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SIRENS BLARE

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1:23 am...

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..the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
is rocked by an explosion.

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The nuclear reactor itself
is physically destroyed.

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There is complete shock
in the control room.

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Radiation shoots upwards,

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creating a purple column of light.

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The greatest-ever nuclear accident,

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it will have far-reaching
consequences that will change

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the course of history.

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But for 48 hours,
the world knows nothing.

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The Soviet government
covers it up...

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..and the locals are locked
in a contaminated city.

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This is a police state.

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The KGB swings into action.

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The phone lines are cut
and roadblocks erected.

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No-one's allowed in or out.

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By the time the radioactive
winds reach Sweden,

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the people in Pripyat still
don't know anything about

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the danger they're in.

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This is the untold story
of the people living

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in the shadow of Chernobyl...

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..the first responders
battling the blaze...

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..and the forgotten heroes
who risked everything

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to prevent an even bigger
global catastrophe.

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Over 48 hours leading up
to the evacuation of Pripyat,

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an unprecedented disaster unfolds,

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exposing one of the deadliest
cover-ups in history.

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They don't know that nothing will
be the same ever again.

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Their world has changed forever.

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The survivors of
the Chernobyl disaster

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have returned to their former
hometown of Pripyat.

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Some of them for the first time
in 40 years.

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Atomgrad comes from the Russian
word for 'atomic city'.

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It is literally that, a city built
next or near

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a nuclear power station.

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Pripyat is a town built to house
the employees

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and the construction workers
who work at the plant.

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It's a city that owes its life

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and death to the Chernobyl
nuclear power station.

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This ghost town lies at the heart
of a vast

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radioactive exclusion zone

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that covers more
than 2,500 square kilometres.

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It was once a thriving
community of 50,000 people.

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But they left under a cloud
of deception.

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They've returned
to tell their own stories

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and relive the city's final days

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in the wake of the worst
nuclear disaster in history...

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..a 48-hour period that truly
changed the world.

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By late afternoon, people
are clocking off for work,

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getting ready for the weekend.

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And it's a big one, it's the weekend
before the May Day holiday,

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which is a huge deal
in the Soviet Union.

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Pripyat, it's a kind of exemplary
socialist city.

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Very modern.

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Very nicely laid out,
with lots of open spaces,

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green spaces, parks, playgrounds.

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It's surrounded by a very
nice countryside,

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there are lovely woods.

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There is the River Pripyat.

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So the nice surroundings also match

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nice facilities in the city.

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There are two stadiums.

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There are two swimming pools.

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So its population can enjoy these
kind of gifts of the state.

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They are rewarded for the important
work that they do

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for the nuclear industry.

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Chernobyl's construction is part
of a Soviet drive

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to harness nuclear energy...

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..to both meet surging
electricity demand

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and catch up with the West.

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Science is the front line
of the Cold War

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ideological battle between the
Soviet Union and the United States.

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And nuclear science is the absolute

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darling of the Soviet government
and Soviet leadership.

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Section by section, it was going
to be brought online,

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reactor by reactor,

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to start powering Kyiv

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and the entire region.

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Each reactor can generate 1,000MW
of electricity,

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which is enough to power more than
a million modern homes.

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By 1986, Reactor 4 is online,
and work

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is already under way
on Reactors 5 and 6.

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If the plans are realised,
this will become the biggest

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nuclear complex in the world.

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People thought of atomic science

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as related to atomic weapons.

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And once the Soviet Union

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had its atomic weapons,
there was a need for a rebranding.

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So the Soviet Union starts
to use the term...

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.."the peaceful atom".

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You can see the dichotomy

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in nuclear technology

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when you look at one of the tallest
buildings in Pripyat,

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which talks about, "May the atom be
a worker and not a soldier,"

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and it reflects the enthusiasm

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for the peaceful applications

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of atomic energy.

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One of the great cities
of the Soviet empire

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would soon be fuelled entirely

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by peaceful nuclear power.

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Senior operator of Reactor 4

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Aleksandr Zelentsov
is at home preparing for work.

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But at 9.00pm, he receives
a phone call from his colleague

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Valery Khodemchuk, asking to take
the night shift.

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So Aleksandr will now clock on
in the morning.

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Piotr, who also had a late
shift change,

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is enjoying his unexpected
night off.

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He invites friends back
to his apartment

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opposite the fire station,
where they continue

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drinking vodka and Soviet champagne.

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As Aleksandr's opposite number,

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Valery Khodemchuk, prepares
for the midnight shift...

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..a call comes into the plant.

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A delayed safety test
is finally given the go-ahead.

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It's now nine hours overdue.

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The question that this test
was supposed to check

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or to give answers to was

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what if there is an electricity cut,
a power failure?

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With regard to this specific
safety test,

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to see if the turbine
could freewheel

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and provide enough power
to the reactor

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that it would keep the cooling water
circulating

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for long enough for the emergency
generators to start,

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that's a perfectly reasonable
test to do.

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They had, however, made
three previous attempts

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to do this test, which had been
either unsuccessful

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or inconclusive.

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So, this was their fourth bite
at the cherry.

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In charge is a senior manager
desperate to finally

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get the test signed off.

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Anatoly Stepanovich Dyatlov

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sees the promise of promotion ahead.

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All he's got to do
is run this experiment.

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The reactor has now been running
at reduced power

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for most of the day,
and a shift change is imminent.

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Dyatlov decides he will press ahead
once the night shift arrives.

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The day shift, the A team,

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they clock off at the end
of the workday on Friday.

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The next team that comes on
at midnight

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has not been prepared at all
for what's in store for them.

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They had not been briefed.

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Piloting the reactor
is a 25-year-old engineer.

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He's been in the job
for just two months.

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Dyatlov is a bully, he's unpleasant.

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He's putting these inexperienced
staff under pressure.

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Without realising,
the young engineer mistakenly allows

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the computer to bring reactor power
down to near zero.

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WARNING SIRENS WAIL

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At 12.30, the power output

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from number 4 Reactor is dropping.

