Pripyat is a ghost town abandoned by residents due to the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986.

At the time of the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, about 48 thousand people lived in Pripyat. In the days following the accident, all residents were evacuated, and the city is still contaminated with radioactive dust that soaks into the ground and walls of collapsing buildings, but despite the potential health hazard, the city attracts fans of abandoned places and is often visited by tourist groups.

WarningAttention! Visiting these attractions can be harmful to your health.

The first Ukrainian nuclear power plant in the city of Chernobyl is infamous because of the largest man-made disaster in the world that happened here on April 26, 1986 - the reactor destroyed by the explosion became a source of leakage of a huge amount of radioactive substances.

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is recognized as the most destructive in terms of scale and number of victims in the history of nuclear energy. 115,000 people were evacuated from the affected territories, called the Exclusion Zone, and more than 600,000 people were fighting the consequences of the man-made disaster.

The destroyed reactor of the nuclear power plant was covered with a protective sarcophagus, but over the years it collapses and needs to be restored, so the power plant can again become a cause of serious danger.

Shelter "Sarcophagus"

To isolate the destroyed reactor, the Shelter protective structure, informally referred to as the Sarcophagus, was created - the structure closes the destroyed fourth power unit in order to protect the environment from the ongoing effects of radiation.

The sarcophagus was erected in just 206 days after the accident, within the shortest possible time. For the construction of the Sarcophagus, about 90 thousand workers were hired and more than 7,000 tons of metal and 400 thousand cubic meters of concrete were used.

Over the years of operation, the structure has dilapidated and needs serious repairs - now it is being reconstructed.

Exclusion Zone

The exclusion zone is a set of territories contaminated with radiation as a result of the explosion of a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. The zone is divided into three controlled territories, depending on the distance from the epicenter of the explosion:
A special zone is directly on the territory of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
10 km Zone.
30 km Zone.
Visiting any of these areas is possible only with special permission.

The population living on the territory of the Zone was evacuated immediately after the disaster, and conditions were created for the rescuers and liquidators who remained to eliminate the consequences of the explosion, conducive to safe movement and stay on the contaminated lands.

Excursions are conducted around the Exclusion Zone with visits to local "sights", museums and communication with self-settlement farmers. They are also concerned about the problem of where to buy vegetable soil, how to use natural resources in a safe way. The same problem is now worrying gardeners and flower growers, especially on the eve of the spring sowing of seedlings.

Amusement park

The amusement park and the Ferris wheel located here are a symbol of Pripyat. There are cars, boats and carousels for children. Many rides are almost completely destroyed today, and some are used to create staged photographs.

The official opening of the amusement park was planned for May 1, 1986, but the carousels were experimentally launched earlier. One version says that this was done on April 27, 1986 in order to prevent panic due to rumors of a nuclear catastrophe.

Hotel "Polesie"

Hotel "Polesie" is located in the geographical center of the city - on the main square of Pripyat, next to the city park alley, where there is a Ferris wheel, which is a symbol of Pripyat.

The building has a small number of storeys, but rises above the surrounding buildings. According to the project, on the top floor of the hotel it was planned to make a cafe with a summer veranda and a panoramic view - from here you can see the city outskirts, but the plans were not destined to come true.

Hotel "Polesye" was involved in the process of eliminating the Chernobyl disaster in April 1986. Here, next to the city executive committee, where the headquarters for the liquidation of the accident was deployed, there was a dosimetry post and soldiers were based. Helicopters circled over Unit 4, filling the flaming reactor with sand collected from the city's pier. The fourth block was perfectly visible from the hotel roof, so spotters were located here to direct the actions of the pilots.

rusty forest

The unique forest occupies approximately 10 km², located on the territory adjacent to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It is characterized by the fact that it has absorbed a huge dose of radioactive dust. Most of the trees died, and the survivors took on the rusty hue that gave the forest its name.

During the decontamination of the Exclusion Zone, the Red Forest was destroyed - it was demolished and buried, but after a while the trees began to break through again and the forest is being restored thanks to natural processes.

Cooling pond Chernobyl

For the needs of the nuclear power plant, an artificial reservoir was created - a cooling pond. The large area of ​​the pond, the technical functioning of the artificial reservoir and the strongest contamination as a result of the release of radioactive particles are a serious potential threat to the surrounding areas. To continue to maintain the Chernobyl NPP in an environmentally safe condition, it is necessary to constantly monitor the liquid in the reservoir and maintain the necessary water level to prevent leakage, which can lead to the spread of radionuclides.

bridge of death

The road leading to Pripyat runs over the railroad tracks, from where the nuclear power plant, towering above the forests, is perfectly visible. On April 26, 1986, the citizens of Pripyat came here to the bridge to see the burning reactor, not knowing that the radiation level here was one of the highest in the city.

