regions of the country came here to take 50 thousand people out of the city. The length of the convoy of buses was 20 kilometers, which meant that when the first bus left Pripyat, the latter could no longer see the pipes of the power plant. Less than three hours later, the city was completely empty. So he will remain forever. In early May, the evacuation of people living in the 30-kilometer Exclusion Zone around Chernobyl was organized. Decontamination works were carried out in 1840 settlements. However, the Chernobyl exclusion zone was not developed until 1994, when the last residents of the villages in its western part were moved to new apartments in the Kiev and Zhitomir regions.
Today Pripyat is a city of ghosts. Despite the fact that no one lives there, the city has its own grace and atmosphere. It did not cease to exist, unlike the neighboring villages, which were buried in the ground by excavators. They are only indicated on road signs and village maps. Pripyat, as well as the entire 30-kilometer Exclusion Zone, is guarded by police and patrol services. Despite their constant duty, the city has been plundered and looted more than once. The whole city has been plundered. There was not a single apartment left, wherever the thieves visited, who took all the jewelry. In 1987, residents had the opportunity to return to collect a small portion of their belongings. The Jupiter military plant operated until 1997; the famous swimming pool "Lazurny" operated until 1998. On the this moment they have been looted and destroyed even more than the apartments and schools in the city combined. There are three more parts of the city that are still in operation today: a laundry (for the Chernobyl nuclear power plant), garages for trucks, and deep well with a pumping station that supplies water to the power plant.
The city is full of 1980s graffiti, signs, books and images, mostly associated with Lenin. His slogans and portraits are everywhere - in the palace of culture, hotel, hospital, police station, as well as in schools and kindergartens. Walking around the city is like going back in time, the only difference is that there is no one here, not even birds in the sky. One can only imagine a picture of the era when the city flourished, during the tour we will show you historical photos. To give you a vivid idea of the times of the Soviet Union, we offer a Soviet uniform, a retro walk in our RETRO TOUR. Everything was built of concrete. All buildings are of the same type, as in other cities built during the Soviet Union. Some houses are overgrown with trees, so that they are barely visible from the road, and some buildings are so worn out that they collapsed from a large amount of snow. Chernobyl is a life example of how Mother Nature takes its toll on the efforts of many people. In a few decades, only ruins will remain from the city. There is not a single place like this in the world.
general information
For more than three decades, the Chernobyl station has been more than eloquent evidence of the dire consequences of careless and irresponsible handling of the so-called “peaceful atom”. It was assumed that the nuclear power plant would compensate for the shortage of electricity that took place in the 60s and 70s in the central regions of Ukraine, but ultimately its operation turned into a disaster, the echoes of which are still felt today. The word "Chernobyl" has become a household word, symbolizing a nuclear disaster, radiation contamination, radiation sickness, an empty and lifeless space, where everything that could become extinct has died out. And such analogies are by no means exaggerated: the exclusion zone around the station is just such a terrain.
However, over time, attitudes towards Chernobyl nuclear power plant began to change. She and the adjacent territory have ceased to be perceived in mass consciousness as a factor of unconditional and high risk to health and life. The crash site is becoming popular among tourists, especially among foreigners, despite the rather high cost of excursions. In 2018, for example, 70 thousand people visited it, and in 2019 about 150 thousand travelers are expected. Interest in the exclusion zone around the nuclear power plant was fueled by the mini-series Chernobyl, released in 2019, filmed in the genre of a historical drama by the American TV channel HBO and the British television network Sky and took first place in the MDB rating, beating the leader of the last few years - the famous “ Game of Thrones ".
Meanwhile, the Chernobyl zone as a tourist destination is not developing so quickly. There are not too many tour operators organizing excursions here due to the fact that the guides need to undergo special training. You can get directly to the exclusion zone only through special checkpoints with limited bandwidth, which creates additional inconveniences, although such obstacles can hardly stop travel lovers and connoisseurs of everything new, mysterious and unexplored. On the positive side, it should be noted that the routes are still gradually expanding, many previously closed sections become available, some of them can be reached by water - by kayaking. In the future, it is planned to open additional checkpoints.
The history of the construction of a nuclear power plant
In the former Soviet Union, nuclear power was perceived as the power of the future. It was believed that the "peaceful atom" in the distant future will completely replace thermal and hydroelectric power plants. Based on this doctrine, the government of the USSR in June 1966 approved a plan for the phased commissioning of nuclear power plants. One of these nuclear power plants was to be the Chernobyl nuclear power plant - the first on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR.
