Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well, welcome to my write up of the 1986 Chernobyl Disaster!

History of Events

Fourteen thousand people used to live here now it's a ghost town. Chernobyl was one of the most devastating catastrophes to happen in the last 100 years. With an immediate death toll of 30, with another 30+ casualties & more unrecorded in the following decades due to long term radiation poisoning. With the explosion completely destroying the Number 4 Reactor during a low power test along with contaminating 150,000 square kilometres of land across Russia & Ukraine. Radioactive particles were carried across winds, spreading across parts of Europe including Sweden, Finland, The United Kingdom & more. At approximately 1:23 AM a low power test was conducted on the Number 4 Reactor, as the test began an unexpected power surge hit the reactor. Despite the attempts of the facility employees using the emergency shutdown protocol the control rods seemingly jammed while going inside of the reactor causing a reaction starting a fire, leading to two large explosions, causing the entire roof to be blown off of the reactor. Immediately after that the plant goes into a blackout and radiation begins seeping into the air, multiple fires begin to start up, compromising the integrity of the building, causing walls to crumble and equipment to fail. At 1:28 AM the first firefighters respond to the scene completely unaware of the radiation in the surrounding area, little did they know this would be the biggest mistake of their lives. At 1:35 AM firefighters made their way up to the rooftop of the Turbine Hall to fight fires that were raging up top.

Grigorii Khmel, the driver of one of the fire engines, later described what happened:

We arrived there at 10 or 15 minutes to two in the morning… We saw graphite scattered about. Misha asked: “Is that graphite?” I kicked it away. But one of the fighters on the other truck picked it up. “It's hot,” he said. The pieces of graphite were of different sizes, some big, some small, enough to pick them up… We didn't know much about radiation. Even those who worked there had no idea. There was no water left in the trucks. Misha filled a cistern and we aimed the water at the top. Then those boys who died went up to the roof – Vashchik, Kolya and others, and Volodya Pravik…. They went up the ladder … and I never saw them again.

After the arrival of the first responding firefighters, thousands of police began to setup multiple roadblocks around the town of Pripyat and the Chernobyl facility also unaware of the radiation in the area. Around 6:35 AM, 37 fire brigades totalling out to 186 firefighters or so are now at the facility fighting fires and assisting with medical. Some of these men knew the risks yet all of them still risked their lives to stop the fires and rescue people in the buildings.

Helicopters began to drop tons and tons of sand, lead, clay & boron on the burning reactor in an attempt to stop the fires and radiation, it only slightly dropped the radiation levels not doing much also in the process of dumping sand on the fire a helicopter clipped a crane and 4 people died as a result. (Can be seen further down in post)

Chernobyl Suicide Squad

The "Chernobyl Suicide Squad" was a name given to three men who took on a mission that most certainly should've lead to their demise, they were tasked to go under the power plant in hazmat diving suits to swim through radioactive water so they could shut off steam valves to prevent a world wide situation. These three men are Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bezpalov and Boris Barnov, as they swam through radioactive waters through the blown out basement of the power plant the radiation killed their flashlights. They somehow managed to still find the valves despite the darkness, closing them and preventing a massive meltdown. All three men survived the ordeal going on to live their lives, Boris Barnov died in 2005 from a heart attack but the other two are still alive to this day.

Evacuation of Pripyat

Around 43,000 residents were evacuated from the city of Pripyat due to how close it was to the radiation and explosion, they used buses to get people out of the city only giving them a short amount of time to collect things they needed or wanted to bring. People were under the impression that it was going to be a temporary leave from their homes but unfortunately as it turned out a majority of them never saw their homes ever again.

This here is an excerpt from the evacuation announcement that they sent out to the citizens of Pripyat:

For the attention of the residents of Pripyat! The City Council informs you that due to the accident at Chernobyl Power Station in the city of Pripyat the radioactive conditions in the vicinity are deteriorating. The Communist Party, its officials and the armed forces are taking necessary steps to combat this. Nevertheless, with the view to keep people as safe and healthy as possible, the children being top priority, we need to temporarily evacuate the citizens in the nearest towns of Kiev Oblast. For these reasons, starting from April 27, 1986 2 pm each apartment block will be able to have a bus at its disposal, supervised by the police and the city officials. It is highly advisable to take your documents, some vital personal belongings and a certain amount of food, just in case, with you. The senior executives of public and industrial facilities of the city has decided on the list of employees needed to stay in Pripyat to maintain these facilities in a good working order. All the houses will be guarded by the police during the evacuation period. Comrades, leaving your residences temporarily please make sure you have turned off the lights, electrical equipment and water and shut the windows. Please keep calm and orderly in the process of this short-term evacuation.

