Accident at the Chernobyl power plant. Memorial to the victims of the Chernobyl disaster

30 years ago, on April 26, 1986, the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP) exploded. Now, 30 years after the tragedy, the attention of politicians, ecologists and engineers is riveted to an unprecedented construction project - the construction of the New Safe Confinement (NSC) instead of the Shelter object, which for the next hundred years should solve the problem of radiation safety around the destroyed 4- th reactor. Funds for this project, which should be completed in 2017, were raised by the whole world.

Close the station without donors

Meanwhile, another most difficult task remains in the shadows, with which Ukraine found itself face to face. The decommissioning of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is a complex and costly process. Its total cost is estimated at four billion dollars. However, due to insufficient funding, the process is delayed.

"Last year we received more than 700 million hryvnia (27.5 million euros) from the state budget. Every year we are given about 60 percent of the funds that we ask for in order to carry out decommissioning work in accordance with the schedule," - Viktor Kuchinsky, head of the strategic planning service at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, told DW.

He, as one of the most experienced specialists at the plant, manages the decommissioning process. In conditions of a chronic shortage of funds, it is possible to fulfill the work schedule by more than 80 percent and fully ensure safety for the population, Kuchinsky assures.

The last - the third - power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant ceased to produce electricity in December 2000. More than 15 years passed before the specialists completed the removal of spent nuclear fuel from all power units of the station. “There are only a few dozen builds left, we will unload them in the first half of this year,” Kuchinsky says. According to him, we are talking about damaged assemblies, for the extraction of which it was necessary to look for a special technical solution and develop a separate technology.

The next step is preservation.

Now the nuclear power plant is finally moving on to the main stage of its decommissioning. With the completion of the extraction of fuel, the power units will lose the status of nuclear installations and will be recognized as objects intended for the management of radioactive waste. “Last year, we received permission from state regulatory authorities to begin the main stage of decommissioning the plant. It is called the “final closure and conservation stage,” Viktor Kuchinsky explains.

The main task of this stage is to reliably mothball the first, second and third reactors with the most contaminated equipment. This stage, however, will drag on for more than ten years. There are a number of reasons for this, lack of funds is not the only one. There are still many technical problems.

One of them is typical for RBMK type reactors: it is the handling of the graphite lining of the reactor core. Scientists still haven't found a way to safely extract graphite from a reactor. "We hope that before 2045, when it is planned to start dismantling the reactors, a technology for handling graphite will be found," Chernobyl Deputy Director General Valery Seyda told DW.

Viktor Kuchinsky adds that another key issue that significantly affects the duration of the decommissioning process is the lack of necessary infrastructure, in particular secure temporary and permanent storage facilities for nuclear fuel and radioactive waste.

The new storage facility will be built by the end of 2016.

Spent fuel from the Chernobyl reactors was delivered to a "wet" storage facility built back in Soviet times. Several tens of thousands of fuel assemblies are stored here. "The water in which the fuel assemblies are located is a neutron moderator. The assemblies are located at a safe distance from each other. But in the event of, for example, an earthquake, there may be problems. Therefore, all over the world they are switching to" dry "storage of spent fuel," explained Valery Seyda.

A "dry" storage near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was planned to be built back in 2004. However, the contract with the French contracting company was terminated due to its failure to comply with the conditions and the non-compliance of the proposed technology with safety requirements. The American company Holtek was entrusted with completing the construction of the facility.

Context

The lion's share of construction costs is financed by international donors. Work was previously promised to be completed by 2015. However, the commissioning date has recently been postponed again - to the end of 2016. According to the optimistic scenario, all the fuel from "wet" to a more reliable "dry" storage will be transported no earlier than in ten years.

Process for decades

The next generations of specialists will complete the process of decommissioning the plant. According to the schedule, this should happen in 2064. Until then, the reactors will remain mothballed until their radioactivity decreases. Thus, closing the station will take three times as long as it was in operation.

More than two thousand people still work at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. This is three times less than twenty years ago. But this is still a lot for a plant that has not produced electricity for more than 15 years. A sharp reduction in staff is not expected in the coming years - there is still a lot of work ahead.

In 10-12 years, when, as planned, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant will be transferred to the long-term conservation mode, it will be necessary to start other works in parallel. Namely: the creation of safe storage facilities, in which the used equipment of the station will subsequently be placed. But all these works can be done only under one condition: if during the period of conservation it will be possible to accumulate sufficient funds for the costly process of dismantling the blocks.

