What date was the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The terrible consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant

The Chernobyl accident. Chronology of events. April 26, which divides the history of Ukraine into two periods - before and after the crash.

Here brief chronology one of the most important dates associated with the Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Nuclear Power Plant in Chernobyl.

The Chernobyl accident minute by minute, also includes years of events from 1970 to 2016.

1966

The USSR Council of Ministers issues a resolution on June 29, 1966, which approves the plan for commissioning nuclear power plants throughout the entire USSR.

According to preliminary calculations, the commissioned nuclear power plants were supposed to generate 8,000 MW, which would compensate for the shortage of electricity in the central region of the southern part.

1967

From 1966 to 1967, work was carried out to find suitable territories. The work was carried out by the Kyiv branch of the design institute "Teploelektroproekt". As part of the research, sixteen territories were studied, mainly in the Kyiv, Vinnitsa and Zhytomyr regions.

Research of the territories continued until January 1967. As a result, it was decided to stay on the territory in the Chernobyl region; on January 18, 1967, the Board of the State Planning Committee of the Ukrainian SSR officially approved the territory.

On February 2, 1967, the Board of the State Planning Committee of the Ukrainian SSR approved the project for the construction of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

On September 29, 1967, the reactors that were to be installed at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant were approved.

There are three approved in total:

• graphite-water reactor RBMK-1000;
• graphite-gas reactor RK-1000;
• water-cooled water reactor VVER.
• Based on the results of the considered options, it was decided to select the RBMK-1000 graphite-water reactor.

1970

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Directorate has been formed. Projects and urban planning plans for the city of Pripyat have been approved, and its construction has begun.

May 1970 The first pit for the first power unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was marked.

1972

The formation of a special water tank begins to cool the reactors. The reservoir was formed by changing the river bed and building a dam in this bed, as a result, in addition to the dam, the Pripyat River acquired a wide shipping canal.

1976

October 1976 The procedure for filling the reservoir began.

1977

May 1977 commissioning work began on the first power unit.

1978

1979

Pripyat receives city rights.

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant produced 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity.

1981

1982

On September 1, a malfunction of reactor No. 1 was recorded. Minor contamination of some damaged fuel evaporation units.

On September 9, the fuel assembly was destroyed and there was an emergency rupture of process channel No. 62-44.

Due to the rupture, the graphite lining of the core was deformed, and a significant amount of radioactive substances from the destroyed fuel assembly was released into the reactor space.

The reactor was repaired and restarted. Information about the accident was published only in 1985.

1983

Construction of reactor No. 4 has been completed.

1984

On August 21, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant produced 100 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity.

1986

“The probability of core destruction occurs once every 10,000 years. Power plants are safe and reliable. They are protected from destruction by three security systems,” said Vitaly Sklyarov, Minister of Energy and Electrification of Ukraine.

Beginning of preparations for the test of the turbocharger of reactor 4. The power of the reactor was reduced.

The reactor power was reduced to 1600 MW, which is half the nominal value.

Reduction of power intended for the reactor's own needs. Turning off the generator 2.

At this hour, the reactor's power is expected to reach only 30 percent. The power, at the request of the dispatcher of the Kyiv Energy District, was reduced for several hours. 23:00 the reactor was operating at 50 percent. Rated power.

The reactor power was reduced to 1600 MW, at which the experiment was carried out. The operator Kievenergo issued a ban on further reduction of power.

The ban on power reduction has been lifted and started new stage to reduce power.

26 April

The night shift took over the reactor.

The reactor power was reduced to the planned 700 MW.

The reactor power dropped to 500 MW. Due to the complexity of the steering, the xenon core was “poisoned”, resulting in thermal power reactor reduced to 30 MW. To increase the reactor's power, the crew removed the control rods. There was only 18 rem left in the core, but at least 30 rem was needed.

The reactor power increased to 200 MW. To prevent the reactor from automatically shutting down, personnel blocked the safety system.

A sharp decrease in reactor reactivity.

Start of testing the turbogenerator. Turbine valves have been trimmed. The reactor's power began to grow uncontrollably.

Emergency braking of the control rods failed because they jammed the channels (and reached a depth of 2-2.5 m instead of the full thrust of 7 m).

Rapid increase in steam power and reactor power (within a few seconds the power was approximately 100 times higher than the required value).

The fuel overheated, the surrounding zirconium dioxide ruptured, molten fuel leaked, and then the pressure passages ruptured. This began to lead to an exothermic reaction.

