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An explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant kills 56 people, threatens the health of thousands more and causes a major environmental disaster.
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00:01Nuclear power promised the Soviet Union a supply of cheap and limitless energy.
00:06Chernobyl was the newest of its plants, a triumph of Soviet science.
00:11But that changed. In just one hour and 24 minutes, a routine safety test spirals out of control.
00:2231 people die, hundreds are poisoned, and a toxic cloud spreads as far as Asia and the United States.
00:30Now we return to Chernobyl with the men who were involved and with cutting-edge computer technology reveal exactly what
00:37went wrong.
00:42Disasters don't just happen, they're caused by a sequence of critical events.
00:47Unravel the fateful decisions in the final seconds from disaster.
00:57The Soviet Union. Ukraine. Chernobyl.
01:03On April 25th, 1986, Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev has been in power for only one year.
01:11Communism and Western democracy are still pitted against one another.
01:17The Soviet Union needs a cheap source of energy. The answer is nuclear power.
01:23Over two million people in Kyiv, Ukraine's major city, get their electricity from the state-run power plant known as
01:29Chernobyl.
01:33Located 104 kilometers away, Chernobyl is a symbol of the Soviet Union's industrial and technological muscle.
01:45Soviet nuclear scientists consider it to be the cream of the nation's nuclear plants.
01:55Boris Stolyarchuk controls the water pumps that cool the reactor. Tonight, his every move will mean the difference between life
02:01and death.
02:05I was young then and just loved the job. I was proud of being able to manage such unique equipment,
02:12to take part in the operation of such powerful machines.
02:19Also on this fateful night, 29-year-old Yuri Karneev will control the massive turbines that generate the electricity.
02:28Working at Chernobyl has been his dream job since graduation.
02:36It was a very interesting job. And the salary was good.
02:43Chernobyl has four reactors, all running at the same time.
02:47Reactor number four is the newest, only three years old.
02:52The reactors work like giant steam engines.
02:56Their uranium fuel rods heat water.
02:59The steam they produce drives turbines.
03:02That's how they generate power.
03:07When everything works right, the benefits are enormous.
03:13Just one kilogram of uranium produces the same amount of energy as three million kilograms of coal.
03:20But using uranium safely to produce energy is a balancing act that requires top-tier engineering.
03:28On this April night, Boris and Yuri work the late shift, starting at midnight.
03:33Both men are relatively young to be working in such a complex environment.
03:37However, they are both fully qualified.
03:39They arrive half an hour early.
03:43This is so the staff can examine the switches and readings left by the previous shift, as well as the
03:48general condition of the plant.
03:50But tonight will be different.
03:53As the midnight shift gather, they're in for a surprise.
03:56Their supervisors order them to carry out a safety drill.
04:01It's crucial for a nuclear power plant to pump cooling water around the reactor.
04:07At Chernobyl, the electricity to run the water pumps comes from its turbines, which in turn are powered by the
04:13reactor.
04:14It's a perpetual cycle of energy production.
04:18But if something goes wrong, it could lead to a nuclear disaster.
04:26Tonight's drill aims to find out if the plant can keep running until backup generators can kick in during an
04:32emergency.
04:34Earlier attempts to run this test have been inconclusive.
04:41It would mean some extra work, but it wasn't complex.
04:51The water that cools the reactors comes from a canal running alongside the plant.
04:57It's a magnet for local fishermen.
05:01Tonight, Piotr Tolstakov is fishing with a friend.
05:11We thought we could fish for a little while.
05:14The weather was wonderful and we caught some.
05:19Tolstakov has a ringside seat at reactor number four.
05:25Midnight.
05:26The night shift begins.
05:28Yuri Karnayev heads to the turbine hall.
05:34I examined the turbine and studied the readings.
05:37We had a cup of tea and were waiting for an order to start the tests.
05:41The command is ready.
05:42Then we will start the tests.
05:46Boris Stolyarchuk is in the control room, about 300 meters from the reactor.
05:51He's joined by 27-year-old Leonid Tuktonov, who controls the reactor.
05:57He and Boris don't know it, but they're about to begin a very complex balancing act.
06:08As usual, Chernobyl's own fire departments are on standby in case of emergency.
06:1612.05 AM.