See also:

• Exclusion Zone

  After the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, it became necessary to control the territories that were subjected to the greatest radioactive contamination - these are the cities of Chernobyl and Pripyat. The 30-kilometer zone around the station was closed to free access. Today, an enterprise for the management of the exclusion zone is located in Chernobyl, and up to 2,800 employees of enterprises building an arch for the sarcophagus also live there.



Chernobyl zone 30 years after the tragedy

In the 1970s, the construction of the first nuclear power plant in Ukraine began in the Chernobyl region. Chernobyl is located 3 km from the city of Pripyat and 18 km from the city of Chernobyl. It produced a tenth of the electricity in the Ukrainian SSR. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant was completely stopped only at the end of 2000. Currently, work continues on the construction of a new insulating structure above the fourth power unit.



Chernobyl zone 30 years after the tragedy

Chernobyl - the administrative center of the exclusion zone

Before the accident, 12.5 thousand people lived in Chernobyl, all of them were evacuated a few days after the tragedy. At the moment, the city is included in the 30-kilometer exclusion zone, being its administrative center. The personnel of the enterprises located here live in abandoned apartment buildings. When crossing the boundaries of the exclusion zone, everyone is required to undergo dosimetric control.



Chernobyl zone 30 years after the tragedy

Arch - a new shelter for the sarcophagus

More than 600 thousand people took part in the liquidation of the Chernobyl accident. Their main task was the construction of a concrete sarcophagus for the 4th power unit. Under the influence of external factors and radiation, the old shelter began to collapse, which is dangerous - about 200 tons of radioactive substances are still stored there. The new arched structure should cover the sarcophagus and allow its partial dismantling to begin.



Chernobyl zone 30 years after the tragedy

"Samosely" in the exclusion zone

Until now, the concentration of radionuclides in the exclusion zone is high, which does not allow lifting restrictions on living there. However, soon after the accident and evacuation, local residents began to return to their homes under various pretexts. These people were called "self-settlers". To date, there are about 180 of them in the zone: 80 in Chernobyl and about 100 more in villages located within a 30-kilometer zone.



Chernobyl zone 30 years after the tragedy

Grocery store twice a month

Mostly "self-settlers" are elderly people. They now live in four villages of the 30-kilometer exclusion zone. "Samosely" grow vegetables and fruits, pick mushrooms in the forest and drink water from wells. Of the benefits of civilization, they have only electricity. A grocery truck with bread and cereals comes twice a month, and once a month the postman delivers pensions.



Chernobyl zone 30 years after the tragedy

Pripyat - a ghost town

The city of Pripyat is located on the banks of the river of the same name, 3 km from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It was he who was subjected to the greatest radioactive contamination. The population of the city of Pripyat was 47.5 thousand people, the day after the accident they were all evacuated. Even after the decontamination works, the radiation level is too high, so the city is uninhabitable.



Chernobyl zone 30 years after the tragedy

Secret object "Duga-1"

The secret object "Duga-1" is a Soviet-era radar station designed to detect launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles. "Duga-1" never fully took up combat duty. The size of the structure of many antennas is 700 m in length and 150 m in height. After the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the facility was mothballed, later its main elements were dismantled and taken away.



Chernobyl zone 30 years after the tragedy

"Death Bucket"

The so-called "death bucket" is one of the current attractions of the city of Pripyat. The bucket was used during the liquidation of the consequences of the accident directly at the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Radiation from the ladle (even a few meters from it) exceeds the norm by ten thousand times. It is forbidden to touch him.



Chernobyl zone 30 years after the tragedy

The city of Pripyat was built as an exemplary one; during its construction, innovative architectural solutions for those years were used. At the time of the evacuation in 1986, Pripyat had 15 kindergartens, 5 schools, swimming pools, canteens, sports complexes, clinics, a cinema and a palace of culture. Now there is almost nothing left of the city: the roads are overgrown, in many buildings the internal partitions have collapsed.



Chernobyl zone 30 years after the tragedy

Dead ground

Pripyat was to become the most beautiful, exemplary city of Soviet Ukraine. But it went down in history as a city-monument of the worst nuclear disaster in the world. At the moment, in Pripyat there is only a special laundry, a water fluoridation and iron removal station and a garage for Chernobyl special equipment. Not a single person lives in the city.