Soon the bridge was closed and cordoned off from both sides - the police officers did not let anyone in here except for vehicles that were supposed to move across the bridge as quickly as possible.

Pool "Azure"

The Azure pool worked in Pripyat after the Chernobyl disaster - almost until the end of the 90s, while the nuclear power plant continued to function. Employees of Pripyat enterprises came here to swim after a working day - the pool is located in a relatively clean and safe microdistrict of the city.

DC "Energetik"

The Energetik Palace of Culture in Pripyat was built according to the standard plan 20-06-9/70. It was part of a whole complex of city central buildings, which included a department store, a hotel, a restaurant, a kitchen for children, a cinema, a pharmacy, a sports hall, a cultural center, a grocery store, and more. Interest clubs were located in the Palace of Culture, visitors and local groups and artists performed, concerts and performances were shown.

12 facts about Chernobyl.

12 interesting facts about the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Photo and documentary from National Geographic - “Chernobyl. A second before the disaster "- read and watch:

1. Residents of the city of Pripyat learned about the incident only in the middle of the day on April 26. While the inhabitants of the city were going about their daily business, the radiation spread along with the wind, at an incredible speed. On the territory of Ukraine, an area in the region of 50,000 square kilometers was considered infected, which is approximately 12 regions.

2. In order to eliminate the consequences of the accident, from all Soviet Union mobilized 600 thousand people.

3 . More than 100 firefighters were taken out of Pripyat on the day of the accident. These people became those who took on the largest dose of radiation. During the liquidation of the fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 31 people died. This number is indicated in Soviet reports.

5. Of all the people who were in the emergency block during the first day, 134 people were diagnosed with radiation sickness. During the first month after the accident, 28 of them died.

6 . Helicopters were deployed to put out the fire. They dropped special mixtures to extinguish the fire, as well as to prevent a chain reaction. Threw sand and clay. Later it became known that perhaps such methods further increased the temperature of the reactor. The fire was completely extinguished only on May 9.

7 . The day after the accident, 47,500 residents of the city of Pripyat were forced to leave their homes. Approximately 300 people began to return home within a month. Later, the territory where people began to live was called the Exclusion Zone. Relatives were not allowed to visit those people who returned to their city for 20 years.

10 . In the past few years, the reactor and the city of Pripyat have become a tourist attraction. In the ghost town, you can walk through abandoned houses, schools, hotels. Abandoned vehicles are in the same places where they were left during the evacuation. Close to armored abandoned vehicles and helicopters is too dangerous to approach, as they are heavily affected by radiation.

11 . Approximately 8.4 million people in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus were exposed to radioactive radiation.

12 . According to calculations, the total yield of radioactive substances was about 50 million curies. This can be compared to the explosion of 500 atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. A column of reactor combustion products rose to a height of several meters. Of the total nuclear fuel (190 tons), 90% got into the earth's atmosphere.

Watch the documentary film from National Geographic - “Chernobyl. Seconds before disaster

http://mif-facts.com.ua/ Chernobyl-NPP-facts/

(2 ratings, average: 5,00 out of 5)

Chernobyl at the stage of construction of a new Sarcophagus

April 26, 1986 is the day that changed the course of history for thousands of people who lived peacefully in the city of Pripyat and the settlements adjacent to the territory of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The date of the Chernobyl accident falls on this day.

Liquidators of the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster

The day of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

It was an ordinary day outside. April 25 was the same as the previous April days. The station staff, as usual, was preparing to take over when it suddenly became clear that they would have to conduct an experiment for which they were not prepared.

However, the fact that the staff was unprepared did not stop anyone. All thoughts were occupied with the future May holidays and the desire to complete the task as soon as possible.

Finally, having accepted the shift, the working personnel proceeded to the first stage of the experiment: the reactor cooling system was turned off. Apparently, this was one of the leading causes of the tragedy, which happened already 40 seconds after the start of work.

4 Chernobyl reactor after the fire

A power surge, pressing the emergency protection button, the inability to control the situation ... A few more seconds, and the explosion thundered throughout the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Now nothing could be done, only to put out the fire and sort out the consequences.

On April 26, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was subjected to large-scale destruction. However, the real problems were ahead - the decontamination of territories, the evacuation of the population, the departure from the parental home, the dead liquidators who suffered from diseases. When the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, a huge number of fire departments, special equipment took part in the localization and destruction of the fire. But no one even imagined what he was dealing with, and no one thought at all about the possibility that this mission could be the last.

Workers from Tula build a tunnel to reach the damaged Chernobyl power unit, May 1986

Who was named guilty?

