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Chernobyl Days That Shocked the World S01E01

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00:13End of April 1986 was very warm, it was very nice, forever long sunny and warm day.
00:30When he left, he took a drink, drank a drink, drank a drink.
00:44We could hear, well, we thought, that it was a threat.
00:50An accident has occurred at the Chernobyl atomic power plant.
01:02The nuclear fuel started to melt down.
01:10You have all this radioactivity up in the sky and a nuclear reaction that is out of control.
01:16No one didn't say anything, because the police officers worked there.
01:22Each telephone of the Pripyat citizens were cut to avoid spread of information.
01:30As much as you wanted this accident to be a secret, the world began to be suspicious.
01:39There was the banner headline, Death Cloud Approaches Britain.
02:10Star Wars
02:12hall is where i'm standing and that is the shopping center pripyat was built in the 1970s
02:19at the height of the cold war oh it's it's wonderful it's being back in time really
02:28a time when ukraine was cloaked by the iron curtain of soviet secrecy it's tragedy that
02:35you can't actually revisit the place because everybody is all over the world if they're
02:40lucky to be alive that is ala kravchuk attended the high school we moved to pripyat in 1982
02:54the town is surrounded with forests i learned to ride my bike for the first time in my life
03:01because there was lots of open places and spaces especially around my school
03:08i think everybody in the world remembers their youth as the best time of their life so do i
03:20helena sulimova and her husband valeri arrived soon after graduating from university
03:39we immediately loved pripyat from the first sight because the architecture and the layout of the city was
03:52very i would say for that time very modern very nice squares and boulevard this new soviet city was an
04:03enticing utopia created for just one purpose pripyat is the city of the nuclear workers for the chernobyl power plant
04:18an
04:192
04:19the
04:20the
04:20the
04:20We gave a house.
04:22Our daughter was three years old.
04:27We gave her a child's house.
04:30We both worked as a chemical engineer.
04:41We both worked at the Chernobyl Atom Station.
04:46The Chernobyl power plant, known in Ukrainian as Chernobyl,
04:50was just two kilometers from Pripyat.
04:55Two reactors went online in 1977.
05:00Alokravchuk's father, Volodymyr, helped build two more in the early 80s.
05:05He was the building engineer.
05:07So he would calculate the structure.
05:10He would then observe it being built correctly.
05:15It was new.
05:18It was clean energy.
05:21It was built with the latest technology.
05:25It had a fantastic future.
05:28Of course, he would be proud of being involved.
05:34Much of this historic footage has been preserved by Oleksandr Sirota.
05:40Now a journalist.
05:42In 1986, he was a nine-year-old Pripyat schoolboy.
05:47We were quite a lot on campus.
05:50We had to do this for children.
05:51We were doing excursions.
05:52We had, at least his class, were.
05:55We had to do so many chefs.
05:57We were pretty close to my class.
05:59We were about to enjoy this class.
06:01We're doing similar to this.
06:03We had a hard time for our first turn.
06:06I would like to know that if I had to protect it, then I would like to take it.
06:12I remember what they told us about.
06:14The peace atom is the safest way,
06:18and the Soviet peace atom is the safest way out of all.
06:36The main element of the nuclear power plant is water.
06:40Because water is cooler.
06:43Oleksii Brias was a reactor operator for Unit 4.
06:47Over the port, there are at least 4 people.
06:54This part of the reactor reactor block is one of the most important moments in the operation.
07:02And the security system was very responsible.
07:07It was all in my hands.
07:09That explained that there are going to be three levels of safety.
07:15If one of the safety systems did not work,
07:21it immediately sparks the next, and so on.
07:26And there was no concern.
07:28We trusted the safety. We did.
07:32We never thought that something could happen at our station.
07:37And we may cooperate out in Israel.
07:48We still had scores.
07:50Overnight, on Friday, the 25th of April,
07:53plant operators planned a safety test
07:55to coincide with routine maintenance on reactor Unit 4.
