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Watch Chernobyl Inside The Meltdown () free Episode Season 1 Episode 2 online in HD on Dailymotion (2026).
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00:14I am here today as the chairman of an interagency task group that is working to review and respond
00:24to the situation that's occurred in the Soviet Union. We know that a major accident occurred
00:32at the Chernobyl nuclear facility. We know that that major accident resulted in an explosion.
00:41Everybody wanted to know what's going on and they weren't getting any information out of the Soviet
00:52Union. What we did is presented the facts as we knew it.
01:01The task force had been able to working through the CIA get satellite imaging of what was going on
01:07in the area around the plant. We know that a fire occurred at that facility.
01:15We do have continuing the radioactive emissions.
01:21One of the things that happened was a significant emission of radioactive material. What became
01:28known as the radioactive cloud. This cloud, if you will, was moving in the atmosphere
01:36and it was circling the world and it was coming to the United States. Once it happened,
01:43there's nothing you can do about it. That radiation is going to have worldwide impact.
02:12the airy, that is going to have worldwide impact.
02:23After the accident, the primary concern was the ongoing fire in the reactor core.
02:29It was still continuing even after the fire in the building had been extinguished and
02:34continuing to spew dangerous radioactive materials into the immediate vicinity and beyond.
02:41The amount of radiation that went into the atmosphere when that core exploded was unprecedented
02:47and to many scientists horrifying.
02:50This was a global disaster with global implications.
02:54And so they had to do something to try to deal with that.
03:35The reactor core is made of two important things from the standpoint of the fire.
03:41One is graphite, which is carbon, think of it as charcoal in a certain sense.
03:45The other is the uranium fuel, which is extremely hot.
03:49It generates heat because of the decay heat of the radioactivity.
03:52Any firefighter will tell you that all you need for a fire is fuel and heat.
03:57And those were being supplied continuously.
04:02So the idea was to take helicopters and drop in sand to try to put the fire out.
04:08They were asking these helicopter pilots to fly right into potentially lethal blasts of radiation,
04:16the likes of which no human has faced, probably since Hiroshima.
04:22They just grabbed river sand and stuffed it into parachutes.
04:28These weren't fancy contraptions.
04:29This was all rigged on the fly.
04:59These are all rigged on the fly.
05:03These are all rigged on the fly.
05:06With the fire still burning, plumes of smoke laden with radioactive material are rising,
05:12and the helicopters inevitably have to go close, if not through that.
05:18Radiation readings around the planet itself had reached 2,000 range in an hour,
05:23which is enough to give anyone standing nearby four times a lethal dose.
05:29Exposure to high fields of ionizing radiation can cause collapse of the immune system,
05:34exhaustion of white blood cells, and ultimately death.
05:42Radiation was very large.
05:44The use of the protection was only a marble connection.
05:49After every explosion, this marble connection became red,
05:55which was a very difficult situation.
06:09There was no question about it.
06:11But it was the most important thing to solve, because that is what's driving the ongoing release of radioactive material
06:18into the environment.
06:20The symptoms of fatigue and pain were felt at the end of the day.
06:27We were young boys and we had a different health,
06:32so this question, let's say, was not at the time to think about what are the consequences.
06:47By the beginning of Sunday, the 27th, people in the city of Pripyat knew that something was seriously wrong.
06:54Radioactive contamination was leaking out of the reactor continually.
06:59But still no official announcement of an evacuation had come.
07:16A government commission was under the leadership of Boris Sherbina,
07:20who was the deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers and the fuel and energy chief of the USSR.
07:35Shebina waited to give the order for evacuation.
07:38This was driven by the need for secrecy, because they didn't want word of what had happened to leak out.
07:46Around 8 o'clock that morning, Boris Shebina took a helicopter flight to view the reactor from the air.
07:52And when he returned, he then finally ordered an evacuation of the city.
07:57It was clear that this was not just another regrettable failure of Soviet technology,
08:03but a colossal disaster on a global scale.