Signal given emergency situation

The first explosion occurred

A second explosion occurred - water vapor was released first, then hydrogen was released. The reactor and parts of the structure were destroyed.

As a result of the explosion, the 2,000-ton plate was thrown onto the reactor vessel. Waste graphite core and molten fuel are discarded.

It is estimated that about 8 of the 140 tons of fuel leaked from the reactor.

The fire crew accepted the call from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and moved out to extinguish the fire.

An additional fire brigade left the city of Pripyat.

A fire alarm was announced. Employees attempted to restart the reactor's cooling systems, hoping they had not been damaged in the explosion.

Arriving firefighters of the first crew begin to extinguish the fire on the roof of the turbine hall.

The absence of a measuring device was established; the first device was damaged in the explosion. The second is located in an area cut off by rubble. The second fire crew has arrived, some of the firefighters are engaged in extinguishing the fire, the other part of the crew is clearing the rubble to gain access to the measuring equipment.

Firefighters begin to vomit, and their skin begins to burn under their clothes.

The Department of the Interior manages the crisis personnel meeting.

It was decided to put blocks on the road. Fire and police brigades are called.

The officers are not sufficiently trained - they do not have dosimeters or protective clothing.

Viktor Bryukhanov, director of the plant, arrives at the crisis management center located in a bunker under the administrative building of the gym.

The authorities notified central authorities about what happened in Moscow.

The fire is blocked, the possibility of the fire spreading to other rooms is excluded.

Other firefighters arrived from Polesie and Kyiv.

The fire has been completely extinguished.

188 firefighters were called to the scene of the accident.

The exposed firefighters were evacuated to Radiological Hospital No. 6 in Moscow. Air ambulances were used for evacuation.

The morning shift arrived at the power plant. On-site construction of reactors 5 and 6 began construction works. 286 people worked there.

A decision was made to supply water to the damaged reactor area.

A report on the status of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was sent

The government commission was headed by Valery Legasov. The specialists who arrived at the scene did not expect to see parts of graphite fuel channels.

Data from measuring instruments was received, the level of pollution was established, and a decision was made to evacuate the population.

Requests have been sent to neighboring areas and the city of Kyiv to allocate transport for the evacuation of the population.

The Kiev Transport Department gives an order to remove all suburban buses from the routes and direct transport to the city of Chernobyl.

Roadblocks have been set up on roads within a radius of 30 kilometers to prevent the movement of civilians through the infected area.

Reactors 1 and 2 are shut down.

The Pripyat city administration collects all administrative personnel.

Instructions are provided to administrative staff of hospitals, schools, and kindergartens.

The processing of the city begins. Laundry soap and additional water tanks were placed in all toilets in the city. The treatment of the premises had to be repeated every hour.

All schools began to work, all children were measured with a radiation device, and medical personnel issued tablets containing iodine.

Processing of the forest area around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant has begun.

Police officers were briefed. District police officers walked around and counted residential buildings, taking into account the number of people living in them.

The first emissions of sand, boron and lead began over the destroyed reactor No. 4.

Two thousand buses and more than one hundred units of military equipment have been assembled on the border of the city of Chernobyl.

The students were sent home with instructions to remain in their apartments. General training has begun in the city.

Instant drop in radioactivity around the power plant.

Instructions are provided at the city police department. The city is divided into six sectors. Each person was assigned a person in charge, and two police officers were assigned to each entrance of a residential building.

Police officers arrived at their places and began instructing and gathering residents.

An official announcement about the accident and the planned evacuation of the population was broadcast on the radio.

The evacuation of people from Pripyat began. Almost 50 thousand. People left their homes within 3.5 hours. 1,200 buses were used for this purpose.

Police officers examined the city of Pripyat and recorded the absence of civilians.

Radioactivity in the air around the Swedish nuclear power plant in Forsmark has increased.

Moscow television reported an “incident” at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

The Danish Institute of Nuclear Physics reported that, most likely, the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant completely melted the reactor.

Soviet media reported the death of two people as a result of the accident, the destruction of the reactor unit and the evacuation of the population.

At that time, American spy satellites took the first photographs of the destroyed reactor.

Analysts were shocked by what they saw - a damaged reactor roof and a glowing mass of molten reactor core.

By this day, more than 1,000 tons of material had been dropped from helicopters into the destroyed reactor block.

The wind changed direction, and the radioactive cloud began to move towards Kyiv. Solemn processes took place on the occasion of the May 1st holiday.

