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The reason why Chernobyl seems such
a dire warning to so many people

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around the world is the nuclear
disaster that happened there

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affected the entire planet.

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I remember the first time
going to the site itself.

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It's a sinister place,
because you can't help remembering

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what happened there and how
it affected hundreds of thousands

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of people's lives.

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Two miles from Chernobyl, the city
of Pripyat, once home to 50,000

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people, lies in ruins.

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Vegetation is taking over.

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There are trees that are
growing into the upper floors

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of the tower blocks.

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A 1,000-square-mile exclusion zone
has restricted access to the site

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for the past 36 years.

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WARNING SIREN

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But that all changes
on the 24th of February 2022...

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..when Russia invades Ukraine
in a bid to take back

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the former Soviet republic.

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An early strategic target is
the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

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Russia was moving tanks
through the zone,

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and that raised radioactive dust.

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Russia is really weaponising nuclear
power plants in this war on Ukraine.

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The story of Chernobyl
is decades in the making.

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It began when the emerging Soviet
Union's nuclear power programme

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threatened the world.

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A Soviet dream
that became a nightmare.

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A disaster officials tried
to cover up.

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As a brave few battled
to stop radiation spreading

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across the globe.

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Using top-secret Soviet documents...

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..and hearing from those
who risked everything...

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..this is the story

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of one of the world's
worst nuclear accidents.

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Early morning.

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The Chernobyl nuclear power plant
gets ready to carry out

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a safety test
on reactor number four.

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Every nuclear power station
has to undergo a series of tests.

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And one of the safety tests
that it needed to prove to continue

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to operate was to test what would
happen to the coolant system

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if there was a power cut.

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Engineers planned to switch
off four of the pumps

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to test their backup systems.

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If there was a power cut
and the emergency generators

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didn't kick in, there
would be a real problem.

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The job was extremely difficult
and complex, and demanded a lot...

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A lot of concentration.
A lot of experience.

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It was kind of a routine test,
but it was conducted in such a way

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that that routine test turned
into a terrible accident.

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The Chernobyl disaster can be traced
back to the 1960s,

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when Ukraine was part of the USSR

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and harnessing nuclear power
was a major Soviet ambition.

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NEWSREEL: A multi-stage rocket took
off from a launching site in Russia.

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The mid twentieth century
was the height of the Cold War.

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Rival superpowers

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the Soviet Union and the USA
are vying for technological...

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..and military supremacy.

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The USSR is determined to lead the
world in harnessing nuclear power

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and it pours vast resources
into nuclear research.

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Nuclear power was enormously
important to the Soviet Union,

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and scientists were
these heroes of the Soviet Union.

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And nuclear research
was the flagship

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of what Soviet science could offer.

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Soviet leadership plans to build
a vast nuclear power plant,

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one which would dwarf
any the world has ever seen.

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The reason why they wanted to build
such a large reactor, the biggest

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in the world, they hoped,
was national pride.

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The Soviet Union at the time
was engaged in a...

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Not just an arms race with the
United States,

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but a cultural,
political competition

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to prove themselves
that their system of government

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and life was best.

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The new plant is to be built
in the Ukrainian wilderness,

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60 miles north of the capital, Kyiv.

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It's named after a nearby town,

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Chernobyl.

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Ukraine enjoyed a special
status in the Soviet Union.

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It was very important economically.

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It also contained very important
industries on its territory.

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Coal-mining industries, of course,
and many others.

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A very important member of the union
for political, strategic,

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military reasons,
economic reasons, especially.

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It's on the borderlands,
facing to the West.

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It's also a showcase
of Soviet modernity.

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In the winter of 1970, the man
chosen to build and run Chernobyl

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arrives in northern Ukraine.

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Despite having never worked
with nuclear power,

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34-year-old Viktor Brukhanov
will be Chernobyl's first director.

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Viktor Brukhanov was a young man
when he was picked, surprisingly,

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to take on the Chernobyl project.

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He was electrical engineer.

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He'd worked in a couple of power
plants across the Soviet Union,

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but this was his first
nuclear power job.

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Engineer Nikolai Steinberg worked
on the project with Brukhanov.

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His main deficiency was that he was
never trained as a nuclear engineer.

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The real reason he was picked
was because the authorities thought

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he was the man who would be able to
master a very,

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very complex, difficult task.

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Construction of the huge power plant
gets under way

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in early spring 1970.

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The first of six planned reactors
will take seven years to build.

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As the power plant grows, so does
the city built to house its workers.

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Pripyat is one of nine atomgrads,
or atomic cities, in the USSR.

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Each one is built from scratch
for workers of the nuclear industry

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and their families.

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Pripyat was a city whose
reason for existence was Chernobyl.

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And in many ways
it was a model Soviet city.

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It was what the socialist city
was supposed to be like.

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The apartment buildings
were very well-made.

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The shops were stocked,
which was quite unusual

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in Soviet society,
especially in the '70s.

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Chernobyl's 5,000 workers
and their families lived just two

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miles from the power plant.

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Seven years after work began,

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Chernobyl's reactor number one
is finally ready to be switched on.

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Plant director Viktor Brukhanov
is now at the helm of Chernobyl's

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first reactor, and is charged
with building five more.

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But it won't be long
before Chernobyl suffers

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its first accident.

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And the authorities
are quick to cover it up.

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Three nuclear reactors are now
fully operational at Chernobyl.

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The completion of a fourth will make
this the largest nuclear power

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station in the Soviet Union.

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The Ukrainian city of Pripyat,
built to house Chernobyl's workers,

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is also flourishing.

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In 12 years, it's grown
from a wasteland

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into a city of 50,000 people.

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Although they live
in a Soviet paradise,

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the residents of Pripyat are
unaware of the danger they're in.

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The new Chernobyl power plant
is already riddled with problems.

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But it would take until 2020,
when the Ukrainian government

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released thousands of top secret
documents, that Chernobyl's early

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safety problems were made public.

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One of them exposes how unsafe
the power plant is becoming.

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The report is dated
from January 5th, 1983.

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And according to this report,

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between January 1978
to December 1982,

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the Chernobyl nuclear power station
experienced 27 accidents

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and 87 equipment failures, including
five accidents and 16 failures

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in just 12 months of 1982.

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One of the most serious accidents
happens in late summer.

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Chernobyl's number one reactor
undergoes a routine safety test.

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Nikolai Steinberg, head of
turbines, is in his office

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in the third reactor building.

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Outside Nikolai's office
runs a ventilation pipe

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connected to reactor one.

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The steam is part of
a major radiation leak.

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Reactor one is shut down.

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Nikolai waits for a briefing
on the incident from his bosses.

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The cause of the accident
is kept secret from Nikolai

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and his colleagues.

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One reason for the secrecy
is down to the presence of the KGB,

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the Soviet Union's secret police.

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They're a constant presence
at Chernobyl.

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Well, the KGB's job
would be partly to investigate

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whether this was an act of sabotage
or whether there was someone

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who was simply negligent.

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But also part of their job was
to contain rumours and to prevent

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the spread of panic.

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The KGB investigation is more
concerned with quashing rumours

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than uncovering
why the accident happened.

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They do talk about the presence
of distorted rumours that spread

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by residents of the city of Pripyat.

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And this is kind of a nightmare
scenario for the Soviet authorities,

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that rumours will spread.

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None of this
was reported in the press.

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After the accident,

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radiation is detected
nine miles from the plant.

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In some areas, the levels
are hundreds of times

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higher than normal.

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But the residents of the nearby city
of Pripyat are kept in the dark.

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Despite the accident,
Chernobyl continues to grow.

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It's now 13 years
since work began on the plant.

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Managers are under orders
to complete the fourth reactor

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by the end of the year.

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Engineers like Vladimir Kagan
are feeling the pressure.

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They were incentivised to get
jobs done by a particular time.

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And this meant bonuses.

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This meant certain perks.

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The people who were able
to meet those deadlines,

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they were rewarded,
and that was part of the game.

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By the end of December,
reactor four is near completion.

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Everything had to be finished
by December.

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That's when the bonuses
were handed out.

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But before it can become
operational, the reactor must

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undergo a critical safety test.

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The turbine test
that was the last remaining test

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that was due to be done
on the unit four reactor

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hadn't been done by December.

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Carrying out the test now
will mean a delay.

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The reactor might not be ready
by the December deadline.

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The decision on whether or not
to go ahead with the test

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falls to plant director
Viktor Brukhanov.

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So Brukhanov said, "OK, we'll sign
it off and then we'll come back

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and do it at a later date."

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Despite the safety test
not being carried out,

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Brukhanov allows
the reactor to enter service.

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He was someone who was taking risks,
he believed calculated risks.

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He lacked really deep understanding
of what he was running.

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With reactor four online,

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Brukhanov is now in charge
of the Soviet Union's biggest

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nuclear power plant.

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Spring 1985.

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Events in Moscow are about to put
nuclear energy at the forefront

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of Soviet politics.

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The USSR has a new leader.

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Mikhail Gorbachev's arrival
heralds an era of transformation

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in the Soviet Union.

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He was seen as a new,
different type of leader.

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He had a meeting with Margaret
Thatcher in December 1984.

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They famously get on
very well together.

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There's a feeling, I think,
that things are beginning to change

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inside the Soviet Union.

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He understood that the Soviet Union
and Soviet economy especially

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were in need of reforms,
and he was willing to undertake

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that project of reforming
the Soviet Union to save it.

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One of Gorbachev's first tasks

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is to announce a plan
to revive the economy,

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made to an audience of 5,000
high-ranking party members.

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Gorbachev presided over the party
congress, and that congress adopted

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a resolution to double
the number of the nuclear reactors

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that they would build
in the next five-year plan.

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So nuclear energy was supposed
to be the solution, or at least part

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of the solution
of how to drag the Soviet economy

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out of that stagnation.

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In the audience is Chernobyl's
director, Viktor Brukhanov.

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He will be held personally
responsible for helping meet

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Gorbachev's ambitious goals.

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So the pressure on the management
was actually now becoming

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even stronger,
and the burden on their shoulders

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was even heavier.

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Chernobyl's four reactors,
known as RBMK reactors,

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are of a type
unique to the Soviet Union.

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The RBMK reactor was really
advanced for its time,

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much more so than Western reactors,

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00:23:50,360 --> 00:23:53,240
and this was because it could put
out the most amount of power

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for a reactor of its size.

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This also meant that it was really
cost-effective, which is why

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they were able to build so many
across the Soviet Union.

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In total, 17
RBMK reactors are built.

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All produce energy in the same way.

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Effectively, the nuclear
reactor is like a kettle.

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It's generating steam by splitting
uranium atoms to generate the heat.

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The heat then is used to heat water.

244
00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:22,520
The water is then turned into steam,

245
00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:24,880
which turns turbines
to generate electricity.

246
00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:38,840
Reactor number four has been running
for two years when the long-delayed

247
00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:41,880
safety test is finally scheduled
to take place.

248
00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:49,400
The test will be overseen by deputy
chief engineer Anatoly Dyatlov.

249
00:24:51,040 --> 00:24:54,680
Dyatlov was one of the few
people at the top

250
00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:58,040
who was trained
as a nuclear engineer.

251
00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:13,240
He had quite an abrasive
personality.

252
00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:16,040
Dyatlov was very often feared.

253
00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:19,280
And he was he was using
a very harsh language

254
00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:20,840
to deal with his subordinates.

255
00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:29,640
The test will take place
on Friday the 25th of April.

256
00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:33,640
Dyatlov has briefed the staff,

257
00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:36,120
and they know
what's expected of them.

258
00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:57,680
Everyone turned up
expecting it to be a normal shift.

259
00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:03,160
As it turned out,
it didn't go that way.

260
00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:05,400
And not everybody
would make it home alive.

261
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:31,160
Early morning.

262
00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:34,280
Engineers are preparing
to carry out a safety test

263
00:26:34,280 --> 00:26:36,520
on Chernobyl's reactor number four.

264
00:26:40,640 --> 00:26:44,440
This particular safety test
was designed to see what happened

265
00:26:44,440 --> 00:26:48,720
when the cooling water pumps
lost electrical power.

266
00:26:55,120 --> 00:26:58,920
Engineers will switch off four
of the pumps which cool the reactor

267
00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:00,760
to test the backup system.

268
00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:04,840
And it has to be done today.

269
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:10,800
It was the last day of the week
before the start of a holiday season

270
00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:13,080
in the Soviet Union.

271
00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:17,040
They were under pressure to complete
the task, to complete the shutdown

272
00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:19,920
of their reactor
before that holiday season.

273
00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:31,400
Two miles away in Pripyat...

274
00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:35,920
..Chernobyl workers and their
families prepare for the upcoming

275
00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:37,400
May Day holiday.

276
00:27:42,960 --> 00:27:46,960
It's a normal spring day
with lots of people being about.

277
00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:51,400
This is late April in Ukraine.

278
00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:52,800
It's beautiful weather.

279
00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:56,120
Generally, the time when you felt
summer is coming,

280
00:27:56,120 --> 00:27:59,440
the spring has turned the corner.
It's going to be warm and lovely.

281
00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:39,200
Back at Chernobyl,
inside the control room,

282
00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:41,840
preparations for the test
are under way.

283
00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:45,880
It's a vast room -
a giant, curving control panel,

284
00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:47,800
strange paving flooring.

285
00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:50,880
It would have been filled with smoke
- everybody smoked at the time.

286
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:53,640
Overseeing the test,

287
00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:56,560
Deputy Chief Engineer
Anatoly Dyatlov.

288
00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:02,720
So, Anatoly Dyatlov
was probably the most feared person

289
00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:04,080
at the facility.

290
00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:06,720
If he was in the room,
you had to listen to him

291
00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:09,120
and do what he said, otherwise
there'd be trouble.

292
00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:13,360
The test is due to be carried out

293
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:15,240
by members of the plant's
morning shift.

294
00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:22,320
They've been trained
on how to carry it out safely.

295
00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:24,200
To operate the test,

296
00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:27,440
the operators needed to lower
the power output of the reactor.

297
00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:30,200
This makes sense - if you're going
to test the brakes on your bike,

298
00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:32,360
you don't do it at 50mph,
you do it at five.

299
00:29:39,320 --> 00:29:42,680
Operators have been gradually
powering down the reactor

300
00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:44,160
since 1am.

301
00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:48,360
By early afternoon, the power's been
reduced to nearly three-quarters

302
00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:50,480
of the reactor's normal power.

303
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:03,200
Inside the control room,
the phone rings.

304
00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:06,960
Partway through the day,
the emergency grid controller

305
00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:09,560
asked them to stop
lowering the power.

306
00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:11,120
The energy was needed.

307
00:30:13,760 --> 00:30:15,280
300 miles away,

308
00:30:15,280 --> 00:30:19,240
another nuclear reactor
has had an emergency shut down.

309
00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:23,720
Chernobyl must keep producing power.

310
00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:32,880
Rather than say, "OK, we'll cut our
losses and come back another day",

311
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:37,160
Dyatlov decided, "No, we'll carry
on. We'll do it this evening."

312
00:30:42,760 --> 00:30:47,520
For hours, the reactor continues
to operate, but at a lower power.

313
00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:56,640
The operators wait for the
green light to carry out the test.