06:20Preparations for the test begin.
06:23Leonid gradually reduces power.
06:31For the next 20 minutes, everything goes as planned.
06:35But, just another three minutes later, there's a snag.
06:43For some reason, power levels in the reactor plummet.
06:48This is not part of the drill.
06:50Leonid needs to get the power level back up again, fast.
06:55To his relief, he fixes the problem.
07:01By one o'clock in the morning, Leonid thinks the reactor is stable.
07:06The preparations proceed.
07:10Three minutes later, Boris, who controls the pumps, takes his turn.
07:16He switches on two auxiliary water pumps.
07:21But they force water into the reactor too quickly.
07:25That's bad.
07:27It means that not enough water can be turned into steam to drive the turbines.
07:32They're out of balance.
07:391.19
07:41Leonid thinks he can help by increasing power in the reactor's core.
07:47It works.
07:48The reactor gets hotter, creating more steam to drive the turbines.
07:54Leonid and Boris think they have the situation under control.
07:58They continue with the test preparations.
08:02What they don't know is that the core is heating up to dangerous levels.
08:11In the turbine hall, Yuri Karneev gets a phone call.
08:16Someone in the control room tells him the preparations are complete and the test is about to start.
08:22To the crew on the night shift, everything at Chernobyl appears normal.
08:311.23
08:32An operator shuts down the turbines as planned.
08:37This is the start of the test they've been preparing for since the beginning of the shift.
08:44But just as Leonid monitors the reactor, he sees its temperature begin to soar.
08:50Pressure in the reactor heads towards critical.
08:53Warning alarms blare through the control room.
09:00Now, Leonid and Boris see they've got a problem.
09:05But they don't know.
09:07They have only seconds to prevent a full-blown nuclear disaster.
09:20Engineers at the Soviet Union's most modern nuclear plant are beginning a safety drill.
09:25But from the start, problems develop.
09:27And now something seems to be going very wrong.
09:32The young men who work the night shift struggle to prevent a major nuclear accident.
09:37It's 1.23 in the morning.
09:40The man in charge of the reactor, Leonid Toktunov, takes drastic measures.
09:45He hits the reactor's emergency shutdown button.
09:49But there's no shutdown.
09:51And worse, the heat of the reactor races higher, reaching 100 times normal levels.
09:57The unimaginable begins.
10:00The extreme heat starts to destroy the core.
10:05Boris and Leonid realize they're no longer in control.
10:09Just one minute later,
10:12Chernobyl's number four reactor explodes.
10:19The force of the explosion blows the reactor's 2,000-ton steel roof sideways.
10:25Eight tons of highly radioactive fuel blast into the night sky.
10:37In the turbine hall, Yuri Karneev watches in disbelief.
10:41The roof crashes down around him.
10:49I couldn't say a word.
10:51I crouched near the control panel.
10:54When the roof stopped falling, I thought,
10:57well, thank God, it hasn't fallen on me.
11:03In the control room, about 300 meters away,
11:06Engineer Boris Stolyarczuk feels like he's in a dream.
11:13I felt something strange was going on.
11:16I heard a big bang.
11:17I was petrified.
11:19I didn't know what to do.
11:24Outside Chernobyl,
11:26fisherman Pyotr Tolstakov becomes an eyewitness to history.
11:38Explosion is an imprecise word.
11:40It was like a volcanic eruption.
11:53The alarm goes off at the plant's fire station.
12:00Within four minutes of the explosion,
12:02the first group of 14 firefighters race to the scene.
12:15Fire has broken out all over reactor 4.
12:19They need extra backup.
12:22Fire chief Pyotr Tomel is one of 100 extra firefighters responding to the call.
12:30There were bits of wires lying about.
12:33All the technical units were in pieces.
12:36We didn't know it was the reactor because no one had told us.
12:43None of the firemen realize they're in the midst of a nuclear catastrophe.
12:49For an hour and a half, they struggle with the flames.
12:55And one by one, the men start to collapse,
12:58vomiting and losing consciousness.
13:01Pyotr Hamel is among them.
13:11We didn't think it was a dangerous event.
13:13Not on a global scale.
13:17We thought it was just a normal fire.
13:23By five in the morning, the flames are extinguished.