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There are alarms going off...

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..there are lights flashing.

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If you run a reactor like that
at low power,

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then some of the product of

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the nuclear reaction will build up
in it,

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in particular, a thing called Xenon,

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which will, in the jargon,
poison the reactor.

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Dyatlov insists they pull out
the graphite control rods

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to help speed up the reaction
and increase power.

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Two of the operators
initially refuse,

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concerned that the reactor
is dangerously unstable.

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But when Dyatlov threatens them,
they back down.

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Control rods essentially
are the throttle

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that try and keep the power steady.

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So, you need more power,
you pull the control rods out.

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And they reach the point where
a lot of the control rods

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are fully out of the reactor,

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and they're still not seeing
the power going up.

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Eventually, by 1am,

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they managed to raise
the power to 200MW.

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It's nowhere near the minimum
720MW stipulated for the test,

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but Dyatlov is adamant
it's good enough.

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They cut the power and let the
turbines freewheel for 36 seconds.

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When they think
they've concluded the test,

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they press this AZ5 button,
which shuts the reactor down.

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But the readings begin to confuse
the scientists.

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SIRENS WAIL

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The reactor starts heating up,

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and the reaction starts speeding up.

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The men hear a deep thud and are
nearly thrown off their feet

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as an explosion rocks the building.

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Outside the complex,
Sergei is still fishing

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in the power plant's cooling pond.

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He's one of the very few
to witness the immediate aftermath.

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EXPLOSION

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A strange purple beam of light
illuminates the night sky.

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SIRENS AND ALARMS BLARE

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The scientists in
the control room are baffled.

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They've hit the emergency
shutdown button -

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in their minds,
the ultimate fail-safe.

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Sergei and his colleagues cycle over
to take a closer look.

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What they see sends shivers
down their spines.

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CLOCK TICKS

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THUNDER RUMBLES

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At 1.23am on Saturday,
the 26th of April 1986...

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..engineers at the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant in Ukraine

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feel the shudder of two explosions.

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There is complete shock
in the control room.

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They don't understand -
what has just happened?

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Is it an earthquake
or an enemy attack?

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A nuclear war may have started.

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They're constantly working

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on the premise that a reactor

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cannot explode.

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00:21:57,580 --> 00:22:02,660
Soviet propaganda, supported by
the USSR's top atomic scientists,

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has long reinforced the idea
that these reactors

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are the most reliable in the world.

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But the unthinkable has happened.

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The nuclear reactor itself
is physically destroyed,

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so it's broken up.

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The lid has been blown off.

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00:22:24,580 --> 00:22:26,940
The temperature in the core
approaches a level

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similar to the surface of the sun

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before blowing the 1,000-tonne lid
and the roof clean off.

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You've got some extremely
radioactive material

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which is completely uncontained

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and on fire.

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The fire station in Pripyat
is immediately alerted.

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00:23:00,260 --> 00:23:03,820
At 1.28am, the phones start ringing
off the hook.

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PHONE RINGS

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Men of the third watch
look over to see

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a mushroom-shaped cloud
filling the moonlit sky.

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With Piotr off duty, his friend
Volodymyr Pravik is in charge.

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SIRENS WAIL

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They scramble into the fire trucks
and head out.

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It's only two minutes by road.

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Lieutenant Pravik immediately

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00:23:51,060 --> 00:23:55,060
radios signal number three,
which is the highest alert

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which will bring
all the fire brigades

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in the entire Kyiv region
to the power plant.

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But he doesn't wait
for them to arrive.

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He and his crew go into this burning
inferno without waiting.

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And they find soon
that they're battling

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against something
that is quite different.

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Their bodies begin to tell them
that this is no ordinary fire.

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Men begin vomiting,
a symptom of radiation sickness.

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One of the team goes blind.

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00:24:31,780 --> 00:24:33,820
Their hands and feet begin to scald

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and burn from touching chunks
of graphite spat out of the core.

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Back in Pripyat, Piotr turns in

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after a night of drinking
with friends.

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Piotr arrives around 2.30am.

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00:25:07,340 --> 00:25:09,860
He's ordered straight up
onto the roof of the complex.

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00:25:12,660 --> 00:25:15,500
And he goes onto the roof
of the Turbine Hall

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to stop the spread of the fire
to another reactor

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in unit number three.

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00:25:49,700 --> 00:25:52,540
Piotr's colleagues on the roof
start feeling seriously ill.

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00:26:02,220 --> 00:26:04,580
Not yet suffering symptoms himself,

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he stays behind and is soon one
of the last on the roof.

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Senior operator of Reactor 4,
Aleksandr Zelentsov

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00:26:18,180 --> 00:26:20,940
is suddenly awoken by his phone.

253
00:26:20,940 --> 00:26:22,780
He's called to the plant
immediately.

254
00:26:43,580 --> 00:26:45,940
His first job is to help
fully disconnect

255
00:26:45,940 --> 00:26:48,140
Reactor 4 from Reactor 3.

256
00:26:50,700 --> 00:26:53,460
They share some of the same systems
and infrastructure,

257
00:26:53,460 --> 00:26:55,060
so it needs to be isolated.

258
00:26:59,460 --> 00:27:01,860
Then, he goes in search
of Valery Khodemchuk,

259
00:27:01,860 --> 00:27:04,100
his colleague who had earlier
taken his night shift.

260
00:27:06,620 --> 00:27:10,220
But the inside of Unit 4
is a tangled web of destruction.

261
00:27:28,660 --> 00:27:32,140
Unlike the firefighters,
Aleksandr is fully aware

262
00:27:32,140 --> 00:27:35,500
that he's potentially receiving
a fatal dose of radiation.

263
00:27:55,940 --> 00:27:58,340
There's no sign
of Valery Khodemchuk.

264
00:27:58,340 --> 00:28:00,540
His body is never found.

265
00:28:03,980 --> 00:28:07,580
At 4am, senior management gathers
in the underground bunker

266
00:28:07,580 --> 00:28:09,780
designed to withstand
nuclear attack.