The decision that the station will be located exactly where it is now was not taken immediately. Before that, in 1965-1966, specialists from the All-Union Design Institute "Teploelektroproekt" were looking for a suitable site, examining a total of 16 sites in Kiev, Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr regions. Ultimately, we settled on the right bank of the Pripyat River, a tributary of the Dnieper, on a site located 4 km from the village of Kopachi and 15 km from the Chernobyl regional center in the Kiev region, this is not far from the Yanov station of the Chernigov-Ovruch single-track railway line. Lands in this area were found to be unproductive for management Agriculture... The study also showed that the site meets water supply, traffic regulations and sanitary protection zone standards.
The construction of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant started in 1970. According to the project, its generated capacity was 6,000 MW. The first power unit was launched in 1974, the second in 1975. In 1981, the third power unit was commissioned, and two years later, the fourth and last, which will become the "gravedigger" of the entire facility and the surrounding area. But then hardly anyone could have foreseen such a development of events, so the first 100 billion kW / h of electricity generated by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in August 1984 was perceived as a great achievement. Together with the Kursk and Lenin nuclear power plants, in a short time it became one of the three most powerful in the Land of Soviets. In 1986, its total capacity has already reached 4000 MW.
The new facility, all the more so dynamically developing and promising, required the participation of significant human resources, therefore, simultaneously with the construction of the station, the construction of Pripyat, one of the youngest cities in the Soviet Union, was underway. Moreover, young and from the point of view of its inhabitants, average age which was only 27 years old. Here on permanent place residence, together with their families, engineers and scientists came from all over the vast country, where they were given apartments with all amenities - before the accident, 47.5 thousand people already lived here. Many even compared Pripyat to Baikonur, since living and working here was considered as prestigious as in the satellite city of the cosmodrome of the same name. It, distinguished by its modern infrastructure, was called the city of power engineers, the city of the future, and also "atomic city". On May 1, 1986, the grand opening of the city amusement park was planned, but a terrible disaster put an end to these plans. As in the future of the whole city ...
Crash September 9, 1982
Over the entire period of its existence, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant has experienced two accidents. The first - almost nothing is known about her to the general public - took place on September 9, 1982. The day before, during the test start-up of the reactor of the first power unit, scheduled repairs were carried out. But something went wrong, and the fuel assembly collapsed. An emergency explosion of technological channel No. 62-44 took place, deforming the graphite stack of the core. As a result, a significant amount of radioactive substances were released into the reactor space. This accident would not have had such consequences if the emergency protection had been triggered, and if within 20 minutes after the rupture of the channel, which is a very long time, the reactor plant would not have been kept at a power of 700 MW.
The accident also affected the reactor space of the second power unit, into which about 800 kg of water was thrown out. The latter, evaporating, provoked a sharp increase in pressure, as a result of which the hydraulic locks were squeezed out, and the steam-gas mixture from the reactor space rushed under the bell of the wet gas holder. Then, having mixed with the radioactive vapor-gas mixture from the reactor space of the first power unit, it burst out through the emptied hydraulic seal of Unit 2 into the ventilation pipe, and from there into the atmosphere. Radioactive substances have contaminated a fairly large area. To eliminate the consequences of this accident, it took about three months of repair and restoration work. However, they did not return to life channel 62-44. The section of the active zone adjacent to it was permanently taken out of work.
After the incident, the designers developed and implemented measures to prevent such situations, but after four years such a large-scale disaster happened at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in comparison with which the first accident may seem like a minor incident with minor consequences.
Accident on April 26, 1986
That terrible night, nothing foreshadowed trouble. The station was operating in a normal mode, at the fourth power unit the specialists carried out a design test of the turbine generator No. 8. And all of a sudden, around 1:24, an explosion occurred. It turned out to be so strong that it completely destroyed the reactor. Partial collapse befell the power unit building and the roof of the turbine hall. The explosion provoked the emergence of more than three dozen fires in the premises and on the roof, which were completely eliminated by 5 am. Brigades of the military unit, Pripyat and Kiev firefighters worked at the scene of the accident. Through joint efforts, it was possible to localize the fire and prevent it from spreading to other power units.
In addition, in the very first hours of the accident, the equipment of the fourth power unit was turned off and the neighboring third one was completely stopped. However, on the evening of April 26, a strong fire broke out in the central hall of the fourth power unit. Due to the fact that as a result of the explosion of the reactor, a severe radiation situation arose and the combustion was of great intensity, helicopter technology was used to eliminate it, since from the very beginning it was clear that it would not be possible to do with regular means.
In the first days after the disaster, the liquidators worked at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant without the necessary protective equipment and, having received an incompatible radiation dose, soon died. The so-called active stage of the accident lasted 10 days, during which extremely intense releases of radioactive elements occurred. Among them are isotopes of uranium, plutonium, as well as cesium-134 and cesium-135, the half-life of which is, respectively, 2 years and 30 years, strontium-190 (its half-life is 29 years), iodine-131 (half-life is one of the shortest - 8 days). In the early days, the hot jet over the destroyed reactor rushed to a height of more than a kilometer, later decreasing to several hundred meters.