In addition to the version about the guilt of the working personnel in the history of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Dyatlov A.S. does not appear by chance. At the time of the accident, Anatoly Stepanovich served as deputy chief engineer of the Chernobyl NPP. Later, this man received, along with a high dose of radiation, the main charge and 10 years in a penal colony.

On April 26, 2016, the whole world lit candles and remembered the terrible catastrophe that divided history into before and after: 30 years of the Chernobyl tragedy. April 26 is the day when people on planet Earth learned how a "peaceful" atom can behave. Almost all European countries felt the consequences of the explosion at Chernobyl

black date

The Chernobyl tragedy - the explosion and destruction of the fourth nuclear reactor - occurred at the Chernobyl power plant. The explosion thundered on the night of the year, at 01:24. In the dead of night in the town, all the inhabitants were sleeping, and no one suspected that this date would change the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

Since then, every year on the territory of the former republics of the USSR, the day of remembrance of the Chernobyl tragedy is celebrated as the most monstrous and largest accident in the field of nuclear energy.

Brief description of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

The Chernobyl tragedy occurred at the (Chernobyl) located on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine), just three kilometers from the city of Pripyat and some hundred kilometers from Kyiv, the capital of the republic of the Ukrainian SSR and modern Ukraine. At the time of the accident, almost 50 thousand inhabitants lived in Pripyat, and most of them worked at a nuclear power plant, which fed almost the entire city.

On the day of the disaster, four power units were operating at the station, the failure of one of which caused the accident. Two more power units were under construction and were soon to be put into operation.

The Chernobyl power plant was so powerful that it provided 1/10 of all the electricity needs of the Ukrainian SSR.

Unit 4 accident

The Chernobyl tragedy happened in 1986. It happened on Saturday, April 26, at half past one in the morning. As a result of a powerful explosion, the fourth power unit was completely destroyed and could no longer be repaired. In the first seconds, two workers of the station, who were at that moment in close proximity to the reactor, died. The fire started immediately. The temperature in the reactor was so high that everything that was there (metals, concrete, sand, fuel) melted.

The day of the Chernobyl tragedy turned black for hundreds of thousands of people. The release caused severe radioactive contamination not only in the Ukrainian SSR, but throughout Europe.

Chronology of the accident

On April 25, planned repairs were to be carried out in the reactor, as well as a test of a new mode of operation of the reactor. Before the repair work according to the protocol, the reactor power was significantly reduced, at that time it operated only at 20-30% of its efficiency. In connection with the repair, the reactor's emergency cooling system was also turned off. As a result, the capacity of the power unit fell to 500 MW, while at full capacity it could accelerate to 3200 MW. At about half past one in the morning, the operator could not keep the reactor power at the required level, and it fell to almost zero.

The staff took steps to increase the capacity, and their attempts were successful - it began to grow. However, the ORM (operational reactivity margin) continued to fall. When the power reached 200 MW, eight pumps were switched on, including additional ones. But the flow of water cooling the reactor was small, because of which the temperature inside the reactor began to gradually increase, it soon reached the boiling point.

The planned experiment to increase the power of the reactor began at 01:23:04. The launch was successful, and the power began to grow rapidly. Such an increase was planned, and the station staff did not pay due attention to this. Already at 01:23:38 an emergency signal was given, and the test had to be stopped, all work immediately stopped and the reactor returned to its original state. But the experiment continued. A few seconds later, the system received alarms about the rapid increase in reactor power, and at 01:24 the Chernobyl tragedy happened - an explosion sounded. The fourth reactor was completely destroyed, and the release of radioactive substances into the atmosphere began.

Possible causes of the accident

The 1993 report stated the following causes of the reactor accident:

• Many mistakes of the personnel of the power plant, as well as violation of the rules of the experiment.
• The continuation of work, despite the fact that the reactor behaved malfunctioning, the staff wanted to finish the experiment at all costs.
• The reactor itself did not meet safety standards, as it had a number of significant design problems.
• The young staff did not understand the whole peculiarity of working with the reactor.
• Poor communication between reactor operators.

Be that as it may, the Chernobyl tragedy happened due to an uncontrolled increase in the power of a nuclear reactor, the growth of which was no longer possible to stop.

Some look for the cause of the accident not in an exploitation error, but in the whims of nature. At the moment when the explosion occurred, a seismic shock was recorded, that is, according to one version, a small earthquake caused the reactor to become unstable.

There is another version of the cause of the accident - sabotage. The leadership of the USSR was looking for saboteurs, only to avoid admitting the fact that the reactor was built with violations, and the personnel working there were not so qualified to carry out such tests.