314
00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:02,160
They had to hold the reactor
at a mid-power level

315
00:31:02,160 --> 00:31:04,360
for a longer period
than was expected.

316
00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:09,800
Inside the reactor, there's been
a build-up of a dangerous gas

317
00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:11,320
called Xenon.

318
00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:18,360
No-one really realised that, while
working at that lower power level,

319
00:31:18,360 --> 00:31:22,960
the reactor was producing
the chemical elements.

320
00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:29,120
The so-called "poisoning"
of the reactor was taking place.

321
00:31:36,360 --> 00:31:40,280
Late in the evening, and the
test still hasn't taken place.

322
00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:46,280
Chernobyl produces power 24/7

323
00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:49,000
and there are constant
shift changes.

324
00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:55,440
The day shift transitioned
into the evening shift,

325
00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:56,920
transitioned to the night shift.

326
00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:00,880
There wasn't the information
passed through

327
00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:03,440
each of the operators
from day to evening.

328
00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:15,200
New people came -
the graveyard shift.

329
00:32:15,200 --> 00:32:19,920
People who thought that, by the time
they come and start their shift,

330
00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:22,080
the whole thing would be over.

331
00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:24,080
So they were not prepared.

332
00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:39,080
After a nine-hour delay, the control
room is finally given the go-ahead

333
00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:40,800
to carry out the test.

334
00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:47,640
So it was the night shift
that were conducting the test.

335
00:32:50,520 --> 00:32:53,320
It actually started
at about 11 o'clock.

336
00:32:53,320 --> 00:32:56,640
Ordinarily, the control room
was a quiet place,

337
00:32:56,640 --> 00:32:58,040
especially at that time of night.

338
00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:05,560
Because the turbine test
was taking place,

339
00:33:05,560 --> 00:33:07,200
it was filled with people.

340
00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:09,120
There were more than 20 people
in the room that night.

341
00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:19,720
One of the operators working the
night shift is Leonid Toptunov.

342
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:26,120
Leonid Toptunov was
one of the four operators

343
00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:30,360
that took over the operation
of the reactor.

344
00:33:30,360 --> 00:33:36,000
He was a young and very
clearly talented engineer.

345
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:39,640
One of Toptunov's main jobs
that night was to keep an eye
on the power in the reactor.

346
00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:53,720
The final steps to start the test
are taken.

347
00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:59,240
So, having been left in this
low power state all day,

348
00:33:59,240 --> 00:34:01,120
the reactor was extremely unstable.

349
00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:05,280
The build-up of xenon gas
inside the reactor

350
00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:07,200
is causing it to behave erratically.

351
00:34:08,920 --> 00:34:12,080
Because the operators
were relatively untrained

352
00:34:12,080 --> 00:34:15,480
and not prepared for the test, they
didn't really notice the signs

353
00:34:15,480 --> 00:34:17,600
that the reactor
wasn't in a safe state.

354
00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:24,960
Operators know
that if all goes wrong,

355
00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:27,440
there is a safety mechanism
in place.

356
00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:55,080
Inside the control room,

357
00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:58,520
something happens
that sets alarm bells ringing.

358
00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:01,600
The power dropped
really unexpectedly,

359
00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:04,800
which was unexplainable
to the operators at the time.

360
00:35:06,720 --> 00:35:13,160
If the operators knew enough
about the issues and problems,

361
00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:15,360
they certainly
would avoid the accident.

362
00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:18,880
Once power began to fall
in the reactor...

363
00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:24,720
..it carried on falling, and it
fell to disastrously low levels.

364
00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:28,680
The reactor was
now in serious danger.

365
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:39,560
Toptunov takes steps
to raise the reactor's power level.

366
00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:46,440
But, rather than bursting
back into life,

367
00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:50,160
the reactor's power only creeps up
to a 16th of its maximum output.

368
00:35:53,280 --> 00:35:56,160
Xenon gas has poisoned the reactor.

369
00:35:56,160 --> 00:35:59,400
ALARM SOUNDS

370
00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:01,040
The Xenon in the reactor

371
00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:04,480
was reducing the activity
to very, very, very low levels.

372
00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:10,680
Toptunov can't increase the power
to the level needed for the test.

373
00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:17,520
People who were around him
tried to help him.

374
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:22,760
Dyatlov, it seems, wants to
carry on with the test regardless.

375
00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:27,160
An argument reportedly breaks out
between Dyatlov

376
00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:29,720
and the shift foreman,
Aleksandr Akimov.

377
00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:33,640
They were seen having
quite a heated conversation,

378
00:36:33,640 --> 00:36:37,480
and it's fair to assume
that it was Dyatlov saying,

379
00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:38,960
"I want to go ahead",

380
00:36:38,960 --> 00:36:41,920
and Akimov saying, "No, we
should stop. It's not safe."

381
00:37:10,520 --> 00:37:12,440
For nearly 24 hours,

382
00:37:12,440 --> 00:37:15,800
engineers at Chernobyl's
fourth nuclear reactor

383
00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:18,960
have been attempting
to carry out a safety test.

384
00:37:20,640 --> 00:37:24,560
They were going to turn
off the cooling system manually...

385
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:27,560
..and see what happened.

386
00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:35,880
But, even before the test starts,

387
00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:38,240
they're struggling to control
the reactor.

388
00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:41,440
An experiment was started.

389
00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:43,920
It was already in an unstable state,

390
00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:46,560
but the operators
didn't exactly know

391
00:37:46,560 --> 00:37:48,240
what was going on in the reactor.

392
00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:55,120
Deputy Chief Engineer
Anatoly Dyatlov insists

393
00:37:55,120 --> 00:37:56,920
the test should go ahead.

394
00:38:00,440 --> 00:38:03,040
Operators of Soviet reactors

395
00:38:03,040 --> 00:38:06,760
were kind of used to not exactly
following the guidelines,

396
00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:09,640
partly because the
guidelines were confusing,

397
00:38:09,640 --> 00:38:12,120
but partly because it was
quite difficult to operate

398
00:38:12,120 --> 00:38:14,960
those particular reactors
without doing a few things

399
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:16,480
that you shouldn't really do.

400
00:38:18,360 --> 00:38:21,480
Operators - guys who were
operating the controls -

401
00:38:21,480 --> 00:38:23,400
said, "We should stop".

402
00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:27,080
But Dyatlov just told
them to get on with it.

403
00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:42,080
The experiment was started at 1:23.

404
00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:52,440
Four of the eight pumps
that were putting cooling water

405
00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:54,040
into the reactor,

406
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:55,880
the power was taken away.

407
00:38:55,880 --> 00:38:59,080
When the coolant system
was switched off,

408
00:38:59,080 --> 00:39:04,160
that water was no longer coming up
past the fuel rods quickly.

409
00:39:21,040 --> 00:39:23,640
Any water that was in the system
was boiled off.

410
00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:26,680
The water was no longer
being used to cool

411
00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:29,080
the fuel rods, and it
bubbled off into steam.

412
00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:33,600
This kind of causes
the nuclear reaction

413
00:39:33,600 --> 00:39:35,240
to actually start to speed up.

414
00:39:35,240 --> 00:39:38,120
So, with more boiling,
more steam is produced,

415
00:39:38,120 --> 00:39:39,600
the rate of fission increases.

416
00:39:41,800 --> 00:39:44,120
Water then kept being
pumped into the reactor

417
00:39:44,120 --> 00:39:46,440
with the aim of cooling it down,
had the opposite effect.

418
00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:53,200
The more fission increases,
the more steam is produced,

419
00:39:53,200 --> 00:39:55,320
more bubbles,
and it's a positive feedback.

420
00:39:57,960 --> 00:40:01,120
It's a never-ending cycle
until you get to a very dangerous,

421
00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:02,720
unstable point in the reactor.

422
00:40:08,840 --> 00:40:11,280
In Reactor 4's control room,

423
00:40:11,280 --> 00:40:15,000
Leonid Toptunov is monitoring
the reactor's power level.

424
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:18,800
A few seconds into the test,
he's scared by what he sees.

425
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:25,680
As the reactor overheated
Toptunov finally saw this.

426
00:40:25,680 --> 00:40:28,640
He called across and said
temperatures are just skyrocketing

427
00:40:28,640 --> 00:40:30,320
inside the reactor.

428
00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:35,040
With the reactor out of control,
there's only one course of action.

429
00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:42,760
The emergency button to shut
the reactor down was hit.

430
00:40:48,400 --> 00:40:52,120
The test had been running
for just 36 seconds.

431
00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:55,680
Instead of shutting down,

432
00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:57,840
when that emergency button
was pressed,

433
00:40:57,840 --> 00:41:00,040
the power continued to increase.

434
00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:03,280
It keeps perpetuating and keeps
growing and growing and growing.

435
00:41:03,280 --> 00:41:05,560
You have no water left
in the reactor.

436
00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:06,800
You have just steam.

437
00:41:09,200 --> 00:41:11,320
The fuel channels ruptured.

438
00:41:12,840 --> 00:41:14,600
The amount of steam increased.

439
00:41:16,320 --> 00:41:18,200
You've got more heat, more power,

440
00:41:18,200 --> 00:41:21,200
and a runaway reaction happens.

441
00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:25,400
There's nothing
that can be done at this point.

442
00:41:27,280 --> 00:41:29,040
The Unit 4 reactor explodes.

443
00:41:57,240 --> 00:42:00,760
First thought that crossed the mind
of some of them was,

444
00:42:00,760 --> 00:42:03,320
"OK, it is probably an earthquake."

445
00:42:06,360 --> 00:42:09,480
They wouldn't have been prepared
for what had happened

446
00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:10,640
inside the reactor.

447
00:42:19,120 --> 00:42:22,120
Two people die instantly
in the explosion.

448
00:42:23,560 --> 00:42:27,160
Others are now being exposed
to lethal doses of radiation.

449
00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:53,960
Inside a nearby fire station,
the telephone rings.

450
00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:15,640
The fight to save Chernobyl
has begun.

451
00:43:30,480 --> 00:43:34,280
With radiation pouring out of
Chernobyl's number four reactor...

452
00:43:39,720 --> 00:43:42,240
..the Soviet government
does everything it can

453
00:43:42,240 --> 00:43:44,200
to conceal the accident...

454
00:43:44,200 --> 00:43:46,120
They couldn't control radiation,

455
00:43:46,120 --> 00:43:48,840
so they were trying to control
the information.

456
00:43:48,840 --> 00:43:51,040
..with deadly consequences.

457
00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:54,760
Nobody knows how many people died
as a result of that delay.

458
00:45:27,700 --> 00:45:30,820
A Soviet dream
that became a nightmare.

459
00:45:33,820 --> 00:45:38,420
A disaster
officials tried to cover up

460
00:45:38,420 --> 00:45:40,300
as a brave few battled to stop

461
00:45:40,300 --> 00:45:42,900
radiation spreading
across the globe.

462
00:45:44,380 --> 00:45:46,820
Using top secret Soviet documents...

463
00:45:48,620 --> 00:45:51,780
..and hearing from those
who risked everything...

464
00:45:59,660 --> 00:46:01,220
..this is the story of

465
00:46:01,220 --> 00:46:04,260
one of the world's worst
nuclear accidents.

466
00:46:26,540 --> 00:46:28,860
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant -

467
00:46:28,860 --> 00:46:31,060
Reactor Number 4 is on fire.

468
00:46:33,300 --> 00:46:36,260
That was a picture worthy
of Dante Inferno.

469
00:46:38,300 --> 00:46:41,060
There had never been
a fire like this before.

470
00:46:41,060 --> 00:46:43,980
A long-overdue safety test
on Reactor Number 4

471
00:46:43,980 --> 00:46:45,980
has gone disastrously wrong.

472
00:46:49,620 --> 00:46:53,940
What had once been a 17-storey
building wasn't there any more.

473
00:46:53,940 --> 00:46:55,740
It's clear the reactor's finished.

474
00:46:55,740 --> 00:46:57,460
It's gone. It's in flames.

475
00:47:00,340 --> 00:47:03,860
The firefighters' hoses are actually
melting under the intense heat.

476
00:47:03,860 --> 00:47:06,740
The asphalt under their feet
was melting to...

477
00:47:06,740 --> 00:47:08,380
..sucking their boots off.

478
00:47:08,380 --> 00:47:12,540
The severe heat is the least
of the firefighters' problems.

479
00:47:14,460 --> 00:47:17,940
The firefighters who were first
on scene reported tasting

480
00:47:17,940 --> 00:47:19,180
a metallic taste in the air.

481
00:47:21,140 --> 00:47:23,300
And this was essentially particles

482
00:47:23,300 --> 00:47:24,860
of the nuclear fuel itself.

483
00:47:32,420 --> 00:47:35,900
As firefighters contend
with the radioactive inferno,

484
00:47:35,900 --> 00:47:38,900
the man in charge inside
the reactor's control room

485
00:47:38,900 --> 00:47:41,780
is deputy chief engineer
Anatoly Dyatlov.

486
00:47:48,140 --> 00:47:50,740
Dyatlov and his colleagues
in the control room are trying

487
00:47:50,740 --> 00:47:52,500
to make sense of
what's just happened.

488
00:47:52,500 --> 00:47:55,340
The control panel is telling Dyatlov

489
00:47:55,340 --> 00:47:58,300
there's no water
in the reactor system.

490
00:47:58,300 --> 00:48:01,780
That would be amazingly terrifying.

491
00:48:01,780 --> 00:48:05,020
I can't imagine what
that must have been like.

492
00:48:09,140 --> 00:48:12,620
You have to have constant supply
of very large amounts of water

493
00:48:12,620 --> 00:48:15,460
to keep the reactor cool,
or it will melt down.

494
00:48:18,940 --> 00:48:22,980
Imagine losing water
in your radiator in your car.

495
00:48:22,980 --> 00:48:25,860
The engine overheats,
the parts would...

496
00:48:25,860 --> 00:48:29,060
..distort, it would seize.

497
00:48:29,060 --> 00:48:33,020
The same thing happens
within a nuclear power plant.

498
00:48:34,740 --> 00:48:39,660
Dyatlov thinks his main priority
at this stage is to protect

499
00:48:39,660 --> 00:48:41,420
the reactor.

500
00:48:41,420 --> 00:48:45,380
Dyatlov orders the gates of
the coolant pipe valve to be opened

501
00:48:45,380 --> 00:48:47,820
to get more water into the reactor.

502
00:48:50,780 --> 00:48:54,580
One of the operatives from outside
comes running in and he's got

503
00:48:54,580 --> 00:48:56,420
what's called a nuclear tan -

504
00:48:56,420 --> 00:48:59,940
his face is red and burned
from exposure to radiation -

505
00:48:59,940 --> 00:49:04,620
and he tells Dyatlov that
the Unit 4 reactor has exploded.

506
00:49:04,620 --> 00:49:06,980
It's up in flames,
it's not there any more.

507
00:49:06,980 --> 00:49:11,220
Dyatlov flat-out refuses
to believe him.

508
00:49:11,220 --> 00:49:13,980
He just... He can't acknowledge
the possibility that something

509
00:49:13,980 --> 00:49:15,740
so terrible has happened.