When the Chernobyl disaster occurred, the country's leadership at first did not realize the real scale of what had happened. According to the editor-in-chief of Echo of Moscow, Alexei Venediktov, ex-President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev recalled in private conversations with him that the special services first reported to him about the fire at the station and only then more complete information began to arrive. However, they hid it from ordinary citizens, explaining this by the need to avoid panic among the population. So, on April 28, a TASS message was circulated, which spoke of an "accident" at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
At a time when foreign journalists sounded the alarm, talking about the threat to human life, about the radioactive cloud rushing towards Europe, traditional May parades were held in Kiev and other cities of Ukraine and Belarus. Kievans walked along Khreshchatyk and October Revolution Square (today - Maidan Nezalezhnosti), smart, with flowers, with red flags and banners, not even realizing that at that time the level of radiation exceeded the background level by several dozen times.
The tragedy was witnessed by many residents of Pripyat, who watched the explosion at the reactor from the windows of their apartments, but they were not immediately informed about what exactly happened and what the scale of the accident was. All day on April 26, people calmly walked the streets, breathing in the already contaminated air. The evacuation of the population of "atomic city" began only the next day. Residents were forbidden to take pets, things, toys with them, while - again, for reasons of avoiding panic - they gave a false hope that they would be able to return to their homes in three days. But this did not happen either 30 days, or 300, or 33 years after the accident ...
The Soviet government hid details about the accident for two weeks. With an official appeal to the citizens of the country about the incident, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev appeared on television only on May 14. “This is the first time we have actually encountered such a formidable force as nuclear energy out of control,” he said, acknowledging the extraordinary and dangerous nature of what happened at the station. Subsequently, after the collapse of the USSR, Mikhail Sergeevich said in one of his interviews: "Chernobyl made me a different person."
Meanwhile, while the authorities kept silent, the radiation that escaped to freedom did its dirty deed. After the explosion, the wind blowing from the southeast drove the radioactive cloud in the direction of the Scandinavian Peninsula. After flying over Sweden, Finland and Norway, it returned back to Ukraine. The change in wind direction to the west changed the trajectory of the infected cloud, and it, having sailed through Poland and Czechoslovakia, hung over Austria. In the Alps, it cleared itself and again headed for Poland. It is possible to enumerate for a long time which countries were "visited" by the deadly radiation from Chernobyl. Perhaps there is no place on Earth over which the radioactive cloud formed by the explosion did not leave its mark.
But, of course, Ukraine and Belarus suffered the most, not to mention the area directly adjacent to the nuclear power plant. The first victim of the "peaceful atom" was the senior inspector of the chief circulation pump of the fourth power unit Valery Khodimchuk, who died in the explosion. The second employee was seriously injured and died the next morning. On April 27, 104 injured were taken to Moscow, to hospital No. 6. Another 134 employees, as well as members of firefighters and rescue teams, fell ill with radiation sickness, of which 28 people died in the next few months.
According to the World Health Organization, the total number of people who died as a result of the accident, or may die in the future is 4 thousand people. Of this number, a total of 50 emergency workers died from acute radiation sickness and 9 children died from radiation-induced thyroid cancer. Another 3,940 people, according to WHO estimates, may die from cancer and leukemia caused by radiation damage to the body.
But there are even more dire numbers. In total, 600 thousand people from all over the Soviet Union were involved in eliminating the consequences of the Chernobyl accident. Of these, 60 thousand died, 165 thousand became disabled.
Three decades after the accident, the question remains topical: what caused it? There are different versions. According to one of them, the exploded reactor initially did not meet safety standards and had weaknesses in the design. As possible reasons also called incomplete operating regulations, insufficient qualifications of personnel and their negligence towards protection systems during testing. But which of them is the truth, or at least as close as possible to it, it is difficult to say. It is possible that there was a combination of all these factors.
Chernobyl nuclear power plant after the accident
The power of the explosion at the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was equivalent to the explosions of 80 atomic bombs dropped by the United States on the Japanese Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Accidents at the Chernobyl station on the International scale of nuclear events were assigned the seventh - maximum! - the level of danger. The release of radioactive elements amounted to about 50 million curies, which is 400-500 times higher than the levels of Hiroshima contamination after the bombing. They infected about 200 thousand km² of land. The lion's share of this huge area, about 70%, falls on Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
To prevent further spread of radiation, the reactor destroyed by the explosion at the end of 1986 was covered with a special engineering structure known as the Shelter Object. It is also called the "sarcophagus". There are no other structures similar to it in the world. This sad symbol of the Chernobyl disaster was erected on the basis of the latest construction research, which had not been used until that moment. It was erected in conditions of radiation, which carried a direct threat to the health and life of the builders. In addition, the Shelter, which was projected from May 20 to August 20, 1986, is the largest remote-sensing structure in the world.