May 2

Employees of the liquidation commission established that the core of the exploded reactor is still melting. At that time, the core contained 185 tons of nuclear fuel, and the nuclear reaction continued at a terrifying rate.

Beneath the 185 tons of molten nuclear material was a reservoir containing five million gallons of water. This water was needed as a coolant, and a thick concrete slab separated the nuclear fuel and the water tank.

For molten nuclear fuel, a thick concrete slab was not a sufficient obstacle; the melting active zone burned through this slab, descending to the water.

If the hot reactor core comes into contact with water, a massive steam explosion contaminated with radiation will occur. The result could be radioactive contamination of most of Europe. Based on the death toll, the first Chernobyl explosion would have looked like a minor incident.

Engineers have developed a plan according to which it is possible to avoid steam explosion. To do this, you need to drain the water in the tank. To drain the water, it is necessary to open the valves located in the flooded radioactive zone.

Three people volunteered for the task:

• Alexey Ananenko senior engineer
• Valery Baspalov mid-level engineer
• Boris Baranov shift supervisor

They all understood that the dose of radiation they would receive during the dive would be fatal to them.

At issue was opening valves in a water tank that was located under the damaged reactor to prevent another explosion - a mixture of graphite and other materials with a temperature of more than 1,200 degrees Celsius with water.

The scuba divers plunged into a dark reservoir and with difficulty found the necessary valves, manually opened them, and then the water drained. After their return, they were taken to the hospital; by the time they were hospitalized, they were in an acute stage of radiation sickness; they could not be saved.

Work has begun on the construction of a tunnel under reactor No. 4 to install a special cooling system there.

A 30-kilometer zone was created around the reactor, from which 90,000 people were evacuated.

A special embankment was built to protect it from pollution.

Reduction of radioisotope emissions.

Firefighters pump water from the basement under the reactor core.

Lugol's drug was started to be given out against radiation in Chernobyl.

It was decided to begin construction of a sarcophagus over the destroyed reactor unit No. 4.

The Chernobyl Atomic Energy Council was fired, accusing it of "lack of responsibility and due to gaps in oversight of the reactor."

Russia sent the first report after to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

There, it was discovered that an extraordinary sequence of events, negligence, mismanagement and safety lapses led to the disaster.

Reactor No. 1 was turned on again.

Work continued on the construction of reactors 5 and 6.

Reactor No. 2 was turned on. Hans Blixa, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, visited Chernobyl.

Work on assembling sarcophagi for reactor block 4 has been completed; they are designed for 30 years of radiation protection.

400 thousand tons of concrete and more than 7 thousand tons of metal were used.

1987

Reactor No. 3 began producing electricity again.

Work on the construction of reactors 5 and 6 was stopped.

1989

Closure of reactor No. 2 after a turbine fire. It is important to note that there was no risk of infection.

Was taken final decision on the cessation of construction of reactors 5 and 6.

1991

Fire in the turbine hall of reactor No. 2.

Power unit No. 2 was put into operation after overhaul. While reaching the set power level, one of the turbine generators of the power unit spontaneously turned on.

The reactor power was 50% of the thermal power - at this time one turbogenerator of the unit was operating (at 425 MW).

The second turbogenerator, which turned on spontaneously, operated in “propulsion” mode for only 30 seconds.

As a result of work in the turbogenerator, large loads arose on the axle, which led to the complete destruction of the turbogenerator shaft bearings.

The destruction of the bearings led to depressurization (depressurization) of the generator, which led to the release of large amounts of oil and hydrogen. As a result, a large fire broke out.

During the subsequent investigation into the causes of the accident, it was found that the inclusion of the turbogenerator was caused by the fact that the turbogenerator was not protected from the mode of connection to the network during the rotor run-down.

Spontaneous switching on occurred as a result of loss of insulation between the cable that controls the switch on and the cable through which the signal about the switched off state is transmitted.

There was a defect in the installation of cables - the signal and control cables were placed in one tray.

This Chernobyl accident did not lead to significant contamination of the exclusion zone. The specific activity of the release is estimated at 3.6*10 -5 Ci.

1992

Ukrainian authorities are announcing a competition for new construction that will cover the hastily built sarcophagus at Reactor Building 4.

There were 394 proposals, but only one was considered worthwhile - the construction of a sliding installation.

Assembly testing of structures in Italy. Delivery of the first components for the construction of the sarcophagus.

The first eastern fragment of the dome was raised (5,300 t, 53 m)

2013

A fragment of the roof above reactor block 4 was destroyed under snow pressure. Fortunately, the construction was not compromised.