267
00:28:12,740 --> 00:28:17,060
Anatoly Dyatlov, the man in charge
of the ill-fated safety test,

268
00:28:17,060 --> 00:28:18,860
joins them, weak and retching,

269
00:28:18,860 --> 00:28:21,140
yet still downplaying the incident.

270
00:28:23,060 --> 00:28:29,980
Dyatlov tells the senior management
that it's all contained -

271
00:28:29,980 --> 00:28:33,140
it's just a hydrogen explosion.

272
00:28:33,140 --> 00:28:37,420
There is no breach
in Reactor Number 4.

273
00:28:39,940 --> 00:28:43,660
The bosses are more than happy
to pass this on to their superiors.

274
00:28:46,940 --> 00:28:53,300
The Soviet Union has got layers
and layers of bureaucracy,

275
00:28:53,300 --> 00:28:54,980
but there's no real accountability.

276
00:28:58,540 --> 00:29:02,140
Truth isn't important
in the Soviet Union.

277
00:29:06,540 --> 00:29:10,540
And the entire Soviet system
is designed

278
00:29:10,540 --> 00:29:13,900
so that the Dyatlov's lie

279
00:29:13,900 --> 00:29:20,980
is replicated right up
the chain of command, all the way

280
00:29:20,980 --> 00:29:25,580
to the first secretary of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union,

281
00:29:25,580 --> 00:29:27,420
Mikhail Gorbachev.

282
00:29:33,380 --> 00:29:35,740
By the time Gorbachev receives
the message,

283
00:29:35,740 --> 00:29:39,980
Piotr is one of nearly 200 men
bringing the fires under control...

284
00:29:44,380 --> 00:29:46,620
..but the reactor core
continues to burn.

285
00:29:50,780 --> 00:29:54,300
Eventually, Piotr is called down
from the roof

286
00:29:54,300 --> 00:29:57,380
and heads to the
decontamination showers,

287
00:29:57,380 --> 00:30:00,380
where he sees his father,
also a firefighter.

288
00:30:02,500 --> 00:30:04,980
He's waiting for his boy
to come out,

289
00:30:04,980 --> 00:30:09,580
but it is in the shower
that Petrov feels really sick,

290
00:30:09,580 --> 00:30:12,300
and when he comes out,
he can barely hear or see.

291
00:30:12,300 --> 00:30:15,180
He only hears his father say to him,
"Hold on."

292
00:30:17,060 --> 00:30:18,940
And then he's taken to the hospital.

293
00:30:43,500 --> 00:30:47,300
The hospital
has invoked its crisis plan.

294
00:30:47,300 --> 00:30:50,020
They've moved out
all the routine patients,

295
00:30:50,020 --> 00:30:52,740
they've opened up as many beds
as they can,

296
00:30:52,740 --> 00:30:54,220
and they're waiting.

297
00:30:54,220 --> 00:30:56,620
They're waiting for the wave

298
00:30:56,620 --> 00:30:58,820
that is about to hit them.

299
00:31:28,820 --> 00:31:32,180
Radiation destroys cells,

300
00:31:32,180 --> 00:31:36,340
it disrupts connective tissues,

301
00:31:36,340 --> 00:31:41,620
and eventually, if doses are
really, really acute, in fact,

302
00:31:41,620 --> 00:31:43,980
it damages the
central nervous system

303
00:31:43,980 --> 00:31:47,660
and essentially renders you
unconscious very rapidly.

304
00:31:51,300 --> 00:31:54,100
But at first, it looks like
a bad case of sunburn.

305
00:31:57,220 --> 00:32:00,860
With no radiology departments
and minimal training,

306
00:32:00,860 --> 00:32:03,180
the hospital staff
are initially confounded.

307
00:32:06,540 --> 00:32:10,420
Here in an atomgrad - an atom city -

308
00:32:10,420 --> 00:32:15,060
you'd think they would be prepared
to deal with radiation accidents.

309
00:32:15,060 --> 00:32:18,340
But, of course, nobody would admit

310
00:32:18,340 --> 00:32:23,100
that anything could go wrong
in a Soviet nuclear power station,

311
00:32:23,100 --> 00:32:29,700
so nobody was prepared for the
radiation effects on the human body

312
00:32:29,700 --> 00:32:32,460
that came when something
did go wrong.

313
00:32:36,180 --> 00:32:38,060
They're treating patients with milk

314
00:32:38,060 --> 00:32:41,140
before they realise
these are no ordinary burns

315
00:32:41,140 --> 00:32:43,340
and that their clothes
are contaminated.

316
00:32:46,700 --> 00:32:50,420
And that's when the nurses realise
that this isn't gas poisoning

317
00:32:50,420 --> 00:32:53,220
and they have
to treat their patients differently.

318
00:32:53,220 --> 00:32:55,060
They make them strip.

319
00:32:55,060 --> 00:32:56,940
They take their clothes away

320
00:32:56,940 --> 00:32:58,380
and lock it in a basement.

321
00:33:15,220 --> 00:33:18,140
And they begin
to administer IV drips,

322
00:33:18,140 --> 00:33:20,500
and this is really the first thing

323
00:33:20,500 --> 00:33:23,460
that begins to help
alleviate their symptoms.

324
00:33:52,580 --> 00:33:55,820
More and more patients
are flooding in,

325
00:33:55,820 --> 00:33:58,220
straining the hospital's
limited resources.

326
00:34:52,700 --> 00:34:56,060
By daybreak, the hospital
records its first fatality.

327
00:35:00,020 --> 00:35:03,460
The reactor is still freely spewing
radiation into the atmosphere...

328
00:35:05,260 --> 00:35:07,380
WHIRRING

329
00:35:07,380 --> 00:35:10,380
..as daylight lays bare
the true extent of the damage.

330
00:35:25,580 --> 00:35:27,780
The people of Pripyat
are only just waking up...