The actual installation of the "sarcophagus" took place from June to November of the same year. The facility was built around the clock, on a watch basis. Sometimes up to 10 thousand people were involved in one shift. The builders removed and moved 90 thousand m³ of soil, collected over 7 tons of metal structures, laid about 400 thousand m³ of concrete, and all this in five months.
The accelerated pace of work could not but affect their quality. Technologies were not followed to the end and not in everything. For example, part of the support beams simply lay on the ruins of the destroyed reactor, and part of the roof was covered with large-diameter pipes that were not even fixed. Over the years, the old sarcophagus began to deteriorate, and it became necessary to cover it with a new one. The construction of the latter began in 2007. The object was named "New Safe Confinement" (NSC) or simply "arch", as it is an insulating arch structure. It was originally planned to complete it in 2012-2013, but due to insufficient funding, these terms were postponed by several years. At the end of November 2016, the NSC was pushed onto the reactor building, and it was finally put into operation only on July 10, 2019. Due to its height of 100 m, width of 257 m and length of 165 m, "Arka" has become the largest movable ground structure.
As for the Chernobyl nuclear power plant as a whole, it was decided to close it. The timing of the decommissioning of power units was approved by the Supreme Council and the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR on February 17, 1990. After a fire broke out on October 11, 1991 at the second power unit, the leadership of the Ukrainian SSR ordered to stop it immediately. Two years later, it was planned to close the first and third power units, but the government of Ukraine proposed to continue the operation of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. However, under pressure from the world community, the final decision to decommission the station was still made.
Since December 2000, in preparation for the shutdown, the capacity of the station has been gradually decreasing. On December 15, a teleconference between the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the Ukraine National Palace was organized, during which President Leonid Kuchma gave an order to permanently stop the work of the station. And right there, on the air, the emergency protection key was turned on the reactor of the third power unit, and the Chernobyl NPP stopped generating electricity. This happened at 13:17.
Meanwhile, the process of decommissioning the station cannot be considered complete. According to the approved schedule, this should happen in 2064. Until this date, the reactors will be in a mothballed state until their radioactivity decreases.
Chernobyl zone as a tourist destination
The so-called Chernobyl tourism is becoming more and more popular and it is completely safe. If we compare the exclusion zone in the first years after the accident and now, then the difference is obvious. Nature begins to actively awaken, rare species of plants and animals appear. Although, and no one hides this, in the ChNPP zone to this day there are places with a significantly increased and potentially deadly level of radiation.
This is due to the fact that radiation does not spread evenly, but settles in "islands" on the contaminated area. So a paradoxical, at first glance, situation turns out when the background radiation directly near the station does not exceed 300 microroentgens per hour, and at a distance from it, even significant, it can be significantly higher. The most dangerous in this regard is the stele "ChNPP im. VI Lenin "- the level of radiation here at times reaches an extremely dangerous level of 1200 microroentgens per hour.
Travelers are not allowed to these "islands", choosing safe routes for them. Of course, while staying in the exclusion zone, a person receives additional radiation exposure by three types of ionizing radiation: alpha, beta and gamma. However, they cannot harm health.
In 2017, the 30-kilometer exclusion zone received official status as the Chernobyl Radiation-Ecological Biosphere Reserve, which is already called the No. 1 tourist site in Ukraine. This is a unique place where you can see wildlife like you will not see it anywhere else. It is home to wolves and deer, beavers and turtles, bears and wild horses. More than 50 thousand people visit this reserve every year, and the development of tourism contributes to the emergence of the local economy. True, there are no trendy hotels, entertainment centers, cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops. The Chernobyl zone, although open to tourists, continues to be a protected military territory and a center for the distribution of electricity between neighboring Ukraine and Belarus.
Pripyat, a real ghost town, is of genuine interest among travel lovers. Nobody lives in it, but time has no power over its landscape and special atmosphere. After the accident at the station, the surrounding villages were buried in the ground with the help of excavators, but the "atomic city" did not stop its existence. A year after the disaster, residents were allowed to return briefly to take something from the property.
Like the entire exclusion zone, Pripyat is under the protection of the police and patrolmen, but constant watch did not save it from the intrigues of robbers and marauders. Perhaps, there is not a single apartment left that would not be entered by thieves who stole all the most valuable. The military plant "Jupiter", which functioned until 1997, and the swimming pool "Lazurny", which closed a year later, were completely looted. At the moment, the city continues to work pumping station supplying the Chernobyl NPP with water, a laundry, its service personnel and garages for trucks.
