Three Men Who Averted an Even Worse Nuclear Disaster in the Chernobyl Suicide Squad

If you saw our documentary about the Chernobyl nuclear accident, you would be fully aware of what occurred on April 25, 1986, and how it affected the entire world. Unbeknownst to you, it could have been much, much worse if not for the really brave individuals we will discuss today, but let's first examine what transpired on that crucial day.

Around 14,000 people were residing in the Ukrainian city of Chernobyl, which is situated about 90 kilometers (56 miles) northeast of the country's capital, Kiev, at the time of the tragedy. Even though it's something of a ghost town and the few people who live there keep outside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, you can still go there today.

In essence, one of the reactors at the nuclear power station exploded in the 1980s. Although the World Health Organization estimates that 4000 people perished as a result of the big bang's indirect effects, it is believed that about 50 people died directly as a result of the explosion. We are also informed that while millions of individuals were exposed to lesser radiation levels, thousands of people were subjected to high radiation levels. It is difficult to estimate the whole amount of the harm, but according to the WHO, some persons who were exposed to this radiation had a greater lifetime chance of developing cancer.

How did it take place? After addressing it, we'll turn to the issue of what might have happened. if not for our very brave trio of warriors known as the suicide squad. We might essentially blame human mistake, but as with many catastrophes, there was a "perfect storm" of mishaps. As we have already done a program on this, we will summarize here. According to the World Nuclear Association, Chernobyl reactor 4 employees were conducting testing when the reactor's power suddenly decreased, prompting them to try to boost it.

A power spike followed, and chaos was ready to break out. One of the reactors was producing a lot of steam and was under extreme pressure. This finally led a 1000-ton reactor top to blow off, allowing radiation to flow and air to enter the reactor, which started a massive fire. Hot water steam meeting zirconium caused hydrogen to develop, which led to a second explosion. This explosion was significantly larger than the earlier one.

Now there was flying debris, raging fires, visibility-impairing dust, a power blackout, and downed phone lines. It was chaos. However, when the firefighters did show up, they were unaware of the extremely deadly radiation levels in the air. Even after they were able to put out the fire, both the inhabitants and the staff of the town were unaware of the danger they were facing. Nothing could stop the radiation that was now spreading far and wide despite the fact that it took hours to completely put out the blazing fire. As we previously mentioned, some individuals still call some portions of the city home, but not the ones that were most severely impacted by radiation.

You may also take a tour of the town that once existed, which is said to be a creepy experience given that many residents simply upped and departed, leaving behind many of their possessions. It is currently believed that wild creatures have moved into the town from the neighboring woodlands. What might have occurred, then? It is stated in the book "Chernobyl 01:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster" that there was a sizable pool of water beneath the reactor that served as a coolant.

He is not the only one who says that either. Vassili Nesterenko, a former Soviet physicist, stated that "our experts studied the possibility and concluded that the explosion would have had a force of three to five megatons. Minsk, which is 320 kilometers from Chernobyl, would have been razed and Europe rendered uninhabitable." This is where the suicide squad comes in.

They couldn't access the valves to drain the flooding basement According to one tale, three men—two factory employees and one soldier—decided to put on wetsuits and swim through the water to reach these valves. They allegedly had light, but when their bulb stopped working, they allegedly fell into complete darkness. They were informed that this expedition was probably a suicide mission since, even if they survived the radioactive exposure, they were likely going to perish from drowning.

Yes, it sounds like a Hollywood film, and we can just image the heartbreaking crescendo as these heroic men swim in the pitch-black water, with plenty of shots showing their distressed wives and crying kids. This isn't Hollywood, though; this is actual life. If there were an extended version of the movie, three guys would then slowly suffocate in a hospital from acute radiation syndrome, despite the fact that there may have been cheers as those men succeeded in opening the valves and draining the pool. ARS is a common abbreviation for this. The scene switches to three guys who are constantly throwing up, experiencing seizures, excruciating migraines, feeling lightheaded, maybe having skin necrosis, and ultimately dying a truly horrifying death.

This, we could say, is more like gloomy European realism than Hollywood. Although a movie like that would be far too gloomy, it might really work in Russian cinema. to draw Hollywood investors. This was the widely accepted narrative for a while, but the author of the book we just cited claimed to have spent five years investigating the catastrophe and discovered that there were a few minor discrepancies.

In an interview, he claimed that while the basement entry was risky, it wasn't quite as spectacular as popular fiction would have you believe. Prior to the arrival of these three men, who were all factory employees and not troops, he said that firefighters had attempted to drain the pool.He claimed that numerous individuals had attempted to drain the pool, and it is unknown what became of them. He added that although it was difficult to locate the valves and the basement was flooded, the water was just waist level. The three guys, Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bezpalov, and Boris Baranov, were still at risk as they waded through the radiation to find those valves. The author claimed that this site was a vast network of valves and pipelines, and that finding the proper one seemed to be impossible to those men. "It was like finding a needle in a haystack," he stated.

But in the end, they discovered the proper valves In a later interview with the Soviet media, one of the guys recalled, "When the searchlight beam dropped on a pipe, we were joyful. He said, "The pipe led to the valves," and it had been a job well done. They then turned the valves, and a rush of water was heard coming out of the tank. According to reports, there was a total of nearly 5 million gallons, or well over 18 million liters, of water. When the men returned to the rest of the individuals who were waiting for them to finish their mission, there was a lot of cheering and hugging, according to what we've been informed.

But what about the arduous, delayed dying caused by ARS? So, we are informed You may also take a tour of the town that once existed, which is said to be a creepy experience given that many residents simply upped and departed, leaving behind many of their possessions. It is currently believed that wild creatures have moved into the town from the neighboring woodlands. What might have occurred, then? It is stated in the book "Chernobyl 01:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster" that there was a sizable pool of water beneath the reactor that served as a coolant.

One of those three men is claimed to have passed away from a heart attack a few years later, but the other two lived. The book's author claimed to have knowledge that one of them was still employed in the same field and that the other was undoubtedly alive as of 2015, at the very least. After that year, he kind of lost the man. After this catastrophe, ARS did claim some victims, but not those three individuals, in his opinion. He claimed that because the Soviet Union attempted to downplay the incident after it occurred and because the most accurate information has still not been translated from Russian, it is difficult to get to the heart of the situation. But he did remark that those three men probably stopped a In an interview he stated, "They still went into a pitch black, badly damaged basement beneath a molten reactor core that was slowly burning its way down to them." We may also claim that many people endangered their lives during this incident and throughout the protracted cleanup that followed. They number in the thousands and are occasionally referred to as liquidators.

We might add, however, that the number of people said to have gotten sick or died because of exposure to high levels of radiation is a very contentious topic and many reports differ. According to something called the Chernobyl Union, "25,000 of the Russian liquidators are dead and 70,000 disabled, about the same in Ukraine, and 10,000 dead in Belarus and 25,000 disabled." According to studies, the millions of people who were exposed to lower radiation levels shouldn't be at an increased risk of developing cancer, with the possible exception of thyroid cancer.

But we can say with certainty that many brave people risked their lives. One of those liquidators acknowledged the risks but insisted that he had to do it in an interview. perform his duties. Of course, I'm concerned about the future, he admitted. "Twice per month, I have my blood examined. I pass four times per day through the scanners. We are informed that it won't be safe to live in locations most exposed to high levels of radiation for 20,000 years, but the money is nice and someone has to do this.

Thank you for watching and always