331
00:35:29,820 --> 00:35:33,220
..to a city that has been completely
sealed off from the outside world.

332
00:35:47,420 --> 00:35:51,180
The truth about the enormity of the
disaster that has just happened

333
00:35:51,180 --> 00:35:54,700
will slowly start to dawn
on the Soviet scientists.

334
00:35:59,260 --> 00:36:02,260
But instead of alerting the world
to the danger,

335
00:36:02,260 --> 00:36:05,780
the Soviet officials
will remain silent.

336
00:36:07,500 --> 00:36:10,660
The authorities' first instinct
is to try and cover it up.

337
00:36:14,660 --> 00:36:17,380
The KGB swings into action.

338
00:36:18,820 --> 00:36:23,780
They cut off all the phone lines
to Pripyat and Chernobyl.

339
00:36:23,780 --> 00:36:29,020
They close the roads.
They don't let anybody leave.

340
00:36:29,020 --> 00:36:31,380
They're worried
about spreading panic.

341
00:36:31,380 --> 00:36:33,580
They want to control the flow
of information.

342
00:36:41,700 --> 00:36:44,740
Just a few kilometres
from the reactor,

343
00:36:44,740 --> 00:36:48,100
the town's 50,000 residents
are kept in the dark,

344
00:36:48,100 --> 00:36:50,380
completely oblivious
to the radiation

345
00:36:50,380 --> 00:36:51,740
filling the air around them.

346
00:37:17,700 --> 00:37:20,060
It's a lovely weekend -
they go on picnics,

347
00:37:20,060 --> 00:37:22,260
there are children playing
in the playground.

348
00:37:26,020 --> 00:37:28,460
There are even weddings going on
in the city...

349
00:37:28,460 --> 00:37:30,060
CHURCH BELLS PEAL

350
00:37:31,260 --> 00:37:33,140
..and no-one tells them anything.

351
00:37:37,220 --> 00:37:39,860
Radiation on the streets of Pripyat

352
00:37:39,860 --> 00:37:44,100
is recorded at 25,000 times
the normal levels.

353
00:37:45,740 --> 00:37:48,740
By nightfall, it will be 90,000.

354
00:37:52,020 --> 00:37:53,340
It's so high,

355
00:37:53,340 --> 00:37:56,220
radiation particles strike
the camera sensors,

356
00:37:56,220 --> 00:37:58,860
causing bursts of light
and flashes on the film footage.

357
00:38:53,580 --> 00:38:56,140
Those measures are being observed
by people,

358
00:38:56,140 --> 00:38:59,860
and that tells people that something
very dangerous is going on.

359
00:39:22,740 --> 00:39:25,700
While the authorities keep Pripyat
in lockdown,

360
00:39:25,700 --> 00:39:27,460
they're preparing to save Moscow

361
00:39:27,460 --> 00:39:29,660
from Chernobyl's
radioactive fallout.

362
00:39:52,660 --> 00:39:56,700
At 4pm, on the 26th of April 1986,

363
00:39:56,700 --> 00:39:59,860
officials gather at the headquarters
of the Pripyat Communist Party.

364
00:40:01,620 --> 00:40:04,180
Senior management
of the plant finally admits

365
00:40:04,180 --> 00:40:06,380
that Reactor 4 has in fact
exploded...

366
00:40:07,740 --> 00:40:10,780
..and that pumping cooling water
through the core is pointless.

367
00:40:14,500 --> 00:40:16,860
Their efforts
over the last 12 hours,

368
00:40:16,860 --> 00:40:19,980
which have included
several suicide missions,

369
00:40:19,980 --> 00:40:21,620
were totally in vain.

370
00:40:26,740 --> 00:40:28,700
Government officials
are still pondering

371
00:40:28,700 --> 00:40:30,660
whether to evacuate the city,

372
00:40:30,660 --> 00:40:33,140
when the head of the military
radiation reconnaissance team

373
00:40:33,140 --> 00:40:34,420
bursts in.

374
00:40:36,300 --> 00:40:38,700
He's taken readings outside
the power plant

375
00:40:38,700 --> 00:40:41,180
100 million times normal levels...

376
00:40:42,540 --> 00:40:46,780
..enough to kill someone in close
proximity within 15 minutes.

377
00:40:55,340 --> 00:40:58,180
Engineers have also picked up
another problem -

378
00:40:58,180 --> 00:41:00,540
a significant amount of nuclear fuel

379
00:41:00,540 --> 00:41:03,100
is still burning within
the damaged reactor vessel.

380
00:41:05,660 --> 00:41:08,740
Once there is a realisation that

381
00:41:08,740 --> 00:41:11,940
the reactor can and has exploded,

382
00:41:11,940 --> 00:41:13,780
there are new dangers that are

383
00:41:13,780 --> 00:41:16,060
coming to minds of the scientists

384
00:41:16,060 --> 00:41:17,900
working on the clean-up.

385
00:41:17,900 --> 00:41:21,700
And one danger that
becomes very real is

386
00:41:21,700 --> 00:41:24,620
that it will continue to heat up
in its core,

387
00:41:24,620 --> 00:41:26,820
and that it will explode...

388
00:41:28,740 --> 00:41:33,140
..and it could be a kind of
explosion that will set off

389
00:41:33,140 --> 00:41:36,340
the neighbouring reactor,
in the Unit Number 3,

390
00:41:36,340 --> 00:41:38,060
and then possibly the other two.

391
00:41:40,220 --> 00:41:43,140
This could leave large swathes
of Europe uninhabitable

392
00:41:43,140 --> 00:41:45,060
for thousands of years.

393
00:41:48,140 --> 00:41:50,500
The second problem
that they're worried about

394
00:41:50,500 --> 00:41:52,980
is kind of
in the opposite direction -

395
00:41:52,980 --> 00:41:55,980
that the reactor will melt,
literally...

396
00:41:57,900 --> 00:41:59,500
..and the radioactive fuel

397
00:41:59,500 --> 00:42:03,100
and all the debris
will get into the water supply.