Consequences of the Chernobyl tragedy

The day of the Chernobyl tragedy claimed many lives. From the explosion itself, two employees of the station died: one from the collapse of the concrete ceiling, the second died in the morning from his injuries. Those who were involved in the elimination of traces of the accident suffered greatly - 134 employees of the station and members of the rescue teams were exposed to severe radiation exposure. All of them developed radiation sickness, 28 of them died due to radiation contamination a few months later.

The city's firefighters immediately responded to the sound of the explosion. Major Telyatnikov took command. The desperate actions of Telyatnikov and his team helped stop the spread of the fire, otherwise the consequences would have been even more catastrophic. Telyatnikov himself survived only thanks to a complex brain operation that he underwent in England. The first to arrive at the scene of the accident were members of the brigade of Lieutenant Pravik, who died due to severe exposure. At the same time, Lieutenant Kibenok, who arrived immediately after Pravik, also died.

By six o'clock in the morning, firefighters were able to put out the fire. All the liquidators that night did not know when leaving that the reactor had exploded, and therefore they did not even put on anti-radiation protection.

The firefighters accomplished a feat that night that must be remembered today. It was only thanks to their heroism and self-sacrifice that the third reactor did not explode, which was connected to the fourth and was located in close proximity to it. If not for the courage of the firefighters, the consequences of the explosion of another reactor would be hard to imagine. Therefore, any event dedicated to the Chernobyl tragedy should honor the memory of the firefighters who sacrificed their lives in the fight against the fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. They saved the world from a big disaster.

Already an hour after the accident, the liquidators began to fall from radiation sickness, and most of those who were on the front line died. On April 26, the Chernobyl tragedy claimed many lives.

What happened next. Evacuation

On the morning of April 27 (36 hours had passed since the accident, while the population had to be evacuated immediately), a message was transmitted by radio so that the inhabitants of Pripyat were ready to leave the city. Then they did not yet know that they would not return to their native places.

On April 28, the first message was transmitted that a tragedy had occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but that the whole reactor had exploded was not said. A few days later, the population within a radius of 30 km was completely evacuated. However, residents were told that they would be able to return here in three days. Thirty years have already passed, but it is still impossible to live in Pripyat and the outskirts of Chernobyl.

The Soviet authorities in every possible way hushed up the fact of the explosion of the reactor, there was no talk of this in the media, the whole country then celebrated the first of May - Workers' Day.

Elimination of consequences. Heroes unknown to anyone

To eliminate the consequences of the accident and in order to "seal" the reactor, a special commission was created, whose members decided to drop a special mixture of lead, dilomites and boron-containing agents onto the reactor. Ten days later, a large contingent of the military arrived in the 30-kilometer zone in order to avoid the penetration of civilians, scientists and liquidators of the consequences of the accident arrived here with them.

In the first year, the number of liquidators of the accident has already reached almost 300 thousand people. Until our time, the number of liquidators has increased to 600 thousand people. People worked in shifts, as they could not endure the effects of radiation for a long time, some left, and new ones were brought in their place. In order to permanently fence off the destroyed nuclear reactor, it was decided to build a so-called "sarcophagus" over it. The first sarcophagus took 206 days to build and was completed in November 1986.

This event has been going on for almost a year. The Chernobyl tragedy is known all over the world, but many liquidators are unknown to anyone. These are not actors, not public bright celebrities who play fake courage and nobility on the stage. These are real heroes who did everything to reduce the level of radiation contamination as much as possible. They saved us at the cost of their own lives.

The reaction of the world community

The Chernobyl tragedy (the photo can be seen in the article) soon became known to the whole world: European countries noted an unprecedentedly high level of radiation, sounded the alarm, and the truth was revealed. After the whole world learned about the Chernobyl disaster, construction in many countries practically ceased. The USA and the countries of Western Europe did not build a single one until 2002. Scientists all over the world began to work on alternative energy sources. In the USSR itself, before the accident, it was planned to build 10 more similar power plants and dozens of other reactors in already functioning stations, but all plans were canceled after the events of April 26. The Chernobyl tragedy showed how deadly

Exclusion Zone

In addition to Pripyat itself, hundreds of small settlements were also abandoned. The 30-kilometer zone around the station began to be called the "Exclusion Zone". A 200 km zone was heavily polluted. The Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions in Ukraine suffered the most, as well as in Belarus - the Gomel region, in Russia - the Bryansk region. Radiation damage sites were found even in Norway, Finland and Sweden, forests were particularly affected.

The number of people suffering from oncological diseases has increased critically after the accident. Most began to suffer from thyroid cancer, which is the first to be hit by radiation.

Doctors began to talk about the fact that children born from parents from those regions suffer from birth defects and mutations. For example, in 1987 there was an outbreak of Down syndrome.

The further fate of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

After the whole world learned about the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, its operation was stopped due to the threat of powerful radiation contamination. But a few years later, the first and second power units began their work again, and later the third power unit was launched.