Chernobyl zone 30 years after the tragedy

Extreme tourism zone

Every year, the exclusion zone is visited by several thousand extreme tourists. Before the start of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, citizens of Russia were in the lead among foreign tourists. Today, most of the guests are from Poland, the Czech Republic and the USA.

The nuclear power plant in Chernobyl is known to every person in the post-Soviet space due to very unpleasant events. April 26, 1986 was marked by the worst man-made accident in the history of mankind. It was on this day that a terrible explosion occurred at a particularly dangerous industrial facility, which includes a nuclear power plant. The result was an infection of a large territory, which led to a thousand deaths, a large number of practically incurable diseases, mutations and the appearance on the map of Ukraine of the so-called exclusion zone, which is 30 km long, access to which is allowed only to representatives of special services and units.

Chernobyl nuclear power plant - a monument to human negligence or the imperfection of technology?

Chernobyl nuclear power plant or Chernobyl nuclear power plant named after V.I. Lenin is the first nuclear power plant that appeared on the territory of Ukraine. The station was located in the eastern part of the country, not far from the borders with neighboring Belarus. The station was built on the banks of the small river Pripyat, which gave its name to the city that when there was an explosion in Chernobyl (Chernobyl) into the "dead zone".

If we talk about the reasons that led to such a strong explosion that caused the destruction of an entire power unit, then we can mention the imperfection of the reactor "acceleration" system, which led to an initial decrease in the power of the power unit, and then a sharp increase in it, which led to a reaction, which was caused by a whole series of powerful explosions that destroyed a thick concrete fence.

Accident: chronicle of events

On April 25, the day before the tragedy, the 4 power unit that exploded was stopped for a scheduled repair procedure, during which the obsolete equipment is usually replaced and new units are installed. This procedure involves further testing of newly installed parts in order to avoid abnormal situations. It was on the 25th that it was planned to test the turbine generator rotors, the use of which improved the power supply to the circulation pumps, which ensured the uninterrupted operation of the station in the event of unscheduled power outages.

At the same time, attempts to introduce such a system were carried out for a long time and the first tests took place as early as 1982. But during the test launches, it was found that the power drops faster than planned, which could be critical for the normal functioning of the reactor.

During the experiment in April 1986, initially the power at which the Chernobyl power plant, namely its 4th power unit, was lowered to the forecast figure of 700 MW. Then there was an unauthorized decrease in power, first to 500 MW. Subsequently, when the power control system switched to automatic mode, due to incorrect actions of the plant operator, the nuclear power dropped to zero, while the thermal power stopped at 330 MW, which was only 0.1% of the nominal thermal power of the plant. All station personnel who were in charge of the experiment and located in the control room used the method of extracting the rods to increase the power of the reactor. The measures taken made it possible to increase the values ​​up to 200 MW. This made it possible to start four more circulation pumps.

A decrease in the number of revolutions of pumping units connected to a "run-out" generator, and the dynamics of the movement of the steam coefficient of reactivity towards positive values, the reactor of the station showed a tendency to a sharp increase in power, which became simply uncontrollable in the next period of time, which was also caused by a flaw in the design of the reactor rods . The failure of the automatic reactor shutdown system in time caused the at half past two in the morning there was an explosion at the Chernobyl power plant. The strength of the blast wave was such that not only the reactor was completely destroyed, but also the entire building in which the power unit was located was damaged. Directly during the accident, two operators who were near the console died. The accident resulted in a massive release into the atmospheric air of a large number of radioactive elements, including isotopes of uranium, plutonium, radioactive iodine, cesium, and strontium. It is the emissions of sources of ionizing radiation present in the reactor that pose the greatest danger in explosions at nuclear power plants.

Nuclear power plant Chernobyl: life after

Even despite the terrible catastrophe that occurred, the nuclear power plant functioned for several more years. The first year after the explosion, due to the danger of radiation contamination, the work of all other power units was suspended, but already at the end of 1986, after the construction of a sarcophagus over the destroyed reactor, the work of Units 1 and 2 was resumed. In 1987, the 3rd power unit was put into operation.