13:27Pyotr is flown to a Moscow hospital for emergency treatment.
13:31He's suffering from the effects of radiation.
13:36But at least he survives.
13:40Of the 69 firefighters at the blaze,
13:4331 die from direct exposure to radiation.
13:48Many others suffer from the symptoms of acute radiation syndrome.
13:54Thermal and chemical burns.
13:58Heart failure.
14:01Damage to the lungs.
14:03And immune system.
14:06But this is only the start of the crisis.
14:09The shattered reactor continues to emit lethal radiation.
14:14But Soviet authorities react with silence.
14:17In the race between the West and the Soviet Union,
14:20Premier Gorbachev tries to hide the disaster.
14:24Most of the power plant's employees live with their families
14:27in the town of Pripyat, three kilometers away.
14:32They have no idea that their lives are at risk.
14:37Oksana Savchenko was 13 years old at the time.
14:41Her father was working in reactor number four.
14:45He doesn't return home in the morning.
14:55A neighbor visited my mom and told her that something had happened at the plant,
14:59and that no one had come back yet.
15:04Her husband was working there.
15:09We felt tense.
15:10We suspected that something was wrong.
15:12We suspected that something was wrong.
15:17By the evening, there's still no news of Oksana's father.
15:26Instead, the Soviet authorities begin top-secret preparations
15:29to evacuate the entire population of Pripyat,
15:32almost 50,000 people.
15:38The evacuation has to be swift and efficient.
15:45The army's called in and organize a 1,200 bus convoy.
15:51Thirty-six hours after the explosion, the residents of Pripyat
15:55get their first official information.
16:03Attention, comrades.
16:05An unsatisfactory radioactive situation has occurred at the Chernobyl power station.
16:19As a temporary precaution, it has been decided to evacuate citizens of Pripyat.
16:29Oksana is stunned.
16:36They told us we should pack and prepare some food for the trip.
16:42We should take our documents and money, of course,
16:45and wait for the buses to arrive.
16:47We should wait.
16:48We should wait when they start to supply the buses.
16:53Oksana's father remains missing.
16:55But her family have no choice.
16:58They must leave.
16:59Nobody knows where they'll be taken.
17:08The mass evacuation begins at 2pm.
17:13Three hours later, Pripyat is a ghost town.
17:19The column of buses and trucks stretches for 15 km.
17:27At Chernobyl, the reactor continues to spew out deadly radiation.
17:36The authorities scramble to halt further radioactive fallout.
17:41Over the next six days, 1,800 helicopter runs drop 5,000 tons of chemicals into the destroyed reactor
17:49in order to absorb the radiation.
17:53But a much more dangerous plan will soon emerge.
17:59So far, the Soviets assume only those directly affected know about the crisis.
18:06But it's the Cold War.
18:09And U.S. satellites carry out round-the-clock surveillance over the Soviet Union as a matter of course.
18:16Just 28 seconds after the explosion, a satellite passed over Chernobyl.
18:21This is the image it captured.
18:23At first, U.S. intelligence thinks that the Soviets have launched a nuclear missile.
18:29But the red shows an area of intense heat at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near Kyiv.
18:35They realize something has gone horribly wrong.
18:43The Americans are the last people Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev wants to know about the accident.
18:50He's only been in office for a year, and the Americans could use the information to expose the holes in
18:58Soviet nuclear expertise.
19:00And the disaster could cause international embarrassment.
19:116.30 in the morning, April 28th.
19:14Two days after the disaster, nuclear engineer Cliff Robinson is driving to work at the Forsmark nuclear power plant in
19:21Sweden.
19:24It's 1,600 kilometers north of Chernobyl.
19:29To enter the site, Cliff has to pass through a radiation monitor.
19:36The alarm went off, indicating that I was contaminated.
19:40And it was so strange because I hadn't been into the controlled area of the power station.
19:48Cliff is puzzled.
19:49He re-enters the radiation monitor, setting off the alarm again and again.
19:54He assumes the equipment must be faulty.
19:57Then, other workers are also prevented entry by the machine.
20:02Nobody could go through this monitor because the alarm went off all the time.
20:08Radiation is invisible, but Cliff guesses it's the workers' shoes that keep triggering the alarm.
20:16And I put it on one of our detectors and started a measurement.
