The miners finished their work ahead of schedule, but by then the molten core had cooled itself. On April 26th, 1986, at 1:23 am, Alexander Akimov did what he and thousands of other nuclear plant operators have been trained to do. Aleksandr Fyodorovich Akimov and Leonid Fedorovych Toptunov "In my opinion, [Aleksandr Akimov and Leonid Toptunov] are the most tragic figures from the Chernobyl personnel. Russians and Ukrainians have watched it via the internet, and it has had a favourable rating on Russian film site Kinopoisk. Can either be found at house parties telling everyone Charles Manson was only 52 or at home reading true crime magazines. And still the shift leader is ruminating if the catastrophy was his fault: "What have we done wrong? In preparation, Anatoly Dyatlov ordered the power to be reduced to 700 MW, as the test plan stipulated. 3, Firefighters pictured in 1986 before cleaning debris from the roof of the No. FromBudapesttoBishkek. https://i.imgur.com/gfghbDQ.jpg. The one thing, though, that I did feel, walking through the power plant was a little bit of a better sense of how easy it would be to deny. Originally, robots from West Germany, Japan, and Russia were used to help clean the debris, but they could not operate due to the high levels of radiation. Raising power after this point put the reactor into a potentially dangerous state, due to Xenon poisoning, as well as design flaws in the reactor unknown to the operators. Why Alex Murdaugh was spared the death penalty, Why Trudeau is facing calls for a public inquiry, The shocking legacy of the Dutch 'Hunger Winter'. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. DYATLOV (to the room) This is an emergency. Toptunov, along with non-essential personnel, was dismissed. Firefighters were also asked to help clear radioactive debris from the roof after the fire was extinguished. In the weeks immediately after the explosion, 29 power plant workers and firefighters died from ARS, caused by exposure to high doses of ionising radiation, according to Soviet officials. Press J to jump to the feed. The original footage was probably taken at reactor 4 control room during the time our guys were on crew, that's why many of them can be seen. Raising power after this point put the reactor into a potentially dangerous state, unbeknownst to the operators. Because its so big! A member of. AKIMOV . There was no smoke or fire, just fumes coming from the damaged part. Mr Breus says the series creators showed the radiation effects on the human body well. And finally they said, The hell with it! He and his crew then stayed and manually pumped the emergency feedwater into the reactor. They were nothing like that. His burnt lungs hardly let him breathe, his intestines have decomposed, excrements mixed with blood are oozing from his body. On the night of April 26, 1986, Alexander Akimov was at work as the shift supervisor of the night crew of Chernobyl Plant Unit Four. [3][page needed] At some point he gave deathbed confessions stating repeatedly: I did everything correctly. Vasily Ignatenko, depicted in the series, was among the first firefighters sent to tackle the blaze. .] ", Russia to make its own show about Chernobyl, Giant structure moves in to cover Chernobyl, TV drama Chernobyl: 'So chilling, it spares you nothing', Chernobyl: The end of a three-decade experiment, Street fighting in Bakhmut but Russia not in control, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims. The Red Forest is now one of the most contaminated sites in the world, with more than 90 percent of the radioactivity found in the soil. It kills you slowly, and it kills you in an excruciating manner. As we moved through it, we were aware that there were the ghosts of history around us, Mazin said. This may be, in part, why the hype around the HBO and Sky series about the disaster has been so substantial. As the rods were being inserted, the graphite tips of the control rods accelerated the reaction, creating neutron flux in the bottom of the core. The scene where Dr. Khomyuk is jailed by the KGB was filmed in Vilnius at a real former KGB prison. At conservative gathering, Trump is still the favourite. Later in May, the Russian first deputy health minister also issued a warning that vodka and red wine were not a cure for radiation exposuredespite popular belief. How would I find another job after that?". Children are shown playing in the radioactive dust, which falls from the sky like snow. People that are usually blamed for the explosion are the plant employees who worked at the night of the explosion: Aleksandr Akimov, the supervisor of the shift; Leonid Toptunov, the senior reactor control chief engineer; and Anatoly Dyatlov, deputy chief engineer of the power plant. The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear disaster that occurred in the early hours of 26 April 1986, at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Ukraine.The accident occurred when Reactor Number 4 exploded and destroyed most of the reactor building, spreading debris and radioactive material across the surrounding area, and over the following days and weeks, most of mainland Europe . "As we moved through it, we were aware that there were the ghosts of history around us," Mazin said. You can see Gorbachenko who was a witness that night and helped in the search of Shashenok. Dr. Robert Peter Gale, known as the Chernobyl Doctor, was one of the many physicians and