Summary
Highlights
On April 26th, 1986, at 1:23 AM, reactor number four of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, spewing radioactive contamination across three-quarters of Europe. The accident, which occurred during a safety test, was a shock to everyone, even the plant's workers who were unprepared for such a situation. Liquidators risked their lives to clean up the area, building a concrete sarcophagus to contain the nuclear waste. Thirty years later, an arch was built to encase the reactor, a testament to the enduring horror of the disaster. This documentary explores what really happened and its ongoing impact.
Chernobyl, located in the Soviet Republic of Ukraine, was home to what was intended to be the world's biggest nuclear power plant. By 1986, it had four RBMK reactors, with plans for twelve. Nuclear energy, a highly condensed form, utilizes uranium or plutonium fission to produce electricity via chain reactions. The nearby town of Pripyat, a symbol of communist progress, housed the plant's workers and their families, boasting modern amenities. With an average age of just 26, it was the youngest town in the Soviet Union, a seeming Eden that would soon be shattered.
On April 25th, 1986, a safety test was scheduled for the fourth reactor. The test aimed to determine if turbine power could cool the reactor during a power outage, but required reducing the reactor's power to a critical threshold. A power plant breakdown elsewhere forced a 12-hour postponement, causing xenon accumulation and reactor instability. Despite dropping power and increasing instability, deputy chief engineer Anatoli Dyatlov, under pressure to follow orders, insisted the test continue, transforming the core into a ticking time bomb.
At 1:23:25 AM, the reactor core reached maximum potential, and 15 seconds later, an emergency stop failed due to a design flaw in RBMK reactors where graphite, a fission accelerator, was used in the emergency bars. The power surged to over 33,000 megawatts, igniting the graphite blocks and causing over 100 tons of radioactive fuel to undergo fusion. At 1:23:44 AM, the core exploded. The plant's director, unaware of the catastrophe, did not immediately order an evacuation. Firefighters, sent in without proper protection, unknowingly exacerbated the disaster and began showing signs of acute radiation sickness.
Over eight hours after the explosion, Pripyat's inhabitants remained uninformed despite radiation levels being 100,000 times higher than normal. Radioactive substances like xenon, iodine, and cesium began spreading, reaching neighboring countries like Belarus. A nuclear physicist in Minsk, Vasili Nestorok, realizing the gravity of the situation, risked his position by warning his family and trying to alert authorities. The next day, a helicopter survey confirmed the complete destruction of the fourth reactor. Helicopters were deployed to drop sand and lead onto the burning core, a dangerous and difficult operation exposing pilots to lethal radiation.
Thirty-six hours after the explosion, Pripyat was evacuated, with authorities downplaying the disaster's severity. The Soviet government initially denied the accident to its own people and the world. However, on April 28th, unusually high radiation levels detected in Scandinavia forced Sweden to raise the alarm, making the world aware. The Soviet media blackout led to rumors and confusion, with doctors in Kiev like Alla Shapiro struggling to treat children from Pripyat for an unknown illness due to the lack of information on radiation sickness.
Moscow downplayed casualties and then, fearing contamination of its major cities, engineered rain over rural Belarus, exposing 200,000 farmers to high radiation without their knowledge. This created a 'second Chernobyl zone'. An exclusion zone of 30km was eventually established, but its circular shape was ill-suited, sometimes relocating people to more contaminated areas. The firefighters and plant technicians fell victim to radiation sickness. Despite knowing the extreme danger, Soviet authorities ordered young soldiers, the 'Chernobyl liquidators,' to clear radioactive graphite from the third reactor's roof with minimal protection, sacrificing them to the cleanup efforts.
Tens of thousands of additional soldiers and civilians were mobilized to decontaminate areas, often using ineffective and dangerous methods. In June 1986, the final phase involved building a massive sarcophagus to contain the fourth reactor's radioactive waste. This monumental task, completed in six months, involved 30,000 liquidators working in short, timed shifts due to extreme radiation levels. Despite its rapid construction, the sarcophagus was a makeshift solution, already showing weaknesses upon completion. The exclusion zone grew to 4,000 km², uninhabitable for 24,000 years.
The IAEA minimized the health consequences, predicting only 4,000 deaths. The Soviet government issued misleading guidelines, advising against consuming local produce while claiming safety. A show trial condemned plant supervisors, deflecting blame from systemic and design flaws. Gorbachev's admission of the disaster on May 14th, 1986, and the subsequent revelation of radioactive fallout maps, fueled public anger. The disaster led to the mobilization of a million liquidators, costing billions and contributing to the USSR's collapse in 1991. The fragile sarcophagus necessitated a new, massive arch, completed in 2016, designed to last 100 years and facilitate dismantling the old structure, a task for which technology doesn't yet fully exist.
Today, the exclusion zone is under constant surveillance, a tourist attraction where nature seemingly reclaims the space, but silently suffers from the lack of microbial decomposition. Over 1,000 unaccounted-for radioactive waste sites threaten underground water. Contaminated food, like berries mixed to meet safety standards, still enters European markets. The human impact remains contentious. The long-term health consequences, particularly from continuous low-level radiation exposure, are still not fully understood due to a lack of transparency and disappearing documents, leaving a legacy of deep scars and broken lives for generations to come.