08:35The
08:36Mom entered the room, and she said,
08:39guys, wake up.
08:40We will be evacuated.
08:59I remember the radio announcement very clearly,
09:03because it was someone who we knew.
09:06So it was familiar voice, calming, without panic,
09:10saying, collect your belongings for three days,
09:14documents and money, and get down.
09:17The buses are going to wait for you.
09:22We collected what we have to collect.
09:24It was my mom's job.
09:27And we went outside.
09:32The CQ and members of the CQ knew exactly all.
09:35It's the other way,
09:36how did they contact with society?
09:40I can explain that they would never return here.
09:43It's impossible.
09:44They will take a shower.
09:46In the meantime, panic was hit by the buses,
09:49and also the buses.
09:52Do you afraid of this?
09:56you can't overstate how secret everything was in the soviet union secrecy was baked in to the
10:06soviet soul at that point приходу автобусов вы должны выйти и сесть в автобус и поедите дальше
10:26председатель мария у тебя будет план так что идеи на мост будешь встречать и направлять автобусы
10:36ну и два часа как положено пошел первый автобус нам нужно сложны были приехать до полторы тысячи
10:45автобусы вот стояла в кофточке в юбочке и на босую ногу босоножечки никаких средств защиты не было
10:59the situation by that time had become extraordinarily dangerous everybody in pripyat was exposed to
11:06colossal announce of radiation with consequences nobody could really predict
11:13напротив моста было футбольное поле вот на это футбольное поле садился вертолета вот эта вся
11:23пыль радиоактивные подымалась и на голые ноги у меня падала на мои ноги они у меня так чесались
11:32представляете сколько пыль радиоактивные тела в это время с этого места
11:45я не могу
11:46здесь ты да outside for over two hours waiting for the buses to arrive
11:52there was worrying in in the air but it did not touch me it's i thought like parents will solve
11:59it all
12:00for us
12:03we played with our neighbors we didn't know that it was for the last time
12:12the buses were sent to all over soviet union i never had a chance to say goodbye to my friends
12:19and i
12:20never met one of my best friend again
12:29эвакуировали порядка до 45 тысяч человек без паники без шума эвакуировали целый город так я
12:40запомнила одну женщину которая знаете смотрит в окошко и вот она вот не просто посмотрела на меня
12:46она вот так вот посмотрела и вот так вот проводила меня взглядом да и вот у нее что-то такое
12:54было в лице
12:54вот знаете вот какое-то такое вот ну как вы знаете вот внутри у нее что-то там вот как
13:01будто вот она
13:01она кричала что что-то стоит а стоит а куда это я вот
13:07it was my hometown i had friends neighbors
13:13we would go out to forest to river it was a nice community
13:23больше запомнился это перелет когда подлетали к станции уже коли эвакуировали полностью
13:33висит бильон на балконах детские коляски машины кинуты все такие вот
13:40витчутян ничего на ма я бы запомнилась час
13:55people had pretty much dropped the life as they knew it and the city of pripyat was largely
14:01evacuated but as long as that fire was still burning all that energy was putting radioactive material into
14:07the air on a continuous basis that radioactive material was going into the atmosphere where
14:14it can be transported around the world
14:26i recall it was a monday morning
14:29i go to the office at the normal time probably 9 10 in the morning
14:34and the wire machines are lighting up with news that the swedes have essentially outed
14:41a nuclear accident inside the soviet union and the soviets hadn't said a word about it
14:47we immediately began to ask our soviet contacts and that was met with radio silence we have been
14:55disappointed about the lack of information that we've had from the soviet authorities
15:00the phone rang i pick up the phone and they say minister there's been a nuclear accident you need
15:07to come in and i sort of did a double take what do you mean by nuclear accident the initial
15:13reaction
15:13was you know armageddon one couldn't quite understand the difference between a nuclear power
15:19accident and a nuclear attack nuclear had all those those connotations we were trying to get
15:26information from secret sources not much there we couldn't find out from the soviets what was going
15:32on and so monday night april 28th everybody was watching their nightly 9 pm newscast called vremya
15:41waiting to see what the soviet response was going to be
16:04i remember timing this after vremya came on the air they announced this nuclear accident
16:10not as the lead story but 25 minutes into the show almost kind of oh by the way we've had
16:17a nuclear