In 1995, it was decided to permanently shut down the power plant. Following this plan, the first power unit was shut down in 1996, the second in 1999, and the station was finally closed in 2000.

A few years later, a government decision launched a project to create a new sarcophagus, since the first one does not fully protect the environment from the effects of radiation. Thus, in 2012, the government of Ukraine officially announced that work had already begun on the construction of a new protective structure. It should completely seal the power unit, and, according to scientists, the radioactive background will not pass through the walls of the new sarcophagus. The construction should be completed by 2018, and the approximate cost of this project is more than 2 billion US dollars.

In 2009, the government of Ukraine developed a program for the complete decontamination of the station, which will take place in four stages. The last stage is planned to be completed by 2065. By this time, the authorities want to completely dispose of all traces of the presence of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant at this site.

Memory

April 26 of each year is the Day of Remembrance of the Chernobyl tragedy. The memory of the liquidators and victims of the accident is revered not only in the CIS countries, but also in many countries of Western Europe. In France, in Paris, not far from the Eiffel Tower, a small event is held on this day, where people bow their heads to the heroism of firefighters.

Every April 26, schools hold an information hour, where they talk about the terrible tragedy and the people who saved the world. Children read poems about the Chernobyl tragedy. Poets dedicate them to the fallen and surviving heroes who stopped radiation contamination, as well as to the thousands of innocent people who became victims of the accident.

The memory of the Chernobyl tragedy underlies dozens of documentaries and feature films. Films not only of domestic production, many foreign studios and directors covered the Chernobyl disaster in their works.

The Chernobyl disaster has a central place in the STALKER game series, and also serves as the plot for a dozen fictional novels of the same name. Quite recently, the Chernobyl accident turned 30 years old, but the consequences of the disaster over the years have not yet been eliminated, the decay of some substances will continue for thousands of years. This accident will be remembered by the world as the most horrendous energy accident in history.

This accident is regarded as the largest in the history of nuclear energy, as well as the estimated number of people killed and affected by its consequences. During the first three months after the accident, 31 people died, the consequences of the accident over the next 15 years caused the death of 60 to 80 people. 134 people suffered from radiation sickness of varying severity, more than 115 thousand people from the 30-kilometer zone were evacuated. More than 600,000 people participated in the liquidation of the consequences of the disaster.

OPINION OF ACADEMICIAN

It never occurred to me then that we were moving towards an event of a planetary scale, an event that, apparently, will go down in the history of mankind as the eruption of famous volcanoes, the death of Pompeii, or something close to it.

Academician Valery Legasov

TASS MESSAGE

There was an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. One of the reactors was damaged. Measures are being taken to eliminate the consequences of the incident. The victims received the necessary assistance. A government commission has been set up to investigate the incident.

CHRONICLE OF THE ACCIDENT AND ITS OVERCOMING

On the night of April 26, 1986, the mistakes of the personnel working at the 4th unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, multiplied by the mistakes of the designers of the RBMK reactor (high-power reactor, channel), namely, this type of reactor was used at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, led to the most serious accident in the history of the world nuclear energy. This accident became a major man-made and humanitarian disaster of the 20th century.

On April 25, 1986, the personnel of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were preparing to shut down the fourth power unit for scheduled preventive maintenance, during which the experiment was supposed to be carried out. Due to dispatcher restrictions, the shutdown of the reactor was delayed several times, which caused difficulties in controlling the reactor's power.

On April 26 at 0124 there was an uncontrolled increase in power, which led to explosions and the destruction of a significant part of the reactor plant. As a result of the accident, a large amount of radioactive substances was released into the environment.

Despite the obvious scale of the accident, the possibility of serious radiation consequences near the nuclear power plant, as well as evidence of the transboundary transfer of radioactive substances to the territory of Western European countries, during the first few days the country's leadership did not take adequate actions in the field of informing the population of both the USSR and other countries .

Moreover, already in the first days after the accident, measures were taken to classify data on its real and predicted consequences.

As a result of the accident, the territory of 19 subjects with a population of about 30 million people was exposed to radioactive contamination in Russia alone. The area of ​​territories contaminated with cesium-137 amounted to more than 56 thousand square kilometers, where about 3 million people lived.

In the first and most acute period, more than 100 thousand citizens of the USSR were involved in the elimination of the consequences of the accident in the Chernobyl zone. In total, in the first three years after the accident, 250,000 workers visited the 30-kilometer zone. These people did everything possible to minimize the consequences of the accident. In the subsequent period, all work to control the radiation situation, reduce radiation doses to the population, rehabilitate contaminated areas, provide medical care and social protection for the population of the affected areas were carried out within the framework of state targeted programs.

