Chernobyl
The Chernobyl accident. Chronology of events. April 26, which divides the history of Ukraine into two periods - before and after the crash.
Here brief chronology of the most important dates associated with the Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Nuclear Power Plant in Chernobyl.
Accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant per minute, the years of events from 1970 to 2016 are also included.
1966
The Council of Ministers of the USSR issues a resolution of June 29, 1966, which approves the plan for commissioning nuclear power plants throughout the entire USSR.
According to preliminary calculations, the commissioned nuclear power plants were supposed to generate 8000 MW, which compensates for the shortage of electricity in the central region of the southern part.
1967
From 1966 to 1967, work was underway to find suitable territories. The work was carried out by the Kyiv branch of the design institute "Teploelektroproekt". As part of the research, sixteen territories were studied, mainly in the Kyiv, Vinnitsa and Zhytomyr regions.
Territory surveys continued until January 1967. As a result, it was decided to stop on the territory in the Chernobyl region, on January 18, 1967, the territory was officially approved by the Board of the State Planning Committee of the Ukrainian SSR.
On February 2, 1967, the Board of the State Planning Committee of the Ukrainian SSR approved the project for the construction of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
On September 29, 1967, reactors were approved to be installed at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
Three of them have been approved:
- graphite-water reactor RBMK-1000;
- graphite-gas reactor RK-1000;
- pressurized water reactor VVER.
- Based on the results of the considered options, it was decided to choose the RBMK-1000 graphite-water reactor.
1970
The Directorate of the Chernobyl NPP was formed. Projects and urban planning plans for the city of Pripyat were approved, and its construction began.
May 1970 the marking of the first pit for the first power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was made.
1972
The formation of a special water tank begins to cool the reactors. The reservoir was formed by changing the riverbed and building a dam in this channel, as a result, in addition to the dam, the Pripyat River acquired a wide navigable canal.
1976
October 1976 tank filling procedure started.
1977
May 1977 start-up and adjustment work at the first power unit.
1978
1979
Pripyat receives city rights.
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant produced 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity.
1981
1982
On September 1, a malfunction of reactor No. 1 was recorded. Slight contamination of some damaged evaporation fuel units.
On September 9, the fuel assembly was destroyed and an emergency rupture of process channel No. 62-44 occurred.
Due to the rupture, the graphite laying of the core was deformed, and a significant amount of radioactive substances from the destroyed fuel assembly was thrown into the reactor space.
The reactor was repaired and restarted. Information about the accident was published only in 1985.
1983
The construction of reactor No. 4 has been completed.
1984
On August 21, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant produced 100 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity.
1986
“The probability of the destruction of the core occurs once every 10,000 years. Power plants are safe and reliable. They are protected from destruction by three security systems,” said Vitaliy Sklyarov, Minister of Energy and Electrification of Ukraine.
Start of preparations for the reactor 4 turbocharger test. The reactor power has been reduced.
The reactor power has been reduced to 1600 MW, which is half the nominal value.
Reducing the power intended for the reactor's own needs. Generator shutdown 2.
At this hour, the reactor power is expected to reach only 30 percent. Power, at the request of the dispatcher of the Kyiv Energy District, was reduced for several hours. 23:00 the reactor was operating at 50 percent. Rated power.
The reactor power was reduced to 1600 MW, at which the experiment was carried out. From the operator "Kievenergo" made a ban on further reduction of capacity.
The ban on power reduction has been lifted, and a new stage of power reduction has begun.
26 April
The night shift took over the reactor.
The reactor power was reduced to the planned 700 MW.
The reactor power dropped to 500 MW. Due to the complexity of the steering, the xenon core was "poisoned", as a result of which the thermal power of the reactor decreased to 30 MW. To increase the power of the reactor, the crew removed the control rods. Only 18 rem remained in the core, but at least 30 rem is needed.
The reactor power was increased to 200 MW. To prevent automatic shutdown of the reactor, the personnel blocked the safety system.
A sharp decrease in the reactivity of the reactor.
Start of testing of the turbogenerator. Turbine valves have been cut off. The power of the reactor began to grow uncontrollably.
The emergency braking of the control rods did not work because they jammed the channels (and reached a depth of 2-2.5 m instead of a full thrust of 7 m).
A rapid increase in steam power and reactor power (within a few seconds, the power was about 100 times higher than the required value).
The fuel overheated, the zirconia surrounding it ruptured and the molten fuel leaked, and then the pressure channels ruptured. This began to lead to an exothermic reaction.
An emergency signal has been given
The first explosion happened
There was a second explosion - water vapor was released first, then hydrogen was released. The reactor and parts of the structure were destroyed.
As a result of the explosion, a 2000-ton plate was thrown back onto the reactor vessel. Waste graphite core and molten fuel are discarded.
It is estimated that about 8 out of 140 tons of fuel leaked from the reactor.
The fire brigade accepted the call from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and moved out to extinguish the fire.
An additional fire brigade left the city of Pripyat.
A fire alarm has been issued. Employees tried to start the reactor's cooling systems, hoping that they had not been damaged during the explosion.
Arriving firefighters of the first crew begin to put out the fire on the roof of the turbine hall.
The absence of a measuring device was established, the first device was damaged during the explosion. The second is located in a zone cut off by rubble. The second fire brigade arrived, some of the firemen are engaged in extinguishing the fire, the other part of the fire brigade is clearing the rubble for access to the measuring equipment.
Firefighters begin to vomit, the skin begins to burn under clothing.
The Department of the Ministry of the Interior manages the crisis personnel meeting.
It was decided to put blocks on the road. Fire and police brigades are called.
The officers are not well trained - they do not have dosimeters and protective clothing.
Viktor Bryukhanov, plant manager, arrives at the crisis management center located in a bunker under the administration building of the gym.
The authorities notified the central authorities about what happened in Moscow.
The ignition is blocked, the possibility of the fire spreading to other rooms is excluded.
Other firefighters arrived from Polesye and Kyiv.
The fire is completely extinguished.
188 firefighters were called to the scene of the accident.
The exposed firefighters were evacuated to the Radiological Hospital No. 6 in Moscow. Air ambulances were used for evacuation.
The morning shift came to the power plant. At the construction site of reactors 5 and 6, construction works. 286 people worked there.
A decision was made to supply water to the area of the damaged reactor.
A status report was sent to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
The government commission was headed by Valery Legasov. The specialists who arrived at the scene did not expect to see parts of the graphite fuel channels.
The data of measuring instruments were received, the level of pollution was established, and a decision was made to evacuate the population.
Requests were sent to neighboring districts and the city of Kyiv for the allocation of transport for the evacuation of the population.
The transport department of the city of Kyiv gives an order to remove all suburban buses from the routes and direct transport to the city of Chernobyl.
Checkpoints have been set up on roads within a radius of 30 kilometers to prevent the movement of civilians across the infected area.
Reactors 1 and 2 are disabled.
The administration of the city of Pripyat collects all administrative personnel.
The administrative personnel of hospitals, schools, kindergartens are instructed.
The processing of the city begins. Laundry soap and additional water tanks were placed in all toilets of the city. It was necessary to repeat the processing of the premises every hour.
All schools began to work, without fail, all children were measured with a radiation device, medical staff produced the issuance of tablets containing iodine.
The processing of the forest area around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant has begun.
Police officers were briefed. The district police officers made a detour and counted residential buildings, taking into account the number of people living in them.
The first emissions of sand, boron and lead began over the destroyed reactor No. 4.
Two thousand buses and more than a hundred units of military equipment have been assembled on the border of the city of Chernobyl.
Schoolchildren were sent home with instructions to stay in their apartments. A general briefing has begun in the city.
Momentary drop in radioactivity around the power plant.
Conducted briefing in the city police department. The city is divided into six sectors. A responsible person was assigned to each, two police officers were assigned to each entrance of a residential building.
Police officers arrived at their places and began briefing and collecting residents.
An official announcement about the accident and the planned evacuation of the population was broadcast on the radio.
The evacuation of people from Pripyat began. Almost 50 thousand. People left their homes within 3.5 hours. For this purpose, 1,200 buses were used.,
Police officers examined the city of Pripyat, recorded the absence of civilians.