The incident caused a very strong resonance in society and became a real blow to the world nuclear energy. Under such conditions, the normal operation of the station could not be carried out for a long time. It was the pressure of the European community, in particular the European Union, that led to the fact that already at the end of 1995 a corresponding document was signed to suspend the operation of the station. In 2000, in December, the last 3rd power unit was shut down, after which the station was officially declared inoperative.

Chernobyl map

After the construction of the sarcophagus over the destroyed reactor, which was built in a hurry, a lot of time has passed and its gradual destruction is observed, which leads to the spread of radiation outside. It was decided to hold a tender for the construction of a new shelter that could provide an adequate level of security. The French company that won the tender began construction of a new sarcophagus in the form of a monumental arch that would completely cover not only the reactor itself, but also the surrounding area. At the moment, the construction of the protective dome has not been completed.

April 26, 1986... This date will be remembered by several generations of Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians as the day and year when a terrible thing happened. When all this happened, perhaps even the most experienced experts did not fully and completely realize what awaited us all later.

The catastrophe of April 26, 1986 resulted in thousands of deaths and diseases, infected forests, poisoned water and soil, mutations of plants and animals. Among other things, a thirty-kilometer exclusion zone appeared on the map of Ukraine, access to which is possible only with a special permit.

This article is aimed not only at reminding readers once again what happened on April 26, 1986, but also at looking at what happened, as they say, from different angles. Now it seems to be no secret to anyone that in the modern world there are more and more often those who are ready to pay a lot of money to go on an excursion to these places, and some former residents, who have not settled down in other regions, often return to their ghostly and abandoned cities.

Brief summary of events

Almost 30 years ago, namely on April 26, 1986, the largest nuclear accident in the world occurred on the territory of present-day Ukraine, the consequences of which are felt by the planet to this day.

At the power plant in the city of Chernobyl, the nuclear reactor of the fourth power unit exploded. At the same time, a huge amount of deadly radioactive substances was thrown into the air.

It has now been calculated that only in the first three months, starting from April 26, 1986, 31 people died literally on the spot from radiation. Later, 134 people were sent to specialized clinics for intensive treatment for radiation sickness, and another 80 died in agony from infection of the skin, blood and respiratory tract.

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant (1986, April 26 and the following days) needed workers more than ever. More than 600 thousand people took part in the liquidation of the accident, most of whom were military personnel.

Perhaps the most dangerous consequence of the incident was a huge release into the environment of deadly radioactive substances, namely isotopes of plutonium, uranium, iodine and cesium, strontium and radioactive dust itself. The plume of radiation covered not only a huge part of the USSR, but also Eastern Europe and the Scandinavian countries, but most of all on April 26, 1986, it affected the Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSR.

A lot of international experts have been investigating the causes of the accident, but even so far no one knows for sure the true causes of what happened.

Distribution area

After the accident around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, it was necessary to designate the so-called "dead" zone of 30 km. Hundreds of settlements were destroyed almost to the ground or buried under tons of earth with the help of heavy equipment. If we consider the sphere with confidence, we can say that Ukraine at that time lost five million hectares of fertile soil.

Before the accident, the reactor of the fourth power unit contained almost 190 tons of fuel, 30% of which was released into the environment during the explosion. In addition, at that time, various radioactive isotopes accumulated during operation were in the active phase. It was they who, according to experts, represented the greatest danger.

Over 200,000 sq. km of surrounding land was contaminated with radiation. The deadly radiation spread like an aerosol, gradually settling on the surface of the earth. Pollution of the territories then mainly depended only on those regions, in which it rained on April 26, 1986 and the next few weeks.

Who is to blame for what happened?

In April 1987, a court session was held in Chernobyl. One of the main culprits at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was recognized as the director of the station, a certain V. Bryukhanov, who initially neglected the elementary safety rules. Subsequently, this person deliberately underestimated the data on the level of radiation, did not put into effect an evacuation plan for workers and the local population.

Also, along the way, facts of gross neglect of their official duties were discovered on April 26, 1986 by the chief engineer of the Chernobyl N. Fomin and his deputy A. Dyatlov. All of them were sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The head of the same shift at which the accident happened (B. Rogozhkin) was sentenced to another five years, A. Kovalenko, his deputy, to three, and Yu. Laushkin, state inspector of Gosatomenergonadzor, to two.

At first glance, this may seem cruel enough, but if all these people had shown great caution in working at such a dangerous enterprise as the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the catastrophe on April 26, 1986 would hardly have happened.