A city tour will take you back to the 80s of the last century. Pripyat is a small piece of the Soviet Union of the era of developed socialism, not only in Ukraine, but in everything the former USSR... Graffiti of those years has been preserved on the walls of the houses. Everywhere there are portraits, posters and slogans associated with Lenin and the Communist Party, they can be seen in schools, kindergartens, the palace of culture, hospital, hotel, in the police station. Looking at all this, it is impossible to get rid of the impression that you have made a journey into that seemingly serene past for which the bulk of the older generation is nostalgic. The only thing that returns to reality is the emptiness and the ominous silence around. In Pripyat, not only is it deserted - you won't even see birds in the sky.
For modern youth, an excursion to Pripyat is a unique opportunity to get a visual representation of the times of the Soviet Union. You do not need to be the owner of a rich imagination to imagine how prosperous this city of power engineers was, and what brilliant prospects awaited it, if this terrible catastrophe did not happen in April 1986. True, all buildings are of the same type, they were built of concrete, and in this regard, Pripyat was no different from other Soviet cities. Some houses are hidden under the crowns of overgrown trees and are barely visible, while others have collapsed either from time to time, or under the weight of a large amount of snow that fell on them.
How to legally get into the Chernobyl zone
Several Ukrainian operators are organizing tours to the 30-kilometer exclusion zone of the Chernobyl NPP, the largest of which is the Chernobyl Tour company. Buses with fans of "radiation rest" go there every day, especially since after the release of the series "Chernobyl" the demand for excursions to these ominous places has doubled. Some extreme tourists consider official excursions here too boring and turn to the services of illegal guides. The latter are ready to lead those wishing to secret paths and provide an overnight stay in some abandoned house in the best traditions of spy films. Of course, for the appropriate payment. But is it worth the risk, given that the exclusion zone is a protected object? For violation of the regime, punishment is provided in accordance with Ukrainian law.
Tourists who legally come to the abandoned city of Pripyat and the quite comfortable existing regional center of Chernobyl, where shift workers who serve the station live, are given individual dosimeters and taught to use them. Thus, people, as they say, kill two birds with one stone - and they will go on excursions, and they will receive basic knowledge of how to act in the event of a radiation disaster in order to survive.
A few days before the trip, the tourist must contact the operator who has an official permit to operate in the exclusion zone. Having left his passport details, he makes an advance payment. For citizens of Ukraine, a one-day excursion will cost at least $ 49, for citizens of foreign countries - $ 99 and more.
The personal data of a potential tourist is checked by the special services. If a person for some reason does not inspire confidence, he will be denied a visit to the Chernobyl exclusion zone. For those who are allowed, the tour operator will issue passes. When the group is formed, the day and place of gathering in Kiev is appointed, where the guide meets her and puts her on the bus. Travel time to ChEZ is one and a half hours. Then tourists enter the territory through the checkpoint.
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, and its consequences will touch a person more than once. The disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant - why did it happen and what are its consequences for us?
Why did the Chernobyl disaster happen?
There is still no unequivocal opinion about what caused the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Some argue that the reason is defective equipment and gross mistakes during the construction of a nuclear power plant. Others see the explosion as a malfunction. circulation system water supply, which provided cooling of the reactor. Still others are convinced that all the fault was the experiments carried out at the station on that ominous night on the permissible load, during which there was a gross violation of the operating rules. Still others are sure that if there was a protective concrete dome over the reactor, the construction of which was neglected, there would not be such a spread of radiation that happened as a result of the explosion.
Most likely, this terrible event happened due to a combination of the listed 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 on the part of the Soviet authorities led to consequences, the results of which will echo through more than one generation of people all over 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. Brave and courageous people, they were shocked by what they saw and, from the off-scale radiation counters, immediately guessed what had happened. However, there was no time to think - and a team of 30 people rushed to fight the disaster. From protective clothing, they wore ordinary helmets and boots - of course, they could in no way protect the firefighters from huge doses of radiation. These people have long been dead, all of them at different times died an agonizing death from the cancer that struck them.
By morning the flame was extinguished. However, lumps of uranium and graphite emitting radiation were scattered throughout the nuclear power plant. The worst thing is that the Soviet people did not immediately learn about the disaster that occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. This made it possible to remain calm and prevent panic - this is exactly what the authorities were trying to achieve, closing their eyes to the cost of their ignorance for people. The ignorant population for two whole days after the explosion calmly rested on the territory, which had become mortally dangerous, went out into the countryside, to the river, on a warm spring day, children were on the street 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 homes and everything that was in them - they were allowed to take with them only identity cards and food for a couple of days.