510
00:49:17,540 --> 00:49:19,140
He was in a state of denial.

511
00:49:19,140 --> 00:49:23,340
Just imagine you can be responsible
for what happened.

512
00:49:23,340 --> 00:49:25,860
And Dyatlov just carries on.

513
00:49:28,180 --> 00:49:32,500
Even though the reactor he's trying
to save no longer exists.

514
00:49:46,540 --> 00:49:49,340
25 minutes after the explosion,

515
00:49:49,340 --> 00:49:53,340
making his way to Chernobyl
is the power plant's director,

516
00:49:53,340 --> 00:49:54,900
Viktor Brukhanov.

517
00:49:56,740 --> 00:49:59,540
Brukhanov receives a phone call
at home and he's told there's

518
00:49:59,540 --> 00:50:02,340
been an accident at the plant.

519
00:50:02,340 --> 00:50:04,100
He's not told how serious it is,

520
00:50:04,100 --> 00:50:06,820
so he doesn't really have
a huge sense of urgency.

521
00:50:06,820 --> 00:50:10,020
He actually takes the bus
to the plant.

522
00:50:11,860 --> 00:50:16,340
Engineer Nikolai Steinberg worked
at Chernobyl under Brukhanov.

523
00:50:32,820 --> 00:50:36,460
Brukhanov has been plant director
here since construction started

524
00:50:36,460 --> 00:50:40,700
in 1970, and he's been looking
forward to the day Chernobyl

525
00:50:40,700 --> 00:50:45,220
is completed and he will preside
over the largest nuclear power plant

526
00:50:45,220 --> 00:50:46,660
in the Soviet Union.

527
00:50:47,700 --> 00:50:52,940
But now he sees the wreckage
of the Unit 4 reactor glowing red.

528
00:50:52,940 --> 00:50:56,580
One of his first thoughts
that went through his mind was,

529
00:50:56,580 --> 00:50:57,660
"This is prison."

530
00:50:59,540 --> 00:51:01,540
He would be kept responsible,

531
00:51:01,540 --> 00:51:04,780
and that sooner or later
he would end in prison.

532
00:51:05,980 --> 00:51:11,540
Part of the rules of the game
within the Soviet managerial system

533
00:51:11,540 --> 00:51:16,020
since Stalin's times, that
the director would be always

534
00:51:16,020 --> 00:51:18,380
certainly kept responsible for...

535
00:51:18,380 --> 00:51:20,260
..for what happened.

536
00:51:23,620 --> 00:51:26,740
He retreats to what's known
as the bunker, a safe room,

537
00:51:26,740 --> 00:51:28,460
as it were, underground.

538
00:51:29,500 --> 00:51:31,780
Built at the height of the Cold War

539
00:51:31,780 --> 00:51:35,060
as a shelter in case of
nuclear attack by the West,

540
00:51:35,060 --> 00:51:37,460
now it will act as a crisis centre

541
00:51:37,460 --> 00:51:40,540
for the worst nuclear disaster
in history.

542
00:51:44,260 --> 00:51:47,140
Here, Brukhanov is soon joined
by the power plant's

543
00:51:47,140 --> 00:51:51,140
resident officer from
the security services, the KGB.

544
00:51:53,540 --> 00:51:57,460
They were the government watchdog,
really, performing the role

545
00:51:57,460 --> 00:51:59,220
of the nuclear regulator.

546
00:52:00,700 --> 00:52:03,380
Serious questions
need to be answered.

547
00:52:13,460 --> 00:52:15,180
On the other side of the site,

548
00:52:15,180 --> 00:52:18,340
the fire around Reactor 4
is still raging.

549
00:52:22,500 --> 00:52:25,380
Fighting the fire was
a constant danger but, of course,

550
00:52:25,380 --> 00:52:28,420
the radiation was
a much worse danger for them.

551
00:52:30,660 --> 00:52:36,620
This huge fire would spray extremely
radioactive material into the air.

552
00:52:36,620 --> 00:52:41,300
The fuel itself, the uranium fuel,
was getting blasted up onto the bits

553
00:52:41,300 --> 00:52:44,140
of the roof that survived.

554
00:52:44,140 --> 00:52:47,740
It's estimated that on
parts of the destroyed roof,

555
00:52:47,740 --> 00:52:51,140
radiation is 16 times stronger
than a fatal dose.

556
00:52:53,140 --> 00:52:55,740
The problem with radioactivity
is that you can't see it.

557
00:52:55,740 --> 00:52:58,260
You don't know you're being
exposed to it until much later.

558
00:52:59,620 --> 00:53:03,860
The firefighters are realising
this is no normal fire.

559
00:53:03,860 --> 00:53:05,780
Many are starting to vomit.

560
00:53:07,500 --> 00:53:09,700
They can't go on any more.
More firemen come in,

561
00:53:09,700 --> 00:53:11,380
more firemen go on the roof.
Same thing.

562
00:53:11,380 --> 00:53:14,100
So there's a conveyor belt
of people going up there

563
00:53:14,100 --> 00:53:15,820
and exposing themselves.

564
00:53:18,500 --> 00:53:21,060
In the bunker, Brukhanov is told

565
00:53:21,060 --> 00:53:24,940
radiation readings at the plant
are off the scale.

566
00:53:27,460 --> 00:53:33,100
He refused to accept the high levels
of radiation that were given to him.

567
00:53:33,100 --> 00:53:36,900
Everyone describes Brukhanov
to be really depressed at that time.

568
00:53:36,900 --> 00:53:38,220
High levels meant...

569
00:53:38,220 --> 00:53:42,100
actually, high level of
responsibility for what happened.

570
00:53:44,500 --> 00:53:47,180
Brukhanov had a very difficult
phone call to make to Moscow.

571
00:53:47,180 --> 00:53:49,020
It was convenient for him
to believe that

572
00:53:49,020 --> 00:53:52,420
"Maybe it's not as bad
as we think it is."

573
00:53:52,420 --> 00:53:57,300
Brukhanov orders water to be put
into the system to save the reactor.

574
00:54:00,140 --> 00:54:02,580
There was nothing to save any more.

575
00:54:07,020 --> 00:54:11,340
Senior reactor control engineer
Leonid Toptunov is the man

576
00:54:11,340 --> 00:54:13,540
trying to fulfil this order.

577
00:54:13,540 --> 00:54:16,300
Leonid Toptunov was
a young engineer,

578
00:54:16,300 --> 00:54:19,700
he was 25 years old
and relatively inexperienced.

579
00:54:19,700 --> 00:54:22,260
It's one of the reasons why he
was on the night shift,

580
00:54:22,260 --> 00:54:24,940
because that's where you gained your
spurs, as it were.

581
00:54:28,740 --> 00:54:32,300
It was only the third month
that he was on that job.

582
00:54:32,300 --> 00:54:33,740
It came with prestige,

583
00:54:33,740 --> 00:54:35,700
it came with his high salary,

584
00:54:35,700 --> 00:54:40,500
and so he was living...
living his life dream.

585
00:54:42,100 --> 00:54:45,980
Toptunov heads deep
into the smouldering plant.

586
00:54:45,980 --> 00:54:50,420
Radiation levels here are now
100,000 times higher than normal.

587
00:54:51,540 --> 00:54:54,420
It could kill a person
in just four minutes.

588
00:55:11,380 --> 00:55:16,060
Five hours after an explosion
at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

589
00:55:16,060 --> 00:55:20,620
In the daylight, it becomes clear
this accident is catastrophic.

590
00:55:24,340 --> 00:55:27,220
The reactor's nuclear core
is exposed,

591
00:55:27,220 --> 00:55:30,500
and sending smoke into the air.

592
00:55:30,500 --> 00:55:33,340
Inside the smoke from the fire
were particles

593
00:55:33,340 --> 00:55:34,820
of nuclear fuel itself.

594
00:55:34,820 --> 00:55:37,380
So the actual
very radioactive material

595
00:55:37,380 --> 00:55:39,180
inside of the reactor core

596
00:55:39,180 --> 00:55:40,660
was emitted as smoke.

597
00:55:42,620 --> 00:55:47,620
Toxic radiation thousands of times
higher than normal background levels

598
00:55:47,620 --> 00:55:50,060
is spreading far beyond the plant.

599
00:56:06,740 --> 00:56:10,420
The town of Pripyat,
two miles from the power plant.

600
00:56:13,900 --> 00:56:18,580
It's a normal, normal day, a spring
day with lots of people being about.

601
00:56:47,020 --> 00:56:50,780
Among them was
electrical engineer Vladimir Kagan.

602
00:57:17,300 --> 00:57:20,300
There are lots of children about,
weddings taking place.

603
00:57:20,300 --> 00:57:23,540
And they, of course, are absolutely
unaware of the catastrophe

604
00:57:23,540 --> 00:57:26,500
that has already happened
and of the danger that they're in.

605
00:57:44,900 --> 00:57:46,260
At the power plant,

606
00:57:46,260 --> 00:57:51,020
senior reactor control engineer
Leonid Toptunov and his foremen

607
00:57:51,020 --> 00:57:52,740
are on a doomed mission.

608
00:57:55,180 --> 00:57:58,740
They're following orders to get
water into the reactor system

609
00:57:58,740 --> 00:58:01,660
to prevent nuclear meltdown.

610
00:58:01,660 --> 00:58:05,300
If there's no reactor left,
there is no point in actually

611
00:58:05,300 --> 00:58:07,020
adding water to that area.

612
00:58:08,340 --> 00:58:10,380
But the electrics have failed,

613
00:58:10,380 --> 00:58:12,820
so they're doing the job manually.

614
00:58:17,260 --> 00:58:21,020
That's where they got
really hit by radiation.

615
00:58:22,780 --> 00:58:25,380
Being very sick, already vomiting.

616
00:58:25,380 --> 00:58:28,980
Despite this,
the men refused to give up.

617
00:58:28,980 --> 00:58:31,660
Their conduct after the explosion

618
00:58:31,660 --> 00:58:32,940
is really, truly heroic.

619
00:58:32,940 --> 00:58:34,860
That they are prepared to sacrifice

620
00:58:34,860 --> 00:58:37,900
everything they've got,
including their lives.

621
00:58:39,060 --> 00:58:43,780
They turn on the valves, allow
more water to flow into the reactor.

622
00:58:45,500 --> 00:58:47,500
But, of course,
it's all to no avail.

623
00:58:47,500 --> 00:58:49,020
The reactor's not there any more.

624
00:58:52,980 --> 00:58:56,580
But in the process, what they are
doing is they're exposing themselves

625
00:58:56,580 --> 00:58:58,900
to what turn out to be
fatal levels of radiation.

626
00:58:58,900 --> 00:59:00,820
In less than three weeks,

627
00:59:00,820 --> 00:59:03,100
Toptunov would be dead.

628
00:59:13,940 --> 00:59:16,580
At Pripyat Hospital,

629
00:59:16,580 --> 00:59:19,980
the steady flow of plant workers
and firefighters arriving

630
00:59:19,980 --> 00:59:22,100
from Chernobyl is increasing.

631
00:59:24,340 --> 00:59:28,580
They now had around 90 patients,
all suffering from something

632
00:59:28,580 --> 00:59:31,860
the doctors had never
encountered before -

633
00:59:31,860 --> 00:59:33,220
radiation sickness.

634
00:59:34,340 --> 00:59:36,780
If you get a big dose of radiation,

635
00:59:36,780 --> 00:59:39,380
it's got enough energy
to damage DNA.

636
00:59:40,460 --> 00:59:43,060
The reason it's called
radiation sickness is because

637
00:59:43,060 --> 00:59:44,940
one of the first symptoms
is vomiting,

638
00:59:44,940 --> 00:59:49,500
because the cells of this
lining of your digestive system

639
00:59:49,500 --> 00:59:52,660
replicate rapidly
and they're vulnerable to radiation.

640
00:59:54,500 --> 00:59:58,220
After the initial vomiting,
other symptoms develop,

641
00:59:58,220 --> 01:00:01,340
like hair loss, fever
and radiation burns.

642
01:00:03,540 --> 01:00:06,260
For some of them, it probably
would have been palliative care,

643
01:00:06,260 --> 01:00:09,180
because there wasn't
much else you could do.

644
01:00:09,180 --> 01:00:12,020
But even those patients
who weren't beyond help

645
01:00:12,020 --> 01:00:14,300
didn't get the treatment they needed.

646
01:00:17,140 --> 01:00:20,420
Civilian hospitals in the Soviet
Union are not prepared for the kind

647
01:00:20,420 --> 01:00:23,980
of disaster that the Chernobyl
explosion produces.

648
01:00:25,900 --> 01:00:28,620
This is not just because
they haven't got the resources

649
01:00:28,620 --> 01:00:30,140
or they're underfunded.

650
01:00:30,140 --> 01:00:35,780
They're not permitted to even accept
the possibility that a disaster

651
01:00:35,780 --> 01:00:37,420
like this could happen.

652
01:00:45,740 --> 01:00:48,220
Nearly 10 hours after the accident.

653
01:00:50,420 --> 01:00:55,020
Tanker trucks start
spraying the streets of Pripyat.

654
01:00:55,020 --> 01:00:58,540
This detergent is supposed to absorb
the radioactive material

655
01:00:58,540 --> 01:01:01,820
from Chernobyl that's already
reached the town.

656
01:01:08,340 --> 01:01:12,140
But the people of Pripyat,
going about their Saturday morning,

657
01:01:12,140 --> 01:01:15,140
have been told nothing
about the accident.

658
01:01:15,140 --> 01:01:17,900
The Soviet Union wanted
to keep a lid on this.

659
01:01:17,900 --> 01:01:20,100
They didn't want to tell
anybody about that.

660
01:01:20,100 --> 01:01:23,740
And that applied both to the West,
but also to their own citizens.

661
01:01:25,780 --> 01:01:28,020
They couldn't control radiation,
so they were trying

662
01:01:28,020 --> 01:01:29,940
to control the information.

663
01:01:33,660 --> 01:01:37,660
There was a ring of steel
imposed around Pripyat.

664
01:01:37,660 --> 01:01:41,700
If anyone tried to leave the city,
they wouldn't have had much joy.

665
01:01:41,700 --> 01:01:45,740
They cut down almost immediately
the telephone communication

666
01:01:45,740 --> 01:01:49,260
between the city of Pripyat
and the outside world.

667
01:01:51,940 --> 01:01:54,500
The Soviet Union didn't do bad news.

668
01:01:57,100 --> 01:01:59,300
Catastrophes, accidents,

669
01:01:59,300 --> 01:02:01,460
nuclear disasters didn't happen
in the Soviet Union.

670
01:02:01,460 --> 01:02:02,580
They may happen abroad,

671
01:02:02,580 --> 01:02:04,860
they may happen in
capitalist countries,

672
01:02:04,860 --> 01:02:06,740
but not in the Soviet Union.

673
01:02:09,900 --> 01:02:14,180
To keep their totalitarian grip,
the Soviet Communist government

674
01:02:14,180 --> 01:02:17,420
need to maintain their
apparent invincibility.

675
01:02:24,860 --> 01:02:27,460
But word is starting to spread
around Pripyat

676
01:02:27,460 --> 01:02:29,580
about an accident at the plant.