20:22And the activity level was just enormous.
20:28Cliff is able to work out that the radiation could not be from his plant at Forsmark.
20:34My personal thought was that somebody must have exploded a nuclear weapon somewhere.
20:42The hunt is on to find a source of the contamination.
20:47It was a normal Monday and it became very, very abnormal.
20:53Later that day, Swedish scientists identify the source of the radiation.
20:58It's coming from the Soviet Union.
21:04They demand an explanation and the Soviet Union bows to the pressure.
21:09It publicly admits to the nuclear accident at Chernobyl.
21:13The disaster explodes into front page news across the world.
21:18The press described Chernobyl as an apocalypse.
21:26An accident has occurred at the Chernobyl atomic power plant.
21:31One of the atomic reactors has been damaged.
21:34By contrast, inside the USSR, the incident gets downplayed, buried under a host of other stories in the day's TV
21:41news.
21:43Measures are being undertaken to eliminate the consequences.
21:47The victims are being given medical attention and an investigation committee has been set up.
21:52Behind the news lies the larger truth.
21:54The Soviet nuclear dream is beginning to crumble.
21:59Signs of radioactive fallout turn up all over Europe.
22:04After 10 days, the toxic cloud has reached as far as the United States and Japan.
22:10There's a real threat to other countries.
22:15It takes just 84 minutes to destroy Chernobyl's nuclear reactor.
22:19Now we rewind the events of April 26th and focus on the actions of the engineers in the control room
22:25who were ordered by their managers to perform a safety test.
22:33Taking data from the official report and creating cutting-edge computer simulation
22:37will go where no camera has gone, into the poisonous heart of Chernobyl's disaster zone.
22:47Immediately after the explosion, Soviet authorities order in leading Russian scientists.
22:53For them, this is no ordinary forensic inquiry.
22:58To discover what went wrong, they must enter the melting reactor core.
23:04The danger of radiation poisoning is very real.
23:09The investigation begins with interviews.
23:15Alexandra Agulov was just outside the reactor hall.
23:20The door was torn off its hinges, lying in the opposite corner.
23:24We couldn't see anything in the doorway.
23:36Looking over the debris, I saw that the walls and ceiling had been destroyed.
23:45Water was flowing down the broken walls.
23:50This water was glowing.
23:57Experts in the West have long been suspicious about the safety of Soviet reactors like the one at Chernobyl.
24:04British physicist Jim Al-Khalili has studied the flaws in Chernobyl's design.
24:10They have an instability, something built into their design, which means that they can get very, very hot, very, very
24:18quickly.
24:20Senior officials knew about this design fault.
24:23So how did the disaster happen?
24:31The investigators gather at the scene.
24:34They painstakingly reconstruct the events of the night.
24:37Their attention quickly focuses on the safety drill.
24:45The test was supposed to take place during the daytime, when more senior engineers would have been on duty.
24:53But it would have meant shutting down the reactor, causing major disruption to Kiev's electricity supply.
25:02Instead, the safety test is postponed until nighttime, when electricity demand on the plant is at its lowest.
25:13But by then, all the senior scientists have gone home, and a more junior team is left in charge of
25:19the number four reactor.
25:22The responsibility of carrying out the test falls on them.
25:32That opens a fundamental question for investigators.
25:36Was this a case of operator error, or a flaw in reactor design?
25:41How did a safety test turn into the world's worst nuclear disaster?
25:59Direct exposure to radiation kills 31 firefighters in the aftermath of the Chernobyl explosion.
26:08Now a team of Soviet scientists must investigate the still deadly site.
26:16The investigators know that a safety test was underway before the blast.
26:20Were the operators to blame for the accident, or flaws in the reactor?
26:27Here's how the reactor should have functioned.
26:32Uranium rods are used to produce heat in the reactor's core.
26:36Control rods are inserted to regulate the amount of energy that's given off by the uranium.
26:42As water passes over the nuclear core, it's turned into steam.
26:48Just as in any conventional power plant, the steam drives turbines, which generate electricity.
26:55Chernobyl runs on the very electrical energy that it produces.
26:59That's why safety tests are performed to ensure that the plant could operate if something failed in Chernobyl's electronic loop.