scientists brought in from 15 nations to help with the aftermath of the disaster. See a comparison with a very old photo of Stolyarchuk: https://bit.ly/3wBuX2S Pay attention to the "indentation" of the line of his moustache on the right side of the face. He was portrayed by Michael Colgan in the 2006 BBC production Surviving Disaster: Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster[7] and by Robert Emms in the 2019 HBO miniseries Chernobyl. At first, our commanders didnt know what to do. Oleksiy Breus says the accident helped reveal the substantial flaws of the Soviet system. However, the power reduction had been too abrupt, which put the reactor into a "poisoned" condition (a buildup of 135Xe, a strong neutron absorber), and made the reactor stall. The Emmy-winning HBO mini-series "Chernobyl," which is a dramatized account of the 1986 nuclear power plant disaster, has rekindled conversation about the accident, its subsequent cleanup and the long-term impacts on people living near the power plant. But I have to ask about his legs. I'll try and find it. In March 1983, Toptunov began his career at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. You could see the equipment and pumps exposed. Ive never heard anything about his face, only his skin blackening and shriveling. Frantic. Because Id spent so much time living in that space, in multiple areas of those spaces for so long, and with the people in my mind for so long to walk where they walked felt so strange. 2023 BBC. Before coming to Soviet Ukraine, he installed reactors into submarines at a shipbuilding plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where he was once exposed to a nearly fatal dose of radiation. "I was surprised they even brought us there," Mr Breus says of arriving at work the morning after the explosion. A member of staff at the plant . 21 23 A 10-square-kilometer (4 mi2) area of forest that surrounds the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant has become known as the Red Forest after the contamination caused the trees to die and their leaves to turn a deep red color. Two weeks have passed since the explosion as Akimov's suffering is ends. The third episode of Chernobyl is a conversation about causes and consequences. Press J to jump to the feed. Im not a religious man, but I suppose thats as religious as Ill ever feel. But Mr Breus believes most Pripyat residents would have slept through the explosion, and he only learned of the accident when he arrived at work the following morning. He was entirely black, due to skin necrosis, but I never read anywhere that he had no face left, Jesus Christ he mummified, that sounds horrific. Once more his temperature increases and then he falls into coma. xref We flew out to see what was happening, then returned and flew back in the morning.[2], The amount of radiation the Chernobyl disaster released into the atmosphere was 50 million curiesequivalent to around 500 Hiroshima bombs. 0000010565 00000 n [4], He was admitted to Pripyat Hospital but was quickly transferred to Moscow Hospital 6. "Their characters are distorted and misrepresented, as if they were villains. 4 reactor, and operator Leonid Toptunov, who both feature prominently in the series. Yes, it's Kovalenko, standing next to Akimov. . He's growing weaker, wheezes, can hardly talk anymore. Founder of Crime Viral community since 2015. This is how they decided to portray the Minister of Coal Industry Mikhail Shchadov. Elk were contaminated, and the moment their bodies were thrown in a quarry after being stripped of their heads and fur was captured on camera. His father was involved in the Soviet space program and during his childhood, he was surrounded by scientists and engineers.[2]. Warning: This story contains plot details from the miniseries. He had health problems afterwards.". The turbine was shut down. At 9:29 is Razim Davletbayev, deputy head of the Turbine Hall. "My chances are small", he told his colleagues "But if I survive this, one thing is sure: I will never work in a power plant again. ax1N58[zR)8WN}+|[x? Pilot Alexander Petrov, who responded to the scene, recalled, It took us more than 24 hours to get things going. There are many theories about the reasons for the nuclear plant explosion, but they all have the same common denominator: the human element. April 1986, it turns out, wasnt Dyatlovs first nuclear accident. [. There were fears that "lava" from the molten reactor could reach the water, triggering a further, potentially far more powerful explosion. In an attempt to contain the disaster, helicopters dumped lead slabs weighing 40 kilograms (88 lb) each on the reactor, followed by several tons of radiation absorbing-sand. Undeservedly condemned, professionally slandered. Following the disaster, citizens in the city of Kiev were advised by authorities to take regular warm showers, keep their windows closed, and regularly wash their furniture. Alexander Akimov (Sam Troughton) was the night crew shift supervisor during the early . There were little slots for food and such, but then there were some grimmer rooms. BBC Ukrainian Hours after the world's worst nuclear accident, engineer Oleksiy Breus entered the control room of the No. .] 