Second operation to lift the first eastern fragment (9,100 t, 85.5 m)

Third operation to lift the first eastern fragment (11,516 t, 109 m)

October November

Construction of a new and dismantling of the old chimney for power unit No. 3.

2014

The first part of the structure was completed and moved to the parking lot (12,500 t, 112 m)

The first operation to lift the second western fragment of the sarcophagus (4,579 t, 23 m)

The second operation to lift the second western fragment (8,352 t, 85 m).

Third operation to lift the second western fragment of the dome (12,500 t, 112 m)

2015

The beginning of raising the inclined side walls of the sarcophagus.

Work has begun on the electrical and ventilation systems inside the dome.

Joining two parts of the new sarcophagus.

Introduction of new equipment for the dome.

2016

Beginning of the ladle shift operation over reactor block 4 and the old sarcophagus.

The ceremonial completion of the construction of a new dome over reactor unit 4.

Almost 25 years have passed since the terrible event that shocked the whole world. The echoes of this catastrophe of the century will stir the souls of people for a long time, and its consequences will affect people more than once. The disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant - why did it happen and what are its consequences for us?

Why did the Chernobyl disaster happen?

There is still no clear opinion about what caused the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Some argue that the reason is faulty equipment and gross mistakes during the construction of the nuclear power plant. Others see the cause of the explosion as a malfunction of the circulating water supply system, which provided cooling to the reactor. Still others are convinced that the permissible load experiments carried out at the station that ominous night were to blame, during which a gross violation of operating rules occurred. Still others are confident that if there had been a protective concrete cap over the reactor, the construction of which was neglected, such a spread of radiation that occurred as a result of the explosion would not have occurred.

Most likely, this terrible event occurred due to the combination of the listed factors - after all, each of them took place. Human irresponsibility, acting at random in matters relating to life and death, and the deliberate concealment of information about what happened on the part of the Soviet authorities led to consequences, the results of which will echo for a long time to more than one generation of people around the world.

Chernobyl disaster. Chronicle of events

The explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred in the dead of night on April 26, 1986. A fire brigade was called to the scene. Brave and courageous people, they were shocked by what they saw and, judging by the off-scale radiation meters, they immediately guessed what had happened. However, there was no time to think - and a team of 30 people rushed to fight the disaster. For protective clothing, they wore ordinary helmets and boots - of course, they in no way could protect the firefighters from huge doses of radiation. These people have been dead for a long time, they are all in different time died a painful death from the cancer that struck them...

By morning the fire was extinguished. However, throughout the territory nuclear power plant pieces of uranium and graphite emitting radiation were scattered. The worst thing is that the Soviet people did not immediately learn about the disaster that occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. This made it possible to maintain calm and prevent panic - this is exactly what the authorities sought, turning a blind eye to the cost of their ignorance for people. The unaware population spent two whole days after the explosion calmly resting in the territory, which had become deadly dangerous, going out into nature, to the river; on a warm spring day, children spent a long time on the street. And everyone absorbed huge doses of radiation.

And on April 28, complete evacuation was announced. 1,100 buses in a convoy transported the population of Chernobyl, Pripyat and other nearby settlements. People abandoned their homes and everything in them - they were only allowed to take with them identity cards and food for a couple of days.

A zone with a radius of 30 km was recognized as an exclusion zone unsuitable for human life. The water, livestock and vegetation in this area were considered unfit for consumption and hazardous to health.

The temperature in the reactor in the first days reached 5000 degrees - it was impossible to approach it. A radioactive cloud hung over the nuclear power plant and circled the Earth three times. To nail it to the ground, the reactor was bombed from helicopters with sand and watered, but the effect of these actions was negligible. There was 77 kg of radiation in the air - as if a hundred atomic bombs had been dropped on Chernobyl at the same time.

A huge ditch was dug near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It was filled with the remains of the reactor, pieces concrete walls, clothes of workers liquidating the disaster. For a month and a half, the reactor was completely sealed with concrete (the so-called sarcophagus) to prevent radiation leakage.

In 2000, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was closed. Work is still underway on the Shelter project. However, Ukraine, for which Chernobyl became a sad “inheritance” from the USSR, does not have the required money for it.

The tragedy of the century that they wanted to hide

Who knows how long the Soviet government would have hidden the “incident” if not for the weather. Strong winds and rains, which inappropriately passed through Europe, carried radiation throughout the world. Ukraine, Belarus and the southwestern regions of Russia, as well as Finland, Sweden, Germany, and Great Britain suffered the most.