677
01:02:35,860 --> 01:02:37,500
The operators who worked there,

678
01:02:37,500 --> 01:02:40,060
they were coming back and they were
talking to their families.

679
01:02:40,060 --> 01:02:43,780
Some people already knew
that something bad happened.

680
01:03:04,340 --> 01:03:07,260
The security services
need to take action.

681
01:03:08,700 --> 01:03:12,140
Secret documents reveal
how they ensured silence.

682
01:03:13,420 --> 01:03:16,860
The KGB reports that measures
have been taken to prevent

683
01:03:16,860 --> 01:03:19,700
the spread of information
about the accident,

684
01:03:19,700 --> 01:03:22,620
and dissemination of
panic-causing rumours.

685
01:03:25,540 --> 01:03:29,140
Panic is a euphemism for
people learning the truth.

686
01:03:30,460 --> 01:03:34,740
KGB was considered
to be all-powerful organisation,

687
01:03:34,740 --> 01:03:37,940
with ears and eyes everywhere.

688
01:03:37,940 --> 01:03:41,860
It didn't take much to convince
the population

689
01:03:41,860 --> 01:03:44,980
that they had to be
really very careful.

690
01:03:44,980 --> 01:03:49,820
No-one is to find out what happened
earlier that night at Chernobyl.

691
01:04:07,340 --> 01:04:10,100
Moscow, more than 400 miles away

692
01:04:10,100 --> 01:04:13,580
from the Chernobyl
Nuclear Power Plant.

693
01:04:13,580 --> 01:04:16,100
A report about the accident
arrives for the leader

694
01:04:16,100 --> 01:04:18,820
of the Soviet Union,
Mikhail Gorbachev.

695
01:04:20,900 --> 01:04:25,100
When Mikhail Gorbachev came
to power in March of 1985,

696
01:04:25,100 --> 01:04:26,740
he was quite different.

697
01:04:28,620 --> 01:04:33,220
He was talking the talk of change
and reform and opening up.

698
01:04:36,060 --> 01:04:38,380
The introduction of glasnost -

699
01:04:38,380 --> 01:04:42,620
or openness, as it is sometimes
translated into English.

700
01:04:42,620 --> 01:04:46,100
The state invited
citizens' participation

701
01:04:46,100 --> 01:04:49,860
in voicing their concern
about problems in the economy,

702
01:04:49,860 --> 01:04:51,980
in society, and
how to overcome them.

703
01:04:55,540 --> 01:04:58,220
Gorbachev really looked
like a Western leader.

704
01:04:58,220 --> 01:05:01,060
He talked and behaved
like a Western leader.

705
01:05:01,060 --> 01:05:03,260
And he was the man
that Margaret Thatcher said

706
01:05:03,260 --> 01:05:04,860
that she could do business with.

707
01:05:09,100 --> 01:05:12,540
Despite Gorbachev's calls
for honesty and openness,

708
01:05:12,540 --> 01:05:16,740
when the report from Chernobyl
arrives, it tells him virtually

709
01:05:16,740 --> 01:05:19,020
nothing of what actually happened.

710
01:05:20,180 --> 01:05:23,580
If you read that document, it looks
like, yes, something bad happened,

711
01:05:23,580 --> 01:05:28,500
but all the bad, mostly,
was in the past, that the radiation

712
01:05:28,500 --> 01:05:31,220
levels were low, manageable,

713
01:05:31,220 --> 01:05:32,820
the fire extinguished.

714
01:05:36,780 --> 01:05:38,180
Those who were reporting to him

715
01:05:38,180 --> 01:05:40,500
were hoping that
they could localise the incident.

716
01:05:40,500 --> 01:05:43,220
This is a very famous
Soviet euphemism

717
01:05:43,220 --> 01:05:45,580
for not telling the whole truth.

718
01:05:49,300 --> 01:05:52,540
We can deal with this without
it getting to the very top,

719
01:05:52,540 --> 01:05:55,020
and therefore all of us
getting into a lot of trouble.

720
01:05:59,300 --> 01:06:02,180
But the Chernobyl disaster
is so huge

721
01:06:02,180 --> 01:06:04,940
it would prove impossible to hide.

722
01:06:18,900 --> 01:06:21,020
200 miles north of Chernobyl.

723
01:06:23,980 --> 01:06:26,780
On the day that
the Chernobyl disaster happened,

724
01:06:26,780 --> 01:06:28,940
I was in Minsk, in Belarus.

725
01:06:28,940 --> 01:06:30,060
I was in school.

726
01:06:32,180 --> 01:06:34,860
I was only nine years old,
but I remember that day well

727
01:06:34,860 --> 01:06:37,100
because an extraordinary thing
happened.

728
01:06:37,100 --> 01:06:40,220
When I was sitting with the rest of
my classmates in the classroom,

729
01:06:40,220 --> 01:06:44,380
the door opened and my mum asked
if she could take me home.

730
01:06:45,500 --> 01:06:49,900
My father happened to work at
the Institute of Nuclear Research

731
01:06:49,900 --> 01:06:51,780
near Minsk.

732
01:06:51,780 --> 01:06:55,700
The institute detected some
extraordinary levels of radiation,

733
01:06:55,700 --> 01:07:00,580
and my father telephoned my mum
and asked her to bring me home,

734
01:07:00,580 --> 01:07:03,380
close windows and clean our shoes.

735
01:07:09,180 --> 01:07:13,780
With radiation continuing to pour
out of the reactor, the government

736
01:07:13,780 --> 01:07:16,060
in Moscow will be forced to act...

737
01:07:23,700 --> 01:07:26,740
..but in Pripyat,
life carries on as usual.

738
01:07:44,340 --> 01:07:47,220
Then, a day and a half
after the accident...

739
01:08:49,260 --> 01:08:53,940
The residents of Pripyat were told
the city was being evacuated.

740
01:08:53,940 --> 01:08:57,580
They were given one hour
to collect together some belongings,

741
01:08:57,580 --> 01:09:01,100
a couple of days' worth of clothing,
their identity papers,

742
01:09:01,100 --> 01:09:04,860
and told to assemble at
various points throughout the city

743
01:09:04,860 --> 01:09:07,100
where buses had been laid on
to take them away.

744
01:09:34,900 --> 01:09:39,500
In just four hours, the entire
population of Pripyat

745
01:09:39,500 --> 01:09:40,820
would be evacuated.

746
01:09:59,820 --> 01:10:01,460
This was much too late.

747
01:10:01,460 --> 01:10:06,180
People had already been exposed
to very large amounts of radiation.

748
01:10:08,300 --> 01:10:12,540
Nobody knows how many people died
as a result of that delay.

749
01:10:23,340 --> 01:10:25,220
As Pripyat began to empty,

750
01:10:25,220 --> 01:10:28,540
a helicopter is taking off
on a special mission.

751
01:10:31,300 --> 01:10:36,020
It was pretty quickly clear
that spraying water into the reactor

752
01:10:36,020 --> 01:10:38,620
was not going to put out
these fires.

753
01:10:41,180 --> 01:10:44,620
So they decided that
they would have to smother the fire.

754
01:10:44,620 --> 01:10:48,180
And the only way to do that
was to bring in helicopters.

755
01:10:49,700 --> 01:10:54,100
Each helicopter has to lift
a small portion of the 50,000 bags

756
01:10:54,100 --> 01:10:57,140
of sand it's estimated
will be needed to drop them

757
01:10:57,140 --> 01:10:58,740
into the reactor core.

758
01:11:00,740 --> 01:11:03,380
These were military trained
helicopter pilots,

759
01:11:03,380 --> 01:11:05,180
so they knew what they were doing.

760
01:11:05,180 --> 01:11:06,820
They were very skilled.

761
01:11:08,140 --> 01:11:11,660
And, of course,
they were very brave.

762
01:11:11,660 --> 01:11:15,340
Captain Alexander Maruhin flew
alongside other helicopter pilots

763
01:11:15,340 --> 01:11:17,900
who were trying to put out the fire.

764
01:12:43,780 --> 01:12:46,820
It was a very risky undertaking.

765
01:12:46,820 --> 01:12:49,180
They had to fly low because
they were dropping material

766
01:12:49,180 --> 01:12:52,060
into a space something
like five metres wide.

767
01:12:52,060 --> 01:12:56,260
So the lower they were, the better
chance they had of success.

768
01:12:56,260 --> 01:12:57,900
But, of course, the lower they were,

769
01:12:57,900 --> 01:12:59,740
the more radiation
they're exposed to.

770
01:13:01,300 --> 01:13:04,340
And they were allowed to fly over
just for a few seconds

771
01:13:04,340 --> 01:13:07,220
so that hopefully they didn't
get too much radiation.

772
01:13:07,220 --> 01:13:09,780
But they had to do it
again and again and again.

773
01:13:40,820 --> 01:13:46,460
Workers at a nuclear power plant
north of Stockholm in Sweden

774
01:13:46,460 --> 01:13:48,100
went into work.

775
01:13:49,540 --> 01:13:52,820
On their way, walking to work,
there was some rain.

776
01:13:56,300 --> 01:14:00,140
They had to pass through the testing
area designed to make sure

777
01:14:00,140 --> 01:14:03,700
they didn't take any radiation out
after they'd been at work.

778
01:14:03,700 --> 01:14:07,940
They were setting off
the alarm bells as they walked in.

779
01:14:07,940 --> 01:14:10,100
The Swedes didn't know
to start with.

780
01:14:10,100 --> 01:14:12,340
Why should workers coming in to work

781
01:14:12,340 --> 01:14:15,580
in a nuclear power plant
in the morning set off the alarm?

782
01:14:17,580 --> 01:14:21,260
The radioactivity that was emitted
into the atmosphere at Chernobyl,

783
01:14:21,260 --> 01:14:24,460
it didn't form a single cloud
that sat over the countryside

784
01:14:24,460 --> 01:14:26,060
and just poured radioactivity down,

785
01:14:26,060 --> 01:14:29,020
it was spread out across
a vast part of Europe.

786
01:14:29,020 --> 01:14:31,820
And so any time that it did rain,
there was a chance

787
01:14:31,820 --> 01:14:34,100
that radioactivity would come
from the sky

788
01:14:34,100 --> 01:14:35,740
and fall onto the ground.

789
01:14:38,820 --> 01:14:43,660
In Sweden, engineers check the power
plant for a radiation leak.

790
01:14:43,660 --> 01:14:45,220
They find no problems.

791
01:14:48,420 --> 01:14:51,060
They knew it wasn't
from their reactor.

792
01:14:51,060 --> 01:14:53,260
They worked out where
the wind had come from,

793
01:14:53,260 --> 01:14:55,300
and they realised
it came from the south.

794
01:14:55,300 --> 01:14:59,700
And it very quickly became clear
that something had happened

795
01:14:59,700 --> 01:15:01,140
in the Soviet Union.

796
01:15:02,220 --> 01:15:05,740
Despite the Soviets' best efforts
to hide Chernobyl,

797
01:15:05,740 --> 01:15:09,180
the accident is impossible
to conceal any longer.

798
01:15:28,340 --> 01:15:32,380
Three days after the toxic nuclear
smoke started to be released

799
01:15:32,380 --> 01:15:34,300
by Reactor 4 at Chernobyl,

800
01:15:34,300 --> 01:15:37,260
Radio Moscow broadcast
this statement.

801
01:16:12,380 --> 01:16:14,900
There's sort of a 20-second report
that something has happened

802
01:16:14,900 --> 01:16:16,380
at the Chernobyl power plant,

803
01:16:16,380 --> 01:16:19,180
but there's no... There's nothing
concrete that's telling people

804
01:16:19,180 --> 01:16:21,100
anything that
they really need to know.

805
01:16:23,700 --> 01:16:26,660
Despite the danger,
life in the Soviet Union

806
01:16:26,660 --> 01:16:28,260
carries on as normal.

807
01:16:30,180 --> 01:16:35,300
The May Day parades were
coming up very soon in Ukraine

808
01:16:35,300 --> 01:16:37,220
and across the rest
of the Soviet Union.

809
01:16:37,220 --> 01:16:40,580
There's tens of thousands of people
on the street celebrating,

810
01:16:40,580 --> 01:16:44,660
and exposing themselves
to potentially deadly radiation.

811
01:16:44,660 --> 01:16:47,660
Risking the lives
and risking the health

812
01:16:47,660 --> 01:16:51,300
of populations, including children,

813
01:16:51,300 --> 01:16:53,660
was considered to be acceptable.

814
01:17:22,100 --> 01:17:24,420
Five days after
the catastrophic accident

815
01:17:24,420 --> 01:17:27,020
at the Chernobyl
Nuclear Power Plant,

816
01:17:27,020 --> 01:17:28,100
it's May Day.

817
01:17:29,980 --> 01:17:33,580
1st of May was a major holiday
in the Soviet Union.

818
01:17:33,580 --> 01:17:36,820
It was the Labour Day,
as it is in this country,

819
01:17:36,820 --> 01:17:40,180
but, of course, in the Soviet Union,
it had enormous political

820
01:17:40,180 --> 01:17:43,740
significance because the Soviet
Union is the state of the workers,

821
01:17:43,740 --> 01:17:45,620
the state of the labourers.

822
01:17:48,020 --> 01:17:51,540
It was a day off, no matter
which day of the week it was.

823
01:17:54,700 --> 01:17:58,180
It was the day when
you celebrated socialism.

824
01:17:58,180 --> 01:18:00,820
So there were military parades,

825
01:18:00,820 --> 01:18:03,540
people's parades.
Everybody was out on the street.

826
01:18:03,540 --> 01:18:05,660
And this is generally
a happy occasion.

827
01:18:12,580 --> 01:18:16,900
May Day parades are also
taking place throughout the USSR,

828
01:18:16,900 --> 01:18:21,060
including the towns and cities
much closer to Chernobyl.

829
01:18:33,820 --> 01:18:36,660
There was a very strong argument
for cancelling the May Day parade

830
01:18:36,660 --> 01:18:38,180
in Kyiv in particular.

831
01:18:38,180 --> 01:18:40,860
Kyiv is 100 kilometres
from Chernobyl.

832
01:18:43,420 --> 01:18:46,940
It was experiencing
very high levels of radiation.

833
01:18:48,220 --> 01:18:53,420
Secret KGB documents reveal how
little concern the authorities had

834
01:18:53,420 --> 01:18:57,020
about the danger of
holding the celebrations.

835
01:18:57,020 --> 01:19:01,540
You probably would assume
that the report,

836
01:19:01,540 --> 01:19:04,740
especially three days
after the accident,

837
01:19:04,740 --> 01:19:07,780
would deal exclusively
with Chernobyl,

838
01:19:07,780 --> 01:19:10,460
that that would be
the main preoccupation.

839
01:19:10,460 --> 01:19:14,060
Well, in reality, the report
is about something else.

840
01:19:15,260 --> 01:19:20,420
The major Soviet holiday was coming
up, and they were there to assure

841
01:19:20,420 --> 01:19:23,180
that there would be
no sign of dissent.

842
01:19:24,860 --> 01:19:27,860
That was one of
the tasks of the KGB.

843
01:19:27,860 --> 01:19:30,740
They just didn't change
their mode of operation,

844
01:19:30,740 --> 01:19:34,260
Chernobyl or no Chernobyl,
radiation or no radiation.