Alert and evacuate the population

The expert commission claims that after the accident, the first thing to do was to immediately evacuate the population, but no one took the responsibility to make the necessary decisions. Had the opposite happened then, human casualties could have been tens or even hundreds of times less.

In practice, it turned out that people did not know anything about what had happened all day. On April 26, 1986, someone worked on a personal plot, someone was preparing the city for the upcoming kindergarten kids walking on the street, and schoolchildren, as if nothing had happened, were doing physical education in the fresh air, as it seemed to them.

Work on the removal of the population began only at night, when an official order was issued to prepare for evacuation. On April 27, a directive was announced on the complete evacuation of the city, scheduled for 14.00.

So the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the disaster on April 26, 1986, which deprived many thousands of Ukrainians of their homes, turned the modest satellite town of Pripyat into a terrible ghost with devastated parks and squares and dead, deserted streets.

Panic and provocation

When the first rumors about the accident passed, part of the population decided to leave the city on their own. Already on April 26, 1986, closer to the second half of the day, many women in panic and despair, picking up babies in their arms, literally ran along the road away from the city.

Everything would be fine, but it was done through the forest, the dose of pollution of which actually many times exceeded all permissible indicators. And the road... According to eyewitnesses, the asphalt pavement shone with some strange neon tint, although they tried to fill it with plenty of water mixed with some white solution unknown to a simple man in the street.

It is very unfortunate that serious decisions on the rescue and evacuation of the population were not made in time.

And, finally, only a few years later it turned out that the secret services of the Soviet Union were aware of the procurement of three tons of meat and fifteen tons of butter in the territories that were directly affected by the Chernobyl tragedy on April 26, 1986. Despite this, they decided to recycle radioactive products, adding relatively pure components to them. In accordance with the decision taken, this radioactive meat and butter was transported to many large plants in the country.

The KGB also knew for sure that during the construction of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, defective equipment from Yugoslavia was used, it was also familiar with various kinds of miscalculations in the design of the station, the delamination of the foundation and the presence of cracks in the walls ...

What was done anyway? Attempts to prevent more grief

At about half past one in the night in the city of Chernobyl (1986, April 26), the local fire department received a signal about a fire. The guard on duty went to the call and almost immediately transmitted a high-complexity fire signal.

Upon arrival, the special team saw that the roof of the engine room and the huge reactor room were on fire. By the way, today it has been established that when extinguishing that terrible fire, the guys who were engaged in the reactor hall suffered the most.

Only at 6 o'clock in the morning the fire was completely extinguished.

In total, 14 vehicles and 69 employees were involved. Of the overalls, people who carried out such an important mission had only canvas overalls, a helmet and mittens. The men put out the fire without gas masks, since it was simply impossible to work in them at high temperatures.

Already at two o'clock in the morning the first victims of radiation appeared. People began to experience severe vomiting and general weakness, as well as the so-called "nuclear sunburn". It is said that some of the skin of the hands was removed along with the mittens.

Desperate firefighters did their best to prevent the fire from reaching the third block and beyond. The station staff, however, began extinguishing local fires in various areas of the station and took all necessary measures to prevent a hydrogen explosion. These actions helped prevent an even greater man-made disaster.

Biological consequences for all mankind

Ionizing radiation, when it hits all living organisms, has a detrimental biological effect.

Radiation radiation leads to the destruction of biological matter, mutations, changes in the structure of organ tissues. Such irradiation contributes to the development of various types of oncological disorders of the vital functions of the body, changes and decay of DNA, and as a result leads to death.

A ghost town called Pripyat

For several years following the man-made disaster, this settlement aroused the interest of various kinds of specialists. They came here en masse, trying to measure and analyze the level of the contaminated territory.

However, in the 90s. Pripyat began to attract more and more attention from scientists interested in environmental changes in the environment, as well as the transformation of the natural zone of the city, which was completely left without anthropogenic influence.

Many Ukrainian research centers have been assessing the changes in flora and fauna in the city.

Stalkers of the Chernobyl zone

First of all, it is worth noting that stalkers are people who, by hook or by crook, penetrate the exclusion zone. Chernobyl fans of extreme sports are conditionally divided into two categories, distinguished by their appearance, slang used, photographs and prepared reports. The first - curious, the second - ideological.

Agree, now you can really find a lot of information in the media