6 in Moscow, where Alexander Akomv is suffering towards death. Two weeks have passed since the explosion as Akimov's suffering is ends. In a weird way, it was more moving to me than moving through the actual power plant itself. They showed Mr. Schadov as an incompetent official who is not respected by the miners. It was important to me that people understood what was happening to these men, because they suffered in terrible ways, Mazin told The Chernobyl Podcast. More than 500,000 residents in Ukraine were ultimately forced to leave their homes. Read about our approach to external linking. What's the least amount of exercise we can get away with? Leonid Fedorovych Toptunov ( Ukrainian: , Russian: ; 16 August 1960 - 14 May 1986) was a Soviet engineer who was the senior reactor control chief engineer at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Reactor Unit 4 on the night of the Chernobyl disaster . [] And the last thing that I want this show to do is to scare people about nuclear power. Aleksandr Fyodorovich Akimov (Russian: ; 6 May 1953 - 11 May 1986) was a Soviet engineer who was the supervisor of the shift that worked at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Reactor Unit 4 on the night of the Chernobyl disaster, 26 April 1986. "In hospital, I was treated with a guy who biked to that bridge in the morning on 26 April to watch it. For example, everything the show depicts about Lyudmilla and Vasily Ignatenko the bribes, the questions about children, the game of cards, the ban on touching all really happened. It was also difficult to assess how much radiation patients had been exposed to, as the gradual loss of hair and some darkening of the skin were the only visible signs. 4 reactor, Oleksiy Ananenko (then and now) with a scene from the TV series showing the three workers wearing respirators, The TV series portrays how 400 miners were involved in digging the tunnel under the damaged reactor, The TV series shows Pripyat residents watching events unfold on what was later nicknamed the "Bridge of Death", The damage caused to the facility by the biggest nuclear disaster in history, Chernobyl mini-series review: 'It stops you sleeping', Chernobyl disaster: 'I didn't know the truth', Craig Mazin maintains that Dyatlov in particular was a "real bully", The people who moved to the Chernobyl exclusion zone, US-made cheese can be called 'gruyere' - court, AOC under investigation for Met Gala dress, Canadian grandma helps police snag phone scammer, The children left behind in Cuba's exodus. Toptunov had literally turned white.". 4 reactor, and operator Leonid Toptunov, who both feature prominently in the series. This later became known as the "Bridge of Death" after reports that those who stood there allegedly died from radiation sickness. Arriving at work that morning, Mr Breus says he did not see any fire. The Chernobyl disaster is one of the most famous nuclear catastrophes in the world, but not many people know that if it hadn't been for one man, the damage would have been much worse. His famous quote We did everything correctly has been used in the Chernobyl series by HBO. They were very pale. Who is the man on the time stamp on 9:20? I will start a new life. Everyone stay calm. At 04:00, Moscow ordered feeding of water to the reactor. Lyuba tries to cheer her husband up, she brings him pictures that their children drew. On May 21, the American premium cable network HBO aired the third episode of Chernobyl, a new miniseries about the catastrophic nuclear accident in April 1986 that rocked the Soviet Union. HBO. Despite the change in tone, Chernobyl still knows how to terrify its audience, and Emily Watsons performance as Ulana Khomyuk, the nuclear scientist who visits men dying of radiation poisoning, gets under your skin even more than scenes of engineer Leonid Toptunovs bloody hospital bed sheets. The reason was the reactor's unstable condition due to low electrical network power. Armen Abagian, who was the director of one of the Moscow nuclear power research institutes at the time, advised the Soviet government to evacuate Pripyat immediately. They pumped water into the reactor core, which was the right thing to do at the moment but the wrong thing to do in a long run. Tel: +38 063 58 16 661E-mail: [emailprotected], Exciting private tours to Chernobyl and Pripyat. There were fears that "lava" from the molten reactor could reach the water, triggering a further, potentially far more powerful explosion. He died of radiation sickness two weeks after the accident at the age of 33. But no matter how strict he was, he was still a high-level professional.". Shift leader Borys Baranov died in 2005, while Valery Bespalov and Oleksiy Ananenko, both chief engineers of one of the reactor sections, are still alive and live in the capital, Kiev. Hours after the world's worst nuclear accident, engineer Oleksiy Breus entered the control room of the No. Temperatures beneath the reactor were high and the series shows them stripping naked. {$[sz HqCUF3W){8HPA|]+\ Y,*6mw1(,>6D>(e]7MRWvfW4j}6`rW/G*(' !S%B=V>npH wp"2N?)JeXiPC`;\BUc |)g}hUtS1' a$)ELOrIB/0vgkmE^)wqHwB4:^ The interviewer said he has no face. 0000007280 00000 n 0000002865 00000 n Once more his temperature increases and then he falls into coma. Whilst he was in hospital. "However, the technological aspects have some discrepancies which may not exactly [be] lies, but merely fiction," he adds. The autopsy qualifies as medical records so of course they are all closed to the public. 1156/2008 of 12 December 2008", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Leonid_Toptunov&oldid=1139033343, This page was last edited on 13 February 2023, at 00:49.