The Battle of Chernobyl
It’s a documentary which analyzes the Thursday 26th April 1986 that became a momentous date in modern history, when one of the reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in northern Ukraine, exploded. It was the most significant reactor failure in the history of nuclear power, a Maximum Credible Accident (MCA). The plant, just 20 km away from the town center, was made up of four reactor units each generating an output of 1,000 megawatts. The reactor in question exploded due to operational errors and inadequate safety measures and the meltdown was directly linked to routine testing on the reactor unit’s turbine generators.
The test required reactor activity and the thermal reactor output to be run down to a lower level. During the procedure, however, the reactor plummeted to an unexpectedly low and unstable level of activity. At this point, it should have been shut down; as the operators chose to continue with the test, the events subsequently proved to be catastrophic.
More than 200 people died or were seriously injured by radiation exposure immediately after the explosion. 161,000 people had to be evacuated from a 30 kilometer radius of the reactor and 25,000 square km of land were contaminated. As time went on millions of people suffered radiation related health problems such as leukemia and thyroid cancer and around 4,000 people have died as a result of the long-term effects of the accident.
Nobody was prepared for such a crisis. For the next seven months, 500,000 men will wage hand-to-hand combat with an invisible enemy – a ruthless battle that has gone unsung, which claimed thousands of unnamed and now almost forgotten heroes. Yet, it is thanks to these men that the worst was avoided; a second explosion, ten times more powerful than Hiroshima which would have wiped out more than half of Europe. This was kept secret for twenty years by the Soviets and the West alike.
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OK, i might have had a belief nuclear power could be contained, until i watched this doc.
What scares me most, is the collassal effort the Soviets engineered immediately following this disaster, simply could never be done by any government on the planet today.
The US-Govt, as example, would waste months if not years bickering about what should be done, how much it would cost, setting up studies & commissions before any “FIX” would start… etc etc etc… giving plenty of time for the core to EXPLODE & make the situation 1,000 times worse.
Watch this doc & place your govt in the hand dealt to the Soviets… do you think they could do any better, if not worse?
CME,The United States is better equipped to handle a situation like this. 3 Mile Island is a perfect example of how people worked together to prevent matters from getting worse, nobody downplayed how bad the situation was at 3 Mile Island and the United States makes sure EVERYONE is educated about the dangers and responsibility involved in every nuclear power plant across the nation. If you pay attention to this documentary, you will understand that the people involved at Chernobyl had no idea how serious the situation was and there was NO communication between the nuclear scientists and the operators of the plant. So to say the U.S. government would “waste time” is pretty much a clueless statement about what you are talking about, I would suggest you go back to school and learn something before making a careless statement.
Did you notice how proactive and responsible the US government was about New Orleans ? If you think that’s been fixed then fly there and take a drive out of the tourist zone and look at the derelict city that stands unrepaired years later.
If you think its okay ‘cos we’ve got robots in the west – watch the documentary – they had our western robots at Chernobyl. Radiation that intense fries semi-conductors. Nothing above WWII valve electronics can survive.
If you think you can trust some government somewhere in history to tell the truth about bad news ….. I can’t help you.
People, you didn’t get the point. This movie is not about Russian government, this movie is about Russian heroism and Russian stupidity. I am 32-years old Russian woman who lived in Tula (Toula in this movie) during this disaster, 1000 km from Chernobyl. I am scientist who works in US now. The Tula region as well as other Russian regions was and stay up to now contaminated by radioactivity. Only after this movie, I realized WHY. It was a crazy tragedy and stays an enormous problem and will stay a factor that decreases people lifespan in Russia.
I watched this movie 6 times, I send it to all my friends, we discussed it a lot. I have a lot of thoughts and emotions about this situation, and have no willing to share all of them here. They are mixed and not classified. I got these thoughts only now because information that was shown in this movie stayed secret for many years in Russia. Even now, people do not realize WHY they have many diseases. THIS IS HORRIBLE!!!
This situation shows how Russian government typically solves a problem (you knows NOTHING about WWII, I know a lot). Our government do not care about peolpe – it always uses them. The USA government at least realizes that people has a right – to have information what will happen if a particular person decides to serve the Country Interests.
I hate Russian government, and I always will admire by Russian people. This is why I consider that this movie was not about government, this movie was about HEROISM OF RUSSIAN, UKRAINIAN AND BELORUSSIAN PEOPLE.