Increased radioactivity in the air around the Swedish nuclear power plant in Forsmark.
Moscow television reported on an "incident" at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
The Danish Institute of Nuclear Physics reported that it is most likely that the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant completely melted the reactor.
The Soviet media reported the death of two people as a result of the accident, the destruction of the reactor unit and the evacuation of the population.
At that time, American spy satellites took the first photographs of the destroyed reactor.
Analysts were shocked by what they saw - a damaged reactor roof and a glowing mass of molten reactor core.
To date, more than 1,000 tons of material have been dropped from helicopters into the destroyed reactor block.
The wind changed direction, and the radioactive cloud began to move towards Kyiv. Solemn processes were held on the occasion of the May 1 holiday.
May 2
The employees of the liquidation commission found that the core of the exploded reactor is still melting. At that time, the core contained 185 tons of nuclear fuel, and the nuclear reaction continued at a terrifying rate.
Beneath the 185 tons of molten nuclear material was a reservoir of five million gallons of water. This water was needed as a coolant, and a thick concrete slab separated the nuclear fuel and the water tank.
For molten nuclear fuel, a thick concrete slab was not a sufficient obstacle, the melting core burned through this slab, going down to the water.
If the hot core of the reactor comes into contact with water, a massive, radiation-contaminated steam explosion will occur. The result could be the radioactive contamination of much of Europe. First in terms of death toll Chernobyl explosion looked like a minor incident.
Engineers have developed a plan according to which it is possible to avoid a steam explosion. To do this, drain the water in the tank. To drain the water, it is necessary to open the valves located in the flooded radioactive zone.
Three people volunteered for the task:
- Alexey Ananenko senior engineer
- Valery Baspalov mid-level engineer
- Boris Baranov shift supervisor
All of them understood that the dose of radioactive substances that they would receive during the dive would be fatal for them.
It was about opening the valves in the water tank, which was located under the damaged reactor, in order to prevent another explosion - a mixture of graphite and other materials with a temperature of more than 1200 degrees Celsius with water.
The scuba divers plunged into a dark pond and with difficulty found the necessary valves, manually opened them, after which the water was drained. After their return, they were taken to the hospital, by the time of hospitalization they had an acute stage of radiation sickness, they could not be saved.
Work has begun on the construction of a tunnel under reactor No. 4 in order to install a special cooling system there.
A 30-kilometer zone was created around the reactor, from which 90,000 people were evacuated.
A special embankment was built to protect it from pollution.
Reducing radioisotope releases.
Firefighters pump water from the basement under the reactor core.
From radiation in Chernobyl, they began to give Lugol's drug.
It was decided to start building a sarcophagus over the destroyed reactor block No. 4.
The Chernobyl Atomic Energy Board was fired, accusing it of "lack of responsibility and gaps in the supervision of the reactor."
Russia sent the first report after that to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
There, it was discovered that an extraordinary sequence of events, negligence, mismanagement, and security breaches led to the disaster.
Reactor #1 was turned on again.
Work continued on the construction of reactors 5 and 6.
Reactor No. 2 was turned on. Hans Blixa, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, visited Chernobyl.
The work on assembling the sarcophagi for reactor block 4 has been completed, they are designed for 30 years of radiation protection.
400 thousand tons of concrete and more than 7 thousand tons of metal were used.
1987
Reactor #3 started producing electricity again.
Work on the construction of reactors 5 and 6 was stopped.
1989
Shutdown of reactor No. 2 after a turbine fire. Importantly, there was no risk of infection.
Was taken final decision on the termination of the construction of reactors 5 and 6.
1991
Fire in the turbine hall of reactor No. 2.
Power unit No. 2 was put into operation after a major overhaul. While reaching the set power level, one of the turbine generators of the power unit spontaneously turned on.
The reactor power was 50% of the thermal power - at that time one turbine generator of the unit (425 MW) was operating.
The second turbogenerator, which spontaneously turned on, worked in the “motor” mode for only 30 seconds.
As a result of work in the turbogenerator, large axle loads arose, which led to the complete destruction of the turbogenerator shaft bearings.
The destruction of the bearings led to depressurization (decompression) of the generator, which led to the release of a large amount of oil and hydrogen. As a result, there was a big fire.
During the subsequent investigation of the causes of the accident, it was found that the inclusion of the turbogenerator was caused by the fact that the turbogenerator was not protected from the mode of connection to the network on the run-out of the rotor.
Spontaneous closing occurred as a result of loss of insulation between the cable controlling the closing of the circuit breaker and the cable through which the signal about the disconnected state of the circuit breaker is transmitted.
A defect was made in the installation of cables - signal and control cables are placed in one tray.
This accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant did not lead to significant pollution of the territory of the exclusion zone. The specific activity of the release is estimated within 3.6*10 -5 Ci.
1992
The Ukrainian authorities are announcing a competition for new construction, which will include a hastily built sarcophagus on reactor building 4.
There were 394 proposals, but only one was considered worthwhile - the construction of a sliding installation.
Assembly testing of structures in Italy. Delivery of the first components for the construction of the sarcophagus.
Raised the first eastern fragment of the dome (5300 tons, 53 m)
2013
A fragment of the roof over reactor block 4 was destroyed by snow pressure. Fortunately, the construction was not compromised.
The second operation to lift the first eastern fragment (9,100 tons, 85.5 m)
The third operation to raise the first eastern fragment (11,516 tons, 109 m)
October November
Construction of a new and dismantling of the old chimney for power unit No. 3.
2014
The first part of the structure was completed and moved to the car park (12,500 t, 112 m)
The first operation to raise the second western fragment of the sarcophagus (4,579 tons, 23 m)
The second operation to raise the second western fragment (8352 tons, 85 m).
The third operation to raise the second western fragment of the dome (12,500 tons, 112 m)
2015
The beginning of the raising of the inclined side walls of the sarcophagus.
Work began on the electrical and ventilation systems inside the dome.
Docking of two parts of the new sarcophagus.
Introduction of new equipment for the dome.
2016
Beginning of the ladle shift operation above reactor block 4 and the old sarcophagus.
Solemn completion of work on the construction of a new dome over the 4th reactor block.
This accident is regarded as the largest in the history of nuclear energy, as well as the estimated number of people killed and affected by its consequences. During the first three months after the accident, 31 people died, the consequences of the accident over the next 15 years caused the death of 60 to 80 people. 134 people suffered from radiation sickness of varying severity, more than 115 thousand people from the 30-kilometer zone were evacuated. More than 600,000 people participated in the liquidation of the consequences of the disaster.
OPINION OF ACADEMICIAN
It never occurred to me then that we were moving towards an event of a planetary scale, an event that, apparently, will go down in the history of mankind as the eruption of famous volcanoes, the death of Pompeii, or something close to it.
Academician Valery Legasov
TASS MESSAGE
There was an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. One of the reactors was damaged. Measures are being taken to eliminate the consequences of the incident. The victims received the necessary assistance. A government commission has been set up to investigate the incident.
CHRONICLE OF THE ACCIDENT AND ITS OVERCOMING
On the night of April 26, 1986, the mistakes of the personnel working at the 4th unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, multiplied by the mistakes of the designers of the RBMK reactor (high power reactor, channel), namely this type of reactor was used at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, led to the most serious accident in the history of the world nuclear energy. This accident became a major man-made and humanitarian disaster of the 20th century.
On April 25, 1986, the personnel of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were preparing to shut down the fourth power unit for scheduled preventive maintenance, during which the experiment was supposed to be carried out. Due to dispatcher restrictions, the shutdown of the reactor was delayed several times, which caused difficulties in controlling the reactor's power.
On April 26 at 0124 there was an uncontrolled increase in power, which led to explosions and the destruction of a significant part of the reactor plant. As a result of an accident in environment a large amount of radioactive material was released.
Despite the obvious scale of the accident, the possibility of serious radiation consequences in the vicinity of the nuclear power plant, as well as evidence of the transboundary transfer of radioactive substances to the territory of countries Western Europe, during the first few days, the country's leadership did not take adequate actions in the field of informing the population of both the USSR and other countries.
Moreover, already in the first days after the accident, measures were taken to classify data on its real and predicted consequences.