27:06For instance, would the plant still have enough electricity to safety control its uranium fuel rods if the turbine stopped?
27:14Could the water pumps provide enough coolant?
27:18Under normal circumstances, the reactor can be speeded up or slowed down by raising or lowering control rods in the
27:24core.
27:28Water pumped over the core helps to keep it from overheating, as well as producing steam for electricity.
27:35But if the plant's turbines can't produce the electricity which runs the crucial water pumps,
27:40the reactor could quickly and dangerously overheat.
27:49Which is why investigators directed their attention to the actions of the men on the night shift.
27:55The safety of the reactor depends on a delicate balancing act between these two men.
28:01Together, they must make sure that there's always enough steam to drive the turbines,
28:07and that the reactor core does not overheat.
28:11Although they were junior, both were experienced.
28:14So what happened that terrible night?
28:17One hour and 19 minutes before the explosion,
28:20when Leonid begins to power down the reactor core,
28:23at first, it all seems to go well.
28:28The reactor's control rods regulate the amount of energy the uranium fuel produces.
28:35Steam, and hence the power output in the reactor core, is regulated using control rods.
28:42When the control rods are lowered into the core, they lower the amount of energy produced,
28:48and so less steam is produced to drive the turbines.
28:52When the control rods are lifted, the energy in the core increases again.
29:02Reactor number four had 211 control rods.
29:05These should have prevented the explosion.
29:07Why didn't they work?
29:11To prepare for the test, Leonid uses control rods to gradually reduce power.
29:19But power levels drop too much, too soon.
29:2552 minutes before the blast.
29:31Leonid has to raise power levels.
29:33He does this by taking out control rods.
29:41It works.
29:44Slowly, but surely, the power output creeps back up.
29:5321 minutes.
29:56Boris continues preparations for the drill.
30:00By altering the water flow around the reactor core.
30:03The idea is that the main pumps which normally supply water will stop during the simulated power failure.
30:10So, as a backup, Boris makes sure there's an alternative water supply.
30:14He plans to use two auxiliary pumps that will divert extra water from other parts of the power station to
30:21reactor four.
30:22But when Boris turns on the extra pumps, he allows too much water into the reactor core too fast.
30:31The rate that water flows over the fuel rods is crucial.
30:35Because the faster the water flows over the fuel rods, the less steam is made.
30:42After 15 minutes of pumping extra water into the system, there's not enough steam to keep the turbine running.
30:52Five minutes.
30:53The team has to get the reactor in balance.
30:57Boris knows he must increase the flow of steam to the turbines.
31:01He takes action, pumping water into the steam drum.
31:06The steam drum is a central chamber where both water and steam levels can be kept in check.
31:12As the volume of water increases in the drum, the steam pressure rises back to normal.
31:19But Boris allows too much cold water into the steam drum.
31:23The result? Excess water enters the reactor core, and once again, too little steam is being produced.
31:32And they haven't even started the test yet.
31:39The investigators know the men in the control room are now in serious trouble.
31:45They have just four minutes left.
31:49The only thing Leonid can do to increase the steam going to the turbines
31:53is to reduce the number of the control rods in the core.
31:58The operating guidelines set the minimum at 26 control rods.
32:04Leonid feels he has no choice but to go full throttle.
32:08He removes all the rods but six.
32:12Amazingly, at this critical stage, the night shift continues with the test.
32:19The technicians who are carrying out the test were very naive in thinking they could continue running this test with
32:28only six control rods in the reactor.
32:31With so few control rods, the only thing that can stop the reactor from overheating is the water around its
32:38core.
32:40The smallest drop in water level could prove critical.
32:44And as fate would have it, when they least need it, the communication between Leonid and Boris breaks down.
32:51Less than three minutes before the explosion, Boris finally realizes that too much water has flowed into the steam drum.
32:59Immediately, he cuts the flow of water, which also affects water flowing into the overheated reactor core.
33:06Boris makes no allowance for the fact that Leonid has removed all but six of the control rods.
33:14I didn't know anything about it.
33:18And I can't say whether there were fewer rods than required.
33:25One and a half minutes before the explosion, without enough control rods to help keep the temperature in check, the
33:32reactor core is seriously overheating.
33:37Unbeknown to the night shift, they've lost control of the power plant.