Many thanks to authors of this movie.
I have only one concern right now. I am interested who is building a second sarcophagus. I do not believe that French workers (French company won a contest for building of second sarcophagus) will work in Chernobyl, and as I get machines cannot work under such level of radioactivity. This is crazy. I have no word, if Russian government again will use soldiers (young boys) for this purpose. I can use only bad words in such situation.
Very interesting documentary, the most detailed I know on the subject. A truly horrific disaster which will never need happen again if we resort to more greener energy resources if possible. A lot needs to be done to ensure this site is permanately eradicated of any contaminates or we could all be in serious trouble.
Panic stricken methods of dealing with the catastrophe were probably understandable as nothing of this magnitude had been witnessed before to my knowledge. However subjecting those involved at close proximity was a severe risk which should have been accredited a lot more and I must take my hat off to the individuals who were involved with the task of saving many more lives around the surrounding area and of europe with regards to clean ups, evacuations etc.
Harness what nature provides us with to supply our energy needs…..
Does anyone know where I can buy this docomentary?
@Henriette
You could try Amazon.com; they typically have a diverse selection of everything. Or just Google the name of this documentary.
Ok, wait. Please if somebody reads this, respond back to my question if you can 8-).
Question. So they never created the liquid nitrogen “cooling system” under the radiator? So those men dug a tunnel for nothing, basically? I mean, I know they put eventually put cement in there but cement wasn’t the original proposed idea??? All those men got sick & 1/4 of those men died before the age of 40 for nothing? How sad, how truly horrible for everyone involved. Those men are heroes to me.
May I put my two cents here. I am Hungarian, and was 10 years old when this thing happened. We were a Communist country, although not as hardline as the USSR. Still our politicians were repeating the same mantra: there’s no problem, our Soviet comrades are having everything in order, go and celebrate 1st of May. However we weren’t far from there: Soviet authorities already had plans to evacuate Miskolc, Ozd and some other countries in Northern Hungary, close to the Soviet (now Ukrainian) border. I remember my hair was falling those days, I had flocks of hair in my comb every day. I still don’t know if there’s anything to worry. What is funny that those people in charge those day still insist that Chernobyl had no long-time effects and there’s nothing to worry. There was an interview with a former minister and some lead scientists on TV some years ago – they were all retired then – and they kept saying Chernobyl was safe. Just until the reporter tossed his own order into his face in which he ordered the media to suppress the truth. Then he got really upset and kicked the guy out of his home, but that’s another matter. In fact some Hungarian truck drivers who were on the road when the accident happened did suffer radiation sickness and died – but the state refused to pay any compensation to their families stating that it had nothing to do with Chernobyl.
I’ve read a lot about Chernobyl since and I am confident that the problem is not with nuclear energy. Chernobyl did not explode because nuclear energy is evil or something. Any machine can and will go wrong if badly constructed and controlled by ignorant a-holes. The Titanic did not sink because it was meant to sink but because the captain ignored weather warnings. The same happened in Chernobyl on a larger scale. A very poorly constructed facility melted down because of inappropriate handling. The entire power plant was hastily built of poor material because the builders wanted decorations and promotions for fast work. The best material was expensive and often even stolen during construction. For instance the cover of the reactor was made of simple everyday concrete although it was supposed to be built of super-reinforced special material that would not have broken into pieces even if the reactor overheated. There were a series of minor accidents throughout the short history of the plant, including cooling water spilling into the nearby lakes, radioactive gases escaping and so on. KGB had reports on these but they were suppressed. The entire catastrophe would have been avoided if the builders and maintainers are not that ignorant. Or not that ****** to be short.
Nuclear energy is a tool, a very useful tool. Do reactors explode? No, they don’t. Never a single reactor has blown up like Chernobyl, and why? Because they are correctly supervised, especially after being given an example how it can end up otherwise. I admit that nuclear energy can be, and is very dangerous, but not more than any other human invention. Saying no to nuclear energy means saying yes to either energy starvation or fossil fuels. Actually mankind needs more nuclear plants, but without all the flaws that caused the Chernobyl disaster. Even my little country has a nuclear plant but nobody is worried of it. It should not be mishandled, that’s all, and everybody knows that.