845
01:19:34,260 --> 01:19:38,660
It does have a slightly unfortunate
choice of words where it leads

846
01:19:38,660 --> 01:19:41,780
by saying that the preparations
for the celebrations

847
01:19:41,780 --> 01:19:44,700
are taking place in
an exceptionally healthy

848
01:19:44,700 --> 01:19:48,300
political situation in
the republic, which may be so,

849
01:19:48,300 --> 01:19:52,180
but "healthy" is not something
that applies to the area

850
01:19:52,180 --> 01:19:54,020
at this particular moment.

851
01:19:57,460 --> 01:20:01,180
Cancelling the May Day celebrations,
it would have sent a clear message

852
01:20:01,180 --> 01:20:04,980
that something was clearly up,
both at home and abroad.

853
01:20:07,220 --> 01:20:09,580
Gorbachev couldn't
allow that to happen.

854
01:20:09,580 --> 01:20:12,860
It's one of the more controversial
decisions of his career.

855
01:20:16,220 --> 01:20:20,580
But as the celebrations continued,
the wind direction changed.

856
01:20:21,740 --> 01:20:24,300
Prevailing winds
and the weather systems

857
01:20:24,300 --> 01:20:29,380
were moving the radiation cloud
away from Ukraine,

858
01:20:29,380 --> 01:20:30,620
across Belarus...

859
01:20:31,860 --> 01:20:32,980
..and into Russia.

860
01:20:37,620 --> 01:20:39,260
Within the Soviet Union,

861
01:20:39,260 --> 01:20:41,580
all states are supposed
to be equal, but clearly

862
01:20:41,580 --> 01:20:43,340
some were more equal than others.

863
01:20:43,340 --> 01:20:45,900
And at the top of the tree
was always Russia.

864
01:20:45,900 --> 01:20:47,780
It was the seat of government.

865
01:20:47,780 --> 01:20:50,380
It was where many of
the leaders came from.

866
01:20:50,380 --> 01:20:52,980
It was the most powerful,
the richest state

867
01:20:52,980 --> 01:20:56,300
within the Soviet Union,
and it needed to be protected.

868
01:20:57,580 --> 01:21:01,500
Reportedly, a top secret operation
named Cyclone begins.

869
01:21:02,700 --> 01:21:05,820
It sounds like something
out of a sci-fi movie, or...

870
01:21:05,820 --> 01:21:09,900
It sounds ridiculous,
but it actually happened.

871
01:21:09,900 --> 01:21:14,580
Military airplanes loaded with
silver iodide took to the skies

872
01:21:14,580 --> 01:21:18,620
and chased those clouds moving
from Ukraine in the direction

873
01:21:18,620 --> 01:21:20,820
of the Russian Republic

874
01:21:20,820 --> 01:21:25,100
and shot the clouds -
literally shot the clouds -

875
01:21:25,100 --> 01:21:29,060
with silver iodide capsules
to make it rain.

876
01:21:32,740 --> 01:21:36,300
It rained over Belarus and the rain
brought down the radioactive fallout

877
01:21:36,300 --> 01:21:40,820
matter onto the ground and onto
the people who lived there,

878
01:21:40,820 --> 01:21:43,540
several hundred thousands of people.

879
01:21:43,540 --> 01:21:46,940
They became victims
of the radioactive rain.

880
01:21:49,980 --> 01:21:53,660
In many respects, Belarus
is a forgotten victim of Chernobyl.

881
01:21:53,660 --> 01:21:55,900
It suffered extensive damage,

882
01:21:55,900 --> 01:21:59,220
its economy was ruined
for many years.

883
01:21:59,220 --> 01:22:01,980
And a large part of this,
or a contributory part of this,

884
01:22:01,980 --> 01:22:05,940
is the fact that huge areas
of its productive farmland,

885
01:22:05,940 --> 01:22:07,780
forests, became irradiated.

886
01:22:10,940 --> 01:22:13,620
One of the main areas of
contamination I've worked in

887
01:22:13,620 --> 01:22:15,420
in the east of Belarus

888
01:22:15,420 --> 01:22:18,980
has levels of radioactive caesium

889
01:22:18,980 --> 01:22:22,940
that is almost the same
as what you see in Chernobyl.

890
01:22:22,940 --> 01:22:26,140
The Soviet Union needed help,
and it would arrive

891
01:22:26,140 --> 01:22:27,700
through back channels.

892
01:22:38,900 --> 01:22:41,420
Over 6,000 miles from Chernobyl,

893
01:22:41,420 --> 01:22:43,700
at the University of California,

894
01:22:43,700 --> 01:22:48,140
a bone marrow transplant specialist,
Dr Robert Gale, was getting ready

895
01:22:48,140 --> 01:22:49,780
to fly to Moscow.

896
01:22:49,780 --> 01:22:53,500
And I got a call in
the middle of the night from

897
01:22:53,500 --> 01:22:56,620
Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin,

898
01:22:56,620 --> 01:23:01,380
who said that Mr Gorbachev
had asked him to ask me

899
01:23:01,380 --> 01:23:02,660
to come to Moscow.

900
01:23:04,500 --> 01:23:08,300
I grabbed my toothbrush
and hopped on the next flight.

901
01:23:09,900 --> 01:23:12,420
The flight was empty.

902
01:23:12,420 --> 01:23:16,380
I mean, there was me and
the pilot and two stewardesses.

903
01:23:17,740 --> 01:23:19,900
You know, most people
with any common sense

904
01:23:19,900 --> 01:23:21,580
were headed the other way.

905
01:23:23,820 --> 01:23:26,940
We have to remember that
in April 1986,

906
01:23:26,940 --> 01:23:29,700
the Cold War is
still very much on.

907
01:23:29,700 --> 01:23:33,780
The fact that the Soviets accepted
help from the Americans does suggest

908
01:23:33,780 --> 01:23:37,940
that by that point they realised
that the situation was serious.

909
01:23:41,140 --> 01:23:48,100
I was spirited off the plane
and into a limousine

910
01:23:48,100 --> 01:23:51,340
and taken directly to the hospital.

911
01:23:53,940 --> 01:23:57,460
Dr Gale arrives at
Hospital Number Six in Moscow.

912
01:24:00,340 --> 01:24:04,580
Here, the Chernobyl firefighters
and workers who received the highest

913
01:24:04,580 --> 01:24:07,100
doses of radiation
are being treated.

914
01:24:09,340 --> 01:24:10,780
Their bone marrow -

915
01:24:10,780 --> 01:24:14,540
stuff in our bones that
produces the red blood cells

916
01:24:14,540 --> 01:24:16,940
and white blood cells
and platelets -

917
01:24:16,940 --> 01:24:19,340
has been irreversibly destroyed,

918
01:24:19,340 --> 01:24:22,020
so they're going to die
of infection or bleeding.

919
01:24:24,420 --> 01:24:28,580
Dr Gale had a pioneering solution
to help these patients.

920
01:24:31,620 --> 01:24:35,220
Well, there are hormones
that stimulate your bone marrow.

921
01:24:35,220 --> 01:24:37,540
And my colleagues and I at UCLA

922
01:24:37,540 --> 01:24:42,260
had molecularly cloned
those hormones.

923
01:24:45,540 --> 01:24:49,780
Drug companies were in the process
of developing this as a treatment.

924
01:24:49,780 --> 01:24:53,660
So you would give this hormone
to some cancer patient

925
01:24:53,660 --> 01:24:55,380
who got chemotherapy,

926
01:24:55,380 --> 01:24:58,100
and this would make
their bone marrow recover.

927
01:24:58,100 --> 01:25:04,180
Now, we had given these hormones
to mice and dogs

928
01:25:04,180 --> 01:25:06,500
and even monkeys,

929
01:25:06,500 --> 01:25:10,180
but we haven't given it
to humans before.

930
01:25:10,180 --> 01:25:12,940
Of course, the Politburo said no.

931
01:25:12,940 --> 01:25:17,780
They said, "Well, we don't want
Soviet citizens to be guinea pigs."

932
01:25:19,340 --> 01:25:21,540
I came up with an idea, which was,

933
01:25:21,540 --> 01:25:23,780
"Why don't you inject this into me

934
01:25:23,780 --> 01:25:26,660
"so these firefighters
won't be the first?"

935
01:25:27,860 --> 01:25:31,940
Dr Gale and his Russian counterpart
at Hospital Six

936
01:25:31,940 --> 01:25:34,940
both took doses of
the untested hormones.

937
01:25:37,580 --> 01:25:40,180
Our blood counts went up
the next morning.

938
01:25:40,180 --> 01:25:42,780
We were the guinea pigs
and we got permission.

939
01:25:44,380 --> 01:25:48,260
We had about 204 people
in the hospital

940
01:25:48,260 --> 01:25:50,700
with radiation sickness.

941
01:25:50,700 --> 01:25:52,900
29 of them died.

942
01:25:52,900 --> 01:25:57,060
So we were able to rescue
more than 90%.

943
01:26:01,060 --> 01:26:05,300
Six days after the accident,
an exclusion zone is set up

944
01:26:05,300 --> 01:26:07,420
around the Chernobyl
Nuclear Power Plant.

945
01:26:09,700 --> 01:26:14,420
The higher-ups decided that maybe,
after all, they ought to evacuate

946
01:26:14,420 --> 01:26:19,100
people from 100 or so other villages
in the surrounding areas.

947
01:26:19,100 --> 01:26:24,140
So they created this 20-mile
exclusion zone around the reactor,

948
01:26:24,140 --> 01:26:26,620
and that remains in place
to this day.

949
01:26:26,620 --> 01:26:30,260
But the exclusion zone
is not the only area

950
01:26:30,260 --> 01:26:32,780
that has suffered
radioactive fallout.

951
01:26:35,100 --> 01:26:38,700
The radioactive cloud
from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor

952
01:26:38,700 --> 01:26:40,580
has now spread across
the whole of Britain,

953
01:26:40,580 --> 01:26:42,300
according to official readings.

954
01:26:52,580 --> 01:26:56,820
In the UK, the May bank holiday
weekend is getting under way.

955
01:26:58,620 --> 01:27:01,060
Radiation spread with the winds.

956
01:27:01,060 --> 01:27:06,860
Any parcel of air that had gone
over Chernobyl during the ten days

957
01:27:06,860 --> 01:27:09,580
when it was burning was radioactive.

958
01:27:15,500 --> 01:27:18,100
And some of it just spread
across the North Sea

959
01:27:18,100 --> 01:27:20,620
and started raining out
over Scotland and Wales.

960
01:27:26,260 --> 01:27:29,620
People started to be told that
they shouldn't go out in the rain.

961
01:27:31,300 --> 01:27:34,380
People wouldn't harvest
vegetables from their allotments

962
01:27:34,380 --> 01:27:35,940
because they were frightened.

963
01:27:35,940 --> 01:27:39,180
This is in the UK, not just around
the corner from the reactor.

964
01:27:39,180 --> 01:27:41,540
So people were very worried.

965
01:27:41,540 --> 01:27:43,420
The authorities were very worried.

966
01:27:47,380 --> 01:27:52,580
It was, I remember, a really scary
time when it was going on.

967
01:27:57,500 --> 01:27:59,740
CHILDREN LAUGH

968
01:27:59,740 --> 01:28:03,940
The whole of Europe was
frightened by what might happen.

969
01:28:21,100 --> 01:28:23,940
A deadly clean-up operation begins.

970
01:28:23,940 --> 01:28:26,420
The rule really was that
the job had to be done.

971
01:28:26,420 --> 01:28:30,660
The liquidators were really the
heroes of the story of Chernobyl.

972
01:28:30,660 --> 01:28:34,180
A shocking tragedy adds
to the death toll.

973
01:28:39,020 --> 01:28:42,900
And war threatens the safety
of Chernobyl once more.

974
01:28:42,900 --> 01:28:47,500
The unthinkable of attacking
nuclear power stations has happened.

975
01:29:35,200 --> 01:29:37,920
A Soviet dream that became a
nightmare.

976
01:29:41,160 --> 01:29:43,680
A disaster officials tried to cover
up...

977
01:29:45,360 --> 01:29:47,920
..as a brave few battled to stop
radiation

978
01:29:47,920 --> 01:29:49,680
spreading across the globe.

979
01:29:51,400 --> 01:29:53,920
Using top secret Soviet documents

980
01:29:55,600 --> 01:29:58,320
and hearing from those, who risked
everything...

981
01:30:06,760 --> 01:30:11,880
..this is the story of one of the
world's worst nuclear accidents.

982
01:30:37,880 --> 01:30:39,160
It's been eight days

983
01:30:39,160 --> 01:30:42,440
since Chernobyl's fourth nuclear
reactor exploded.

984
01:30:46,440 --> 01:30:48,840
The core of the reactor is
smouldering,

985
01:30:48,840 --> 01:30:51,440
releasing large amounts of
radioactive material

986
01:30:51,440 --> 01:30:52,680
into the atmosphere.

987
01:30:55,800 --> 01:30:59,440
Helicopters battled to stop this
deadly radiation escaping

988
01:30:59,440 --> 01:31:00,720
from the molten core.

989
01:31:02,480 --> 01:31:04,160
The temperatures,

990
01:31:04,160 --> 01:31:09,200
which we are led to believe were in
excess of 2,000 Kelvin,

991
01:31:09,200 --> 01:31:13,000
would annihilate anything that came
into that vicinity.

992
01:31:14,640 --> 01:31:20,920
So, the way to use that is to think
about how we can use the heat

993
01:31:20,920 --> 01:31:24,640
to melt a structure that would act
as a neutron absorber.

994
01:31:26,760 --> 01:31:29,560
A number of different things were
tried.

995
01:31:29,560 --> 01:31:33,360
It was decided to dump a lot of sand
on top of the reactor core.

996
01:31:35,000 --> 01:31:37,440
Temperature and radiation levels are
rising.

997
01:31:39,400 --> 01:31:42,360
There was a need to think about
other types of element

998
01:31:42,360 --> 01:31:44,560
to encase that fallout.

999
01:31:45,680 --> 01:31:50,320
Lead and a rare element called boron
are added to the sand.

1000
01:31:50,320 --> 01:31:53,880
Up to 200 drops are made every day.

1001
01:31:53,880 --> 01:31:57,640
They were tasked with going on what
they call "bombing runs",

1002
01:31:57,640 --> 01:32:00,680
filling up sandbags and dropping
them

1003
01:32:00,680 --> 01:32:04,160
through quite a narrow hole in the
roof onto the reactor below.

1004
01:32:04,160 --> 01:32:05,840
It's incredibly dangerous work.

1005
01:32:08,680 --> 01:32:11,640
The entire time, the people in the
helicopter were receiving

1006
01:32:11,640 --> 01:32:13,440
quite a high dose of radioactivity.

1007
01:32:15,520 --> 01:32:17,600
The reactor is leaking radiation

1008
01:32:17,600 --> 01:32:20,640
that's up to ten times above a
lethal dose.

1009
01:32:23,960 --> 01:32:26,720
One of the pilots who flew over the
disaster site

1010
01:32:26,720 --> 01:32:30,000
is Soviet Captain Alexander Maruhin.