As a result of the accident, the territory of 19 subjects with a population of about 30 million people was exposed to radioactive contamination in Russia alone. The area of territories contaminated with cesium-137 amounted to more than 56 thousand square kilometers, where about 3 million people lived.
In the first and most acute period, more than 100 thousand citizens of the USSR were involved in the elimination of the consequences of the accident in the Chernobyl zone. In total, in the first three years after the accident, 250,000 workers visited the 30-kilometer zone. These people did everything possible to minimize the consequences of the accident. In the subsequent period, all work to control the radiation situation, reduce public exposure doses, rehabilitate contaminated areas, provide medical care and social protection of the population of the affected areas were carried out within the framework of state targeted programs.
A day after the accident, the government commission decided on the need to evacuate residents of nearby settlements. In total, by the end of 1986, about 116 thousand people were resettled from 188 settlements (including the city of Pripyat).
In mid-May 1986, the government commission decided on the long-term conservation of Unit 4 in order to prevent the release of radionuclides into the environment and reduce the impact of penetrating radiation at the Chernobyl site.
The Ministry of Medium Machine Building of the USSR was entrusted with "work on the disposal of the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and related structures." The object was named "Shelter of the 4th unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant", it is known to the whole world as a "sarcophagus". On November 30, 1986, an act was signed on its acceptance for maintenance.
In autumn 1993, after a fire, the second power unit was shut down. On the night of November 30 to December 1, 1996, in accordance with the Memorandum signed in 1995 between Ukraine and the G7 states, the first power unit was shut down.
On December 6, 2000, due to malfunctions in the protection system, the last operating reactor, the third, was decommissioned. In March 2000, the government of Ukraine adopted a resolution to close the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. On 14 December 2000, the reactor was started up at 5% power for the shutdown ceremony on 15 December. Chernobyl was stopped on December 15, 2000 at 13:17.
Ukraine is seeking from international donors to start construction of the Shelter confinement, the construction of a spent nuclear fuel storage facility, which has been repeatedly postponed before, which should turn the Chernobyl nuclear power plant into a safe facility. The Shelter Object, designed to turn the Chernobyl plant into a safe system, will be an arch-shaped structure 105 meters high, 150 meters long and 260 meters wide. After erection, it will be “pushed” onto the fourth block of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, over which, after the accident on April 26, 1986, a sarcophagus was built. The donor assembly of the Chernobyl Shelter Fund includes 28 countries. It is managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which on May 15, 2008 decided to allocate 135 million euros to the Shelter Fund, and on July 15 of the same year, at a meeting of the council of donor countries, a decision was made to provide another 60 million euros . In April 2009, the United States allocated $250 million to Ukraine to ensure the safety of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
In April 2011, a donor conference was held in Kyiv, which managed to raise 550 million euros. Prior to this, the Ukrainian authorities stated that about 740 million euros were not enough to complete the Chernobyl projects.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the program for the decommissioning of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. According to the program, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant will be completely eliminated by 2065. At the first stage, from 2010 to 2013, nuclear fuel will be removed from nuclear power plants and transferred to long-term storage facilities.
From 2013 to 2022 the reactor installations will be mothballed. From 2022 to 2045, experts will expect a decrease in the radioactivity of reactor plants. For the period from 2045 to 2065. the installations are dismantled, and the place where the station was located will be cleaned.
It is planned that as a result of the implementation of the program, the Shelter object will become environmentally safe.
EYEWITNESS MEMORIES
1. Somewhere around 8 am, a neighbor called me and said that her neighbor had not returned from the station, there had been an accident. I immediately rushed to my neighbors, godfathers, and they have been sitting “on their bags” since the night: their godfather called them and told them about the accident. By eleven o'clock, our children ran home and said that all the windows and doors were blocked at school, and they were not allowed to go anywhere, and then they washed the territory and cars around the school, let them out into the street and told them to run home. Our dentist friend said that they were all alerted at night and called to the hospital, where people were taken from the station all night. The irradiated people were very sick: by morning the whole hospital was in vomit. It was creepy! By 12 o'clock, armored personnel carriers began to enter the station and the city. It was a terrible sight: these young guys went to their deaths, they were sitting there even without “petals” (respirators), they were not protected at all! The troops kept arriving, more and more militia became, helicopters flew. Television was turned off for us, so we did not know anything about the accident itself, what exactly happened and what the scale was.
The radio said that by 15.00 the entire population must be ready for evacuation. To do this, you need to collect the things and products you need for three days and go outside. We did just that.
We lived almost on the outskirts of the city, and it turned out that after we got out, we still more than an hour stood on the street. In each yard there were 3-4 policemen who made door-to-door rounds, they went into every house and every apartment. Those who did not want to evacuate were taken out by force. Buses drove up, people loaded and left. That's how we left with 100 rubles in our pocket and things and food for three days.
We were taken to the village of Maryanovka, Polessky district, which is no longer on the map today either. We stayed there for three days. By the evening of the third day, it became known that radiation background grows in Maryanovka. It became clear that we had nothing to wait for and we needed to decide something ourselves, because we had three children in our arms. On the same evening, on the last bus from Polessky, we left for Kyiv, and from there my husband took me with the children to my mother in the village.
I was in the sanitary squad for many years and clearly knew that the first thing to do upon arrival to my mother was to wash and wash. So we did. Mom and I dug a hole, threw everything in there and filled it with everything that was.
It was difficult, but there was no way out. I was also lucky that my mother was - there was where to go. For others who had nowhere to go, it was even more difficult. They were settled in hotels, boarding houses, sanatoriums. Children were sent to camps - their parents then searched for them all over Ukraine for months. And we survived thanks to neighbors and relatives. Sometimes I wake up, go outside, and on the threshold of the house there is already milk, bread, a piece of cheese, eggs, butter. So we lived there for six months. It was very difficult and scary, because we did not know what would happen to us. When some time had already passed, I began to understand that we would not return back, and I told my mother about this. And my mother (I will never forget) said: is there really no more of this fairy tale in the middle of the forest? I say: there will be no mother, there will be no more. After the accident, the radiation cloud stood over Pripyat for a long time, then dissipated and moved on. I was told that if it had rained then, there would have been no one to evacuate. We are very lucky! Nobody told us anything, what level of radiation, what dose we received, nothing! And we stayed in this zone for 38 hours before the evacuation. We were soaked through it all! And all this time no one gave us any help. Although we had a lot of sanruzhins in the city, and in each department there were boxes in the warehouse, for each member of the family, antidotes, potassium-iodine, respirators and clothing. All this was, only no one took advantage of it. They brought us iodine only on the second day, when it was already useless to drink it. So we carried radiation throughout Ukraine.
Lydia Romanchenko
2. On the evening of April 25, my son asked me to tell him a story before going to bed. I began to tell and did not notice how I fell asleep with the child. And we lived in Pripyat on the 9th floor, and the station was clearly visible from the kitchen window.
The wife was still awake and felt some kind of shock at home, like a slight earthquake. I went to the window in the kitchen and saw above the 4th block, first a black cloud, then a blue glow, then a white cloud that rose and covered the moon.
My wife woke me up. There was an overpass in front of our window. And along it, one after another - with the alarm turned on - fire engines and ambulances raced. But I could not think that something serious had happened. Reassured his wife and went to bed.
3. On April 25, we went to Kyiv to take professional exams. We returned to Pripyat late. I lay down, began to read, in my opinion, Bunin. Then she looked at her watch, it was late. Turned off the light. But did not sleep. Suddenly I felt a push at home, I heard a dull bang from the street, sort of like a “boom”. I was scared, I immediately thought about the nuclear power plant. I lay down for another ten minutes, and then I decided to open the window and take a look. And I lived on the 2nd floor, from where the nuclear power plant was not visible. Look, everything seems to be fine on the street. The sky is clear and warm. People are walking quietly. The bus has passed.