08:00Helena was planned to be on the night shift then next day was her birthday she
08:08was 25 this day and we plan a small party to celebrate and she went to her
08:24shift as Friday ticked into Saturday Helina arrived at the plant 0-0 часов
08:32ΠΏΡ€ΠΈΠ±Π΅ΠΆΠ°Π»Π° Π² Π»Π°Π±ΠΎΡ€Π°Ρ‚ΠΎΡ€ΠΈΡŽ Π³Π΄Π΅ ΠΌΠΎΠΈ ΠΊΠΎΠ»Π»Π΅Π³ΠΈ ΠΊΠΎΠ³Π΄Π° ΡΡ€Π°Π²Π½ΡΠ»Π°ΡΡŒ 0 часов мСня
08:39ΠΏΠΎΠ·Π΄Ρ€Π°Π²ΠΈΠ»ΠΈ с Π΄Π½Π΅ΠΌ роТдСния ΠΏΠΎ ΠΏΠΎΡ€Π°Π΄ΠΎΠ²Π°Π»ΠΈΡΡŒ Ρ‡Ρ‚ΠΎ ΠΎΠ½ΠΈ сдСлали это Ρ€Π°Π½ΡŒΡˆΠ΅
08:43Ρ‡Π΅ΠΌ ΠΌΠΎΠΉ ΠΌΡƒΠΆ ΠΈ Ρ‚ΠΎΠ³Π΄Π° Π΅Ρ‰Π΅ Π½Π°Ρ‡Π°Π»ΡŒΠ½ΠΈΠΊ Π»Π°Π±ΠΎΡ€Π°Ρ‚ΠΎΡ€ΠΈΠΈ химичСской ΠΎΠ½ Ρ‡Π΅Ρ€Π΅Π·
08:52Π½Π΅ΠΊΠΎΡ‚ΠΎΡ€ΠΎΠ΅ врСмя сказал Ρ‡Ρ‚ΠΎ Ρ€Π°Π±ΠΎΡ‚Ρ‹ Π±ΡƒΠ΄Π΅Ρ‚ ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΎ Π΄ΠΎ ΡƒΡ‚Ρ€Π° ΠΈ ΠΌΡ‹ ΠΌΠΎΠΆΠ΅ΠΌ ΠΎΡ‚ΠΏΡƒΡΡ‚ΠΈΡ‚ΡŒ тСбя Π΄ΠΎΠΌΠΎΠΉ
09:00I know never shut down reactor very quick because we need the water cool and chill a
09:08little bit and I have suspicious that my wife will come back
09:16Π²ΠΎΡ‚ Π²Ρ‹Π±Π΅ΠΆΠ°Π»Π° Π½Π° ΡƒΠ»ΠΈΡ†Ρƒ Π° автобус послСдний ΡƒΠΆΠ΅ ΠΏΠΎΠ΅Ρ…Π°Π» ΠΈ ΠΊΡ‚ΠΎ-Ρ‚ΠΎ Π² автобусС стоял
09:27Π·Π°Π΄ΠΎΠΌ смотрСл Π·Π°Π΄Π½Π΅Π΅ стСкло ΠΈ ΡƒΠ²ΠΈΠ΄Π΅Π» Ρ‡Ρ‚ΠΎ я Π²Ρ‹Π±Π΅ΠΆΠ°Π»Π° со станции ΠΈ попросил
09:34ΠΎΡΡ‚Π°Π½ΠΎΠ²ΠΈΡ‚ΡŒ автобус ΠΎΠ½ остановился я Π΄ΠΎΠ±Π΅ΠΆΠ°Π»Π° Π΄ΠΎ Π½Π΅Π³ΠΎ
09:37I heard steps and welcome back congratulations happy birthday ok we talk a little bit about
09:57party and ok go to bed
10:15ΠΌΡƒΠΆΠ΅ΠΌ ΡƒΡΠ»Ρ‹ΡˆΠ°Π»ΠΈ Π½Ρƒ Ρ‚Π°ΠΊ ΠΌΡ‹ ΠΏΠΎΠ΄ΡƒΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈ Ρ‡Ρ‚ΠΎ Π³Ρ€ΠΎΠ·Π° почувствовали Ρ‡Ρ‚ΠΎ Ρƒ нас Π΄ΠΎΠΌ Ρ‚Π°ΠΊ ΠΊΠ°ΠΊ Π±Ρ‹
10:24Π½Π΅ΠΌΠ½ΠΎΠΆΠΊΠΎ тряхнула Π²ΠΎΡ‚ Π½ΠΎ ΠΌΡ‹ Ρ€Π΅ΡˆΠΈΠ»ΠΈ Ρ‡Ρ‚ΠΎ это Π³Ρ€ΠΎΠ·Π° ΠΈ ΠΌΡ‹ уснули спокойно
10:37Pripyat surgeon Π΄ΠΎΠΊΡ‚ΠΎΡ€ алСксандр Π±ΡƒΠ³Π°Ρ€ was also fast asleep
10:41мСня подняли дСсь Π±Π΅Π· Π΄Π²Π°Π΄Ρ†Π°Ρ‚ΠΈ Π΄Π²Π° ΠΏΠΎ Ρ‚Ρ€Π΅Π²ΠΎΠ·Π΅
10:48швидка Π΄ΠΎΠΏΠΎΠΌΠΎΠ³Π° подъСзТала Π·Π°Π±ΠΈΡ€Π°Π»Π° мСня ΠΈΠ· Π΄ΠΎΠΌΠ° ΠΈ ΠΏΡ€ΠΈΠ²Π΅Π·Π»Π° Π² мСдсанчастину
10:53Π° сСйчас просто сказали Ρ‡Ρ‚ΠΎ Π½Π΅ΠΌΠ° машин добирайтСся пСшки
10:58Π½ΠΈ ΠΎΠ΄Π½Π° ΠΏΡ‚Π°ΡˆΠΊΠ° Π½Π΅ спивала Π°Π±ΡΠΎΠ»ΡŽΡ‚Π½ΠΎ Ρ‚ΠΈΡ…ΠΎ Π±Ρ‹Π»ΠΎ ΡΡ‚Ρ€Π°ΡˆΠ½ΠΎ ΠΈ Π² напрямку Π°Ρ‚ΠΎΠΌΠ½ΠΎΠΉ станции стояло Ρ‚Π°ΠΊΠ΅