16:17accident we're dealing with it that should be enough for you in the world right now next it was astonishing
16:29there is a new optimism about mr gorbachev dialogue it's felt will be easier
16:36we were beginning to see the opening up of the soviet union we were still in the cold war
16:43and they were adversaries we were constantly aware that if something went wrong we could be the
16:49recipient of a nuclear attack on the other hand gorbachev had arrived there was talk of openness
16:59gaznost there was a growing relationship between gorbachev and mrs thatcher which we wanted to build
17:06on i respect him he's very able and on that basis yes we can do business
17:17we kept saying well if you're committed to open this then tell us what you know and then we met
17:22a brit
17:25the fact that the soviets would be so tone deaf as to not tell the world what was actually going
17:34on
17:35that to this day is perhaps the most astonishing act of secrecy in this era of glasnost that they
17:44possibly could have executed on that monday night
17:49they were panicking they didn't actually really know how to deal with it the soviet response to
17:55any kind of problem particularly an embarrassing problem like a huge disaster was to try to cover
18:01it up until they could figure out something to do it was the the reflexive action of soviet bureaucrats
18:06and that certainly was the case at chernobyl
18:13the radiation leak was something that the world had never seen before every nuclear scientist that
18:21we could reach speculated we had to consider the possibility that this was a nuclear core meltdown
18:29fuel in the core heats to the point where it melts and flows to the bottom of the reactor core
18:34it may
18:35eventually melt its way through to the floor beyond that's what's called a reactor meltdown this is a
18:41dangerous situation because the radioactive material that was in the core has now leaked out of its
18:47confinement people in the area immediately downwind of the accident are now getting potentially dangerous
18:58levels of radioactivity it is they say fallout no different than from a nuclear bomb with particles
19:05that may stay dangerous for up to thousands of years now are we talking about an explosion or a
19:11leak do you think that's very hard to tell soviet official policy has always been that nuclear plants
19:17are totally safe and therefore don't need emergency containment around them how wrong they were
19:23tens of millions of people in europe were afraid of drinking the water eating the food and fearful
19:30for the the the impact on their children and their livestock in brussels the community's executive
19:36commission has recommended a europe-wide ban on produce like milk and fresh vegetables from the
19:41soviet bloc countries closest to the nuclear accident news of higher levels of radiation has caused
19:47considerable alarm in britain reflected not only in calls to the ministry of agriculture but also here
19:52to the bbc and people want more information about the dangers from radiation there were lurid headlines
19:58about what might happen um there were worried people and you never really knew in those first few
20:06days whether the danger was contained the public is concerned the public is upset they knew
20:13a radioactive fallout could be help threatening it is an outrage that the soviet union will not
20:22discuss something that's affecting all the half of the world's population
20:26joining us in washington is lee thomas head of the special task force monitoring the chernobyl meltdown
20:33how do you respond to the soviet officials who say that the west has been exaggerating the extent of
20:38the damage you have the worst uh uh nuclear accident uh in history has taken place i don't think i
20:46would
20:46characterize anything i've seen as an overreaction clearly we still need the kind of information that we've
20:53been requested we never did get information from the soviet union it was like the government's function
21:00was to make sure that they painted a picture that they wanted to paint unlike what was going on in
21:06the
21:06field i remember the cia representative on the task force as i recall he was a relatively young guy
21:19and was able to provide good information as far as the task force was concerned mr thomas's task force
21:26was very interested in hearing every day as to how much progress they made on getting the fire out
21:31the soviets were saying that the situation is under control but our satellite imagery showed that
21:37the fire was still ongoing and there were helicopters flying around the area to try to put the fire out
21:48that in addition to sand they were dropping in loads of boron lead and dolomite which is a
21:56material that releases carbon dioxide when it's heated