4. I felt the first blow. It was strong, but not the same as the one or two seconds later. He was already like one long blow or two, but following each other. Initially, I thought that something had happened to the deaerators above the control panel of Unit 4. Facing tiles fell from the false ceiling following the sound of the impact. I looked at the instruments. The picture was bad. It became clear that an accident of extreme severity had occurred. Then he jumped out into the corridor to go to the central hall. But there is dust and smoke in the corridor. I went back to turn on the smoke exhaust fans. Then he went to the engine room. The situation there is terrible. Hot water gushed out of broken pipes in all directions, it soared strongly. Flashes of short circuits of electric cables were visible. A significant part of the engine room was destroyed. A slab that fell from above interrupted the oil pipeline, oil flowed out, and there was up to 100 tons of it in special containers. Then he went outside, walked around the 4th unit, saw destruction, fires on the roof.
5. There was a blow. I thought that the turbine blades flew. Then another blow. Looked at the cover. It seemed to me that it should fall. We went to inspect the 4th block, saw destruction and glow in the reactor area. Then I noticed that my feet were slipping on some kind of suspension. I thought: is it not graphite? I also thought that this was the most terrible accident, the possibility of which no one described.
6. At the station's central control panel, we heard a thud, similar to the sound of a very heavy object falling. For 15-18 seconds we thought: what fell? And then the instruments on the console showed a system failure. Some lines of communication have been disconnected. Then the instruments showed failures in the operation of electric generators at the station. Emergency sirens went off, lights flickered. After some short time, the generators "calmed down". I called the Kyivenergo dispatcher and asked: "What do you have?" I thought that power outages come from the center. But the dispatcher replied: “You have something. Understand." The phone rang. I picked up the phone. A paramilitary guard asked: "What happened at the station?" I had to answer that I needed to figure it out. And immediately the head of the security guard calls. Reports that there is a fire on the 4th unit. I told him to open the gate and call the firemen. He answered - the gates are open, the fire engines have already arrived.
Here I see that the alarm signal about the accident from the 4th block is turned on. I ran there. The guys met. They were very dirty and excited. Finally, the turbine hall. He interested me in the first place, since there are reserves of hydrogen and engine oil - all this is flammable. I see the roof has collapsed. Then he ran to the control panel of the 4th unit. He asked: "Do you pour water to cool the reactor?" I was told that they were pouring, but they themselves did not know where she was going.
A dosimetrist appeared and said that his device was weak and could not measure the full power of radiation. I see the guys are carrying a burnt man, it turned out to be V. Shashenok. He was dirty, in a state of shock, moaning. I helped carry the guy to the shield room of the 3rd block. From there I called Moscow, VPO Soyuzatomenergo, and said that the most serious accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Then he called the telephone operator to announce a general emergency for the station.
April 26 is the Day of Remembrance for those killed in radiation accidents and catastrophes. This year marks 33 years since the Chernobyl disaster - the largest in the history of nuclear energy in the world. A whole generation has already grown up that did not experience this terrible tragedy, but on this day we traditionally remember Chernobyl. After all, only by remembering the mistakes of the past can we hope not to repeat them in the future.
In 1986, an explosion occurred at the Chernobyl reactor No. 4, and several hundred workers and firefighters tried to put out the fire, which had been burning for 10 days. The world was enveloped in a cloud of radiation. Then about 50 employees of the station were killed and hundreds of rescuers were injured. It is still difficult to determine the scale of the catastrophe and its impact on people's health - only from 4 to 200 thousand people died from cancer that developed as a result of the received dose of radiation. Pripyat and the surrounding areas will be unsafe for people to live for several more centuries.
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1. This 1986 aerial view of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine, shows the destruction from the explosion and fire of Reactor 4 on April 26, 1986. As a result of the explosion and the fire that followed it, a huge amount of radioactive substances was released into the atmosphere. Ten years after the world's largest nuclear disaster the power plant continued to operate due to an acute shortage of electricity in Ukraine. The final stop of the power plant occurred only in 2000. (AP Photo/ Volodymyr Repik) 
2. On October 11, 1991, while reducing the speed of turbine generator No. 4 of the second power unit for its subsequent shutdown and putting the separator-superheater SPP-44 into repair, an accident and a fire occurred. This photograph, taken during a press visit to the station on October 13, 1991, shows part of the collapsed roof of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, destroyed by fire. (AP Photo/Efrm Lucasky) 
3. Aerial view of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, after the largest nuclear disaster in human history. The picture was taken three days after the explosion at the nuclear power plant in 1986. In front of the chimney is the destroyed 4th reactor. (AP Photo) 
4. Photo from the February issue of the magazine " Soviet life": the main hall of the 1st power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 29, 1986 in Chernobyl (Ukraine). The Soviet Union admitted that there had been an accident at the power plant, but provided no further information. (AP Photo) 
5. A Swedish farmer removes straw contaminated through precipitation several months after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in June 1986. (STF/AFP/Getty Images) 
6. Soviet medical worker examines an unknown child who was evacuated from the nuclear disaster zone to the Kopelovo state farm near Kyiv on May 11, 1986. The picture was taken during a trip organized by Soviet authorities to show how they deal with the accident. (AP Photo/Boris Yurchenko) 
7. Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev (center) and his wife Raisa Gorbacheva during a conversation with the management of the nuclear power plant on February 23, 1989. This was the first visit by a Soviet leader to the station since the April 1986 accident. (AFP PHOTO/TASS) 
8. Kievans stand in line for forms before checking for radiation contamination after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in Kyiv on May 9, 1986. (AP Photo/Boris Yurchenko) 
9. A boy reads an ad on a closed playground gate in Wiesbaden on May 5, 1986, which says: "This playground is temporarily closed." A week after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion on 26 April 1986, the Wiesbaden municipal council closed all playgrounds after detecting levels of radioactivity between 124 and 280 becquerels. (AP Photo/Frank Rumpenhorst) 
10. One of the engineers who worked at the Chernobyl NPP undergoes a medical examination at the Lesnaya Polyana sanatorium on May 15, 1986, a few weeks after the explosion. (STF/AFP/Getty Images) 
11. Activists of the organization for the protection of the environment mark the railroad cars, which are infected with radiation dry whey. Photo taken in Bremen, northern Germany on February 6, 1987. The serum, which was brought to Bremen for further transport to Egypt, was produced after the Chernobyl accident and was contaminated with radioactive fallout. (AP Photo/Peter Meyer) 
12. An abattoir worker puts suitability stamps on cow carcasses in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany, on May 12, 1986. According to the decision of the Minister of Social Affairs of the federal state of Hesse, after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, all meat began to be subjected to radiation control. (AP Photo/Kurt Strumpf/stf) 
13. Archive photo from April 14, 1998. Workers of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant pass by the control panel of the destroyed 4th power unit of the station. On April 26, 2006, Ukraine marked the 20th anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which affected the fate of millions of people, required astronomical costs from international funds and became an ominous symbol of the dangers of nuclear energy. (AFP PHOTO/ GENIA SAVILOV) 
14. In the picture, which was taken on April 14, 1998, you can see the control panel of the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AFP PHOTO/ GENIA SAVILOV) 
15. Workers who took part in the construction of a cement sarcophagus that closes the Chernobyl reactor, in a memorable photo in 1986 next to an unfinished construction site. According to the data of the Union of Chernobyl of Ukraine, thousands of people who took part in the liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster died from the consequences of radiation contamination, which they suffered during work. (AP Photo/ Volodymyr Repik) 
16. High-voltage towers near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant June 20, 2000 in Chernobyl. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) 
17. The duty operator of a nuclear reactor records control readings at the site of the only operating reactor No. 3, on Tuesday, June 20, 2000. Andrey Shauman pointed angrily at a switch hidden under a sealed metal cover on the control panel of the reactor at Chernobyl, a nuclear power plant whose name has become synonymous with nuclear catastrophe. “This is the same switch that can be used to turn off the reactor. For $2,000, I'll let anyone push that button when the time comes," Shauman, acting chief engineer, said at the time. When that time arrived on December 15, 2000, environmental activists, governments, and ordinary people around the world breathed a sigh of relief. However, for the 5,800 Chernobyl workers, it was a day of mourning. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
18. 17-year-old Oksana Gaibon (right) and 15-year-old Alla Kozimerka, victims of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, are being treated with infrared rays at the Tarara Children's Hospital in the Cuban capital. Oksana and Alla, like hundreds of other Russian and Ukrainian teenagers who received a dose of radiation, were treated for free in Cuba as part of a humanitarian project. (ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP)