An area with a radius of 30 km was recognized as an exclusion zone not suitable for human life. Water, livestock and vegetation in this area were found to be unfit for consumption and pose a health hazard.
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 poured with water, but the effect of these actions was scanty. There was 77 kg of radiation in the air - as if one 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 disaster relief workers. 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 "inheritance" from the USSR, does not have the required money for it.
The tragedy of the century, which they wanted to hide
Who knows how long the Soviet government would have hidden the "incident" if it had not been for the weather. Strong winds and rains, so inopportunely passed through Europe, carried radiation around the world. Most of all "got" to Ukraine, Belarus and the south-western regions of Russia, as well as Finland, Sweden, Germany, Great Britain.
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 they established that the problem was not in their reactor, but the alleged source of the outgoing threat was the USSR.
And exactly two days after the Forsmark scientists declared a radioactive alarm, US President Ronald Reagan was holding pictures of the Chernobyl disaster site, taken by an artificial CIA satellite. What was depicted on them would make even a person with a very stable psyche horrified.
While periodicals around the world trumpeted about the danger posed by the Chernobyl disaster, the Soviet press got off with a modest statement that there was 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 apoplectic strokes.
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 oncological, nervous and endocrine system... 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 types of diseases - this is what awaited children exposed to radiation.
However, the worst thing is that the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster affected not only people living at that time. Problems with carrying pregnancy, frequent miscarriages, stillborn children, frequent birth of children with genetic abnormalities (Down's syndrome, etc.), weakened immunity, affecting the 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, which will come to an end. not soon. If it comes ...
Not only people suffered from the Chernobyl disaster - all life on Earth felt the lethal force of radiation on itself. As a result of the Chernobyl disaster, mutants appeared - descendants of people and animals born with various deformations. A foal with five legs, a calf with two heads, fish and birds of unnaturally huge sizes, 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 taught to mankind by the Chernobyl disaster was not appreciated by people. We are still careless about our own life, we are still striving to squeeze out of the riches given to us by nature to the maximum, everything we need "here and now." Who knows, maybe the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was the beginning to which humanity is moving on a slow, but sure path ...
Film about the Chernobyl disaster
We advise everyone who is interested to watch the full-length documentary "Battle for Chernobyl". This video can be watched right here online and for free. Happy viewing!
Look for another video on youtube.com
Chernobyl disaster. The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant shocked the whole world, including its consequences.
If many people think that Chernobyl accident took away many lives at once, it is not so. During the explosion itself, one operator died, whose remains are still buried under the rubble, and the second died from injuries and burns already in the hospital.
When Chernobyl exploded, there were several blows (most eyewitnesses claim that there were two explosions), the exact time is 04/26/1986 at 01:23:47 (Saturday).
The reactor was destroyed in just three minutes.
Already after the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and after the liquidation works, within 3 months, 31 people died (due to radiation), employed in the first hours of eliminating the fire.
As a result, more than half a million people were attracted for the liquidation work. The Chernobyl accident claimed the lives of up to 80,000 people due to distant radiation exposure.
134 of them had an acute stage of radiation sickness (these are the first people to come to the call).
What is Chernobyl
The city got its name thanks to the wormwood, in ancient times it was called the Chernobyl disaster.
Now, due to environmental conditions (rain, wind, etc.), as well as as a result of the activities of people on the ground, it has significantly decreased.
After the lapse of time, radioactive substances have already entered the ground and enter agricultural products through the root system.
The danger is posed by berries, mushrooms and in forests, because cesium is recycled there and, as a result, it is not excreted. However, the fish is not dangerous.
Many are interested in the mutation after the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Research has shown that it continues, but not to a significant extent.
The absence of man and his influence on nature had a beneficial effect on the ecosystem. Now the flora and fauna there are fragrant, the populations of animals and plants have increased.
31 years after the incident, people are still wondering what happened in Chernobyl. After all, this accident has surpassed and.
Although it is worth noting that these are still different accidents and incidents.
Chernobyl
The Chernobyl accident. Chronology of events. April 26, which divides the history of Ukraine into two periods - before and after the crash.
Here is a brief chronology of the most important dates associated with the Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Nuclear Power Plant in Chernobyl.
The Chernobyl accident 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 the commissioning of nuclear power plants on the territory of the entire USSR.
According to preliminary calculations, the commissioned nuclear power plants were supposed to generate 8000 MW, which would compensate for the shortage of electricity in the central region of the southern part.
1967
From 1966 to 1967, work was carried out to find suitable territories. The work was carried out by the Kiev branch of the Teploelektroproekt design institute. As part of the research, sixteen territories were studied, mainly in the Kiev, Vinnitsa and Zhytomyr regions.