22:02все очень переживали собирали бора везде по всей украине этот реактор
22:09и вот представься один у него там шесть вертолетов сразу вертолет взлетает другой садится третий грузится
22:20четвертый сбрасывает
22:28we were most concerned about the fire in the core because that's where the largest remaining amount of
22:33radioactive material was
22:37where is that radioactive material going just going up into the atmosphere where is it going to come down
22:54radiation monitoring is an ongoing program here at the lawrence livermore laboratories so it's
22:59understandable that a great deal of attention was focused here following word of the soviet accident
23:05we have been collecting the weather pattern data for that part of the world over the past four to five
23:10days i'm marv dickerson and in 1986 i worked at lawrence livermore national laboratory when the accident
23:20occurred at chernobyl it's the most sophisticated facility of its type in the world a room full of
23:27computers receives readouts from radiation monitoring stations in europe japan and here in the u.s
23:34people said reactor sites won't have accidents and if they do the release will be local
23:41we didn't believe that we thought there could possibly be accidents that would be larger than that
23:49the most frightening aspect of this concept of a radioactive cloud emerging from somewhere
23:55behind the iron curtain and then gradually enveloping your country is the invisible nature of radioactivity
24:03and its potential effects on you and everyone you know
24:10the radioactive cloud at chernobyl was formed by two different things
24:17first the initial explosions put radioactivity up several thousand feet
24:22and after that was fire fire has smoke if it's burning radioactive material it'll put up radionucleides
24:30into the atmosphere that will stay maybe a few thousand feet from the surface
24:36the wind at different vertical levels can can move in different directions the upper level cloud
24:44went across northern china out over japan and then a small amount was measured over the state of washington
24:54and the lower part of the cloud that was created by the fire that part of the cloud went over
25:00europe
25:02then on april the 30th there was a wind shift
25:07it went from blowing dew north almost 180 degrees so that carried the radioactivity down toward kiev
25:21i would not have wanted to be south of the reactor site down around kiev
25:31one of the things that we are cia task force tried to follow was what was going on in soviet
25:36life
25:38even though there was a nuclear accident going on a few miles north at chernobyl because of the
25:43soviet leadership's desire to portray the situation as normal and everything under control
25:49they tried to go on with life as normal in kiev and at a time when they should have been
25:55sheltering in
25:55place in fact they had a parade the soviet union every year had a mayday parade
26:06it was a big showcase of their military might so to speak
26:13i can remember the tanks and the missiles and the army marched by you know that was always on
26:21television as the big mayday parade across the soviet union
26:25uh
26:46уже призначена была цена de monstraция
27:02By nightfall on April 30th, radiation levels in the center of Kyiv had begun to spike hundreds of times higher
27:09than normal.
27:43We're not even a week out from the accident.
27:46The Soviets had still yet to give a detailed explanation that even approached the truth of what they knew about
27:54the magnitude of the problem.
27:56The local population in Kyiv were being told that you are not in any danger.
28:09The 1st of July passed.
28:12Sheerbitsky said, I'm waiting on the phone.
28:15But he doesn't take a bullet.
28:17We understood that it's bad things.
28:22We need to take a demonstration.
28:29The atmosphere was sad for everyone.
28:34They were waiting for them.
28:37But they couldn't take a bullet for them.
28:48The people didn't go to the parade.
28:49They asked me to visit our parade.
28:52Because they went and heard that you died.
28:55It's important to show them that you were not died.
29:00I was standing there at the table.
29:05The party workers were in the place.
29:08Everyone understood that they should not let children.
29:12So they should put children,
29:14so no one will be against them.
29:17We got them from the international courts, from the internet.
29:23We put a column.
29:25The children went fast.
29:28And they went home.
29:35My personal opinion was that they should not let children.
29:44Mayday's coverage included a colorful parade in Kyiv.
29:48To the Soviets today was not just normal, it was festive,
29:51as if the nuclear accident was behind them.
29:55I saw the coverage that night.