19. Photo dated April 18, 2006. A child during treatment at the Center for Pediatric Oncology and Hematology, which was built in Minsk after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, representatives of the Red Cross reported that they were faced with a lack of funds to further help the victims of the Chernobyl accident. (VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP/Getty Images) 
20. View of the city of Pripyat and the fourth reactor of Chernobyl on December 15, 2000 on the day of the complete shutdown of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (Photo by Yuri Kozyrev/Newsmakers) 
21. Ferris wheel and carousel in the deserted amusement park of the ghost town of Pripyat, next to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant May 26, 2003. The population of Pripyat, which in 1986 was 45,000 people, was completely evacuated within the first three days after the explosion of the 4th reactor No. 4. The explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred at 1:23 am on April 26, 1986. The resulting radioactive cloud damaged much of Europe. According to various estimates, from 15 to 30 thousand people subsequently died as a result of exposure to radiation. Over 2.5 million people in Ukraine suffer from diseases acquired as a result of exposure, and about 80,000 of them receive benefits. (AFP PHOTO/ SERGEI SUPINSKY) 
22. Pictured on May 26, 2003: an abandoned amusement park in the city of Pripyat, which is located next to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AFP PHOTO/ SERGEI SUPINSKY) 
23. Pictured May 26, 2003: gas masks on the floor of a classroom in a school in the ghost town of Pripyat, which is located near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AFP PHOTO/ SERGEI SUPINSKY) 
24. In the photo dated May 26, 2003: a TV case in a hotel room in the city of Pripyat, which is located near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AFP PHOTO/ SERGEI SUPINSKY) 
25. View of the ghost town of Pripyat next to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AFP PHOTO/ SERGEI SUPINSKY) 
26. Pictured January 25, 2006: an abandoned classroom in a school in the deserted city of Pripyat near Chernobyl, Ukraine. Pripyat and the surrounding areas will be unsafe for people to live for several more centuries. According to scientists, the complete decomposition of the most dangerous radioactive elements will take about 900 years. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) 
27. Textbooks and notebooks on the floor of a school in the ghost town of Pripyat January 25, 2006. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) 
28. Toys and a gas mask in the dust in the former primary school abandoned city of Pripyat on January 25, 2006. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) 
29. In the photo on January 25, 2006: an abandoned sports hall of one of the schools in the deserted city of Pripyat. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) 
30. What is left of the school gym in the abandoned city of Pripyat. January 25, 2006. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) 
31. A resident of the Belarusian village of Novoselki, located just outside the 30-kilometer exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in a picture dated April 7, 2006. (AFP PHOTO / VIKTOR DRACHEV) 
32. A woman with piglets in the deserted Belarusian village of Tulgovichi, 370 km southeast of Minsk, on April 7, 2006. This village is located within the 30-kilometer zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AFP PHOTO / VIKTOR DRACHEV) 34. Residents of the village of Ilintsy in the closed area around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, about 100 km from Kyiv, pass by rescuers from the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergency Situations, who are rehearsing before a concert on April 5, 2006. Rescuers organized an amateur concert dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster for more than three hundred people (mostly elderly people) who returned to live illegally in villages located in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images) 
35. The remaining residents of the abandoned Belarusian village of Tulgovichi, located in the 30-kilometer exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, on April 7, 2006 celebrate Orthodox holiday Blessings of the Virgin. Before the accident, about 2,000 people lived in the village, and now only eight remain. (AFP PHOTO / VIKTOR DRACHEV) 37. A construction team in masks and special protective suits on April 12, 2006 during work to strengthen the sarcophagus covering the destroyed 4th reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AFP PHOTO / GENIA SAVILOV) 
38. On April 12, 2006, workers sweep away radioactive dust in front of a sarcophagus covering the damaged 4th reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. because of high level radiation crews work for only a few minutes. (GENIA SAVILOV/AFP/Getty Images) For almost eight centuries, Chernobyl was just a small Ukrainian town, but after April 26, 1986, this name began to denote the most terrible man-made disaster throughout the history of mankind. The very word "Chernobyl" bears the sign of radioactivity, the imprint of human tragedy and mystery. Chernobyl scares and attracts, and for many decades it will remain in the center of attention of the whole world.
Accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986 is the beginning of a new period in the relationship between man and the atomic nucleus. A period full of fear, caution and distrust.
An object: Power unit No. 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the city of Pripyat, Ukraine.
Victims: 2 people died during the disaster, 31 people died in the following months, about 80 in the next 15 years. 134 people developed radiation sickness, resulting in death in 28 cases. About 60,000 people (mostly liquidators) received high doses of radiation.
Causes of the disaster
Around the Chernobyl disaster has developed unusual situation: literally up to seconds the course of events of that fateful night on April 26, 1986 is known, all possible reasons the occurrence of an emergency, but it is still unknown what exactly led to the explosion of the reactor. There are several versions of the causes of the accident, and over the past three decades, the disaster has acquired a lot of speculation, fantastic and frankly delusional versions.
The first months after the accident, the main blame for it was placed on the operators, who made a lot of mistakes that led to the explosion. But since 1991, the situation has changed, and almost all charges against nuclear power plant personnel have been dropped. Yes, people made several mistakes, but they all corresponded to the reactor operation regulations in force at that time, and none of them were fatal. So, the low quality of regulations and safety requirements was recognized as one of the causes of the accident.
The main causes of the disaster lay in the technical plane. Many volumes of investigations into the causes of the disaster boil down to one thing: the exploded RBMK-1000 reactor had a number of design flaws, which under certain (rather rare!) conditions turn out to be dangerous. In addition, the reactor simply did not comply with many nuclear safety regulations, although it is believed that this did not play a special role.
The two main causes of the disaster are considered to be a positive vapor reactivity coefficient and the so-called "end effect". The first effect boils down to the fact that when water boils in the reactor, its power increases sharply, that is, it starts to go more actively nuclear reactions. This is due to the fact that steam absorbs neutrons worse than water, and the more neutrons, the more active the uranium fission reactions are.
And the "end effect" is caused by the design features of the control and protection rods used in the RBMK-1000 reactors. These rods consist of two halves: the upper one (7 meters long) is made of neutron-absorbing material, the lower one (5 meters long) is made of graphite. The graphite part is necessary so that when the rod is pulled out, its channel in the reactor is not occupied by water, which absorbs neutrons well, and therefore can worsen the course of nuclear reactions. However, the graphite rod did not displace water from the entire canal - approximately 2 meters of the lower part of the canal were left without a displacing rod, and therefore filled with water.
It is known that graphite absorbs neutrons much worse than water, and therefore, when completely pulled out rods are lowered in the lower part of the channels, nuclear reactions do not slow down due to the sharp displacement of water by graphite, but, on the contrary, sharply accelerate. That is, due to the “end effect” in the first moments of lowering the rods, the reactor is not shut down, as it should be, but on the contrary, its power increases abruptly.
How could all this lead to disaster? It is believed that the positive steam reactivity coefficient played a fatal role at the moment when the reactor power was reduced, and at the same time the circulation pumps were also reduced - because of this, the water inside the reactor began to flow more slowly and began to evaporate rapidly, which caused an acceleration of the flow of nuclear reactions. In the first seconds, the increase in power was controlled, but then it acquired an avalanche-like character, and the operator was forced to press the button for the emergency lowering of the rods. At that moment, the “end effect” worked, in a fraction of a second the power of the reactor increased abruptly, and ... And an explosion thundered, almost putting an end to not all nuclear energy, and leaving an indelible mark on the face of the Earth and in the hearts of people.
Chronicle of events
The accident at the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred so rapidly that until the last seconds all control devices remained operational, thanks to which the entire course of the disaster is known literally to fractions of seconds.
The shutdown of the reactor was scheduled for April 24-26 to carry out scheduled preventive maintenance - this is, in general, a common practice for nuclear power plants. However, very often during such shutdowns, various experiments are carried out that cannot be carried out with the reactor running. Just one of these experiments was scheduled for April 25 - testing the “turbine generator rotor run-down” mode, which in principle could become one of the reactor protection systems during emergencies.