398
00:42:03,100 --> 00:42:06,820
From there, they will poison
the Black Sea, the Mediterranean,

399
00:42:06,820 --> 00:42:08,820
and finally the oceans.

400
00:42:08,820 --> 00:42:11,700
That, again, would be potentially
a global catastrophe.

401
00:42:16,100 --> 00:42:19,100
The government commission into
the accident finally concedes

402
00:42:19,100 --> 00:42:21,500
that evacuation of the town
is necessary.

403
00:42:27,380 --> 00:42:29,100
But it's still 19 hours

404
00:42:29,100 --> 00:42:31,740
until the population is relocated.

405
00:42:40,780 --> 00:42:43,740
At the hospital, authorities
prepare to spirit

406
00:42:43,740 --> 00:42:45,940
the worst-affected patients
away to Moscow.

407
00:42:50,500 --> 00:42:52,100
Piotr is told to get ready.

408
00:43:04,500 --> 00:43:06,220
But of course,
the relatives are there -

409
00:43:06,220 --> 00:43:07,540
they're besieging the hospital,

410
00:43:07,540 --> 00:43:09,340
they want to see their husbands,
their sons.

411
00:43:10,740 --> 00:43:13,020
And this is where the
authorities try a trick.

412
00:43:15,380 --> 00:43:17,740
They're told by the people
in charge,

413
00:43:17,740 --> 00:43:20,820
"Go home and start packing a bag,"

414
00:43:20,820 --> 00:43:22,500
to get them out of the way.

415
00:43:24,860 --> 00:43:27,380
But the time they come back
to the hospital,

416
00:43:27,380 --> 00:43:28,740
their loved ones have gone.

417
00:43:44,140 --> 00:43:47,740
In total, 26 firefighters
and plant workers

418
00:43:47,740 --> 00:43:49,940
are transported to the capital.

419
00:44:39,380 --> 00:44:41,220
But when Piotr is assessed,

420
00:44:41,220 --> 00:44:43,940
one of the doctors is amazed
at his condition...

421
00:44:45,820 --> 00:44:48,460
..and puts it down to the amount
of vodka in his system.

422
00:44:53,380 --> 00:44:56,860
Piotr and Pravik are in good
spirits, even joking with staff.

423
00:45:00,580 --> 00:45:05,260
There's an apparent recovery
where people seem to get better,

424
00:45:05,260 --> 00:45:06,900
but, actually, what's happened is

425
00:45:06,900 --> 00:45:11,620
there has been long-term damage
to key systems in the body,

426
00:45:11,620 --> 00:45:15,940
and, actually, your ability
just to do the normal

427
00:45:15,940 --> 00:45:18,460
replacing cells has gone.

428
00:45:18,460 --> 00:45:21,620
So people will then
deteriorate again

429
00:45:21,620 --> 00:45:25,340
after this so-called latent period.

430
00:45:25,340 --> 00:45:27,620
At that point,
you will either recover

431
00:45:27,620 --> 00:45:28,980
or you will die.

432
00:45:41,860 --> 00:45:44,820
It's the last time
Piotr will see Pravik alive.

433
00:45:56,220 --> 00:45:58,620
100km north of Chernobyl,

434
00:45:58,620 --> 00:46:00,980
residents in the countryside
of Belarus

435
00:46:00,980 --> 00:46:03,180
witness a strange weather
phenomenon.

436
00:46:06,780 --> 00:46:08,220
They're looking up at the sky...

437
00:46:08,220 --> 00:46:09,820
THUNDER RUMBLES

438
00:46:09,820 --> 00:46:12,020
..they're seeing a strange
colouration.

439
00:46:16,420 --> 00:46:19,820
It's very dirty, it's black -
this is the famous black rains.

440
00:46:21,780 --> 00:46:24,380
People say they saw reddish,
purple colours.

441
00:46:28,100 --> 00:46:32,020
And they're also seeing
aeroplanes flying in the sky.

442
00:46:32,020 --> 00:46:36,260
They're seeing colours coming out
from the rear of the aeroplanes.

443
00:46:38,020 --> 00:46:41,740
Some have also even reported
rockets being fired into the skies.

444
00:46:43,700 --> 00:46:46,700
What they are seeing is
the Kremlin's desperate response

445
00:46:46,700 --> 00:46:49,060
to a growing threat
against the capital city.

446
00:46:55,060 --> 00:46:57,420
Up in the atmosphere,

447
00:46:57,420 --> 00:47:01,740
there is lethal,
very concentrated radioactivity.

448
00:47:03,380 --> 00:47:06,660
Overnight of the 26th of April

449
00:47:06,660 --> 00:47:10,460
to the 27th, we are getting wind

450
00:47:10,460 --> 00:47:13,740
coming from the west to the east,

451
00:47:13,740 --> 00:47:16,700
heading in the direction of Moscow.

452
00:47:20,780 --> 00:47:23,620
The authorities decide
to make it rain.

453
00:47:23,620 --> 00:47:25,940
They decide that it would rain
over Belarus.

454
00:47:28,980 --> 00:47:35,420
The Soviet Union had the capability
to fly through the clouds,

455
00:47:35,420 --> 00:47:38,740
spread the chemicals that would
cause the droplets to form,

456
00:47:38,740 --> 00:47:41,460
that would cause the rain
to fall out

457
00:47:41,460 --> 00:47:43,660
before it reached Moscow.

458
00:47:46,340 --> 00:47:50,980
They'll pull the radioactivity
with it, down onto the ground -

459
00:47:50,980 --> 00:47:53,540
that is the process
of cloud seeding.

460
00:47:58,500 --> 00:48:02,100
An army of pilots is ordered
into the skies over rural Belarus.

461
00:48:06,500 --> 00:48:10,900
That rain affects hundreds
of thousands of people -

462
00:48:10,900 --> 00:48:14,180
it makes Belarus
the worst-affected territory.