33:41Under the extreme temperatures, Chernobyl's reactor number four is about to crumble.
33:48The worst case scenario in any nuclear power station is that there's a build-up of heat and energy that
33:58becomes critical.
34:02Still, investigators don't understand how the overheated core triggered the final explosion.
34:1256 seconds before the blast, the turbine operator gets the order to proceed with the safety test.
34:25He shuts down the turbines.
34:30Suddenly, the dials show the energy levels in the reactor are soaring dangerously high.
34:37Now, there is no time left.
34:56A safety test at Chernobyl has turned disastrously wrong.
35:00The nuclear reactor is going to blow in just 13 seconds.
35:05The men in the control room are helpless to do anything more.
35:10The fuel rods rupture because of the extreme heat.
35:13The blast generates a huge force of pressure against the reactor's 2,000-ton lid.
35:19Eight tons of highly radioactive debris explode into the sky.
35:27I couldn't even imagine such a thing could happen.
35:30It took everyone by surprise.
35:35Nothing like this has ever happened before.
35:42Radioactive fuel fragments explode directly into the atmosphere.
35:49Investigators calculate they shoot one kilometer into the sky.
35:54Some of the radioactive material is light enough to be carried by the winds and spread over thousands of kilometers.
36:04Within ten days, it reaches as far as Japan and North America.
36:11Radioactive atoms are very unstable and they want to settle down.
36:15They do this by spitting out radiation.
36:19And if the dose of radioactive material is large enough, then the radiation emitted can be damaging to human tissue
36:27or even lethal.
36:32Even though investigators now know what caused the explosion, they are horrified by the prospect of a much bigger crisis.
36:40Radioactivity doesn't just spread through the air.
36:43Scientists are terrified that the reactor core will melt into the water table underneath.
36:49Once radioactive material hits the water table, then it can spread very, very quickly into maybe thousands and thousands of
36:56homes and drinking water and so on.
36:59Residents of Kiev, only 104 kilometers away, have no idea that their lives are now at risk.
37:06But for the men charged with controlling the disaster, it's a very real concern.
37:11They need to know if the core has melted.
37:15Veniamin Priyanishnikov gets the job.
37:17He has to crawl through a tunnel just 80 centimeters wide to inspect the damaged core.
37:26Why have I agreed to carry out this work?
37:31What do you mean, I've agreed?
37:34I didn't agree.
37:36In those times, no one asked for consent.
37:42Veniamin knows very well that he's risking his life.
37:46Carefully, he steps into a room underneath the core.
37:49Suddenly, something drops onto his head.
37:54If radioactive fuel had fallen on my head, I would have died.
38:00I would have been a dead man.
38:03Colleagues throw him a Geiger counter.
38:05The radiation levels are safe.
38:08It's not nuclear fuel that's landed on his head, but uncontaminated rubble.
38:14When I realized I was going to live, I felt so happy and delighted.
38:23It's difficult to believe.
38:25I would have stood no chance if it was fuel.
38:29My bones, they would have rotted.
38:35Veniamin confirms that so far the reactor core has not yet melted through.
38:40But the authorities fear it could.
38:43They must act fast.
38:44They decide to place a massive concrete slab underneath the reactor.
38:49But before they can make the slab, they need to build an access tunnel.
38:53It's a mammoth task.
38:55400 miners dig around the clock.
38:58In just 15 days, they manage to complete a 168-meter-long tunnel.
39:04And the concrete slab is maneuvered into position.
39:11Still, 200 tons of radioactive lava remain above the slab inside the reactor's wreckage.
39:17The radiation it releases could cause serious harm for many years.
39:21The authorities decide the best way to stop this is by building an enormous concrete tomb around the entire reactor.
39:30But nothing can be done because radioactive debris from the explosion continues to emit lethal doses of radiation into the
39:38air.
39:39The debris must first be cleared away.
39:42It's a job for the army.
39:45Thousands of so-called liquidators are drafted in from across the Soviet Union.
39:49They're put under the command of General Tarakanov.
39:54I was summoned to the Politburo Commission and was told,
39:58Sir Nikolai, we have decided that you are the most talented and courageous general,
40:01and you are to head the operation for removal of the nuclear fuel by soldiers.