11:12ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:13ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:14ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:14ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:15я Ρ‚Π°ΠΊΠΎΠ³ΠΎ Π½Π΅ ΠΌΠ°Ρ‚ΡŒ
11:16ΠΊΠΎΠ»ΠΎΡ€Ρƒ я Ρ‚Π°ΠΊΠΎΠ³ΠΎ Π½Π΅ ΠΌΠ°Ρ‚ΡŒ Π½Π° Ρ‡ΠΎΡ€Π½ΠΎΠΌ Π½Π΅Π±Π΅ просто Ρ‰ΠΎΡΡŒ ΠΊΡƒΠΏΠΎΠ»ΠΎΠΌ Π³ΠΎΡ€ΠΈΡ‚
11:23ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:24ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:25ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:25ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:27ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:29ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:29ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:30ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:32ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:33ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:33ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:34ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:34ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:36ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:37ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:38ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:40ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:42ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:42ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:42ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:43ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:43ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:44ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:44ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:49ΠΌΠ°Π»ΠΈΠ½Π°
11:56It was the first patient. He was in a difficult position. He was absolutely all covered.
12:05Everything except the knee. It was covered, but the skin was not red, but white.
12:12The skin was red, and everything was covered.
12:16And immediately, when it was radioactive, I didn't understand.
12:31Five hours after Chernobyl's reactor exploded.
12:35In nearby Pripyat no one yet knew there was a problem.
12:39It was a normal school day for Oleksandr Sirota.
12:44When I got out of home, I went to school.
12:49I had to go there for 5-7 minutes to the first school, where I was teaching.