A day after the accident, the government commission decided on the need to evacuate residents of nearby settlements. In total, by the end of 1986, about 116 thousand people were resettled from 188 settlements (including the city of Pripyat).

In mid-May 1986, the government commission decided on the long-term conservation of Unit 4 in order to prevent the release of radionuclides into the environment and reduce the impact of penetrating radiation at the Chernobyl site.

The Ministry of Medium Machine Building of the USSR was entrusted with "work on the disposal of the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and related structures." The object was named "Shelter of the 4th unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant", it is known to the whole world as a "sarcophagus". On November 30, 1986, an act was signed on its acceptance for maintenance.

In autumn 1993, after a fire, the second power unit was shut down. On the night of November 30 to December 1, 1996, in accordance with the Memorandum signed in 1995 between Ukraine and the G7 states, the first power unit was shut down.

On December 6, 2000, due to malfunctions in the protection system, the last operating reactor, the third, was decommissioned. In March 2000, the government of Ukraine adopted a resolution to close the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. On December 14, 2000, the reactor was started up at 5% power for the December 15 shutdown ceremony. Chernobyl was stopped on December 15, 2000 at 13:17.

Ukraine is seeking from international donors to start construction of the Shelter confinement, the construction of a spent nuclear fuel storage facility, which has been repeatedly postponed before, which should turn the Chernobyl nuclear power plant into a safe facility. The Shelter Object, designed to turn the Chernobyl plant into a safe system, will be an arch-shaped structure 105 meters high, 150 meters long and 260 meters wide. After erection, it will be “pushed” onto the fourth block of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, over which, after the accident on April 26, 1986, a sarcophagus was built. The donor assembly of the Chernobyl Shelter Fund includes 28 countries. It is managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which on May 15, 2008 decided to allocate 135 million euros to the Shelter Fund, and on July 15 of the same year, at a meeting of the council of donor countries, a decision was made to provide another 60 million euros . In April 2009, the United States allocated $250 million to Ukraine to ensure the safety of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

In April 2011, a donor conference was held in Kyiv, which managed to raise 550 million euros. Prior to this, the Ukrainian authorities stated that about 740 million euros were not enough to complete the Chernobyl projects.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the program for the decommissioning of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. According to the program, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant will be completely eliminated by 2065. At the first stage, from 2010 to 2013, nuclear fuel will be removed from nuclear power plants and transferred to long-term storage facilities.

From 2013 to 2022 the reactor installations will be mothballed. From 2022 to 2045, experts will expect a decrease in the radioactivity of reactor plants. For the period from 2045 to 2065. the installations are dismantled, and the place where the station was located will be cleaned.

It is planned that as a result of the implementation of the program, the Shelter object will become environmentally safe.

EYEWITNESS MEMORIES

1. Somewhere around 8 am, a neighbor called me and said that her neighbor had not returned from the station, there had been an accident. I immediately rushed to my neighbors, godfathers, and they have been sitting “on their bags” since the night: their godfather called them and told them about the accident. By eleven o'clock, our children ran home and said that all the windows and doors were blocked at school, and they were not allowed to go anywhere, and then they washed the territory and cars around the school, let them out into the street and told them to run home. Our dentist friend said that they were all alerted at night and called to the hospital, where people were taken from the station all night. The irradiated people were very sick: by morning the whole hospital was in vomit. It was creepy! By 12 o'clock, armored personnel carriers began to enter the station and the city. It was a terrible sight: these young guys went to their deaths, they were sitting there even without “petals” (respirators), they were not protected at all! The troops kept arriving, more and more militia became, helicopters flew. Television was turned off for us, so we did not know anything about the accident itself, what exactly happened and what the scale was.

The radio said that by 15.00 the entire population must be ready for evacuation. To do this, you need to collect the things and products you need for three days and go outside. We did just that.

We lived almost on the outskirts of the city, and it turned out that after we left, we stood on the street for more than an hour. In each yard there were 3-4 policemen who made door-to-door rounds, they went into every house and every apartment. Those who did not want to evacuate were taken out by force. Buses drove up, people loaded and left. That's how we left with 100 rubles in our pocket and things and food for three days.

We were taken to the village of Maryanovka, Polessky district, which is no longer on the map today either. We stayed there for three days. By the evening of the third day, it became known that the radiation background was also growing in Maryanovka. It became clear that we had nothing to wait for and we needed to decide something ourselves, because we had three children in our arms. On the same evening, on the last bus from Polessky, we left for Kyiv, and from there my husband took me with the children to my mother in the village.

I was in the sanitary squad for many years and clearly knew that the first thing to do upon arrival to my mother was to wash and wash. So we did. Mom and I dug a hole, threw everything in there and filled it with everything that was.