This experiment is very simple. Turbogenerators of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant are units consisting of a steam turbine and a generator that generates electricity. The rotors of these units are combined, and their total weight reaches 200 tons - such a colossus, accelerated to a speed of 3000 revolutions per minute, after the steam supply is stopped, can rotate for a long time by inertia, only due to the acquired kinetic inertia. This is the “run-out” mode, and theoretically, it can be used to generate electricity and power circulation pumps when regular power sources are turned off.
The experiment was to show whether the turbogenerator was able to supply power to the pumps in the "coast" mode until the emergency diesel generators returned to normal operation.
From April 24, the reactor power gradually began to decrease, and by 0.28 on April 26, it was possible to bring it to the required level. But at that moment, the reactor power dropped to almost zero, which required the immediate lifting of the control rods. Finally, by 1:00 a.m., the reactor power reached the required value, and at 1:23:04, with a delay of several hours, the experiment was officially launched. This is where the problems started.
The turbogenerator in the "runaway" mode stopped faster than expected, which caused the speed of the circulation pumps connected to it to drop. This led to the fact that the water began to pass more slowly through the reactor, boil faster, and a positive vapor coefficient of reactivity intervened. So the power of the reactor began to gradually increase.
After some time - at 1:23:39 - the instrument readings reached critical values, and the operator pressed the emergency protection button AZ-5. The completely withdrawn rods began to sink into the reactor, and at that moment the “end effect” worked - the reactor power increased many times, and after a few seconds an explosion thundered (more precisely, at least two powerful explosions).
The explosion completely destroyed the reactor and damaged the building of the power unit, a fire started. Firefighters quickly arrived at the scene of the accident, who by 6 o'clock in the morning completely coped with the fire. And in the first two hours, no one imagined the scale of the catastrophe and the degree of radiation contamination. Already an hour after the start of the extinguishing, many firefighters began to show symptoms of radiation damage. People received large doses of radiation, and 28 of the firefighters died of radiation sickness in the following weeks.
Only at 3.30 am on April 26, the radiation background at the crash site was measured (because at the time of the accident, the standard control devices were out of order, and compact individual dosimeters simply went off scale), and an understanding came of what actually happened.
From the first days after the explosion, measures began to eliminate the consequences of the disaster, the active phase of which lasted several months, and in fact lasted until 1994. During this time, over 600,000 people took part in the liquidation work.
In spite of powerful explosion, the bulk of the contents of the nuclear reactor remained at the site of the destroyed fourth power unit, so it was decided to build a protective structure around it, which later became known as the "Sarcophagus". The construction of the shelter was completed by November 1986. The construction of the "sarcophagus" took over 400 thousand cubic meters of concrete, several thousand tons of a mixture attenuating radioactive radiation and 7,000 tons of metal structures.
Explosion
Until now, disputes have not stopped about the nature of the explosion of the reactor at the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Many experts agree that the explosion was similar to a nuclear one. That is, an uncontrolled chain reaction began in the reactor, similar to what happens when a nuclear bomb is detonated. These reactions lasted a fraction of a second, and did not turn into a full-fledged nuclear explosion, since the entire contents of the reactor were ejected from the mine, and the nuclear fuel dissipated.
However, the main explosion of the reactor was facilitated by an explosion of a different nature - steam. It is believed that due to the avalanche-like growth of steam generation inside the reactor, the pressure increased many times (in fact, by 70 times), which ripped off the multi-ton plate covering the reactor from above, like a lid on a pan. As a result, the reactor was completely dehydrated, uncontrolled nuclear reactions began in it, and an explosion.
A different version of what happened was proposed by Konstantin Pavlovich Checherov, a man who devoted more than 10 years to analyzing the causes of the Chernobyl disaster, during which he personally examined virtually every meter of the reactor shaft and the reactor hall of the fourth power unit. In his opinion, due to an emergency shutdown of the pumps, the temperature in the lower part of the reactor rose sharply, the pipelines (the water pressure in them reached 70 atmospheres) broke, and as a result, the entire reactor, like a colossal jet engine, was thrown out of the shaft up into the reactor hall . And already there, under the roof of the hall, there was an explosion that had a nuclear nature, but a relatively small power - about 0.01 kilotons. This explosion destroyed the roof and walls of the reactor hall. That is why virtually all the fuel (90-95%) was ejected from the reactor shaft. Checherov's version for a long time contradicted the official position and therefore remained (and remains) practically unknown to a wide circle.
To imagine the scale of the disaster, you need to understand what the RBMK-1000 reactor is. The basis of the reactor is a concrete shaft with dimensions of 21.6 × 21.6 × 25.5 m, at the bottom of which lies a steel sheet 2 m thick and 14.5 m in diameter. On this slab rests a graphite stack of cylindrical shape, pierced by channels for fuel elements, coolant and rods - in fact, this is the reactor. The diameter of the masonry reaches 11.8 m, the height is 7 m, it is surrounded by a shell with water, which serves as additional biological protection. From above, the reactor is covered with a metal plate with a diameter of 17.5 m and a thickness of 3 m.
The total mass of the reactor reaches 5000 tons, and all this mass was simply thrown out of the mine by the explosion.
Consequences of the Chernobyl accident
The Chernobyl disaster is in the forefront of the most serious man-made accidents in the history of mankind. It had such disastrous consequences that even now - almost 30 years later - the situation remains very difficult.
The explosion of the reactor led to monstrous radiation contamination of the area. At the time of the accident, the reactor contained about 180 tons of nuclear fuel, of which from 9 to 60 tons were released into the atmosphere in the form of aerosols - a huge radioactive cloud rose above the nuclear power plant and settled on large area. As a result, significant territories of Ukraine, Belarus and some regions of Russia were subjected to pollution.
It should be noted that the main danger is not uranium itself, but highly active isotopes of its fission - cesium, iodine, strontium, as well as plutonium and other transuranium elements.
In the first hours after the accident, its scale remained unknown, but already on the afternoon of April 27, the entire population of the city of Pripyat was hastily evacuated, in the following days people were taken out first from the 10-kilometer zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and then from the 30-kilometer one. To this day, the exact number of people evacuated is unknown, but according to rough estimates, about 115,000 people were evacuated from more than a hundred settlements in the whole of 1986, and in subsequent years more than 220,000 people were resettled.
Subsequently, around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in a 30-kilometer zone, the so-called “exclusion zone” was created, in which a ban on all economic activity was introduced, and in order to prevent the return of people, almost all settlements were in literally words are destroyed.
Interestingly, even now in some contaminated areas, there are over-permissible levels of radioactive isotopes in the soil, plants and, as a result, in cow's milk. This situation will be observed for several more decades, since the half-life of cesium-137 is 30 years, and that of strontium-90 is 29 years.
Over time, the radioactive background in the contaminated areas generally decreases, but this effect has unexpected manifestations. It is known that during the decay of radioactive elements, others are formed, and they can be either less or more active. So, during the decay of plutonium, ameretium is formed, which has a higher radioactivity, therefore, over time, the radioactive background in some areas only grows! It is believed that in the contaminated territories of Belarus, due to the increase in the amount of ameretium, by 2086 the background will be 2.5 times greater than immediately after the accident! The only reassurance is that the bulk of this background is alpha radiation, from which it is relatively easy to protect yourself.
The terrible consequences of the accident caused mass dissatisfaction with nuclear energy, people simply became afraid of nuclear power plants! This led to the fact that in the period from 1986 to 2002 not a single new nuclear power plant was built, and the construction of new power units at existing plants was either frozen or completely stopped. And only the last ten years there has been an increase in nuclear energy, but this applies more to Russia - the accident at the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima-1 dealt a new blow, and a number of countries have already announced the abandonment of nuclear energy (for example, Germany wants to completely abandon nuclear power plants by the 2030s).
The Chernobyl disaster also had some very surprising consequences. The exclusion zone has long been the subject of dark jokes about mutations and other scary things caused by radiation. But in fact, the situation in those areas is quite different. Almost 30 years ago, people left the 30-kilometer zone, and since then no one has lived there (with the exception of several hundred "self-settlers" - people who returned here, despite all the prohibitions), did not plow and did not sow, did not pollute the environment and did not dump waste. As a result, radioactive forests and fields have almost completely recovered, the populations of animals, including rare ones, have increased many times over, and the ecological situation has generally improved. Paradoxical as it may seem, but the radiation catastrophe was not an evil, but rather a boon for nature!