40:06I said, are you out of your mind? Is a soldier a robot?
40:12The soldiers are ordered to shovel the radioactive debris back into the destroyed core.
40:19You'll find some blocks weighing 40 to 50 kilograms each.
40:24Carry those blocks to the pit and throw them in.
40:29They're doing it correctly, do you see?
40:39The soldiers carry out their duties wearing special lead clothing weighing 30 kilograms.
40:44Each man is allowed to work for only three minutes, but it's long enough to receive a lifetime's dose of
40:50radiation.
40:51Many thousands will die as a consequence of this in years to come.
40:56I was being exposed to radiation and I was sending soldiers to receive radiation. It was incredible.
41:04Construction of the shelter continues throughout the cleanup operation.
41:07In a fight against time, it's completed in 206 days.
41:12But 200 tons of lethal uranium and a ton of even deadlier plutonium remain inside the shelter.
41:19And no one really knows if the shelter is enough to stop the radiation from escaping out of the core.
41:30For the first time since the nuclear explosion in 1986, pump operator Boris Stolyachuk is back in a control room
41:38at Chernobyl.
41:40I'm looking around and thinking, I used to run all this.
41:46The investigation into the disaster is finally able to answer the question, design floor with the reactor or operator error.
42:03They find that the critical chain of events springs from the actions of night shift workers ordered by supervisors to
42:10carry out a safety test.
42:14Leonid removes too many control rods from the reactor.
42:19Then Boris reduces the amount of cooling water flowing through it.
42:25Their actions make the reactor very unstable, yet they don't realize it.
42:30And when they finally try to rectify these errors, it's too late.
42:33The fuse that leads to the massive blast has been lit.
42:52But the investigators decide that the night shift were not to blame.
42:56Boris and Leonid were forced to carry out the safety test.
42:59The final conclusion? The disaster was caused by systemic poor management.
43:05Three senior engineers were given 10-year prison sentences.
43:08Even though the operators were exonerated, Boris still feels the need to defend the actions of the night shift.
43:23Unfortunately, there's still an opinion that the operational staff were to blame for the accident.
43:30As for me, I don't feel responsible.
43:35And I don't think the operators were to blame.
43:41Today, the little town of Pripyat, once home to thousands of Chernobyl's workers, is so toxic it's sealed off from
43:48the public.
43:52Access is restricted in a 30-kilometer no-man's land around the nuclear plant.
43:58Any hopes that residents may have had of returning to reclaim their homes are long gone.
44:06Oksana Savchenko was 13 years old at the time of the accident.
44:10She's permitted to return just for a brief visit.
44:15I feel pain, sorrow. When I first came here, I cried.
44:26It was very hard for me.
44:29Too many memories.
44:35Her father, who was at the plant on the night of the explosion, was exposed to lethal amounts of radiation.
44:41He died in a Moscow hospital a few months later.
44:48Amazingly, the Chernobyl power plant stayed in operation for nearly 15 years.
44:52Workers commuted daily into the restricted area, in spite of the fact that it was too dangerous to live there.
44:59Finally, in December 2000, Chernobyl shut down for good.
45:07The Ukrainian government estimates that at least 8,000 people have died as a result of the catastrophe.
45:14But the United Nations believes it's still too early to establish the true picture.
45:21One thing, however, is certain.
45:24In the worst affected areas, the rate of thyroid cancer in children and teenagers has risen over 100 times.
45:38The disaster forced the Soviet Union to modify all reactors of a similar design, to ensure its horror could never
45:45be repeated.
45:49Today, 200 tons of uranium, and nearly a ton of deadly plutonium, remain inside the destroyed reactor.
46:01In 1997, a group of 28 nations, including the United States, agreed to fund a 10-year plan for a
46:07long-term solution to Chernobyl.
46:09A 20,000 tonne steel arch will completely enclose Chernobyl's reactor 4.
46:15It'll cost a massive $768 million.
46:18A key part of the new project are the four giant cranes in the ceiling of the new shell.
46:23They're capable of breaking down the wreckage and removing radioactive dust.
46:29When complete, the hope is that the radioactive threat of Chernobyl can finally be defeated.
46:40.
46:43.
46:44Ones.
46:44.
46:46.
47:16You
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