Territory exploration continued until January 1967. As a result, it was decided to stay 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, the reactors were approved to be installed at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
In total, there are three approved:
- graphite-water reactor RBMK-1000;
- graphite-gas reactor RK-1000;
- pressurized water reactor VVER.
- Based on the results of the options considered, a decision was made to select the RBMK-1000 graphite-water reactor.
1970
The ChNPP Directorate was formed. Projects and urban planning plans for the city of Pripyat have been approved, and its construction has begun.
May 1970 marked the first pit for the first power unit of the Chernobyl NPP.
1972
The formation of a special water tank begins to cool the reactors. The reservoir was formed by changing the river channel 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 the tank filling procedure began.
1977
May 1977 start-up and adjustment work began at the first power unit.
1978
1979
Pripyat receives the rights of the city.
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant produced 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity.
1981
1982
On September 1, a malfunction of the reactor No. 1 was recorded. Slight contamination of some of the damaged fuel evaporation units.
On September 9, the destruction of the fuel assembly and an emergency rupture of the technological channel No. 62-44 occurred.
Due to the rupture, the graphite stack of the core was deformed; a significant amount of radioactive substances was thrown into the reactor space from the destroyed fuel assembly.
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. The 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.
Beginning of preparation for the test of the turbocharger of the reactor 4. The power of the reactor was reduced.
The reactor power was reduced to 1600 MW, which is half the nominal value.
Reduction of the power intended for the own needs of the reactor. Generator shutdown 2.
At this hour, the power of the reactor is expected to reach only 30 percent. The capacity, at the request of the dispatcher of the Kiev Energy District, was reduced for several hours. 23:00 the reactor was working at 50 percent. Rated power.
The reactor power was reduced to 1600 MW, at which the experiment was carried out. The operator Kyivenergo banned further power cuts.
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 dropped 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. There were only 18 rem in the core, but at least 30 rem is needed.
The reactor power was increased to 200 MW. To prevent the automatic shutdown of the reactor, the personnel blocked the safety system.
A sharp decrease in the reactivity of the reactor.
Start of testing the turbine generator. The turbine valves were cut. 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).
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 surrounding zirconium dioxide burst and the molten fuel escaped, and then the pressure channels burst. This started to lead to an exothermic reaction.
Emergency signal given
The first explosion occurred
There was a second explosion - the first was water vapor, then hydrogen was released. The reactor and parts of the structure were destroyed.
As a result of the explosion, the 2000-ton plate was thrown back onto the reactor vessel. Waste graphite core and molten fuel are discarded.
The reactor is estimated to have leaked about 8 out of 140 tons of fuel.
The fire brigade accepted the call from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and moved forward to extinguish the fire.
An additional fire brigade left the city of Pripyat.
A fire alarm was announced. The staff tried to start the reactor's cooling systems, hoping they were not damaged in the explosion.
Arriving firefighters of the first crew begin to extinguish the fire on the roof of the turbine hall.
The absence of a measuring device was established, the first device was damaged by an explosion. The second is in the area cut off by rubble. The second fire brigade arrived, some of the firemen are engaged in extinguishing the fire, the other part of the calculation is taking apart the rubble to access the measuring equipment.
Firefighters begin to vomit, the skin begins to burn under the clothes.
The Department of the Ministry of the Interior is in charge of the crisis personnel meeting.
It was decided to put blocks on the road. Firefighters and police brigades are called.
The officers are not sufficiently trained - they do not have dosimeters and protective clothing.
Viktor Bryukhanov, director of the plant, arrives at the crisis management center, located in a bunker under the administrative building of the gym.
The authorities notified the central authorities of the incident in Moscow.
The fire is blocked, the possibility of fire transfer to other rooms is excluded.
Other firefighters arrived from Polesie and Kiev.
The fire is completely extinguished.
188 firefighters were called to the scene of the accident.
The irradiated firefighters were evacuated to the 6th radiological hospital in Moscow. Air ambulance was used for evacuation.
The morning shift came to the power plant. Construction work began on the construction site of reactors 5 and 6. 286 people worked there.
A decision was made to supply water to the damaged reactor zone.
A status report was sent to the Chernobyl NPP
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 from the measuring devices were obtained, the level of pollution was established, and a decision was made to evacuate the population.
Inquiries were sent to neighboring districts and the city of Kiev for the allocation of transport for the evacuation of the population.
The transport department of the city of Kiev gives an order to remove from the routes of all buses of suburban communication and the direction of 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 contaminated territory.
Reactors 1 and 2 are off.
The administration of the city of Pripyat collects all administrative personnel.
Instructing the administrative staff of hospitals, schools, kindergartens.
Processing of the city begins. Laundry soap and additional water tanks were placed in all toilets in the city. The processing of the premises had to be repeated every hour.