For the first time, unprecedented numbers on radiation level meters were seen by employees of the nuclear power plant in Forsmark (Sweden). Unlike the Soviet government, they rushed to immediately evacuate all the people living in the surrounding area before determining that the problem was not their reactor, but the supposed source of the emanating threat was the USSR.

And exactly two days after Forsmark scientists declared a radioactive alert, US President Ronald Reagan held in his hands photographs of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster site taken by a CIA artificial satellite. What was depicted on them would have horrified even a person with a very stable psyche.

While periodicals around the world trumpeted the danger arising from Chernobyl disaster, the Soviet press got off with a modest statement that there was an “accident” at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Chernobyl disaster and its consequences

The consequences of the Chernobyl disaster made themselves felt in the very first months after the explosion. People living in the areas adjacent to the site of the tragedy died from hemorrhages and apoplexy.

The liquidators of the consequences of the accident suffered: out of a total number of liquidators of 600,000, about 100,000 people are no longer alive - they died from malignant tumors and destruction of the hematopoietic system. The existence of other liquidators cannot be called cloudless - they suffer from numerous diseases, including cancer, disorders of the nervous and endocrine systems. Many evacuees and affected populations in the surrounding areas have these same health problems.

The consequences of the Chernobyl disaster for children are terrible. Developmental delay, thyroid cancer, mental disorders and a decrease in the body's resistance to all types of diseases - this is what awaited children exposed to radiation.

However, the worst thing is that the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster affected not only people living at that time. Problems with pregnancy, frequent miscarriages, stillborn children, frequent births of children with genetic abnormalities(Down syndrome, etc.), weakened immunity, an amazing number of children with leukemia, an increase in the number of cancer patients - all these are echoes of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the end of which will not come soon. If it comes...

Not only people suffered from the Chernobyl disaster - all life on Earth felt the deadly force of radiation. As a result of the Chernobyl disaster, mutants appeared - descendants of humans and animals born with various deformations. A foal with five legs, a calf with two heads, fish and birds of unnaturally huge sizes, giant mushrooms, newborns with deformities of the head and limbs - photos of the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster are terrifying evidence of human negligence.

The lesson taught to humanity by the Chernobyl disaster was not appreciated by people. We still treat things just as carelessly own life, we still strive to squeeze the maximum out of the riches given to us by nature, everything we need “here and now.” Who knows, maybe the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant became the beginning to which humanity is moving slowly but surely...

Film about the Chernobyl disaster
We recommend everyone who is interested to watch the full-length documentary"Battle for Chernobyl". This video can be watched right here online and for free. Enjoy watching!

The sad lesson for humanity - Chernobyl before the accident and after the accident, which affected almost the entire world - is not over yet. A large power plant located near the Ukrainian town of Pripyat still attracts the attention of the whole world. But April 26, 1986 is thirty years away from today!

What do we see

Chernobyl before the accident and after the accident are two different areas. When the fourth power unit exploded, the evacuation of the entire population immediately began, and all the nearby villages and cities, which had just been filled with life, simple joys and sorrows, were empty forever. It is unknown when life will appear in these places again. Now there are broken windows of empty buildings with everyday items abandoned to the mercy of fate.

All roads and sidewalks were overgrown with wild plants, and even the walls of houses sprouted seeds that fell on them. This is what the apocalypse will look like. But Chernobyl before the accident and after the accident are radically different. Once upon a time in Pripyat it was spacious, life was in full swing, schools and kindergartens were ringing with children’s voices, and then we had to run away in panic, saving the children. And only abandoned children's things and toys remind us that happiness once lived here too.

Compared

Chernobyl before the accident and after the accident is an interesting subject of study for future generations, so that man-made disasters of such destructive force will not be repeated in the future. Two years earlier, an even more terrible disaster occurred in India, in Bhopal. These two disasters differ from each other in that the Indian one could have been prevented. Life in these territories is also impossible. Such tragedies should not happen, but they do almost all the time. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant did not bring a more destructive catastrophe that occurred after the tsunami in the Japanese city of Fukushima in 2011; it was at least the seventh level of the international scale of radiation accidents.