Aftermath of Chernobyl

After the explosion some residents of Pripyat could see the flames from afar, they burned in different colors due to the graphite fires inside of the reactor, additionally to that there were hundreds of different types of radioactive particles blowing through the air towards them with the main radioactive element being Caesium-137, nobody watching the flames that night survived due to the heavy amounts of radiation they took on (500 Roentgen, 4.385 Sieverts). The surrounding areas of Chernobyl were heavily affected by the radiation caused by the meltdown of the reactor, even to this day we still see effects of the events that happened almost 40 years ago.

Environmental Effects

Ecosystems were affected by the radiation in a variety of ways, plants and animals were contaminated, agricultural lands were ruined causing the mortality rates of farm animals to raise significantly. Plants and animals were genetically altered from the radiation, causing plants to change shapes amongst other things and animals to gain physical deformities such as two heads. After the explosion a newly discovered species of mushrooms were discovered in the reactor area they seemingly were attracted to the radiation, it came to be discovered that they could actually be used to break down the radiation in the area.

The Elephants Foot

This here is a mass of radioactive materials that formed after the meltdown of the reactor, it is considered by some to be one of the most dangerous radioactive formations in the world. This formation consists of material from the reactor core along with various other metals and components from the reactor, it is has now become a staple of Chernobyl attraction for tourists. Thankfully over the years the radiation has died down quite a bit but to this day it is still dangerous to be around it for more than 5 minutes. The Elephants Foot got it's name due to it's appearance.

Chernobyl Today

Chernobyl is now mostly overgrown with nature, it has become a hotspot for adventurers and explorers alike. There are few people who chose to stay living there mostly original inhabitants not wanting to leave everything behind, also people utilize the help of "Stalkers" to maneuver through Chernobyl.

Photos of Chernobyl now

Those who died

Aleksandr F. Akimov

Yuri Y. Badaev

Anatoly I. Baranov

Nikolai S. Bondarenko

Vitaly I. Borets

Vyacheslav S. Brazhnik

Viktor P. Bryukhanov

Vladimir A. Chugunov

Razim I. Davletbayev

Viktor M. Degtyarenko

G. A. Dik

Anatoly S. Dyatlov

M. A. Elshin

Nikolai M. Fomin

Sergei N. Gazin

Mihail Golovnenko

Vasily I. Ignatenko

Yakaterina A. Ivanenko

Aleksander A. Kavunets

Grigori M. Khmel

Valery I. Khodemchuk

Viktor M. Kibenok

Igor Kirschenbaum

Yuri I. Konoval

A. P. Kovalenko

Aleksandr H. Kudryavtsev

A. A. Kukhar

Anatoly K. Kurguz

Nikolai G. Kuryavchenko

Aleksandr G. Lelechenko

Viktor I. Lopatyuk

Klavdia I. Luzganova

G. V. Lysyuk

Gennady P. Metlenko

Aleksandr A. Nekhaev

Oleksandr V. Novyk

Ivan L. Orlov

Kostyantyn H. Perchuk

Valery I. Perevozchenko

Aleksandr Petrovsky

Georgi I. Popov

Volodymyr Pravyk

Vladimir. I. Prishchepa

Viktor V. Proskuryakov

Boris V. Rogozhkin

Gennady Rusanovsky

Aleksei V. Rysin

Volodomyr I. Savenkov

Anatoly I. Shapovalov

Vladimir N. Shashenok

Anatoly V. Shlelyayn

Anatoly A. Sitnikov

Viktor G. Smagin

Boris Stolyarchuk

Leonid Telyatnikov

Volodymyr I. Tishchura

Nikolai I. Titenok

Petr Tolstiakov

Leonid F. Toptunov

Yuri Tregub

Arkady G. Uskov

Mykola V. Vashchuk

V. F. Verkhovod

Yuri A. Vershynin

Aleksandr Yuvchenko

Ivan M. Shavrey

Video of a MI-8 Helicopter crashing while flying over the reactor months later

Map of the radiation spread across Europe

Photo of a mutated calf that was born in Chernobyl

Reactor building the next day after the explosion

Central Hall before and after

Before

After

Welp that is all everyone! I really hope you enjoyed my post I will probably come back to add more later on, Thank you for your time, much love!

Sources:

https://www.chernobylgallery.com/chernobyl-disaster/timeline/