And, finally, Chernobyl brought to life a new socio-cultural phenomenon - stalking. The exclusion zone perfectly embodies the Zone created by the Strugatsky brothers in the novel Roadside Picnic. Since the beginning of the 90s, hundreds of "stalkers" have been drawn to the closure of the territory, dragging everything that is bad, visiting abandoned cities and striving for the stalker's "Mecca" - the post-apocalyptic city of Pripyat, forever frozen in the Soviet past. And no one knows what doses of radiation these unfortunate stalkers received, and what dangerous things they brought home.
Stalkerism acquired such proportions that the government of Ukraine was forced to adopt special legislative acts restricting people's access to the Exclusion Zone. But despite the increased control of the zone's borders and all the prohibitions, the newly-minted stalkers do not give up trying to get into the most mysterious region of the planet, covered with myths and legends.
The current situation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
Despite the disaster, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant resumed its work in the autumn of 1986: already on October 1, power unit No. 1 was launched, and on November 5, power unit No. 2. The launch of the third power unit was difficult because it was located in close proximity to the emergency fourth, so he began work only November 24, 1987.
On the evening of October 11, 1991, a serious fire occurred at the second power unit, which actually put an end to the work of the station. On this day, the reactor of power unit No. 2 was shut down, later work began on its restoration, but they were never completed, and since 1997 the reactor has been officially shut down. The reactor of power unit No. 1 was shut down on November 30, 1996. The shutdown of the reactor of power unit No. 3 was carried out by the President of Ukraine on December 15, 2000 - this event was staged like a show and broadcast live.
So today, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is not functioning, but work is being done on it to replace the “sarcophagus” (which is starting to collapse) with a new protective structure. In this regard, about 750 people continue to work on the territory of the station. The progress of work is broadcast around the clock on the official website of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant http://www.chnpp.gov.ua/.
On November 14, 2016, the process of moving the assembled new shelter began - in 4 days it should take its place above the destroyed power unit.
What has been done to prevent a disaster from happening again?
It is believed that the main causes of the Chernobyl disaster were the design flaws of the RBMK-1000 nuclear reactor. But these reactors were not only at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but also at several other stations - Leningrad, Smolensk and Kursk. Millions of people are in potential danger!
After the disaster, the question arose of modernizing all these reactors, which was done in subsequent years. Now 11 more RBMK-1000 reactors remain in operation, which no longer pose a danger, however, due to physical wear and tear and moral obsolescence, most of them will be decommissioned in 5-10 years.
Also, the Chernobyl disaster made it necessary to revise the regulations for the operation of reactors and tighten nuclear safety requirements. So, really serious safety measures at nuclear power plants were introduced only after 1986 - before that, it was believed that many accident scenarios were simply unthinkable, and fears were far-fetched.
To today The global nuclear power industry has become one of the most high-tech industries in which special attention is paid to safety, equipment reliability and personnel training. And this was largely due to the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which showed that the fission of the atomic nucleus is much more complicated and dangerous than the simple burning of coal.
Any global event remains in our memory for a long time, most often forever. Unfortunately, not all such events are joyful, expected. Sometimes it happens, in this way, when a country goes down in history “thanks to” a terrible incident that entails human casualties, destruction of the environment, devastation of an entire area, and the death of all life around. One of such events can accurately be called such a sad event as the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred on the territory of the former Ukrainian USSR (now it is an independent country - Ukraine), April 26, 1986. In means mass media The most commonly used term is the Chernobyl disaster, which has become one of the largest nuclear tragedies in the history of mankind. When was the Chernobyl accident and what followed? Why did the accident happen at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and who is to blame? When was Chernobyl, when did the Chernobyl accident occur? About all this - below.
Lesson to humanity
The destruction that occurred during the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was in the nature of an explosion. was completely destroyed. A huge amount of radioactive substances was released into the environment.
As already mentioned, the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is regarded as the largest in the entire history of peaceful nuclear energy. Such conclusions can be drawn from the number of deaths, as well as those affected by the consequences. It is impossible to ignore the economic damage, which also hit the financial condition Soviet Union.
Only within three months after the accident, the number of victims reached 31 people. The first died within a few days. Further, radiation sickness claimed the lives of sixty to eighty people, and this is over the next fifteen years. Also, about one hundred and thirty-four people suffered radiation sickness, which had one degree or another of severity. More than 100,000 people who lived within a 30-kilometer zone were immediately evacuated.
In order to eliminate such a phenomenon as the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, forces of 600 thousand people were thrown, a huge amount of resources was spent. Even now, however, we continue to feel the effects of this terrible accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and it is safe to say that for a long time this atomic curse will weigh on humanity around the world.
No matter how you look at it, but people will continue to ask such questions, since the date of the Chernobyl accident has long been known: Chernobyl, as it was, the accident at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, or in short, an accident at an emergency. All of these questions remain open for the most part.
How did people deserve such a catastrophe and how did it happen? What is it, a human error or a curse from above? Probably, no one will say for sure, just as they will not find the true culprits. Chernobyl accident became a good warning for those who believe that everything in this world is subject to man, because sometimes the slightest mistake can lead to huge sacrifices. And we all make mistakes...
Chernobyl and Hiroshima
Along with such grief as the Chernobyl accident, another world catastrophe is remembered, namely. But here you can find a difference. The explosion that caused the Chernobyl accident was more like a powerful "dirty bomb", and radiation contamination can be accurately called the main damaging factor here.
A radioactive cloud formed from a burning reactor spread various radiation throughout almost all of Europe. Of course, the greatest consequences from this radiation were observed in large areas of the Soviet Union, which were located near the reactor. Today these are lands that belong to the Republic of Belarus, Ukraine, Russian Federation.
The Chernobyl accident became an event of great social and political significance for the entire Soviet Union. And this, of course, left a significant imprint on the course of the investigation of the case. The interpretation of the facts, their course was constantly changing, and there is still no exact designation, identification of the reasons that caused such a catastrophe as the Chernobyl accident.
The giant who buried the city. Characteristics of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
Chernobyl, the accident in which brought sad world fame, is located on the territory of Ukraine, three kilometers from, 16 kilometers from Belarus, 110 kilometers from the capital of Ukraine, the city of Kyiv.
By the time the accident occurred, Chernobyl had activated four power units based on RBMK-1000 reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The total capacity of the station was already at that time one of the highest in Europe: the Chernobyl nuclear power plant produced one tenth of the electricity throughout the USSR. In the future, the capacity of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was planned to be increased further. They simply did not have time to complete the construction of two additional power units.
Forever CHAESS stopped on December 15, 2000. This date seemed to confirm that some things cannot be restored, they are now buried due to circumstances and, possibly, human omission.
Accident, Chernobyl - these two words can still inspire horror. For us, the current generation, it is impossible to imagine such a terrible thing happening again. And all we can do is draw the right conclusions and act in such a way as to protect ourselves and those around us.
The horror is coming. Accident
On April 26, 1986, at night, namely at 1:26, an explosion occurred at the fourth power unit, which led to the complete destruction of the reactor. The accident in Chernobyl began with the fact that there was a partial destruction of the building of the power unit, while two people died. Moreover, the body of one of them could not be found, since it was buried under the rubble of the building. The second person died in the hospital from burns and other injuries incompatible with life. But that was only the beginning. The Chernobyl accident did not stop there, but continued to take life after life and is doing so to this day.
The explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant provoked the emergence of many fires. A fire blazed in various rooms of the station and on the roof, and as a result, the remnants of the core melted. It seemed like a real doomsday had begun. Mixtures of sand, concrete, fuel fragments began to spread through the sub-reactor rooms, destroying everything that was in their way.
Immediately, the Chernobyl accident caused the release of radiation into the atmosphere. Among the radioactive substances there were plutonium, uranium and other substances terribly harmful to life, the half-life of which reaches several hundred and even thousands of years. The Chernobyl accident is something the consequences of which will be manifested for centuries to come.
How it was. Chronology of the disaster
So, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the accident at which shocked the whole world, was once one of the largest systems that produced electricity. It would seem that it is indestructible, that there is no such phenomenon that can shake this mighty hulk.