In 2010, an oil platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico (Louisiana, USA), and this man-made disaster had an even more negative impact on the environmental situation in the world. Died less people, but many millions of barrels of oil spilled into the bay, the stain reached seventy-five thousand square kilometers, where all living things died. People living on a coast about two thousand kilometers long fell ill in large numbers. Even on the Gulf Stream this catastrophe had a bad effect. It's a shame that April 26, 1986 was far from the last dark day on the human calendar. Unfortunately, people increasingly need financial gain, for the sake of which the nature of the unique planet Earth suffers.

Chernobyl nuclear power plant

When the explosion occurred, toxic radioactive substances poured into the air, and some areas had background pollution a thousand times higher than standard. Chernobyl (the consequences of the accident can be seen not only in photographs, of which there are a great many on the Internet) today can be seen with your own eyes. You can already visit Pripyat with excursions, which last years are increasingly gaining popularity.

See houses that have not been lived in for thirty years, fields that used to bloom and bear fruit, the Pripyat River, where catfish of unprecedented size live, since fishing is not allowed. Even wild animals - wolves and foxes, who settled in the forests after the disaster, are not afraid of people. Probably the safest place to live for them in our time is Chernobyl after the accident. Animals take food from human hands, even those that are normally distrustful or ferocious.

Story

A picturesque and exceptionally lovely corner of central Ukraine with lush fields and pastures, where peaceful and calm life was in full swing, suddenly turned into a deadly desert. Here people blessed the black soil rich in fruits and vegetables, rejoiced at the harvests, worked to their heart's content - in villages and small towns where enterprises existed, and Chernobyl itself gave work to most local residents. 30 years after the accident changed literally everything in the history of this region.

In the photo there are lively, even festive people, couples with children, with baby strollers, everyone is dressed exceptionally beautifully and elegantly, with smiles full of happy peace on their faces. In another photo - the same city, the same street, the same park. But this is a city that has become a ghost. Darkness and desolation, apocalypse in reality. They no longer sell ice cream and there are no attractions. Perhaps these changes are forever. How long can you live in Chernobyl after the accident? Even the opinions of scientists differ. But some people already live in the exclusion zone, and permanently.

Causes of the accident

Determining all the reasons is still a controversial issue. Professionals are divided into two camps, where the views on the cause of the destruction of the installation are the most opposite. Two opinions are considered, in which the entire Chernobyl is explored in the deepest way. The causes of the accident are seen, firstly, by the designers, and secondly, by the operating personnel.

Naturally, both of them accuse each other of insufficient professionalism. In the thirty years that have passed since the disaster, discussions have not ceased, and the root causes of such a large-scale accident are still vague. And over the years, more and more sophisticated versions appear.

Construction of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant began in 1967, in winter. Lands chosen were less productive, but had excellent water supply, transport and the possibility of creating a protective sanitary zone. In the summer of 1969, reactors had already arrived at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The developers were the Teploproekt and Gidroproekt institutes. In the winter of 1970, construction began on a satellite city, the capital of the peaceful atom - Pripyat. In April 1972, the birthday of the new city came, named after the beautiful river on the banks of which it was located. In 1977, the first power unit was installed and started operating. In 1986 everything collapsed.

Consequences

Liquidators in Chernobyl are still working, and this activity will never completely end. There is no need to believe fairy tales about two-headed bunnies that jump along the former sidewalks of Pripyat, as well as information about thousands of victims of the accident. There are no mutant people in abandoned buildings attacking lonely tourists.

Radiation sickness kills, but cannot in any way cause supernatural abilities - five-meter height or telekinesis. The trees have become tall, yes. Because they have a lot of space and sun, no one bothers them, and thirty years have already passed. However, the consequences of the disaster are not just severe, they are mostly irreversible.

Nuclear industry

She suffered a crushing blow. In addition to the fact that many weaknesses of the nuclear energy industry became known, the world community could not find out the specifics. From here the most incredible rumors arose, protest movements arose.

Design has stopped and the construction of new nuclear power plants has been mothballed until the moment when scientists can clearly explain how the Chernobyl disaster happened and why. This affected not only the USSR, but the entire Western Europe and America. For sixteen years, not a single nuclear power plant was built in the world.

Legislation

After the accident, it became impossible to hide the real scale of the disasters and their consequences, since the corresponding laws were adopted. Intentional concealment of the threat and consequences of man-made disasters now provides for criminal liability.

Information and information of an emergency nature - demographic, sanitary-epidemiological, meteorological, environmental - can no longer be a state secret, and also cannot be classified. Only open access can ensure the safety of the population and production and other facilities.

