that Soviet nuclear accident in the
Ukraine created fallout today in Chicago
we do know that a zone of deadly
radiation is being released from the
damaged plant and the accident is far
from over nuclear power plant accident
inside the Soviet Union turn noble
accident is almost half a world away
residents throughout the Northland are
worried worried about the possible
health effects from fallout worried
about the safety of our own nuclear
reactors and worried about the possible
economic consequences of the accident on
the 26th of April 1986 an event took
place that officially killed 31 people
and left an unknown number of people
affected for the rest of their lives it
rewrote the safety rules in nuclear
energy and caused the 1,000 mile radius
to be safely uninhabitable to humans for
a few hundred years it was the Chernobyl
nuclear disaster and in this video you
will see that if it wasn't for three
almost forgotten heroes things could
have been so much worse first let's go
back to March 1970 work begins on the
construction of the Chernobyl nuclear
power plant located near the city of
Chernobyl and Pripyat in northern
Ukraine by 1983 four nuclear reactors
are built and between them they are
powering 10% of Ukraine's electricity
fast forward to the early hours of the
26th of November 1986 16 years after the
plants Commission and workers at the
nuclear plant are carrying out a test on
reactor number four
there are many inaccuracies and thoughts
that the test violated several safety
regulations and this combined with the
flawed design in the reactors used at
Chernobyl caused a sudden power surge
and an emergency shutdown was
implemented this failed and as the
workers could feel the ground trembling
beneath them they knew something bad was
coming
seconds later an explosion occurs
followed by a second more powerful
explosion that blasts the 12 turn cover
off of the reactor into the air
releasing deadly radioactive vapor and a
spray of colorful bright fire 1000
meters into the sky
the alarms were activated and the first
on the scene were firemen it said they
had no idea what they were dealing with
but knew the risks of the radiation and
if they had followed regulations it
would have never gone near the reactor
but had no choice they tackled the
blades without any protective gear
exposing themselves to deadly radiation
and despite their efforts the fire could
not be brought under control two men
died that day the nice shaft main
circulating pump operator who was most
likely killed immediately as his body
was never discovered and the automatic
systems adjuster who was found
unconscious in room 604
pinned under a foreign beam and was
contaminated by radioactive water to
show how much radiation this man had
been exposed to one of the power plant
workers suffered a radiation burn on his
back where this man's hand was located
when he helped carry him out there is an
unconfirmed story that surely after the
explosion many locals gathered on a
railway bridge that had a good view of
the nuclear plant to witness the
colorful flames coming from the reactor
they had no idea that in the air was a
lethal dose of radiation apparently no
one survived and the bridge is now
referred to as the bridge of death like
I said this is unconcerned but the
bridge does exist and if people were
stood there for long enough there is no
denying they would have been exposed to
deadly amounts of radiation tails aside
in the days that followed the explosion
the authorities were slow to react and
ignored the dangers posed by this
accident they were in fact in denial
that any radiation was leaking out and
told higher class officials who were
ringing and wondering what happened that
everything was under control and other
radiation levels were maxing out on
their meters but the maxout limit that
these meters were capable of showing was
nothing worth evacuating the area for of
course in reality the level of radiation
in the area was above and beyond
anything their meters could read and
radiation levels were astronomically
high in the nearby town of Pripyat the
people were told that it was a fire at
the power plant and that they had
nothing to worry about
so life carried on as normal children
went to school and residents went to
work completely oblivious to the
invisible lethal radiation they were
being exposed to the levels were 15
thousand times higher than usual and
rising it took 30 hours before the
Pripyat residents were ordered to
evacuate an 80 mile area around the
power plant was
closed and residents were given two
hours notice to gather their belongings
and get out they were told they'd be
returning in a few days but this never
happened around 43,000 people who once
called Pripyat their home were now known
as the first atomic refugees a title
they never imagined being given the only
people left in the area was one old man
who refused to evacuate and was found
dead in his home - a few weeks later and
the military and scientific delegates
who were tasked with getting the still
burning reactor under control they were
living unprotected in the local hotel
seemingly unaware of the dangers posed
them from the extremely high levels of
radiation in the days after the
explosion clouds of radioactive matter
were being blown north drifting over
Russia and reaching as far as Sweden
despite radioactive dust raining down on
Stockholm there was still no official
report outside of the Soviet Union it