12:57The only thing that I found out there was a little bit strange,
13:01it was the fact that this way along the street,
13:06one-on-one,
13:07there were a washing machine,
13:09as it was called,
13:11which cleaned the road.
13:15And I went to the other side and went on to the other side.
13:21Reactor operator Alexi Brias was due on shift at Unit 4.
13:27In the morning, when I went to the other side,
13:30when I went to the other side,
13:30I went to the other side,
13:31and I drank coffee.
13:32In the morning of the 26th,
13:34I had to go to the other side at 8 o'clock.
13:37It was a planned change.
13:40It was a planned change.
13:41It was a planned change.
13:41The only thing that I went to the other side of the bus,
13:46as it was,
13:47it wasn't something else.
13:49Chernobyl chemist Valery Sulimov
13:51was preparing for his wife Helena's birthday.
13:54In the morning when I woke up,
13:56I decided to go to the local market
13:59to buy something for the party.
14:02But then I saw my friend and,
14:05oh, did you hear?
14:08The plant, it is exploding.
14:11No, you are joking.
14:13You are kidding me.
14:16It is impossible because it is impossible.
14:26And he told me,
14:28there is no reactor unit number four.
14:32The northern and south walls
14:36are destroyed completely.
14:39It is a fire there.
14:43Ooh, what is shit?
14:50When I saw the ruined building,
14:53the ruins of this ruins,
14:54it,
14:56it,
14:56it,
14:57it,
14:57it,
15:09and
15:10it.
15:12The explosion had ripped reactor μˆ˜κ°€ open,
15:27exposing its roof and
15:28radioactive core.
15:30A lot of nuclear materials and fission isotopes went to
15:35atmosphere, even parts of the nuclear rods were dispersed
15:42nearby the unit number four.
16:03Well, it's all very close, to the fact that I went to work with my colleague
16:12and we went to the night shift, Valery Khadimchuk.
16:18I went home, but he stayed, and he became one of the first
16:25people who went to check the equipment, went to the block, and
16:33unfortunately, he stayed there.
16:35He died.
16:38He didn't even get out of there.
16:44Well, like a gift from the heavens.
16:48I could stay there.
16:51Yes, it was my second day of birth.
17:15At the hospital, Dr. Alexander Bugar did all he could for
17:21Volodymyr Shashinok.
17:22He was very, very intensively treated, but, for a great
17:26shame, from radiation radiation.
17:27I understood immediately that it was radioactive
17:30operations.
17:31But from radiation radiation, he died in pain.
17:39Firefighters, who'd been battling the blaze, arrived at the hospital.
18:02While fire raged on the roof, reactor operator Alexi Brias was down below, trying to cool the
18:09overheating fuel.
18:10We were doing something.
18:11We were running, running, trying to bring water to the reactor.
18:17There was a ready to do anything for any price.
18:31But the water was just finished.
18:34I was about 10.04.
18:36The water was finished.
18:37I stopped the last engine, because it was not necessary.
18:40There was no water.
18:43The last button of the fourth block was pressed on me.
18:50All water was flooded away, and the reactor has no cooling, and the nuclear fuel started to melt down.
19:19This melted nuclear fuel has approximately 2,000 degrees Celsius, and easily can go through the concrete steel under the
19:31reactor.
19:31The molten core was now blasting radiation in all directions.
19:38On the back of the reactor reactor, near the reactor reactor, there was a leak.
19:44I told them that the leak of the leak is about 800 ΞΌRs per second.
19:520,8 ΞΌRs per second.
19:55This is the maximum amount of operators.
19:580,8.
19:59This is 800.
20:00This is the 1,000 times more.
20:020,8.
20:040,8.
20:060,9.
20:060,9.
20:070,0.
20:200,0.
20:22The skin was a purple color of the body.
20:26The neck and neck were red,
20:29that was the parts of the body that were opened were red.
20:33And the skin was just a beautiful skin.