Ecology

As a result of the accident, a huge amount of cesium-137, strontium-90, iodine-131, and radioisotopes of plutonium was released into the atmosphere, and the release continued for several days. All open areas of the city - streets, walls and roofs, roadways - were contaminated. Therefore, the thirty-kilometer zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was evacuated and is still not populated. All areas where crops were grown became unsuitable.

Many dozens of collective and state farms and farms far beyond the thirty-kilometer zone are closed, since radioactive substances can migrate through food chains, then accumulating in the human body. The entire agro-industrial complex suffered significant losses. Now radionuclides in the soil do not have such concentrations, but most of the abandoned lands have not yet been used. The reservoirs located directly near the nuclear power plant were also contaminated. However, this type of radionuclide has a short decay period, so the waters and soils there have long been close to normal.

Afterword

Scientists all over the world admit that Chernobyl was a gigantic experiment for them, no matter how blasphemous it may sound. It is simply impossible to carry out such an experiment on purpose. For example, a crystal of a substance that does not exist on earth was found in a molten reactor. It was named Chernobylite.

But this is not the main thing. Now all over the world, the safety systems of nuclear power plants have become many times more complex. A new sarcophagus is currently being built over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. One and a half billion dollars were raised by the world community for its construction.

The Chernobyl disaster occurred at 1 hour 23 minutes on April 26: a reactor explosion occurred at the 4th power unit with a partial collapse of the power unit building. A strong fire started in the premises and on the roof. A mixture of the remains of the reactor core, molten metal, sand, concrete and nuclear fuel spread throughout the premises of the power unit. The explosion released a huge amount of radioactive elements into the atmosphere.

Causes of the accident

These were not the first tests. The previous 3 test programs were unsuccessful: the turbogenerator provided less energy than expected. Great hopes were placed on the results of the fourth tests. Omitting details, the activity of the reactor is controlled by the insertion and withdrawal of absorber rods. At the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, these rods had an unsuccessful design, due to which, when they were abruptly removed, an “end effect” occurred - the reactor power, instead of falling, increased sharply.

Unfortunately, such features of the rods were studied in detail only after the Chernobyl disaster, but operating personnel should know about the “end effect”. The personnel did not know about this, and when simulating an emergency shutdown, that same sharp increase in reactor activity occurred, leading to an explosion.

The power of the explosion is evidenced by the fact that the 3,000-ton concrete reactor cover came off, pierced the roof of the power unit, and along the way took out a loading and unloading machine.

Consequences of the accident

A huge amount of equipment used during the liquidation had to be written off and left in cemeteries, right on the contaminated territory. Subsequently, the equipment slowly began to go into scrap metal and...

Vast areas were contaminated with radioactive substances. An exclusion zone was created within a radius of 30 km from the nuclear power plant: 270 thousand were resettled to other areas.

The station area was decontaminated. A protective sarcophagus was built over the destroyed power unit. The station was closed, but due to a lack of electricity, it was reopened in 1987. In 2000, under pressure from Europe, the station was finally closed, although it still performs distribution functions. The protective sarcophagus has fallen into disrepair, but there are no funds to build a new one.

Them. V.I. Lenin is a Ukrainian nuclear power plant that stopped operating due to an explosion at power unit No. 4. Its construction began in the spring of 1970, and 7 years later it was put into operation. By 1986, the station consisted of four blocks, to which two more were being built. When the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, or rather, one of the reactors, exploded, its work was not stopped. The construction of the sarcophagus is currently underway and will be completed by 2015.

Description of the station

1970-1981 - during this period of time, six power units were built, two of which were not launched until 1986. To cool the turbines and heat exchangers, a filling pond was built between the Pripyat River and the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

Before the accident, the station's generating capacity was 6,000 MW. Currently, work is underway to transform the Chernobyl nuclear power plant into an environmentally friendly design.

Start of construction

To select a suitable site for the construction of the first nuclear power plant, the design institute of the capital of Ukraine examined the Kyiv, Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia regions. The most convenient place was the territory on the right side of the Pripyat River. The land on which construction soon began was unproductive, but fully complied with the requirements for maintenance. This site was approved by the State Technical Commission of the USSR and the Ministry

February 1970 marked the beginning of the construction of Pripyat. The city was created specifically for energy workers. The fact is that in the first years, the personnel serving the station had to live in dormitories and rented houses in villages close to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. To provide work for their family members, various enterprises were built in Pripyat. Thus, over the 16 years of the city’s existence, it was equipped with everything necessary for people to live comfortably.