The accident, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant - this is what everyone knows, but not everyone knows how it all began. Probably not bad to know the history of what has remained in our memory forever. Let's talk about what caused what we feel even decades later.
Path to death
When did the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occur? It all started on April 25, 1986. The plans included stopping the fourth power unit in order to carry out the next scheduled preventive maintenance and at the same time conduct an experiment. As part of the experiment, tests were to be carried out "run-out of the rotor of the turbogenerator". The project proposed by the general designer was considered as an effective and economical way to obtain additional system power supply.
It should be noted that this was already the fourth test of the regime, which was carried out at the station. Therefore, if someone asks the question "when the tragedy occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant", we can say that the tragedy was selected gradually. The station itself seemed to warn a person about something terrible, and it happened when no one expected it.
deadly experiment
The tests in question were supposed to take place on April 25, 1986. About a day before such an event as the accident at Chernobyl, the reactor power was reduced by half. Power reduction was a prerequisite for the experiment. For the same reason, the emergency cooling system was turned off. Further reduction of the reactor power was forbidden by the Kievenergo dispatcher. At 23:10 the ban was lifted.
Although the date of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is accurate - April 26, 1986, the tragedy played out even earlier, since all huge events have their introductions. Due to the prolonged unstable operation of the reactor, non-stationary xenon poisoning occurred.
During the day on April 25, the peak of poisoning was passed, and it seemed that the problem was solved. But, as the date of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant confirms, the worst was yet to come. On the same day, the process of poisoning the reactor began at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. But since the decrease in the power of poisoning began again, the poisoning process again gained momentum. If the question “in what year was the Chernobyl accident” can be answered exactly - 1986, then even scientists do not dare to give an exact answer to the question of when its consequences will pass.
If someone wants to see what the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant looks like, photos on the Web are at your service. However, it is unlikely that photographs will be able to convey all the horror that really happened there. No books, documentary stories will allow you to feel all the horror that takes place in the eighties of the twentieth century. The date of the Chernobyl accident has forever gone down in history as one of the most terrible events that are unlikely to be corrected.
Signs from above?
Within about two hours, the reactor power was reduced to the level that was envisaged by the program, but then, for unknown reasons, the reactor power could not be maintained at the desired level, it got out of control.
The shift supervisor decided to restore the power of the rector. After a certain time, the station operators achieved the restoration of the power of the reactor, but after a few minutes it began to grow again. Only after an hour of work did the operators finally manage to stabilize the operation of the reactor. The manual control rods continued to be removed.
After a certain thermal power was reached, additional circulation pumps were used, the number of which was increased to eight. According to the test program, four pumps, along with two additional ones, were supposed to act as a load for the generator of the “running out” turbine, which also participated in the experiment.
You already know that the Chernobyl tragedy began with an experiment that started at 1:23 am. Due to the fact that the speed of the pumps connected to the “run-out” generator decreased, the reactor experienced a trend that led to an increase in power. But at the same time, for almost the entire time of the process, the reactor power did not inspire fear. The tragedy in Chernobyl occurred a little later, and continues to this day. But then there were no signs of trouble yet.
Seconds before the tragedy
Due to the fact that there was an additional increase in coolant flow through the reactor, and the cooling system was turned off, an excessive amount of steam was generated. As a result, when the coolant entered the core, the temperature in the reactor approached the boiling point. The situation began to become unmanageable.
Sensing something was wrong, the shift supervisor gave the command to stop the experiment. The operator pressed the emergency protection button, but the Chernobyl system did not respond as it should. After only a few seconds, various signals were deciphered and recorded. They testified that the power of the reactor grew, then the registration system simply failed.
The emergency protection system did not work either. Due to the large amount of steam in the reactor, the uranium rods, which were supposed to stop the fission of atoms, were delayed at a height of 2 out of 7 meters. Dangerous processes continued to occur. Less than a minute after the "successful" start of the experiment, an explosion occurred, the consequences of which are still shown in the Chernobyl accident photos.
One way or another, the date of the Chernobyl accident is forever imprinted in the history of the former USSR. The consequences of the Chernobyl accident can be felt through the years, and then on that fateful day, it was impossible to imagine such a thing. But it is precisely the consequences of the Chernobyl accident that make us think about how fragile and unreliable everything in this world is.
The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant - what did the investigation show?
As mentioned above, the Chernobyl accident, the photo of which eloquently tells us about those terrible events, does not give an accurate idea of the causes of what happened. The investigation into this accident has been going on for many years. Not only Soviet, Ukrainian and Russian experts tried to understand why the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant happened, and whether it could have been avoided. The history of the disaster is of interest to many scientists around the world. After all, as already mentioned, we continue to feel the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant even now, although enough time has passed.
To date, there are two different approaches that lead to an explanation of the causes of the Chernobyl accident. The consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant arose as a result of an explosion, the causes of which have been trying to find out for many years in a row. These versions can be called official, in addition, there are several more alternative versions, and their degree of reliability is also different.
A state commission was formed in the USSR in order to investigate such an event as Chernobyl tragedy. The State Commission placed responsibility for this on the personnel of the Chernobyl station, as well as on its management. But are these people really to blame for the Chernobyl tragedy?
Soviet specialists, on the basis of some of their studies, confirm this point of view. There are allegations that the accident occurred due to a number of violations of the rules, that is, discipline was simply not observed, the operating regulations were violated by the personnel. Consequences at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, photos can show somewhere that all this happened due to the fact that the reactor was not used in a scheduled state.
Probably, if you wish to ask Google "Chernobyl accident, date", then he will also answer you clearly and exactly when it happened. But the errors that are given here cannot be considered reliable, since, as mentioned above, there is no evidence, one can only assume.
Causes of the accident
The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the date of which is known to everyone, could have taken place due to gross violations of the established rules:
- The experiment was to be carried out "at any cost", despite the fact that the changes in the state of the reactor were too obvious and indicated danger. The accident in Chernobyl, the date of which is included in the list of the most terrible disasters, became inevitable due to the fact that it was not appreciated human life.
- The reasons for the Chernobyl accident were that the station staff turned off the manual protection mechanisms that were able to stop the reactor in a timely manner.
- The causes of the Chernobyl accident could also have occurred due to the hushing up of the scale of the accident in the early days by the leadership at the nuclear power plant. All this was a gross violation of the rules, which led to the disaster.
Was this the reason for the tragedy at Chernobyl? After all, already in the nineties, namely in 1991, all this was reviewed anew by the Gosatomnadzor of the USSR. And as a result, they came to the conclusion that all these statements are not substantiated, which, they say, is all rather doubtful. In addition, the commission carried out special analyzes regarding the normative documents at that time, and there were no confirmations regarding the accusations against the station personnel.
Also in 1993, a supplementary report was published, where a lot of attention was paid to the reasons that led to such a terrible event as the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Issues regarding the reactor malfunction were also considered. All this was obtained from the old archive and new reports that were formed over the course of years.
The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant still disturbs the minds of those involved in its research. According to this report, the most obvious reason is that there was an error in the design of the rector's design. Design features could have a major impact on the course of the accident and, as a result, led to such a disaster as the Chernobyl accident, while Chernobyl became the most famous place in the world, unfortunately notorious.
Causes of the accident considered today
So, if the question is asked “what year was the Chernobyl accident”, we can clearly answer, but we are also interested in the liquidation of the Chernobyl accident and its main factors of occurrence. The main versions of the disaster that are considered today are:
- Failure to comply with safety rules. It is believed that the reactor did not meet the safety standards that were required.
- Low quality regulation. The quality of the regulations was very low, therefore, security was also at zero.
- Staff lack of awareness. The exchange of information was not effective, it was impossible to transmit danger signals normally.
The liquidation of the Chernobyl accident is still going on, because it is probably not possible to completely destroy the terrible phenomenon. The Chernobyl accident year after year is interesting for its gloominess and mystery, it is interesting what happened in Chernobyl, how the seconds passed before the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, how the accident happened at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, when there was an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, when there was an accident in Chernobyl, and the main query , this is probably the “Chernobyl NPP photo after the accident”, because it will allow you to see how it was once and how it is happening now.
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