20:38And yet, in nearby Pripyat,
20:41shops and schools were still open as usual.
20:44The first day on Saturday, 26,
20:48it was, I would say, silent from the local authority.
20:52Even from the top level of the government of the Soviet Union complete silence.
21:00It was strange when, after the phone call,
21:03our teacher did not appear immediately.
21:09When we hear in the open window a lot of smoke,
21:13it was very interesting.
21:15And we, with this friend,
21:17just go out to the window
21:19and go out to this sound.
21:24Then, someone from the elderly said,
21:26what did you do?
21:27Why are you in school,
21:29or not at home,
21:30or at home,
21:31or at home,
21:32or at home,
21:32or at home,
21:33you don't have to be here.
21:35And from this moment,
21:37it was interesting.
21:38It was very interesting...
21:47and it was very interesting, we only saw it in the cinema.
21:51The biggest shock was that he was standing in the place
21:55somewhere near the river, he went to the river.
21:58And we went there.
22:02We, although we are specialists in radiation,
22:07but the person does not believe in the danger,
22:11even when it is already in front of our eyes.
22:24And the Soviet authorities wanted to keep it that way.
22:29Each telephone of the Pripyat citizens were cut,
22:33disconnected from the network,
22:37to avoid spread of information out of Pripyat.
22:43I went to a conversation point to contact parents.
22:48But, unfortunately, the connection was missing.
22:54I was trying to find something, but no connection was wrong.
23:07At the Chernobyl power plant, more than 24 hours after the explosion,
23:12workers like Alexey Brias were still struggling to cool the molten reactor core.
23:17We all knew and understood,
23:19that we are working not on a macaroni factory, as I say.
23:26We talk about heroism operators,
23:30and other liquidators,
23:33but no one of them thought about it.
23:37I didn't think about it.
23:38I absolutely didn't think about it.
23:40I never thought about it.
23:41I never thought about it.
23:42I was heroic.
23:42It was just, of course,
23:46my work.
23:48Heavily contaminated steam and debris were blowing from the burning reactor,
23:54triggering desperate attempts to smother it.
23:58And the air force tried to bomb the destroyed reactor number 4,
24:04reactor unit with sand, lead with clay from the helicopters,
24:11to make a kind of cork over the molten fuel and concrete.
24:20We warned us that on December 27th,
24:24the second day after the explosion,
24:26they will start to send the tanks with sand on the reactor.
24:29We warned us that if something is dark,
24:31we would not be surprised.
24:33It was really dark.
24:35Every fall,
24:36it was a lot of tons of these tanks,
24:38I don't know how much it was there,
24:40but it was like a car from the train,
24:43like a laugh.
24:45As the helicopters circled,
24:48the Soviet government maintained its total information blackout.
24:53For Soviet countries,
24:55it's normal.
24:56We always have to stop what's happening.
25:01Unfortunately.
25:07Alla Kravchuk was in Kyiv with her father Volodymyr,
25:11who had helped to build the reactor.
25:13When the accident has happened,
25:16nobody was informed.
25:20We arrived to the bus station.
25:22It's a big, huge place,
25:25completely deserted.
25:26No people, no buses.
25:28And Dad went to the information desk
25:31to find out what's happening.
25:34He was told that,
25:35oh, there would be no buses today
25:37because all the transport was sent to Pripyat.
25:40There was some kind of accident.
25:44And I remember my dad going white in color.
25:50He said,
25:51what kind of accident needs that many transportation forces?
25:56Oh, they have to evacuate the town.
26:00That's when he realized something serious has happened.
26:04Few knew, just how serious.
26:33Nearly 36 hours after the explosion,
26:36local officials finally ordered the evacuation.
27:06We had to collect only three days,
27:13and leave and sit in the bus.
27:18We had to take documents,
27:19some products for three days,
27:21and leave and leave.
27:34And at 2pm sharp,
27:38I don't know how many buses run to each building,
27:43and so we collected what they suggested,
27:50and my daughter and my wife went to evacuation.