463
00:48:16,220 --> 00:48:20,780
70% of the Chernobyl nuclear
fallout, radioactive fallout,

464
00:48:20,780 --> 00:48:22,660
falls on the territory of Belarus.

465
00:48:27,940 --> 00:48:31,060
Soon, people start flooding
local hospitals,

466
00:48:31,060 --> 00:48:34,020
displaying the syndromes
of the radiation sickness.

467
00:48:37,380 --> 00:48:40,900
So, this is the poisoning
of the entire republic

468
00:48:40,900 --> 00:48:44,380
that will have enormous long-term
consequences on people's lives

469
00:48:44,380 --> 00:48:46,340
for generations to come.

470
00:48:50,740 --> 00:48:52,100
But the radioactive cloud

471
00:48:52,100 --> 00:48:53,660
would soon become too big

472
00:48:53,660 --> 00:48:55,620
for even the Soviets to control.

473
00:49:09,020 --> 00:49:13,340
At midday, on Sunday
the 27th of April, 1986,

474
00:49:13,340 --> 00:49:16,020
life continues as normal in Pripyat.

475
00:49:20,660 --> 00:49:24,260
By the time the radioactive
clouds reach as far as Sweden,

476
00:49:24,260 --> 00:49:27,140
people in Pripyat who are living
right next to the plant

477
00:49:27,140 --> 00:49:29,420
still know nothing about
what has happened

478
00:49:29,420 --> 00:49:31,620
or the danger in which they're in.

479
00:49:37,220 --> 00:49:38,980
We have reports of one person

480
00:49:38,980 --> 00:49:41,500
going up to the roof
of his apartment block

481
00:49:41,500 --> 00:49:44,380
and hoping to get a bit of suntan,

482
00:49:44,380 --> 00:49:48,620
and he's taken aback by how quickly
the suntan catches.

483
00:49:51,260 --> 00:49:55,260
Above them is the sound
of helicopters preparing an assault

484
00:49:55,260 --> 00:49:57,460
on Chernobyl's Reactor Number 4.

485
00:50:21,340 --> 00:50:23,620
So, military pilots are charged
with the task

486
00:50:23,620 --> 00:50:26,140
of flying over the open reactor

487
00:50:26,140 --> 00:50:30,380
and dropping the bags with sand,
clay and boron into the opening.

488
00:50:32,780 --> 00:50:36,420
Boron is a very good way
of suppressing a nuclear reaction.

489
00:50:40,060 --> 00:50:45,620
Dolomite, clay are good
for smothering graphite fires.

490
00:50:47,260 --> 00:50:49,660
And also, they put lead in because

491
00:50:49,660 --> 00:50:53,980
they were trying to reduce
the radiation dose

492
00:50:53,980 --> 00:50:56,100
coming out of the wrecked reactor

493
00:50:56,100 --> 00:50:58,940
to people who were trying
to work in the vicinity.

494
00:51:03,900 --> 00:51:07,340
The liquidation campaign
is now under way -

495
00:51:07,340 --> 00:51:10,260
the beginning of a mammoth
mobilisation of Soviet resources

496
00:51:10,260 --> 00:51:12,460
that will ramp up
in the coming days.

497
00:51:20,940 --> 00:51:24,860
In Pripyat, fears over causing panic
are finally put aside

498
00:51:24,860 --> 00:51:27,060
for the health
of the town's population.

499
00:51:31,980 --> 00:51:34,780
1,200 buses and 240 trucks

500
00:51:34,780 --> 00:51:37,860
are commandeered
from Kyiv and the region.

501
00:51:41,060 --> 00:51:46,820
The announcement about
the evacuation comes at 1pm,

502
00:51:46,820 --> 00:51:50,020
in the middle of a lovely
Sunday afternoon.

503
00:51:51,980 --> 00:51:55,260
This is the last thing people
are expecting, really.

504
00:51:57,620 --> 00:51:59,900
It's true,
there's been an explosion,

505
00:51:59,900 --> 00:52:02,580
but for 36 hours,

506
00:52:02,580 --> 00:52:06,020
people have been told nothing
about the radioactivity,

507
00:52:06,020 --> 00:52:10,580
and so this order to evacuate comes
like a bolt from the blue.

508
00:52:12,500 --> 00:52:13,860
The people are outside,

509
00:52:13,860 --> 00:52:16,460
there are children eating ice cream
in the cafeteria,

510
00:52:16,460 --> 00:52:20,060
and suddenly they're told
to leave their homes.

511
00:52:20,060 --> 00:52:22,460
WOMAN OVER LOUDSPEAKER:

512
00:53:11,780 --> 00:53:14,460
They've been told
that the evacuation

513
00:53:14,460 --> 00:53:17,100
will only be for three days.

514
00:53:17,100 --> 00:53:21,340
People are told to take only
the most-essential items with them.

515
00:53:50,220 --> 00:53:53,180
Thankfully, Volodymyr's mother
is given a reprieve.

516
00:54:09,380 --> 00:54:12,020
The mood is very calm, very orderly.

517
00:54:12,020 --> 00:54:15,820
People get into the buses
and the buses take off -

518
00:54:15,820 --> 00:54:20,060
the operation proceeds
pretty much as expected.

519
00:55:15,220 --> 00:55:18,740
By 5pm, the evacuation
is officially complete.

520
00:55:22,940 --> 00:55:25,980
Around 45,000 evacuees
depart the city...

521
00:55:27,300 --> 00:55:29,260
..which is left an eerie ghost town.

522
00:55:42,180 --> 00:55:45,660
Radioactivity knows no borders,

523
00:55:45,660 --> 00:55:52,980
so the story had crossed over
the border from the Soviet Union,

524
00:55:52,980 --> 00:55:56,900
and was about to break
internationally,

525
00:55:56,900 --> 00:55:59,140
on Monday the 28th of April.

526
00:56:03,020 --> 00:56:08,020
On the Monday morning, a worker at
the Forsmark Power Station in Sweden

527
00:56:08,020 --> 00:56:11,900
actually sets the alarms off
on his way into work.