1011
01:33:05,800 --> 01:33:10,560
In total, 5,000 tonnes of materials
are dropped onto the reactor.

1012
01:33:12,920 --> 01:33:17,920
Nine days after the disaster, the
temperature begins to fall

1013
01:33:17,920 --> 01:33:21,720
and the radiation leak suddenly
drops by 99%.

1014
01:33:26,200 --> 01:33:30,400
But by then, the radiation leak
outside the plant is huge.

1015
01:33:33,080 --> 01:33:37,240
Large areas of Ukraine are now
highly radioactive.

1016
01:33:45,200 --> 01:33:49,440
The Soviet Government announced an
ambitious clean-up operation.

1017
01:33:49,440 --> 01:33:51,720
Thousands of people are drafted in
to Chernobyl

1018
01:33:51,720 --> 01:33:53,680
from across the Soviet Union.

1019
01:33:56,960 --> 01:34:01,800
Most of those were young men and
they were given a job to do

1020
01:34:01,800 --> 01:34:04,880
without really being told the full
consequences of...

1021
01:34:04,880 --> 01:34:06,840
..of what they were undertaking.

1022
01:34:08,000 --> 01:34:10,800
They become known as liquidators.

1023
01:34:12,080 --> 01:34:16,040
Liquidators was a Russian term to
describe the people

1024
01:34:16,040 --> 01:34:18,120
who were engaged in the clean-up,

1025
01:34:18,120 --> 01:34:22,960
mostly soldiers and other military
people, many of them conscripts,

1026
01:34:22,960 --> 01:34:25,160
brought in to do the dirty work.

1027
01:34:28,720 --> 01:34:30,920
Ultimately, around 600,000 people
were involved

1028
01:34:30,920 --> 01:34:32,520
in this liquidation campaign.

1029
01:34:34,320 --> 01:34:37,280
This is a high-risk operation.

1030
01:34:37,280 --> 01:34:39,880
Working in and around the disaster
site,

1031
01:34:39,880 --> 01:34:44,040
the liquidators risk being exposed
to high levels of radiation.

1032
01:34:58,160 --> 01:35:04,160
2,000 roentgen is 10,000 times
higher than background radiation

1033
01:35:04,160 --> 01:35:09,880
and many liquidators like Vladimir
Kagan are sent into areas like this

1034
01:35:09,880 --> 01:35:12,600
with little or no safety equipment.

1035
01:35:32,600 --> 01:35:36,200
The liquidators were definitely
inadequately equipped

1036
01:35:36,200 --> 01:35:39,160
for the dangers that they were
facing.

1037
01:35:40,560 --> 01:35:42,880
The rule really was that the job
had to be done,

1038
01:35:42,880 --> 01:35:45,560
and if there wasn't the safety
equipment,

1039
01:35:45,560 --> 01:35:47,400
then people simply weren't given it.

1040
01:35:49,000 --> 01:35:52,320
Many liquidators travel miles from
Chernobyl.

1041
01:35:52,320 --> 01:35:56,840
They move from village to village,
searching for radiation hot spots.

1042
01:35:58,480 --> 01:36:02,720
The release of radiation from the
Chernobyl disaster was so intense

1043
01:36:02,720 --> 01:36:07,920
that anything that came into that
vicinity would've been irradiated.

1044
01:36:10,960 --> 01:36:15,400
Many towns and villages were
affected by radiation.

1045
01:36:15,400 --> 01:36:21,120
Where a building was infected, it
was sprayed with a decontaminant.

1046
01:36:21,120 --> 01:36:24,320
It was a viscous liquid that
caused...

1047
01:36:24,320 --> 01:36:26,680
..any radiation to adhere to the
side of the building.

1048
01:36:26,680 --> 01:36:28,880
So, the building itself became a
kind of...

1049
01:36:28,880 --> 01:36:33,120
Almost flypaper, where irradiated
material was stuck to it.

1050
01:36:35,360 --> 01:36:40,040
In other places, where the radiation
levels were even higher,

1051
01:36:40,040 --> 01:36:44,200
bulldozers were sent in and entire
villages were completely flattened.

1052
01:36:54,760 --> 01:36:56,720
Abandoned homes are searched.

1053
01:36:59,640 --> 01:37:02,120
Cars are collected.

1054
01:37:02,120 --> 01:37:06,960
Anything registering high levels of
radiation is removed and buried.

1055
01:37:12,560 --> 01:37:18,040
Then, some liquidators are sent on a
bleak search and destroy operation.

1056
01:37:20,200 --> 01:37:21,400
GUNSHOTS

1057
01:37:22,880 --> 01:37:26,600
You needed to remove all the
livestock

1058
01:37:26,600 --> 01:37:30,840
and much of the wildlife as well
because it was radioactive.

1059
01:37:32,000 --> 01:37:33,440
GUNSHOTS

1060
01:37:35,280 --> 01:37:39,480
They went into towns, villages,
found animals -

1061
01:37:39,480 --> 01:37:42,920
pet dogs, cats - and shot them.

1062
01:37:42,920 --> 01:37:45,040
It's terrible, soul-destroying work.

1063
01:37:52,480 --> 01:37:55,080
As the clean-up operation continues,

1064
01:37:55,080 --> 01:37:59,680
helicopter pilot Alexander Maruhin
is recruited for a special mission.

1065
01:38:24,320 --> 01:38:26,680
Harmful levels of radiation are
detected

1066
01:38:26,680 --> 01:38:29,200
up to 19 miles from the disaster
site.

1067
01:38:32,080 --> 01:38:35,760
During one flight over this
contaminated countryside,

1068
01:38:35,760 --> 01:38:38,200
Alexander makes a surprise
discovery.

1069
01:39:15,240 --> 01:39:19,680
Their cows are likely producing milk
that's highly radioactive.

1070
01:39:21,840 --> 01:39:24,400
In the aftermath of the disaster,

1071
01:39:24,400 --> 01:39:27,960
over 100,000 people are taken to
hospital for examination.

1072
01:39:30,600 --> 01:39:34,200
If radioactive iodine gets into the
food chain,

1073
01:39:34,200 --> 01:39:36,560
and particularly into milk,

1074
01:39:36,560 --> 01:39:40,960
almost all of it goes to this small
thyroid gland in our neck,

1075
01:39:40,960 --> 01:39:45,800
and so they got really very, very
high doses of radiation

1076
01:39:45,800 --> 01:39:47,400
to their thyroid gland.

1077
01:39:49,000 --> 01:39:51,640
Across the vast radioactive
landscape,

1078
01:39:51,640 --> 01:39:53,960
many people fear that they've been
poisoned.

1079
01:39:55,560 --> 01:39:58,680
They didn't know what physical
damage they'd suffered,

1080
01:39:58,680 --> 01:40:01,280
whether they had radiological
symptoms,

1081
01:40:01,280 --> 01:40:05,000
whether they were suffering more
cancers than you would've expected.

1082
01:40:05,000 --> 01:40:06,120
They feared it.

1083
01:40:21,240 --> 01:40:24,240
Soviet authorities face a dilemma.

1084
01:40:24,240 --> 01:40:28,080
Chernobyl used to produce 10% of
Ukraine's electricity

1085
01:40:28,080 --> 01:40:30,840
and that power is still needed.

1086
01:40:30,840 --> 01:40:33,080
Despite the huge dangers involved,

1087
01:40:33,080 --> 01:40:37,920
it's decided the three working
reactors must be switched back on.

1088
01:40:59,000 --> 01:41:01,960
Before Chernobyl can begin producing
power again,

1089
01:41:01,960 --> 01:41:04,440
two things must happen -

1090
01:41:04,440 --> 01:41:08,000
highly radioactive material has to
be disposed of

1091
01:41:08,000 --> 01:41:11,360
and the destroyed reactor must be
enclosed.

1092
01:41:13,600 --> 01:41:15,040
This was...

1093
01:41:15,040 --> 01:41:16,520
..easier said than done

1094
01:41:16,520 --> 01:41:19,160
because nothing like this had ever
happened before

1095
01:41:19,160 --> 01:41:22,560
and nobody had the experience of
building a containment device

1096
01:41:22,560 --> 01:41:25,000
to prevent further radiation
escaping.

1097
01:41:30,440 --> 01:41:32,680
An ambitious plan is drawn up.

1098
01:41:32,680 --> 01:41:36,480
A large metal structure will be
built called the Sarcophagus.

1099
01:41:36,480 --> 01:41:41,480
It was essentially a series of
flat-packed slabs of concrete

1100
01:41:41,480 --> 01:41:45,440
and steel built off-site, put
together,

1101
01:41:45,440 --> 01:41:49,080
moved into position around what was
left of the reactor building,

1102
01:41:49,080 --> 01:41:50,480
and then, assembled.

1103
01:41:54,760 --> 01:41:56,640
This turned out to be probably

1104
01:41:56,640 --> 01:41:59,480
the world's largest prefabricated
building.

1105
01:42:30,520 --> 01:42:32,920
The walls of the Sarcophagus are
built,

1106
01:42:32,920 --> 01:42:36,000
but next to the exposed reactor is a
roof

1107
01:42:36,000 --> 01:42:38,400
covered in highly radioactive
material.

1108
01:42:40,680 --> 01:42:44,840
Before operators can go back to
work, this has to be cleared.

1109
01:42:46,160 --> 01:42:50,600
They tried using robotic vehicles,
automated vehicles,

1110
01:42:50,600 --> 01:42:51,680
but it didn't work.

1111
01:42:53,040 --> 01:42:56,880
Essentially, the radioactivity fried
the circuits of those robots

1112
01:42:56,880 --> 01:42:57,960
and they died.

1113
01:42:59,440 --> 01:43:01,320
It became very clear very quickly

1114
01:43:01,320 --> 01:43:04,480
the only solution was to use humans
to do this work.

1115
01:43:04,480 --> 01:43:08,800
And in a grim piece of Soviet irony,
they became known as biorobots.

1116
01:43:15,240 --> 01:43:16,480
SHOUTING

1117
01:43:24,480 --> 01:43:28,040
Soldiers were sent up to clear off
the debris from the roof

1118
01:43:28,040 --> 01:43:30,240
back into the reactor hall.

1119
01:43:31,360 --> 01:43:34,280
They were incredibly brave cos they
faced something

1120
01:43:34,280 --> 01:43:36,880
that was, to them, a terrible
danger.

1121
01:43:41,800 --> 01:43:45,080
Radiation levels on the roof are
extreme.

1122
01:43:45,080 --> 01:43:47,760
Liquidators are given strict time
limits.

1123
01:43:47,760 --> 01:43:49,200
Within 90 seconds,

1124
01:43:49,200 --> 01:43:52,360
they could receive an entire year's
dose of radiation.

1125
01:43:59,800 --> 01:44:02,080
Most of the dose they got was...

1126
01:44:02,080 --> 01:44:07,200
You can't control with suits and
respirators.

1127
01:44:07,200 --> 01:44:11,120
There is an additional risk from
inhalation of radioactivity.

1128
01:44:12,200 --> 01:44:16,440
There's an additional risk if you
get contamination on your body.

1129
01:44:16,440 --> 01:44:19,560
They were getting an external gamma
dose rate risk,

1130
01:44:19,560 --> 01:44:23,400
which goes through any suit that you
can imagine.

1131
01:44:23,400 --> 01:44:27,960
Nearly 4,000 people braved the roof
to clear this deadly material.

1132
01:44:32,840 --> 01:44:34,680
These people were following orders

1133
01:44:34,680 --> 01:44:37,040
and they had to do what they were
being told to do.

1134
01:44:50,240 --> 01:44:53,480
The fear of suffering radiation
sickness drove many

1135
01:44:53,480 --> 01:44:57,320
to use unorthodox ways that they
believed would protect them.

1136
01:44:57,320 --> 01:44:59,280
Some drank vodka.

1137
01:44:59,280 --> 01:45:02,800
Others took even more dangerous and
futile measures.

1138
01:45:34,880 --> 01:45:37,400
Five months after the explosion,

1139
01:45:37,400 --> 01:45:40,600
the roof's radioactive material has
been cleared.

1140
01:45:42,600 --> 01:45:45,640
The Chernobyl power plant's three
working reactors

1141
01:45:45,640 --> 01:45:47,760
can now be switched back on.

1142
01:46:08,240 --> 01:46:11,640
The liquidators raise a flag to
celebrate.

1143
01:46:11,640 --> 01:46:16,080
But within 24 hours, disaster would
strike again.

1144
01:46:20,120 --> 01:46:22,920
As the Sarcophagus neared
completion,

1145
01:46:22,920 --> 01:46:26,680
a military helicopter was flying
over the Sarcophagus,

1146
01:46:26,680 --> 01:46:29,640
pouring decontamination into the
reactor just to...

1147
01:46:29,640 --> 01:46:32,640
As a final cleansing operation, as
it were.

1148
01:47:13,160 --> 01:47:16,840
These four victims add to
Chernobyl's death toll.

1149
01:47:19,280 --> 01:47:22,120
And six months after the explosion,

1150
01:47:22,120 --> 01:47:25,800
now, over 18,000 people have been
admitted to hospital.

1151
01:47:30,600 --> 01:47:34,280
In late November, the Sarcophagus is
sealed.

1152
01:47:36,480 --> 01:47:41,280
They managed to put up the entire
erection in around about 250 days,

1153
01:47:41,280 --> 01:47:43,320
which is quite remarkable.

1154
01:47:43,320 --> 01:47:46,400
The radiation leak has finally been
stopped.

1155
01:47:46,400 --> 01:47:48,800
The world breathes a sigh of relief.

1156
01:47:50,760 --> 01:47:53,120
We're assured it's now completely
safe to be here

1157
01:47:53,120 --> 01:47:56,080
just a few hundred yards away from
reactor number 4.

1158
01:47:56,080 --> 01:47:58,280
When the concrete entombment was
finished,

1159
01:47:58,280 --> 01:48:01,320
the level of radiation went down by
several thousand folds.

1160
01:48:04,200 --> 01:48:09,640
The summer of 1987, Chernobyl makes
headlines once more.

1161
01:48:09,640 --> 01:48:11,880
12 miles from the disaster site,

1162
01:48:11,880 --> 01:48:15,280
inside this building, a trial is
taking place.

1163
01:48:19,320 --> 01:48:23,560
The trial became known as a
so-called open trial

1164
01:48:23,560 --> 01:48:27,480
in the closed zone because they
conducted it in Chernobyl.

1165
01:48:27,480 --> 01:48:30,280
No-one could admit that the system
could fail

1166
01:48:30,280 --> 01:48:33,040
because the system was everything.

1167
01:48:33,040 --> 01:48:36,000
So, the government can't accept that
responsibility.

1168
01:48:36,000 --> 01:48:37,800
It's got to be someone else's fault.

1169
01:48:39,360 --> 01:48:43,600
In the dock are six people,
including Anatoly Dyatlov,

1170
01:48:43,600 --> 01:48:46,320
who was in charge on the night of
the disaster,

1171
01:48:46,320 --> 01:48:49,000
chief engineer Nikolai Fomin

1172
01:48:49,000 --> 01:48:53,480
and Chernobyl's plant director
Viktor Bryukhanov.