27:55Leaving a handful of plant workers like Valeri behind,
27:59Pripyat's citizens were forced to flee.
28:02We, as all our neighbors,
28:04went to the bus,
28:05I went back to the back seat,
28:09where my friends were already
28:10and when the bus was coming from our house,
28:15he was on the central street,
28:17on the проспСкт Π›Π΅Π½Ρ–Π½Π°,
28:18and there was a column.
28:26There were doctors from Moscow,
28:31from the radiation center,
28:33who looked at them repeatedly
28:37and the squadron,
28:40who left alive.
28:41And they made the decision
28:43to move all of us to the city of Moscow.
28:47I went to take care of medical supplies
28:50for evacuation,
28:52and then they formed one of the column,
28:55and I was in the medical support of this column.
28:59And I went with this column
29:01to this column from the city of Pripyat.
29:16In maybe two hours,
29:1950,000 Pripyat citizens were evacuated.
29:24We, kids,
29:25played in the war,
29:27shooting with the obvious cars,
29:30that were driving behind us.
29:33And that's how we arrived for our three days
29:36in the unknown.
29:39The evacuees had no idea where they were going,
29:43or if they would ever be back.
29:46Meanwhile,
29:47the authorities continued to hide the disaster
29:49from the Soviet people
29:51and the world.
30:03We were monitoring in Sweden
30:05at seven, eight stations around.
30:08And we had one monitor up close to our lab.
30:13Nuclear scientist Lars-Erik Daguer
30:15worked for Sweden's Ministry of Defense,
30:18keeping watch for illegal nuclear weapons tests.
30:21I was excited by working
30:24with disarmament of nuclear weapons.
30:26I used to say that we could measure
30:29just one atom in a room.
30:34Two days after the Chernobyl explosion,
30:37Sweden's Forsmark nuclear power plant
30:39reported unusually high radiation readings.
30:46Monday, the 28th of April, 1986,
30:50I was sick.
30:52So I was in bed.
30:53And I heard on the radio
30:55that something had happened at Forsmark.
30:58Immediately, I had to redefine myself
31:01as non-sick.
31:04Lars-Erik's colleague, Ingmar Wintersved,
31:06was already checking one of their air filters.
31:09On my way from the Stockholm Central Station
31:13to the laboratory,
31:15I changed the filter
31:16and put it on a detector
31:19and, wow, we had a signal
31:21that was 100,000 to 1 million higher
31:23than we ever had in the collective.
31:27I called Ingmar
31:28and I said,
31:30I come in to the lab immediately.
31:34You could see the radionuclease appearing
31:37was something that could not have come
31:40from a nuclear explosion.
31:42It must come from a nuclear reactor.
31:48At Forsmark, they do have portals
31:50where they look if people are radioactive
31:53who leave the reactors.
31:56But after a while, they found
31:58that people arriving
31:59were the most radioactive ones.
32:02Higher radiation levels outside Forsmark
32:06meant contamination must have blown there
32:09from somewhere else.
32:11We had always,
32:13from the Swedish Meteorological Institute,
32:16information on every day
32:19from where the air had come.
32:21So it took a quarter of an hour
32:24to determine something must have happened
32:27in the Soviet Union.
32:28The Swedish government
32:30confronted officials in Moscow.
32:32Meanwhile, Ingmar revealed
32:34the shocking news to the media.
32:37I gave an interview
32:39at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
32:42Apparently, Reuters said
32:44that I had suggested
32:46that this is an accident
32:48in the former Soviet Union.
32:50Moscow still denied everything.
32:52But American-funded radio
32:54was breaking through the iron curtain.
32:58escreve itself
32:58at 5 o'clock in the afternoon.
33:02So I was arrested
33:03at 7 o'clock in the afternoon.
33:04It was illegal.
33:08We had the first news
33:11about the catastrophe
33:13and the scale of the catastrophe
33:14and was the first news
33:18about the catastrophe
33:19and the scale of the catastrophe.