528
00:56:14,260 --> 00:56:16,660
His shoe has picked up fallout
from Chernobyl.

529
00:56:22,020 --> 00:56:24,660
They quickly work out
where it's coming from,

530
00:56:24,660 --> 00:56:27,340
and the Soviets are forced
to admit there has been an accident.

531
00:56:29,460 --> 00:56:33,300
Despite requests from various
countries for more information,

532
00:56:33,300 --> 00:56:35,940
they refuse to offer up
any more detail...

533
00:56:38,020 --> 00:56:40,660
..but it's soon making
headlines across the globe.

534
00:56:43,140 --> 00:56:47,020
Brief and buried report of the
biggest nuclear accident in history.

535
00:56:47,020 --> 00:56:49,100
Is one that was clearly addressed

536
00:56:49,100 --> 00:56:52,780
of the lethal effect being
two to three miles, and then...

537
00:56:52,780 --> 00:56:56,060
Exactly what caused the Chernobyl
nuclear reactor to explode,

538
00:56:56,060 --> 00:56:57,460
we don't yet know.

539
00:56:57,460 --> 00:56:59,100
How many lives will have been lost

540
00:56:59,100 --> 00:57:01,380
as an immediate result
of the disaster

541
00:57:01,380 --> 00:57:02,780
will be easier to calculate.

542
00:57:02,780 --> 00:57:04,780
But how many people
are doomed eventually

543
00:57:04,780 --> 00:57:07,020
to fall victim to Chernobyl,
we will never know.

544
00:57:11,060 --> 00:57:13,260
Some of these children
will die young.

545
00:57:20,780 --> 00:57:25,180
On the 11th of May, the first
control room operator dies,

546
00:57:25,180 --> 00:57:28,460
with his skin charred black
and eyes wide open.

547
00:57:32,380 --> 00:57:35,140
Lieutenant Pravik succumbs
to his injuries that same day.

548
00:57:39,540 --> 00:57:41,780
It's another week
before Piotr finds out.

549
00:57:43,140 --> 00:57:46,420
He's told that all of his colleagues
have died.

550
00:57:46,420 --> 00:57:48,860
Their coffins are wrapped
in plastic,

551
00:57:48,860 --> 00:57:53,100
welded shut inside zinc boxes,
and covered with cement.

552
00:58:28,620 --> 00:58:30,900
In the weeks and months
that followed the nuclear accident

553
00:58:30,900 --> 00:58:31,860
at Chernobyl...

554
00:58:33,420 --> 00:58:35,260
..the clean-up effort gathers pace.

555
00:58:40,900 --> 00:58:42,460
The so-called "liquidators",

556
00:58:42,460 --> 00:58:45,340
which comes from the Russian word
for "eliminating",

557
00:58:45,340 --> 00:58:48,380
are eliminating
the consequences of the disaster.

558
00:58:48,380 --> 00:58:51,980
So, the number of these people
is quite mind-boggling really -

559
00:58:51,980 --> 00:58:54,260
600,000 people and more

560
00:58:54,260 --> 00:58:57,100
are drafted into these missions.

561
00:58:59,700 --> 00:59:02,620
Miners tunnel under the reactor's
foundations

562
00:59:02,620 --> 00:59:06,940
to add a protective concrete slab
and install a giant heat exchanger

563
00:59:06,940 --> 00:59:08,660
to cool down the molten core

564
00:59:08,660 --> 00:59:11,060
and prevent it melting
into the groundwater.

565
00:59:22,100 --> 00:59:25,620
Men are tasked with removing
radioactive graphite from the roof,

566
00:59:25,620 --> 00:59:28,980
so a sarcophagus can be built
over the wreckage.

567
00:59:28,980 --> 00:59:31,980
Nearly 4,000 so-called "bio-robots",

568
00:59:31,980 --> 00:59:34,340
with home-made lead armour
for protection,

569
00:59:34,340 --> 00:59:38,220
shovel graphite blocks over the side
and into the core.

570
00:59:38,220 --> 00:59:42,660
They have 90 seconds, estimated
to be a maximum lifetime dose.

571
00:59:45,220 --> 00:59:48,420
A lot of the soldiers sent
to decontamination missions

572
00:59:48,420 --> 00:59:50,380
are young boys.

573
00:59:50,380 --> 00:59:53,940
They're draftees, so they're
between 18, 20 years of age.

574
00:59:53,940 --> 00:59:55,540
And they have to deal not just

575
00:59:55,540 --> 00:59:58,140
with the physical difficulties
of decontamination,

576
00:59:58,140 --> 01:00:00,340
but also with
the psychological burdens.

577
01:00:05,060 --> 01:00:06,700
They do it out of a sense of duty...

578
01:00:08,180 --> 01:00:11,540
..because there is some
understanding at this point

579
01:00:11,540 --> 01:00:14,140
that this is needed to save people

580
01:00:14,140 --> 01:00:16,500
or to prevent an even
greater disaster.

581
01:00:21,580 --> 01:00:26,140
On the 14th of May, 1986, two and
a half weeks after the explosion...

582
01:00:28,180 --> 01:00:30,660
..Mikhail Gorbachev acknowledges
the accident in public

583
01:00:30,660 --> 01:00:32,300
for the first time.

584
01:00:58,180 --> 01:01:00,940
Mikhail Gorbachev
has only been running

585
01:01:00,940 --> 01:01:04,860
the Soviet Union
for 13 months at this point.

586
01:01:04,860 --> 01:01:07,380
He has been saying
that the Soviet Union

587
01:01:07,380 --> 01:01:11,900
needs to have glasnost, openness.

588
01:01:13,500 --> 01:01:18,860
And taking all that time

589
01:01:18,860 --> 01:01:23,180
to even tell a scrap of the truth

590
01:01:23,180 --> 01:01:26,180
demonstrates that there is

591
01:01:26,180 --> 01:01:28,580
no openness in the Soviet Union.