29:57I viewed it with astonishment.
29:59There's citizens dancing in the streets.
30:02This is the message.
30:04We're all festive.
30:05There's nothing to see here.
30:09When they lived, you know, what, 80 miles from the plant,
30:12and the government wasn't saying a word.
30:16The people was angry about,
30:19that this is so bad.
30:20That a parade, such a radiation.
30:23And yet I didn't understand why.
30:25It was.
30:26I still haven't.
30:39I still don't know why.
30:40using helicopters to dump material from the air
30:43appeared to be working.
30:46Radiation levels above the reactor seemed to be declining.
30:50But on May the 1st, they noticed to their horror
30:53that both radiation readings and temperature readings
30:56began to rise.
31:00The scientists on the scene feared that a new chain reaction
31:04could start inside what remained of the reactor building.
31:10They feared that there could be a further explosion.
31:46This is a photo that I took in Moscow Hospital No. 6.
31:52It's one of the firefighters who is in a protected environment
31:57to prevent a life-threatening infection.
32:04At the time of the Chernobyl accident,
32:07I was a professor of medicine
32:09at the University of California in Los Angeles.
32:15We had a lot of experience treating people
32:18with high doses of radiation
32:20in our attempts to eradicate cancer.
32:24I wanted to make an offer of help.
32:27I wasn't quite sure how it would be received,
32:31but the Russian ambassador to Washington,
32:35he called me and he said,
32:38Mr. Gorbachev would like you to come to Moscow.
32:41I packed my bags and got on a flight.
32:47Me and the two pilots were the only people flying into Moscow.
32:53Everyone was flying out of Moscow.
33:00The very next day, we started our triage
33:03of the engineers and firefighters
33:06who had been flown to Moscow.
33:11Pripyat Hospital was not equipped
33:13to cope with the types and seriousness of injuries
33:19that they encountered in the first patients.
33:23The most serious injured patients were airlifted to Moscow.
33:28More than 200 operators from the plant, firefighters
33:32and other victims of the accident
33:34were flown to be treated in Hospital No. 6,
33:37which was a specialized hospital
33:39that had been built and equipped
33:41specifically to treat people from the nuclear industry.
33:58And they took the 9th floor.
34:02They took their格,
34:05They took their fighters to collect the guys
34:06They opened up the door.
34:06they opened up the aisle,
34:07closed the door,
34:07they opened the door,
34:07they opened the door under the cord,
34:08and I said,
34:09how to write,
34:10because they had the owners?
34:11I said the residential one guy who picked up
34:14they wanted to keep the whole thing under wraps the soviet reflex towards secrecy in events like
34:50this was overwhelming
35:23the damage from radiation exposure is not immediately apparent
35:31about a week or 10 days after exposure these firefighters their hair stars
35:38falling out there's destruction of bone marrow function and damage to the skin to the gastrointestinal tract
35:53at the very extreme we have damage to the cardiovascular system and to the central
36:00nervous system people who get very high doses of radiation we can't help them they die
36:14as soon as we go to the rest of the video kobe bist всегда
36:22заходит ко мне врач окулист
36:27посмотрел по сторонам посмотрела я вам принесла газету почитаете
36:33и она показывает фотографии шесть пожарных которые умерли
36:43among the worst affected of the firefighters were those who went to the
36:47roofs of the reactor building in the immediate aftermath of the explosion
36:51and therefore received the the greatest exposure to the ionizing radiation
36:58вижу эти шесть наших пожарных
37:02in the tanko
37:03kibinok
37:05pravi
37:07вместе дружили
37:08на диска чеку ходили
37:10я такого не ожидал что такое обойдется нас жизнью
37:15и больше я их не увижу
37:19а
37:39of the over 200 first responders sent for treatment in hospital number six
37:4428 would eventually die in the weeks and months following the accident
37:48firefighters and the response crews incredibly heroic
38:13of
38:18чтобы у нас было двенадцать из всей команды
38:21которые нас везли в москву только
38:24нас оставалось шесть человек живых
38:27остальным вечная память
38:43after about
38:44ten days of flying continuous missions to try to deal with the fire in the reactor core
38:48It finally went out.