33:20they reported that Swedish monitoring station reported about the rising of the radiation in
33:29the atmosphere nearly 72 hours after the accident the Soviets responded with this
33:36deliberately vague announcement an accident has occurred that the Chernobyl atomic power plant
33:42as one of the atomic reactors was damaged measures are being undertaken to eliminate
33:49the consequences of the accident aid is being given to those affected the truth was not
33:56containable because as much as you wanted this accident to be a secret the world began
34:04to realize that something is happening and the world began to be suspicious in the UK on the
34:16evening of Monday the 28th of April dr. Alan Flowers had just finished a lecture in London
34:22on nuclear power plant safety Monday evening I would often at the end of my lecture classes go
34:30out to my car and listen to the six o'clock news put the car radio on they summed up
34:35by saying the
34:37Soviet Union had admitted there'd been an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant first reaction
34:48is this this this has to be big an accident where radio activities reaching Sweden that is a significant
34:56accident if this had reached Sweden the radiation has every possibility to reach the UK fear of radiation
35:06was spreading across the world but at the plant a new crisis was looming so you've got two big
35:14things going on radioactivity dispersing through the atmosphere so it's going to be global because
35:21this is going to cross the borders of the Soviet Union at the same time you've got local issues of
35:28controlling a nuclear reaction that is out of control very high temperature molten material and the worry
35:36about where is this going to go is it going to burn its way down into the ground four days
35:47after the
35:47explosion unit force molten core was burning down through concrete and steel towards a cooling pond and
35:55and what the danger of this situation if their melted nuclear fuel comes to the water it will cause
36:06another and more powerful explosion burning hot fuel would instantly vaporize the water blasting
36:15thousands of tons of radioactive steam and debris into the sky three people from Chernobyl power plant
36:23two engineers and Boris Baranov he was shift supervisor I knew him very well they said okay we will try
36:35to open
36:36wells to drain water to prevent the reaction of their melting fuel with water in the full darkness they
36:48succeeded to find the wells and open several of them and in maybe ours the water drained completely after
37:01this I will say heroic action they prevent their more powerful explosion a far greater catastrophe had been
37:12prevented but there was no stopping the radiation already high in the sky the radioactivity that has gone
37:20into the atmosphere that is at extremely high levels you can't see it there's glory to think it's
37:28traveling in the atmosphere it's dropping down on the ground and was some diffusion to the south and to
37:36the great city of kiev with a population around three million ala kravchuk was living in kiev with her parents
37:46he was only 167
37:49kilometers away so it was exposed to danger any time I remember washing the floor every day keeping the windows
38:00closed the streets in kiev were washed
38:04every morning before people enter there would be a big machine driving and spraying the water it was
38:15difficult to grasp the size of the disaster it was something which was not visible but everybody felt it the
38:28invisible cloud
38:29of radioactive debris continued to spread across Europe the Friday after the accident the 2nd of May I have a
38:38lasting memory of the morning papers there was the banner headline
38:43death cloud approaches Britain it took around about six days before the radioactivity reached the UK
38:57more than 2,000 kilometers west of kiev glenn roberts had only recently settled his family on their sheep farm
39:05we had the tendency on this farm in 1984
39:11I heard over the next day on the news but at that time we hadn't got any idea of the
39:18implications that would have on agriculture and the earth in Wales
39:23because it was a long way from here
39:26but in early May heavy rain brought the radioactive fallout crashing to earth
39:33in the night that the Chernobyl fallout came over it was a very misty warm drizzly night I remember four
39:45or five hours standing in that drizzly rain
39:50that contaminated drizzle was soaking glenn and the fields on which his sheep were grazing
39:55the concern the concern was that the cesium and iodine and things like that would be taken up in the
40:02foodstaff
40:03the responsibility was to protect the whole population and the risk that few people in the population should die
40:12if they did eat everything of that was real
40:20I was I remember in the March selling some lambs when the announcement came over from the government saying that
40:28we as farmers would not sell the product if there were any cesium in the meat
40:34but it didn't realize the implications of that had on the farmer himself because they couldn't sell their animals
40:41the restrictions remained in place for more than two decades
40:46and signaled that the Chernobyl disaster had become a global crisis
40:50even hijacking President Reagan's state visit with President Suharto of Indonesia
40:59Mr. President, what do you know new about the Soviet nuclear accident?