592
01:01:35,100 --> 01:01:37,820
As pressure mounts
at home and abroad,

593
01:01:37,820 --> 01:01:41,260
Gorbachev is forced to follow
through on his promise of glasnost,

594
01:01:41,260 --> 01:01:44,180
as the Iron Curtain
is gradually lifted.

595
01:01:49,060 --> 01:01:53,380
So journalists begin
to gain unprecedented access,

596
01:01:53,380 --> 01:01:55,740
for example, to nuclear scientists.

597
01:01:55,740 --> 01:01:58,300
This was an industry shrouded
in secrecy...

598
01:02:00,020 --> 01:02:02,380
..and once those floodgates
are open,

599
01:02:02,380 --> 01:02:04,580
it's very difficult to kind of
keep shutting them down.

600
01:02:07,780 --> 01:02:10,460
The real cause of the explosion
is eventually revealed.

601
01:02:14,860 --> 01:02:17,780
There is a fatal flaw
in every Soviet reactor

602
01:02:17,780 --> 01:02:19,820
that none of the scientists
at Chernobyl,

603
01:02:19,820 --> 01:02:22,020
on the night of the explosion,
were aware of.

604
01:02:25,820 --> 01:02:28,980
The problem is
that this SCRAM system -

605
01:02:28,980 --> 01:02:32,140
this automated safety system
that is meant to shut

606
01:02:32,140 --> 01:02:35,500
down the reactor very quickly
in cases of emergency -

607
01:02:35,500 --> 01:02:37,700
the problem is that
it is deeply flawed.

608
01:02:39,540 --> 01:02:42,860
The control rods,
which are made of boron -

609
01:02:42,860 --> 01:02:45,540
the material that does
slow down the reaction -

610
01:02:45,540 --> 01:02:50,060
those control rods have the tips
that are made of graphite.

611
01:02:52,140 --> 01:02:55,500
So, when the graphite tips
are inserted into

612
01:02:55,500 --> 01:03:00,100
the hot reactor to slow down
the reaction, they do the opposite -

613
01:03:00,100 --> 01:03:01,380
they speed it up.

614
01:03:03,500 --> 01:03:06,500
So, as the control rods go back
into the reactor,

615
01:03:06,500 --> 01:03:09,780
they greatly increase
the reactivity,

616
01:03:09,780 --> 01:03:13,500
and that causes an explosion.

617
01:03:16,620 --> 01:03:19,220
Some top officials
and atomic scientists

618
01:03:19,220 --> 01:03:22,380
had known about it for years,
even decades.

619
01:03:26,780 --> 01:03:33,220
The nature of the Soviet Union -
the secrecy, the self-deception -

620
01:03:33,220 --> 01:03:38,300
all of this is what causes
the disaster in the first place.

621
01:03:42,340 --> 01:03:46,260
I got the chance to ask a question

622
01:03:46,260 --> 01:03:48,540
to Mikhail Gorbachev in person,

623
01:03:48,540 --> 01:03:51,060
and the question I chose was,

624
01:03:51,060 --> 01:03:55,060
"What was your biggest problem
at the time of Chernobyl?"

625
01:03:55,060 --> 01:03:57,980
Mikhail Gorbachev told me that

626
01:03:57,980 --> 01:04:02,260
getting information
was his biggest problem.

627
01:04:12,420 --> 01:04:14,820
The Chernobyl disaster
also gives a boost

628
01:04:14,820 --> 01:04:17,500
to Ukrainian eco-nationalism

629
01:04:17,500 --> 01:04:21,420
because it becomes a political issue
that the Ukrainian intelligentsia

630
01:04:21,420 --> 01:04:24,740
and cultural figures adopt
as a national issue.

631
01:04:24,740 --> 01:04:26,980
It becomes a Ukrainian tragedy.

632
01:04:29,940 --> 01:04:34,540
But the refusal of Moscow,
again and again, to recognise

633
01:04:34,540 --> 01:04:38,380
the damage done to the health
and environment in Ukraine

634
01:04:38,380 --> 01:04:40,260
begins to kind of really strain

635
01:04:40,260 --> 01:04:42,540
the relationship
between Kyiv and Moscow.

636
01:04:42,540 --> 01:04:44,940
INDISTINCT CHATTER

637
01:04:47,060 --> 01:04:49,260
YELLING

638
01:04:57,180 --> 01:05:01,580
As Gorbachev says,
the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl

639
01:05:01,580 --> 01:05:07,940
was perhaps the real cause
of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

640
01:05:07,940 --> 01:05:10,140
MUFFLED YELLING

641
01:05:14,260 --> 01:05:17,860
It helped change the map
of the world in a few years.

642
01:05:25,900 --> 01:05:30,740
The consequences of the disaster
for the environment are enormous,

643
01:05:30,740 --> 01:05:34,100
and the effects will last
for centuries.

644
01:05:38,180 --> 01:05:43,220
This makes it easy sometimes to lose
the human dimension of the tragedy.

645
01:05:45,980 --> 01:05:50,740
We are talking about impact
on health, which is long-term,

646
01:05:50,740 --> 01:05:54,180
the rise in cancer,
and especially cancer in children,

647
01:05:54,180 --> 01:05:56,940
thyroid cancer,
all kinds of disabilities.

648
01:06:01,380 --> 01:06:04,100
And I think it's really important
to remember the people

649
01:06:04,100 --> 01:06:07,660
who suffered and who sacrificed
their lives, their health,

650
01:06:07,660 --> 01:06:10,340
in trying to prevent
an even bigger disaster,

651
01:06:10,340 --> 01:06:12,300
an even bigger catastrophe.

652
01:06:25,580 --> 01:06:27,020
Every year,

653
01:06:27,020 --> 01:06:30,300
Ukrainians come together
to honour the fallen -

654
01:06:30,300 --> 01:06:32,060
those that died or suffered

655
01:06:32,060 --> 01:06:35,420
at the hands
of an unprecedented disaster.

656
01:06:46,860 --> 01:06:49,060
SIGHING