It was difficult, but there was no way out. I was also lucky that my mother was - there was where to go. For others who had nowhere to go, it was even more difficult. They were settled in hotels, boarding houses, sanatoriums. Children were sent to camps - their parents then searched for them all over Ukraine for months. And we survived thanks to neighbors and relatives. Sometimes I wake up, go outside, and on the threshold of the house there is already milk, bread, a piece of cheese, eggs, butter. So we lived there for six months. It was very difficult and scary, because we did not know what would happen to us. When some time had already passed, I began to understand that we would not return back, and I told my mother about this. And my mother (I will never forget) said: is there really no more of this fairy tale in the middle of the forest? I say: there will be no mother, there will be no more. After the accident, the radiation cloud stood over Pripyat for a long time, then dissipated and moved on. I was told that if it had rained then, there would have been no one to evacuate. We are very lucky! Nobody told us anything, what level of radiation, what dose we received, nothing! And we stayed in this zone for 38 hours before the evacuation. We were soaked through it all! And all this time no one gave us any help. Although we had a lot of sanruzhins in the city, and in each department there were boxes in the warehouse, for each member of the family, antidotes, potassium-iodine, respirators and clothing. All this was, only no one took advantage of it. They brought us iodine only on the second day, when it was already useless to drink it. So we carried radiation throughout Ukraine.

Lydia Romanchenko

2. On the evening of April 25, my son asked me to tell him a story before going to bed. I began to tell and did not notice how I fell asleep with the child. And we lived in Pripyat on the 9th floor, and the station was clearly visible from the kitchen window.

The wife was still awake and felt some kind of shock at home, like a slight earthquake. I went to the window in the kitchen and saw above the 4th block, first a black cloud, then a blue glow, then a white cloud that rose and covered the moon.

My wife woke me up. There was an overpass in front of our window. And along it, one after another - with the alarm turned on - fire engines and ambulances raced. But I could not think that something serious had happened. Reassured his wife and went to bed.

3. On April 25, we went to Kyiv to take professional exams. We returned to Pripyat late. I lay down, began to read, in my opinion, Bunin. Then she looked at her watch, it was late. Turned off the light. But did not sleep. Suddenly I felt a push at home, I heard a dull bang from the street, sort of like a “boom”. I was scared, I immediately thought about the nuclear power plant. I lay down for another ten minutes, and then I decided to open the window and take a look. And I lived on the 2nd floor, from where the nuclear power plant was not visible. Look, everything seems to be fine on the street. The sky is clear and warm. People are walking quietly. The bus has passed.

4. I felt the first blow. It was strong, but not the same as the one or two seconds later. He was already like one long blow or two, but following each other. Initially, I thought that something had happened to the deaerators above the control panel of Unit 4. Facing tiles fell from the false ceiling following the sound of the impact. I looked at the instruments. The picture was bad. It became clear that an accident of extreme severity had occurred. Then he jumped out into the corridor to go to the central hall. But there is dust and smoke in the corridor. I went back to turn on the smoke exhaust fans. Then he went to the engine room. The situation there is terrible. Hot water gushed out of broken pipes in all directions, it soared strongly. Flashes of short circuits of electric cables were visible. A significant part of the engine room was destroyed. A slab that fell from above broke the oil pipeline, oil was leaking out, and there was up to 100 tons of it in special containers. Then he went outside, walked around the 4th unit, saw destruction, fires on the roof.

5. There was a blow. I thought that the turbine blades flew. Then another blow. Looked at the cover. It seemed to me that it should fall. We went to inspect the 4th block, saw destruction and glow in the reactor area. Then I noticed that my feet were slipping on some kind of suspension. I thought: is it not graphite? I also thought that this was the most terrible accident, the possibility of which no one described.

6. At the station's central control panel, we heard a thud, similar to the sound of a very heavy object falling. For 15-18 seconds we thought: what fell? And then the instruments on the console showed a system failure. Some lines of communication have been disconnected. Then the instruments showed failures in the operation of electric generators at the station. Emergency sirens went off, lights flickered. After some short time, the generators "calmed down". I called the Kyivenergo dispatcher and asked: "What do you have?" I thought that power outages come from the center. But the dispatcher replied: “You have something. Understand." The phone rang. I picked up the phone. A paramilitary guard asked: "What happened at the station?" I had to answer that I needed to figure it out. And immediately the head of the security guard calls. Reports that there is a fire on the 4th unit. I told him to open the gate and call the firemen. He answered - the gates are open, the fire engines have already arrived.

Here I see that the alarm signal about the accident from the 4th block is turned on. I ran there. The guys met. They were very dirty and excited. Finally, the turbine hall. He interested me in the first place, since there are reserves of hydrogen and engine oil - all this is flammable. I see the roof has collapsed. Then he ran to the control panel of the 4th unit. He asked: "Do you pour water to cool the reactor?" I was told that they were pouring, but they themselves did not know where she was going.