1986 accident

At 01:23 at night, a design test of the turbogenerator of the 4th power unit began, which caused the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to explode. As a result, the building collapsed, causing more than 30 fires. The first victims were V. Khodemchuk - operator circulation pumps, and V. Shashenok - an employee of the commissioning enterprise.

A minute after the incident, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant security guard was informed about the explosion. Firefighters arrived at the station as soon as possible. V. Pravik was appointed head of the liquidation. Thanks to his skillful actions, the spread of the fire was stopped.

When the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, environment was contaminated with radioactive substances such as:

Plutonium, uranium, iodine-131 lasts about 8 days);

Cesium-134 (half-life - 2 years);

Cesium-137 (from 17 to 30 years);

Strontium-90 (28 years).

The whole horror of the tragedy lies in the fact that from the residents of Pripyat, Chernobyl, as well as all the former Soviet Union For a long time they hid why the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded and who was to blame.

Source of accident

On April 25, the 4th reactor was supposed to be shut down for another repair, but they decided to conduct a test instead. It consisted of creating an emergency situation in which the station itself would cope with the problem. By that time there were already four such cases, but this time something went wrong...

The first and main thing at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is the careless and unprofessional attitude of the staff towards the risky experiment. Workers maintained the power unit's power at 200 MW, which led to self-poisoning.

As if nothing had happened, the personnel watched what was happening, instead of removing the control rods from operation and pressing the A3-5 button to emergency shutdown the reactor. As a result of inaction, an uncontrolled chain reaction began in the power unit, causing the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to explode.

By the evening (at approximately 20.00) a more intense fire took place in the central hall. People were not involved this time. He was eliminated using helicopters.

Over the entire period, in addition to firefighters and station personnel, about 600 thousand people were involved in rescue operations.

Why did the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explode? There are a number of reasons that contributed to this:

The experiment had to be carried out at any cost, despite the sudden change in the behavior of the reactor;

Decommissioning of working technological protections that would shut down the power unit and prevent an accident;

Silence by the plant management of the scale of the disaster that occurred, as well as the reasons why the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded.

Consequences

As a result of eliminating the consequences of the spread of radioactive substances, 134 firefighters and station employees developed radiation sickness, 28 of them died within a month after the accident.

Signs of exposure were vomiting and weakness. First, first aid was provided by the station’s medical staff, and only after that the victims were transported to Moscow hospitals.

At the cost of their own lives, rescuers prevented the fire from spreading to the third block. Thanks to this, it was possible to avoid the spread of fire in neighboring blocks. If the extinguishing had not been successful, a second explosion could have been 10 times more powerful than the first!

Crash September 9, 1982

Before the day the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, a case of destruction was recorded at power unit No. 1. During a test run of one of the reactors at a power of 700 MW, a kind of explosion occurred in the fuel assembly and channel No. 62-44. The result of this was the deformation of the graphite masonry and the release of a significant amount of radioactive substances.

The explanation for why the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded in 1982 can be as follows:

Gross violations of the workshop personnel when regulating water flow in the canals;

Residual internal stress in the walls of a zirconium channel pipe, resulting from a change in technology by the plant that produced it.

The USSR government, as usual, decided not to inform the population of the country why the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. The photo of the first accident has not survived. It is even possible that it never existed.

Station representatives

The following article presents the names of the employees and their positions before, during and after the tragedy. The post of station director in 1986 was Viktor Petrovich Bryukhanov. Two months later, E.N. Pozdyshev became manager.

Sorokin N.M. was a deputy operating engineer in the period 1987-1994. Gramotkin I.I. from 1988 to 1995 served as head of the reactor workshop. Currently he is the General Director of the State Enterprise Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

Dyatlov Anatoly Stepanovich - deputy chief operating engineer and one of those responsible for the accident. The reason for the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was a risky experiment led by this particular engineer.

Exclusion zone currently

The long-suffering young Pripyat is currently contaminated with radioactive substances. They most often collect in the ground, houses, ditches and other depressions. The only operating facilities left in the city are a water fluoridation station, a special laundry, a checkpoint and a garage for special equipment. After the accident, Pripyat, oddly enough, did not lose its status as a city.

With Chernobyl the situation is completely different. It is safe for life; people servicing the station and so-called self-settlers live in it. The city today is the administrative center for managing the exclusion zone. Chernobyl concentrates enterprises that maintain the surrounding area in an environmentally safe condition. Stabilization of the situation consists of controlling radionuclides in the Pripyat River and airspace. The city has personnel from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine who protect the exclusion zone from illegal entry by unauthorized persons.