All schools started working, without fail all children were measured with a radiation device, medical personnel issued pills containing iodine.
The processing of the forest around the Chernobyl NPP has begun.
Militia officers were instructed. The precinct officers made a detour and count of residential buildings, taking into account the number of people living in them.
The first emissions of sand, boron and lead over the destroyed reactor No. 4 began.
Two thousand buses and more than one hundred units of military equipment have been assembled on the border of the city of Chernobyl.
The students were sent home with instructions to stay in their apartments. General briefing has begun in the city.
An instant drop in radioactivity around the power plant.
Instructions are conducted at 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.
The police officers arrived at their places and began instructing and gathering residents.
An official announcement of 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. 1,200 buses were used for this purpose.
Police officers examined the city of Pripyat, recorded the absence of the civilian population.
The radioactivity in the air around the Swedish nuclear power plant in Forsmark has increased.
Moscow television reported an "incident" at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
The Danish Institute of Nuclear Physics reported that, most likely, 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 block 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 - the damaged roof of the reactor and the glowing mass of the molten core of the reactor.
By that day, over 1,000 tons of material had been dropped from helicopters into the destroyed reactor block.
The wind changed direction, and the radioactive cloud began to move towards Kiev. Ceremonial processes took place on the occasion of the May 1 holiday.
May 2
The staff 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 an alarming rate.
Beneath 185 tons of molten nuclear material was a reservoir with five million gallons of water. This water was needed as a coolant, and a thick concrete slab separated the nuclear fuel and the water reservoir.
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.
In the event of contact of the incandescent core of the reactor with water, a massive, radiation-contaminated steam explosion will occur. The result could be radioactive contamination of much of Europe. In terms of the death toll, the first Chernobyl explosion would have looked like a minor incident.
The engineers have developed a plan according to which it is possible to avoid a steam explosion. To do this, you need to 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
They all understood that the dose of radiation substances that they would receive during a dive would be fatal for them.
It was about opening the valves in the water tank, which was 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 reservoir 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 were observed acute stage 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 emissions.
Firefighters pump water from the basement under the reactor core.
From radiation in Chernobyl, they began to give out Lugol's drug.
It was decided to start building a sarcophagus over the destroyed reactor block No. 4.
The Chernobyl Atomic Energy Council was fired, accusing it of "lack of responsibility and because of gaps in the supervision of the reactor."
Russia sent its first report after 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 No. 1 was turned on again.
Work continued on the construction of reactors 5 and 6.
Reactor # 2 was switched 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.
Used 400 thousand tons of concrete and more than 7 thousand tons of metal.
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. It is important to note that 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 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 was operating (at 425 MW).
The spontaneously switched on second turbine generator worked in the "propulsion" mode for only 30 seconds.
As a result of work in the turbine generator, large axle loads arose, which led to the complete destruction of the bearings of the turbine generator shaft.
The failure of the bearings led to the depressurization (desealing) of the generator, which led to the release of large amounts 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 turning on of the turbo generator was caused by the fact that the turbo generator was not protected from the mode of connection to the network on the freewheel of the rotor.
Spontaneous switching on occurred as a result of loss of insulation between the cable controlling the closing of the switch and the cable through which the signal about the disconnected state of the switch is transmitted.
There was a defect in the installation of cables - signal and control cables were 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 emission is estimated at 3.6 * 10 -5 Ci.
1992
The Ukrainian authorities are announcing a competition for new construction, which will cover the hastily constructed sarcophagus on reactor building 4.
There were 394 proposals, but only one was considered worthwhile - the construction of a sliding installation.
Assembly tests of structures in Italy. Delivery of the first components for the construction of the sarcophagus.
The first eastern fragment of the dome was raised (5,300 t, 53 m)
2013
A fragment of the roof over reactor block 4 was destroyed under the pressure of snow. Fortunately, the construction was not compromised.
The second operation to raise the first eastern fragment (9,100 tons, 85.5 m)
The third operation to raise the first eastern fragment (11 516 t, 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 construction was completed and moved to the parking lot (12,500 t, 112 m)
The first operation to raise the second western fragment of the sarcophagus (4,579 t, 23 m)
The second operation to raise the second western fragment (8 352 t, 85 m).
The third operation to raise the second western fragment of the dome (12,500 t, 112 m)
2015
The beginning of raising the inclined side walls of the sarcophagus.
Work began on the electrical and ventilation systems inside the dome.
Docking of the two parts of the new sarcophagus.
Commissioning of new equipment for the dome.
2016
Beginning of the ladle shift operation over Reactor Unit 4 and the old sarcophagus.
Ceremonial completion of work on the construction of a new dome over reactor block 4.