1173
01:48:53,480 --> 01:48:55,840
Bryukhanov knew quite well that

1174
01:48:55,840 --> 01:48:58,560
sooner or later he would end in
prison.

1175
01:48:58,560 --> 01:49:03,120
That was part of the unwritten rules
of the game.

1176
01:49:03,120 --> 01:49:05,520
Within the Soviet managerial system,

1177
01:49:05,520 --> 01:49:10,720
the director would be always kept
responsible for...for what happened.

1178
01:49:10,720 --> 01:49:14,760
For many, the verdict in this trial
is a foregone conclusion.

1179
01:49:14,760 --> 01:49:17,680
The authorities have made up their
mind who was responsible

1180
01:49:17,680 --> 01:49:21,640
but there needed to be some form
of public acceptance

1181
01:49:21,640 --> 01:49:25,120
and show of trial and retribution.

1182
01:49:26,440 --> 01:49:29,240
As authorities prepare to pin the
blame,

1183
01:49:29,240 --> 01:49:31,840
secret KGB documents now reveal

1184
01:49:31,840 --> 01:49:34,680
they knew these people weren't
responsible.

1185
01:49:34,680 --> 01:49:38,760
Chernobyl's style of reactor had
major design flaws.

1186
01:49:38,760 --> 01:49:44,320
This document states that in 1987
there were 66 emergency shutdowns

1187
01:49:44,320 --> 01:49:47,640
at nuclear power facilities across
Ukraine,

1188
01:49:47,640 --> 01:49:51,080
which seems to be really very high.

1189
01:49:52,400 --> 01:49:57,040
80% of these shutdowns are
associated with

1190
01:49:57,040 --> 01:50:00,200
design and process equipment.

1191
01:50:01,520 --> 01:50:05,120
It tells me straight away that the
design is...

1192
01:50:06,200 --> 01:50:08,920
..arguably not fit for what its
purpose would be.

1193
01:50:11,120 --> 01:50:14,320
Rather than admit Soviet design was
at fault,

1194
01:50:14,320 --> 01:50:17,960
witnesses are called to try and pin
the blame on those on trial.

1195
01:50:30,680 --> 01:50:32,400
The verdict is announced.

1196
01:50:37,040 --> 01:50:40,880
All are found guilty of violating
safety measures.

1197
01:50:40,880 --> 01:50:46,200
Dyatlov, Bryukhanov and Fomin
receive the maximum sentence -

1198
01:50:46,200 --> 01:50:48,320
ten years hard labour.

1199
01:51:29,920 --> 01:51:32,760
Five years after the Chernobyl
disaster

1200
01:51:32,760 --> 01:51:35,920
and its impact is still being felt.

1201
01:51:35,920 --> 01:51:40,240
It has severely damaged the
stability of the Soviet Union.

1202
01:51:40,240 --> 01:51:43,720
Chernobyl became a catalyst for the
independence movement

1203
01:51:43,720 --> 01:51:46,280
that had been growing, I think,
quite slowly,

1204
01:51:46,280 --> 01:51:49,560
but had been calling for more
autonomy for the republics.

1205
01:51:56,120 --> 01:52:00,320
In Ukraine, the first issues related
to Chernobyl was the demand -

1206
01:52:00,320 --> 01:52:02,760
"Tell us the truth about Chernobyl.

1207
01:52:02,760 --> 01:52:05,400
"Show us the map of the fallout."

1208
01:52:06,960 --> 01:52:11,360
It's impossible to imagine Ukraine's
road to independence

1209
01:52:11,360 --> 01:52:14,680
without mobilisation around
Chernobyl.

1210
01:52:14,680 --> 01:52:18,560
Disillusioned with how the Chernobyl
disaster has been handled,

1211
01:52:18,560 --> 01:52:21,880
the Ukrainian people declare their
independence.

1212
01:52:21,880 --> 01:52:25,200
It's the beginning of the end of the
Soviet Union.

1213
01:52:34,560 --> 01:52:37,160
But in the rush towards
independence,

1214
01:52:37,160 --> 01:52:40,000
the human cost of Chernobyl is
forgotten.

1215
01:52:41,960 --> 01:52:45,960
Many of the liquidators, those who
cleared up the disaster,

1216
01:52:45,960 --> 01:52:47,640
are suffering terribly.

1217
01:53:34,880 --> 01:53:39,160
The official death toll stands at
just 31.

1218
01:53:39,160 --> 01:53:43,400
But those who were at the disaster
site tell a very different story.

1219
01:54:19,600 --> 01:54:23,200
Even for those, who didn't receive a
fatal dose of radiation,

1220
01:54:24,960 --> 01:54:27,240
there is still a huge price to pay.

1221
01:54:30,200 --> 01:54:33,240
People's fear of what might happen
to them because of the radiation.

1222
01:54:51,960 --> 01:54:55,400
You think the radiation is going to
do harm for you,

1223
01:54:55,400 --> 01:54:58,000
so you don't take it as good care of
yourself as you might.

1224
01:54:58,000 --> 01:54:59,960
You might drink more, you might
smoke more,

1225
01:54:59,960 --> 01:55:01,440
you might live more dangerously.

1226
01:55:01,440 --> 01:55:05,640
And so, those factors in the lives
of the liquidators

1227
01:55:05,640 --> 01:55:07,920
have been much more important

1228
01:55:07,920 --> 01:55:10,240
than the radiation dose that they
received.

1229
01:55:16,680 --> 01:55:19,480
By the mid 90's, for those living in
areas

1230
01:55:19,480 --> 01:55:22,440
contaminated by high levels of
radiation,

1231
01:55:22,440 --> 01:55:25,280
there's a growing health crisis.

1232
01:55:25,280 --> 01:55:27,840
I started becoming interested in
Chernobyl,

1233
01:55:27,840 --> 01:55:31,320
when my boss, who was one of the
premier pathologists,

1234
01:55:31,320 --> 01:55:32,960
came back from Belarus.

1235
01:55:32,960 --> 01:55:34,520
He was...he was visibly shaken.

1236
01:55:39,320 --> 01:55:44,080
We have seen an increase in thyroid
cancer...

1237
01:55:44,080 --> 01:55:47,360
..in about 7,000 children.

1238
01:55:47,360 --> 01:55:50,040
Everyone was a child at the time of
the accident.

1239
01:55:52,040 --> 01:55:54,800
We predict there'll be probably

1240
01:55:54,800 --> 01:55:58,240
an excess of 16,000 thyroid cancer
cases

1241
01:55:58,240 --> 01:56:00,880
but that will be spread over a long
period of time,

1242
01:56:00,880 --> 01:56:02,520
so over the next 50 years.

1243
01:56:04,640 --> 01:56:08,880
Most of us were expecting to see far
more different types of cancer

1244
01:56:08,880 --> 01:56:10,640
from exposure to radiation.

1245
01:56:10,640 --> 01:56:12,960
It is possible there may still be an
increase

1246
01:56:12,960 --> 01:56:15,240
but we would've started to see
something by now,

1247
01:56:15,240 --> 01:56:16,920
if it was going to be a big
increase.

1248
01:56:20,920 --> 01:56:25,880
The exact number of deaths caused by
the radiation will never be known

1249
01:56:25,880 --> 01:56:29,600
but the UN estimates it could be as
high as 4,000.

1250
01:56:44,760 --> 01:56:48,440
The city just two miles from the
disaster site

1251
01:56:48,440 --> 01:56:50,400
remains a haunted wasteland.

1252
01:56:54,080 --> 01:56:58,320
Without human interference, nature
is reclaiming the area.

1253
01:57:05,400 --> 01:57:08,600
But at Chernobyl, there's a growing
problem

1254
01:57:08,600 --> 01:57:11,480
that threatens to raise radiation
levels once more.

1255
01:57:17,840 --> 01:57:21,600
Inside the Sarcophagus, it was
essentially continually raining.

1256
01:57:21,600 --> 01:57:23,840
It was because of the heat
difference

1257
01:57:23,840 --> 01:57:27,480
between the inside of the
Sarcophagus and the outside.

1258
01:57:27,480 --> 01:57:29,920
So, everything inside of the reactor
building,

1259
01:57:29,920 --> 01:57:33,360
inside of the Sarcophagus, was
corroding really very badly,

1260
01:57:33,360 --> 01:57:36,440
including the fuel itself, which,
when it corrodes,

1261
01:57:36,440 --> 01:57:38,360
it creates radioactive dust.

1262
01:57:44,000 --> 01:57:46,000
The Sarcophagus is falling apart.

1263
01:57:48,440 --> 01:57:49,920
A lot of it was built,

1264
01:57:49,920 --> 01:57:53,160
so that it was propped up basically
like a house of cards.

1265
01:57:53,160 --> 01:57:55,720
It was really never built to last.

1266
01:57:55,720 --> 01:57:57,880
Sooner or later, it was going to
collapse.

1267
01:58:08,080 --> 01:58:10,720
Workers explore Reactor 4's building

1268
01:58:10,720 --> 01:58:13,320
and discover corrosion in many
areas.

1269
01:58:17,240 --> 01:58:20,440
Recognising the threat Chernobyl
still poses,

1270
01:58:20,440 --> 01:58:23,440
45 countries, including the United
States,

1271
01:58:23,440 --> 01:58:25,920
Russia and the United Kingdom,

1272
01:58:25,920 --> 01:58:29,360
all donate towards a new safe
confinement shelter.

1273
01:58:30,640 --> 01:58:34,200
The overall plan was something like
2.1 billion

1274
01:58:34,200 --> 01:58:37,280
and 1.5 billion of that was for

1275
01:58:37,280 --> 01:58:41,120
the design and construction of the
new safe confinement.

1276
01:58:41,120 --> 01:58:44,720
Work finally starts on the new
structure in 2010,

1277
01:58:44,720 --> 01:58:46,600
but it takes another six years,

1278
01:58:46,600 --> 01:58:49,800
until it's ready to be placed over
the old Sarcophagus.

1279
01:58:54,440 --> 01:58:57,320
It was decided that the best
solution was an arch

1280
01:58:57,320 --> 01:59:00,320
that could be built some distance
away

1281
01:59:00,320 --> 01:59:04,880
with relatively low levels of
radiation exposure,

1282
01:59:04,880 --> 01:59:07,600
and then, slid over the facility,
once it's completed.

1283
01:59:13,800 --> 01:59:18,480
This is to be the largest movable,
land-based structure ever built.

1284
01:59:24,280 --> 01:59:27,040
Sliding something three times the
weight of the Eiffel Tower

1285
01:59:27,040 --> 01:59:31,360
with millimetric precision over
several days.

1286
01:59:33,680 --> 01:59:38,040
The longest slide we did in one day
was about 18 metres

1287
01:59:38,040 --> 01:59:39,720
and it had to slide 300 metres,

1288
01:59:39,720 --> 01:59:41,920
so that gives you an idea of how
long it took.

1289
01:59:41,920 --> 01:59:46,760
And it was slide, stop, check,
slide, stop, check it every time.

1290
01:59:46,760 --> 01:59:49,680
As soon as we got to slide over the
confinement,

1291
01:59:49,680 --> 01:59:52,640
we had to interface with the old
structures.

1292
01:59:52,640 --> 01:59:54,640
We encountered tremendous challenges

1293
01:59:54,640 --> 01:59:57,160
in terms of the radiological risk
there.

1294
01:59:57,160 --> 01:59:59,880
The worst was places, where workers
could work

1295
01:59:59,880 --> 02:00:03,560
for about five minutes a day in
terms of sealing the old structure

1296
02:00:03,560 --> 02:00:07,040
because the radiation levels were so
high.

1297
02:00:07,040 --> 02:00:08,480
At times, we had doubts

1298
02:00:08,480 --> 02:00:11,120
whether we'd actually ever get over
the finishing line.

1299
02:00:18,400 --> 02:00:20,640
The shelter is finally in position.

1300
02:00:23,080 --> 02:00:26,480
As the new confinement structure is
sealed into place,

1301
02:00:26,480 --> 02:00:29,480
radiation levels fall by 90%.

1302
02:00:35,360 --> 02:00:38,880
The lifetime of the new safe
confinement is 100 years.

1303
02:00:38,880 --> 02:00:40,320
The design life is 100 years.

1304
02:00:40,320 --> 02:00:42,480
I have every expectation that it
will actually last

1305
02:00:42,480 --> 02:00:44,040
considerably longer than that.

1306
02:00:47,760 --> 02:00:51,280
Reactor 4 is now safer than it has
ever been

1307
02:00:51,280 --> 02:00:54,120
and the teams start the long and
difficult task

1308
02:00:54,120 --> 02:00:56,640
of deactivating the remaining
reactors.

1309
02:01:03,240 --> 02:01:04,840
But six years on,

1310
02:01:04,840 --> 02:01:09,000
the contained Chernobyl plant is
about to face another catastrophe.

1311
02:01:14,840 --> 02:01:16,200
Once the invasion happened,

1312
02:01:16,200 --> 02:01:18,040
people realised that the invasion
route,

1313
02:01:18,040 --> 02:01:20,480
one of them at least, towards the
capital Kyiv,

1314
02:01:20,480 --> 02:01:22,280
lay through the Exclusion Zone.

1315
02:01:22,280 --> 02:01:27,200
Russia was moving tanks and heavy
equipment through the zone

1316
02:01:27,200 --> 02:01:30,040
and that raised radioactive dust.

1317
02:01:38,760 --> 02:01:40,600
JOURNALIST: Ukraine is under attack.

1318
02:01:40,600 --> 02:01:43,880
It has been since the early hours of
the morning.

1319
02:01:45,800 --> 02:01:48,040
JOURNALIST: Russia pouring troops
and tanks

1320
02:01:48,040 --> 02:01:50,000
into the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

1321
02:01:56,040 --> 02:02:00,280
At the end of February, Russia
invades Ukraine.

1322
02:02:00,280 --> 02:02:03,960
Around Chernobyl, the Ukrainian army
prepares to fight.

1323
02:02:08,040 --> 02:02:10,600
The spectre of another nuclear
disaster

1324
02:02:10,600 --> 02:02:12,600
strikes fear around the world.

1325
02:02:16,400 --> 02:02:20,400
Chernobyl is this word that is
associated with such great horror,

1326
02:02:20,400 --> 02:02:22,760
and the thought that that might
suddenly not be safe

1327
02:02:22,760 --> 02:02:24,280
was a huge cause for concern.

1328
02:02:25,960 --> 02:02:29,920
As Russia invades, Ukraine tries
to establish Chernobyl

1329
02:02:29,920 --> 02:02:33,280
and other nuclear power plants as
no-go areas.

1330
02:02:35,920 --> 02:02:38,320
The Ukrainian authorities were
begging

1331
02:02:38,320 --> 02:02:42,560
the International Atomic Energy
Agency to negotiate a deal,

1332
02:02:42,560 --> 02:02:46,800
in which there would be a 30km
exclusion zone.

1333
02:02:46,800 --> 02:02:50,400
The area that would be prohibited
for any kind of military actions

1334
02:02:50,400 --> 02:02:53,440
and any kind of military operations.

1335
02:02:53,440 --> 02:02:55,600
Their pleas fall on deaf ears.