took three days for the rest of the
world to know and this coincided with a
report the US by satellite had spotted
the wreckage of the burning Chernobyl
plant by now the whole of Europe was at
risk of contamination the plant was
still burning and something had to be
done urgently to put out the fire and
seal reactor number four to prevent any
more radiation from spewing out pilots
were brought in to fly helicopters above
the reactor and dropped thousands of
tons of sand clay and neutron absorbing
boron onto the blaze in an attempt to
smother the flames and neutralize the
radiation many soldiers would pour the
sand in from sacks was hovering directly
above the reactor a week later
although the flames were brought
somewhat under control that he had not
and it was causing the base of the
reactor to crack the workers knew that
below the reactor was a water reservoir
and also a basement that would have been
filled with water from the firefighters
water hoses
if the radioactive Magma made contact
with the pool of water underneath this
would have caused a massive steam
explosion throwing out more radioactive
material from the reactor into the air
therefore it was absolutely necessary to
drain this water by doing so another
explosion could be prevented and the
area below the reactor could then be
filled with liquid 9
- coolant three plant workers who knew
where the valves were that would allow
the water to drain volunteer to go down
these brave men went underneath with
what turned out to be a faulty lamp to
locate the valves in complete darkness
and swam through highly radioactive
water they opened the valves and
returned back but sadly all died shortly
after from the radiation something they
knew would happen as a result of their
heroic feat with the water drained the
authorities called on the help of 10,000
miners with the aim of tunneling
underneath the reactor to cool the base
down and stop it from melting through
the ground by pumping in liquid nitrogen
there is some doubt as to whether this
operation was completed because I have
found conflicting reports but eventually
it seems the liquid nitrogen was stopped
and the area beneath the reactor was
filled with concrete
whatever happened those three men
prevented another explosion and if they
hadn't have you probably wouldn't be
listening to me right now as the
explosion would have been so
catastrophic it would have put the whole
of Europe at risk with the area somewhat
under control and the threat of another
explosion eliminated work has set about
sealing up the reactor in order to
minimize the spread of radiation a
massive structure was designed and it
became known as project sarcophagus it
covered the exploded reactor and was
completed by December 1986 eight months
after the disaster there is thought to
be around 800,000 people who risk their
lives in 1986 in an attempt to contain
and clean up the chernobyl disaster site
many of these heroic people received
medals for their work and 28 died as a
result of acute radiation sickness in
the weeks after initial exposure with
this the long-term effects of the
millions of other people exposed isn't
clear and there is no definitive figure
on how many people now suffer long-term
health problems have died prematurely or
how many people have given birth
defected children but is thought
thousands of actual cancer deaths have
been directly caused by the accident
although officials are still reluctant
to associate these deaths the Chernobyl
disaster
the effects of the disaster are still
very real to this day the exclusion zone
covers an area of 1,000 miles around the
power plant and although many live in
this area at their own risk mainly
workers Priya Priya and many other areas
close to the reactor are ghost towns
nobody ever returned to live then and
the haunted images show how lives must
have been shattered that day one
astonishing thing about the area
surrounding the Chernobyl plant though
is the abundant wildlife
despite the area still being
contaminated many animals who were
disappearing from the area around the
power plant prior to the accident have
thrived and studies have shown that deer
algae wolves and wild boar seem
relatively unaffected by the
contaminated land these findings
contradict original thought star the
disaster whatever detrimental and
devastating effect on the local wildlife
creating deformed alien like radioactive
creatures but they all seem to be living
happily in the environment although some
animals have had a rise in deformities
and the invertebrate population has
decreased but nowhere near like experts
had predicted the Chernobyl disaster
initially took the lives of two workers
followed by 29 people later from
radiation related deaths and four men
from a helicopter that crashed trying to
contain the fire at the plant in total
the Chernobyl accident cost the Soviet
Union the equivalent of 200 billion
pounds and drove millions from their
homes making it the biggest nuclear
disaster in history and we can all only
hope that it will stay that way forever
I never really knew the full extent of
this disaster for heavily researching it
I realized how devastating it must have
been for those involved I hope I have
shown some light on the build-up the
event and the aftermath and also those
three men who prevented something much
much worse from taking place I hope
you've enjoyed this video thanks for
watching and I'll see you again in the
next one
you