Chernobyl disaster

Several minutes after the blast set the reactor on fire, two firefighting squads, one headed by Lieutenant V.Pravyk and the other, the squad on duty at the nuclear plant, headed by Lieutenant V.Kibenok, rushed to the roof of the building housing the reactor. Part of the roof right above the rooms close to the burning reactor was ablaze. They managed to put out the fire on the roof and thus prevent the fire from spreading to Reactor Number Three. Within short time units of firefighters started to arrive from towns throughout the Kyiv Region. Most of the firefighters who had been the first to arrive at the site of the fire received lethal or almost lethal doses of radiation. First, they were taken to hospital #126 in Prypiat (their uniforms are still in the hospital basement, making that place extremely contaminated) and then, on April 27th to hospital #6 in Moscow. The doctors spared no effort to save their lives but all of them died. The five-man firefighting unit headed by H.Nahayevsky managed to drain out the radioactive water that had accumulated under the reactor, thus preventing a potentially devastating explosion. Local police units, military units and other specialized units had also greatly contributed to preventing the disaster from causing further damage. On April 27 a number of army and air force units were moved to Chernobyl to help overcome the consequences of the disaster. It took about 1800 helicopter missions to accomplish the task set to them. As a result of these combined efforts the intensity of radioactive outflow from the ruined reactor was reduced several thousand times by May 6, 1986. It was then decided to start construction of a special protection structure, later known as the “Sarcophagus”. The main issue of the “Sarcophagus” was to conserve the ruined reactor and minimise the spreading of radioactivity into the atmosphere. All in all, more than 600,000 civilians and military took part in the work of overcoming the consequences of the disaster in 1986 and 1987. Many of them died, even more of them had their health ruined, but they reduced the level of radioactivity and made it possible to visit the Chernobyl exclusion zone now. Our gratitude to them shall never die. The evacuation of the population started on April 27, 36 hours after the accident. Prypiat city was evacuated first. Prypiat was only three kilometres from the nuclear power plant and, unfortunately, the inhabitants of Prypiat (nearly 50,000 people) hadn’t been warned about the radiation hazard; they were all exposed to large amounts of radiation. People were told to take only necessities and documents as they were meant to be returning in three days. Nearly 220,000 people were evacuated from the contaminated areas of Ukraine and Belarus. There is no accurate information on how many people had their health damaged because of the Chernobyl disaster. The Soviet-era is known for its propaganda and changing facts to suit the narrative of the regime. At the beginning of 90th increase of sickness incidence among the population of Ukraine had been registered, mainly diseases of the respiratory organs, nervous system, digestion and blood circulation organs. Altogether about 3,200,000 people in Ukraine are considered to be ill as a consequence of the accident.

Prypiat was founded in 1970 for workers of ChNPP. It was built from the scratch on a greenfield of Ukrainian land called Pollisia, close to the border of Belarus. There is no other town like this in the whole world. This town turned from the blooming and happy place, an example of Soviet power and communism ideal, to the ghost town and example of post-apocalyptic world. And all of this happened in less than 50 years. Back to 80th Prypiat was a luxurious place to live. It had a great infrastructure. It had everything a soviet person could dream about and even more: 5 schools, 12 kindergartens, hospital, stores and malls, cafes, cafeterias and restaurants could serve up to 5,535 customers simultaneously, 10 warehouses could hold 4,430 tons of goods, the Palace of Culture Energetik, a cinema and a school of arts, 10 gyms, 3 indoor swimming-pools, 2 stadiums, Jupiter factory, bus station, train station nearby and 33,000 rose plants. All of these for the 50 thousand inhabitants: young, progressive and well-educated people from all over the Soviet Union who were encouraged to move into Prypiat. Unfortunately, their lives changed dramatically on the 26th of April 1986. Inhabitants of Prypiat were not informed about the accident at the power plant three kilometres away. On the 26th of April, life went usual in Prypiat: people did their routine and children played outside being exposed to a high level of radioactivity. Only 36 hours later an evacuation started. Buses came from Kyiv to take the residents to safer places. The evacuation was accomplished in three hours. People were allowed to take only money, passports and necessities as they intended to come back in three days. But they never did.