A dosimetrist appeared and said that his device was weak and could not measure the full power of radiation. I see the guys are carrying a burnt man, it turned out to be V. Shashenok. He was dirty, in a state of shock, moaning. I helped carry the guy to the shield room of the 3rd block. From there I called Moscow, VPO Soyuzatomenergo, and said that the most serious accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Then he called the telephone operator to announce a general emergency for the station.

Another major accident occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which until now few people have heard of. Meanwhile, it was this accident that served as the final impetus to the fact that the Ukrainian authorities decided to completely stop the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and decommission the plant.

As in the case of the tragedy of 1986, as a result of the accident in 1991, radioactive substances got into the air (albeit in much smaller quantities), and the cause of these events (just like in 1986) was the power units of the RBMK type reactors. As they wrote later in the reports on the investigation of the disaster, the cause of the accident was "the initial event, not foreseen in the design of the nuclear block, which was accompanied by failures of security systems".

So, in today's post - a story and unique photographs from the Chernobyl accident in 1991, which you probably have not heard anything about.

02. First, a little background. After the accident in 1986 and the performance and work of the Chernobyl NPP continued to operate normally - as far as it is generally possible at a plant with one damaged power unit and an existing local "exclusion zone" in the former work area. After the accident in 1991, it was accepted early decision on the immediate shutdown of the Second Unit (where, in fact, the accident occurred), as well as the gradual decommissioning of the Third.

What happened in 1991? October 11, 1991 The second power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was put into operation after a major overhaul. During reaching the set power level spontaneously turned on one of the turbine generators of the power unit, it happened at 20:10 Kyiv time.

03. How could it happen that one turbogenerator suddenly started working on its own? An investigation into the causes of the accident found that a significant defect was made during the construction of the station - signal and control cables were placed in one cable tray, which is categorically unacceptable. Due to the loss of insulation between the two cables, the turbogenerator spontaneously turned on.

The turbogenerator managed to work for only 30 seconds, after which it began to collapse from the received loads - the bearings of the turbogenerator shaft "flew" first, the installation was depressurized, as a result of which a large amount of oil and hydrogen was released, and a fire started. The Chernobyl fire department was the first to put out the fire in the turbine hall:

04. From exposure to high temperatures (tons of machine oil burned in the engine room), the roof collapsed over the burning turbogenerator. This is what the site of the fire looked like the next morning after the accident, behind the wall on the right is the reactor hall itself, and in the background you can see the famous ventilation stack of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

05. The most terrible thing was that the collapsed elements of the roof damaged equipment important for controlling the reactor. Under the worst set of circumstances, the reactor of power unit number two could go into an uncontrollable state, and then explode - it would be a repeat of the 1986 disaster. The reactor of the Second power unit was immediately shut down, but it still needed to be properly cooled down - and this was not so easy to do, since water pumps were damaged due to fire and roof collapse.

06. In the process, another design flaw of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant surfaced - the pumps for emergency make-up of the water circuit (so necessary for cooling down the reactor) and the usual feed pumps were in the same room, and as a result of one event - a fire - the reactor was actually deprived of all high-pressure make-up sources. The reactor was cooled down, in fact, using only one main circulation pump, which worked at only half the required power, and during this cooldown there was a non-zero probability that the reactor could explode from overheating.

07. Did the radiation levels increase during the 1991 accident? Yes, it happened. The main reason for this was radioactive aerosols that were formed during the combustion of roof elements with traces of the 1986 accident. All the liquidators who dealt with the consequences of this accident worked in the necessary protection. In the photo - analysis of the collapsed roof structures in the engine room.

08. The scale of the accident was quite serious - during the fire, 180 tons of turbine oil and 500 cubic meters of hydrogen burned out, almost 2500 meters of the roof of the engine room collapsed, the mass of the collapsed structures exceeded 100 tons.

09. The liquidation of the consequences of the accident was somewhat reminiscent of Chernobyl-1986 in miniature. The liquidators again had to find highly active garbage, collect it in special bags and containers and take it to a landfill.

10. 63 participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the 1991 accident received increased doses of radiation - however, relatively small - from 0.02 to 0.2 Rem. If it weren’t for the well-coordinated actions of the firefighters and the competent actions of the personnel to cool down the reactor, the accident of 1991 could well have led to overheating and explosion of the reactor at the Second Power Unit, and the phrase would now mean not radar antennas at all, but would have a completely different meaning ...

All photos: Igor Kostin.

Such an accident occurred in Chernobyl in 1991. Admit you've never heard of her.