38:52Several days after the temperature of the core had started to mysteriously rise,
38:57it began to drop again.
38:59None of the scientists could understand why.
39:04For two weeks, there have been more questions than answers
39:07about the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster.
39:09But now part of the mystery is being cleared up
39:12by an inspection team from the International Atomic Energy Agency.
39:17The Russian ambassador to the IA, he phoned me
39:20and he said that we had an invitation to come to Russia
39:25to be fully informed about the accident.
39:28We had the question, would we want to go to Chernobyl?
39:33And I said, of course, we want it.
39:37We circled the destroyed plant.
39:41We peeked out of the windows of the helicopter, of course, down,
39:44and that was a sorry and tragic sight.
39:49We could see the vast destruction that occurred.
39:56These first Westerners to visit the stricken scene
39:59report that the fire in the disabled number four reactor
40:02has finally been extinguished.
40:04We have seen that the little smoke is still coming up
40:07from the damaged plant.
40:11Hans Blix was smart.
40:12He knew he risked exposure over that reactor,
40:15but came out with the confirmation that, yeah,
40:19at least this initial fire was out.
40:22I think it was quite important because there was the first impartial people
40:28to witness what had happened,
40:31and the world was hungry for that information.
40:36The first independent verification that the worst is over
40:40came at a Moscow press conference
40:41under free questioning by Western reporters.
40:46In that room, it was pretty tense.
40:50It was electric.
40:51Here was the first neutral scientist
40:54to see what was probably
40:56the worst nuclear disaster in history.
41:02We have had very frank
41:04and very open discussions
41:07with ministers and with experts.
41:10The deputation said they were well satisfied
41:13with the information they'd been given.
41:15On the basis of it,
41:16the American head of the authority's nuclear safety division
41:18said the reactor had shut down automatically
41:21and looked like staying that way.
41:23The chain reaction
41:25stopped immediately after the accident
41:28and never started again.
41:31Fuel temperatures
41:33being measured now,
41:35we are told,
41:36are significantly below the melting point
41:39and are decreasing.
41:41The UN team prefaced its remarks
41:44by saying most details were provided by the Soviets.
41:47And what we can give you
41:48is only what we have grasped in a few days.
41:51The Soviets were telling the world
41:54and Hans Blix of the IAEA
41:56that all is well.
42:02At the same time,
42:03Soviet officials were extremely worried,
42:07without admitting this in public,
42:08that that core was still melting.
42:13One of the big ongoing threats
42:15after the core fire had been extinguished
42:17was the possibility
42:18that this very hot fuel,
42:21made of melted uranium dioxide,
42:23a temperature over 2,000 degrees centigrade,
42:25could melt its way
42:27through the bottom of the reactor vessel
42:28into the concrete foundation
42:30and eventually get out of the bottom
42:33of the reactor building.
42:36Behind the scenes,
42:38the Soviets were deathly afraid
42:40that the core might burn through
42:42and hit the water table.
42:47It would potentially poison
42:49the drinking water supplies,
42:51not only of Kiev,
42:52but of a huge part
42:54of the population of Ukraine.
42:57They are scrambling.
42:59How are we going to stop
43:01that nuclear core
43:02from melting farther into the earth?
43:11One of the initiatives
43:12was to build a massive heat exchanger
43:17and cool the earth
43:19directly beneath the reactor building.
43:25They recruited an army
43:27of coal miners
43:29and workers
43:30to cast aside
43:32any fears
43:33that they may have
43:33of radiation sickness
43:35and go underneath
43:36this burning reactor core
43:38in order to prevent
43:40catastrophic damage
43:42to the earth.
43:44They were asking these miners
43:46to sacrifice themselves.
43:49Their sales pitch
43:50was, the Soviet Union
43:52needs this done.
43:54Can you step up?
43:57And what the miners asked was,
44:01where are the shovels?
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