41:04I don't think we have any information that is available in the public.
41:08The Soviet said telling us all we need to know about insomnia
41:13Well, they're usually a little close now
41:15No, I think it's the exception
41:18Would you rather hear more from Mr. Gorbachev?
41:21Yes, it would be helpful
41:25This was the first time where the Russians' lies didn't function
41:30because they couldn't deny that something had happened when we could read it in the atmosphere.
41:36Cover up or not, the race was now on to understand just how dangerous this disaster was.
41:43People in the path of the radioactivity outside the Soviet Union,
41:47through the media and the free information that was available,
41:51very quickly got to know what the situation was.
41:55But the Soviet state continued to conceal the truth from its own citizens.
42:01The Soviets, of course, knew that you could say nothing to the people,
42:05say it's all all right, carry on as normal,
42:07and the people weren't going to see anything out of the ordinary.
42:14So you could get away with this fooling the public,
42:17except in the very close high activity area around the plan.
42:22People realise things are going wrong.
42:23At very high levels, you get a reddening on the skin.
42:26You also get sick very rapidly.
42:28The danger could no longer be denied.
42:31The authorities set an exclusion zone 30 kilometres around the plant.
42:36More than 100,000 people had now been forced to leave.
42:42Dr. Bugar's parents had no idea if he was dead or alive.
42:46All the time my father was walking to the top of theμ΄μ—μš” of Chernobyl,
42:55He searched for, found, there was no false information.
42:59But I went to my father, I don't remember when I came from the side.
43:05I called the door, opened my mother,
43:07mother showed me and cried.
43:15Alexander Sirota had fled to Kyiv with his mother.
43:33The evacuees had packed for three days, but there seemed little chance of returning.
43:39An army of decontamination workers known as liquidators was moving into the exclusion zone.
43:46There was a monumental effort from the liquidators.
43:50So you're talking over 100,000 workers that were putting on protective clothing
43:55and they were tasked with cleaning up as much of the fallout, the debris that they could find.
44:03They were washing the radioactivity off the roofs of houses
44:08and then turning over the soil.
44:10If you've got about 10-15 centimetres of soil over the top of the radioactivity,
44:15that would at least contribute a degree of shielding.
44:20Back at ground zero, the wreckage of Unit 4 wouldn't be buried so easily.
44:27Even just looking at the ruined building, it was obvious that the level of radiation was very high.
44:35It was very high or catastrophic.
44:37It was not needed from the dometrist. It was obvious.
44:44It was obvious.
44:46It was a million times.
44:48It was a million times the natural level of radiation.
45:03The nuclear material from the core is very, very dangerous to approach or even to spend any time looking at.
45:09It is an incredibly radioactive structure.
45:12It was like a ghost town.
45:15The group was told not to step on the grass, not to touch the trees.
45:21It was a small village outside the ALI.
45:31It was not a big deal of damage.
45:34It was a huge deal of damage.
45:35It was a huge deal of damage.
45:35It was a big deal of damage.
45:37It was a big deal of damage and the nuclear difficile Polizeiculean.
45:40It was dangerous to the Alivian government that has a lot of damage.
45:45And I saw the Russian tanks on the square.
46:00If you were going to attack the Chernobyl site,
46:03you would attack the jewel in the crown of the Chernobyl site,
46:06which is the new safe confinement.
46:15We'll stay with Channel 4, because that's here next.
46:18Well, dirty politics and international humiliations tomorrow.
46:22It damaged a global standing and destroyed a Prime Minister.
46:26Suez, 24 hours that broke the British Empire.
46:29Concludes at 9.
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