1336
02:03:00,120 --> 02:03:02,200
Without any agreement in place,

1337
02:03:02,200 --> 02:03:05,560
Chernobyl and all the staff, who
work there, remain a target.

1338
02:03:08,600 --> 02:03:11,400
There's still a lot of people
working on the Chernobyl site.

1339
02:03:11,400 --> 02:03:12,760
A lot of scientists are needed.

1340
02:03:12,760 --> 02:03:14,680
There's a lot of administrators
that are needed.

1341
02:03:14,680 --> 02:03:17,240
There's a lot of maintenance people
that are needed.

1342
02:03:17,240 --> 02:03:19,880
It's about 2,500 people that are
there.

1343
02:03:19,880 --> 02:03:22,160
They're going in and out on a daily
basis.

1344
02:03:24,400 --> 02:03:27,200
The main task to the people working
on the site is really

1345
02:03:27,200 --> 02:03:30,480
just to make sure that the place
stays as safe as it possibly can,

1346
02:03:30,480 --> 02:03:33,520
checking the spent fuel, making sure
that there's no damage

1347
02:03:33,520 --> 02:03:35,200
to any of the containers and so on.

1348
02:03:48,880 --> 02:03:51,320
Within hours of the invasion,

1349
02:03:51,320 --> 02:03:56,040
Russian and Ukrainian forces battle
outside the nuclear power plant.

1350
02:03:56,040 --> 02:04:00,560
I think that really struck a deep
chord and provoked deep fear

1351
02:04:00,560 --> 02:04:03,080
that something might once again go
wrong in Chernobyl.

1352
02:04:03,080 --> 02:04:08,400
The Chernobyl plant is now in the
hands of the Russians.

1353
02:04:08,400 --> 02:04:11,520
It was actually reported that a
shell had hit one of the containers,

1354
02:04:11,520 --> 02:04:13,240
housing the nuclear waste.

1355
02:04:16,640 --> 02:04:19,200
And a spike was recorded in
radiation levels.

1356
02:04:21,280 --> 02:04:24,840
In some areas, the indicators are
showing

1357
02:04:24,840 --> 02:04:29,080
that the radiation level went ten
times up.

1358
02:04:30,200 --> 02:04:34,240
What happened was that Russia was
moving tanks

1359
02:04:34,240 --> 02:04:37,200
and heavy equipment through the
zone...

1360
02:04:39,360 --> 02:04:42,200
..and that raised radioactive dust.

1361
02:04:46,880 --> 02:04:49,920
The rise in radiation levels is
relatively low...

1362
02:04:51,520 --> 02:04:55,400
..but it's a frightening reminder
of what could happen.

1363
02:04:55,400 --> 02:04:58,120
Any nuclear power plant is
strategically important.

1364
02:04:58,120 --> 02:05:00,120
There's the psychological impact of
it,

1365
02:05:00,120 --> 02:05:03,560
of being able to capture something
that will hit the headlines.

1366
02:05:03,560 --> 02:05:05,760
The Russians have now control over
this area,

1367
02:05:05,760 --> 02:05:07,720
where there was a disaster that
happened.

1368
02:05:07,720 --> 02:05:09,240
What's going to happen next?

1369
02:05:17,240 --> 02:05:20,280
Just 13 hours after the invasion
begins,

1370
02:05:20,280 --> 02:05:22,720
Russian forces take over Chernobyl.

1371
02:05:24,280 --> 02:05:26,400
200 workers are taken hostage.

1372
02:05:28,120 --> 02:05:31,640
The Russians then force them to
maintain and run the site,

1373
02:05:31,640 --> 02:05:35,600
which was challenging because...

1374
02:05:35,600 --> 02:05:39,320
..they can't really work seven days
a week, 24 hours a day.

1375
02:05:39,320 --> 02:05:41,600
However professional or however well
trained you are,

1376
02:05:41,600 --> 02:05:43,160
if you're working under duress,

1377
02:05:43,160 --> 02:05:45,440
or if you're working in difficult
circumstances,

1378
02:05:45,440 --> 02:05:47,240
or if you're not getting enough
rest,

1379
02:05:47,240 --> 02:05:49,760
there is a risk you may start to
make mistakes.

1380
02:05:53,880 --> 02:05:56,520
I don't think the taking of the
people hostage

1381
02:05:56,520 --> 02:05:59,920
necessarily was the scary bit.

1382
02:05:59,920 --> 02:06:02,200
If they kicked them all out or they
killed them,

1383
02:06:02,200 --> 02:06:04,600
then that would've been even more
scary.

1384
02:06:04,600 --> 02:06:07,880
The workers are held hostage for the
next 13 days.

1385
02:06:14,600 --> 02:06:18,240
Then, the situation at Chernobyl
worsens.

1386
02:06:20,080 --> 02:06:24,640
On the 9th of March, the power went
down on the Chernobyl site.

1387
02:06:24,640 --> 02:06:27,000
Now, that was significant because
the power is needed

1388
02:06:27,000 --> 02:06:28,920
to keep the air conditioning systems
going

1389
02:06:28,920 --> 02:06:30,920
inside the containment buildings,

1390
02:06:30,920 --> 02:06:33,920
where a lot of the spent nuclear
fuel is being stored.

1391
02:06:36,360 --> 02:06:39,360
More than 30 years have gone into
making this place safe,

1392
02:06:39,360 --> 02:06:42,720
but if the systems they've put in
place are no longer able to function
properly,

1393
02:06:42,720 --> 02:06:44,880
then people would obviously be
worried

1394
02:06:44,880 --> 02:06:46,640
about the potential consequences.

1395
02:06:46,640 --> 02:06:49,240
The loss of power could lead to a
radiation leak.

1396
02:06:51,720 --> 02:06:54,600
If the heat builds up, the water
that's surrounding

1397
02:06:54,600 --> 02:06:57,240
the spent nuclear fuel will begin to
evaporate.

1398
02:06:58,320 --> 02:07:01,640
And that evaporated water will pick
up radiation

1399
02:07:01,640 --> 02:07:06,040
and radioactive isotopes from the
spent fuel rods

1400
02:07:06,040 --> 02:07:08,640
and put them into the atmosphere
in the containment area.

1401
02:07:10,440 --> 02:07:12,880
It would increase the danger in the
area

1402
02:07:12,880 --> 02:07:15,200
and the danger of highly radioactive
isotopes

1403
02:07:15,200 --> 02:07:18,880
escaping into the atmosphere, if
that got vented.

1404
02:07:18,880 --> 02:07:22,440
Information leaks out that the
Russian soldiers don't understand

1405
02:07:22,440 --> 02:07:25,320
the danger the Chernobyl plant
holds.

1406
02:07:25,320 --> 02:07:28,360
They won't have been briefed of the
hazards in Chernobyl.

1407
02:07:28,360 --> 02:07:30,320
In fact, there are reports to
suggest

1408
02:07:30,320 --> 02:07:33,520
that many of them had never even
heard of the Chernobyl disaster.

1409
02:07:38,560 --> 02:07:40,280
With every passing day,

1410
02:07:40,280 --> 02:07:43,680
there's a growing fear about what's
happening inside the plant.

1411
02:07:45,520 --> 02:07:47,920
Suddenly, all monitoring systems

1412
02:07:47,920 --> 02:07:51,440
and all communications to the
outside world are cut.

1413
02:08:02,920 --> 02:08:06,440
Once you cut-off communication, you
can hope that everything's OK.

1414
02:08:06,440 --> 02:08:08,640
You know that there are systems
there,

1415
02:08:08,640 --> 02:08:11,040
but ultimately, you do not know
what's happening.

1416
02:08:13,000 --> 02:08:15,320
Communication is absolutely key.

1417
02:08:17,040 --> 02:08:20,640
Once you lose your situational
awareness,

1418
02:08:20,640 --> 02:08:23,720
then one's mind starts to run riot.

1419
02:08:25,800 --> 02:08:29,640
And when you're looking at a
potential nuclear disaster

1420
02:08:29,640 --> 02:08:33,240
and there is no information going
any way...

1421
02:08:34,800 --> 02:08:38,240
..people obviously start thinking
about what the implications are.

1422
02:08:39,440 --> 02:08:43,600
And because it's nuclear, one is
looking at the worst case scenario.

1423
02:08:50,600 --> 02:08:55,520
After five days, Chernobyl is
reconnected to the power grid.

1424
02:08:55,520 --> 02:09:00,160
When we realised that actually
Chernobyl was back up and running,

1425
02:09:00,160 --> 02:09:02,520
the power was running, people were
there,

1426
02:09:02,520 --> 02:09:04,840
the flow of information was
happening,

1427
02:09:04,840 --> 02:09:06,680
that was a huge relief.

1428
02:09:09,680 --> 02:09:12,840
The workers have been held hostage
for three weeks.

1429
02:09:12,840 --> 02:09:16,000
Conditions inside the plant are
deteriorating.

1430
02:09:17,760 --> 02:09:19,760
It seems unlikely to me that...

1431
02:09:19,760 --> 02:09:23,760
..that Chernobyl had three or four
weeks of food already backed up.

1432
02:09:25,440 --> 02:09:29,160
We know that the Russian army has
got no food.

1433
02:09:29,160 --> 02:09:32,800
So, no doubt, they were on meagre
rations

1434
02:09:32,800 --> 02:09:35,320
with people holding guns over their
head

1435
02:09:35,320 --> 02:09:37,480
and not knowing what was happening
tomorrow.

1436
02:09:37,480 --> 02:09:38,920
I mean, absolutely horrific.

1437
02:09:42,320 --> 02:09:45,760
There were reports of people having
to sleep on chairs

1438
02:09:45,760 --> 02:09:48,280
or in their offices or whatever.

1439
02:09:48,280 --> 02:09:52,080
This is not a place, which is meant
for people to stay there

1440
02:09:52,080 --> 02:09:54,280
for days and days and days.

1441
02:09:54,280 --> 02:09:57,800
The hostages have now exceeded 15
days at the plant.

1442
02:10:00,000 --> 02:10:04,600
The maximum time allowed to keep
radiation exposure to safe levels.

1443
02:10:06,000 --> 02:10:08,760
If the war means that those levels
have not been observed

1444
02:10:08,760 --> 02:10:11,280
or adhered to, then there are
potentially consequences

1445
02:10:11,280 --> 02:10:13,480
for the people, who are working at
the site

1446
02:10:13,480 --> 02:10:16,920
and may have had more exposure than
they should have.

1447
02:10:16,920 --> 02:10:19,320
Word gets out that Russian soldiers,

1448
02:10:19,320 --> 02:10:22,680
digging trenches around Chernobyl,
could be falling sick.

1449
02:10:25,880 --> 02:10:29,000
They won't have understood the
threats from the radiation.

1450
02:10:29,000 --> 02:10:31,680
So, they're sitting there breathing
in the smoke

1451
02:10:31,680 --> 02:10:33,400
with radioactive particles in it,

1452
02:10:33,400 --> 02:10:36,120
the dust that their armoured
vehicles and their wheeled vehicles

1453
02:10:36,120 --> 02:10:38,400
are kicking up with radioactive
isotopes in it

1454
02:10:38,400 --> 02:10:41,560
and not knowing that these are
potentially causing them harm.

1455
02:10:41,560 --> 02:10:44,360
They probably still don't know that
these are causing them harm.

1456
02:10:44,360 --> 02:10:47,240
And I suspect the Ukrainian
scientists haven't told them.

1457
02:10:53,280 --> 02:10:56,040
JOURNALIST: Russian troops have now
pulled out

1458
02:10:56,040 --> 02:10:58,680
of the heavily contaminated
Chernobyl nuclear site.

1459
02:11:00,000 --> 02:11:02,320
After 24 days of captivity,

1460
02:11:02,320 --> 02:11:05,880
the hostages are finally released

1461
02:11:05,880 --> 02:11:08,760
and replacement workers are allowed
to enter the site.

1462
02:11:10,000 --> 02:11:12,520
It was a relief. Things were
starting to get back to normal.

1463
02:11:12,520 --> 02:11:13,880
But it's a reminder that

1464
02:11:13,880 --> 02:11:16,800
in order for the safety procedures
to function properly,

1465
02:11:16,800 --> 02:11:19,160
people need to be allowed to go in
and out,

1466
02:11:19,160 --> 02:11:21,760
not kept there in circumstances,

1467
02:11:21,760 --> 02:11:24,160
which must've been at times
terrifying.

1468
02:11:29,360 --> 02:11:32,480
The Russian targeting of Chernobyl
has highlighted

1469
02:11:32,480 --> 02:11:37,000
the potentially devastating role of
nuclear installations in wartime.

1470
02:11:37,000 --> 02:11:39,360
The last time that we had a
large-scale war in Europe

1471
02:11:39,360 --> 02:11:40,600
was the Second World War.

1472
02:11:40,600 --> 02:11:43,480
This was not a Europe, where there
were nuclear power stations.

1473
02:11:43,480 --> 02:11:45,800
And I think the return of 20th
century war,

1474
02:11:45,800 --> 02:11:48,000
combined with this technology

1475
02:11:48,000 --> 02:11:50,160
that was supposed to be part of a
peaceful future

1476
02:11:50,160 --> 02:11:51,520
has really scared people.

1477
02:11:53,640 --> 02:11:59,240
Russia is really weaponising nuclear
power plants in this war on Ukraine.

1478
02:12:01,520 --> 02:12:06,600
What is happening in Ukraine today
is a warning to the world as a whole

1479
02:12:06,600 --> 02:12:09,960
about the danger of the nuclear
power

1480
02:12:09,960 --> 02:12:13,320
that normally we didn't think about
and didn't talk about.

1481
02:12:13,320 --> 02:12:16,200
And that's what happens once the war
arrives.

1482
02:12:20,640 --> 02:12:25,640
The unthinkable of attacking nuclear
power stations has happened

1483
02:12:25,640 --> 02:12:29,480
and we must make sure that it
doesn't happen in future.

1484
02:12:30,920 --> 02:12:34,480
Chernobyl's deadly legacy began over
30 years ago...

1485
02:12:37,040 --> 02:12:39,960
..and will continue long into the
future.

1486
02:12:41,680 --> 02:12:48,000
The Chernobyl reactors today are a
stark reminder of what happens,

1487
02:12:48,000 --> 02:12:51,040
when you don't think things through,

1488
02:12:51,040 --> 02:12:55,120
when you don't have a plan for what
to do when something goes wrong,

1489
02:12:55,120 --> 02:12:59,000
particularly, when we're talking
about radioactive materials

1490
02:12:59,000 --> 02:13:02,440
that could have severe health
consequences.

1491
02:13:02,440 --> 02:13:05,360
Those materials are now there.

1492
02:13:05,360 --> 02:13:09,000
They may still be there for another
30 years, maybe 300 more years.

1493
02:13:10,960 --> 02:13:14,360
Today, it symbolises different
things for different people.

1494
02:13:15,720 --> 02:13:21,240
It has been a symbol of the danger
that the nuclear power brings along,

1495
02:13:21,240 --> 02:13:26,680
but also, a symbol of the war and
Russian aggression.

1496
02:13:26,680 --> 02:13:30,400
So, Chernobyl really means different
things

1497
02:13:30,400 --> 02:13:33,240
but none of those things is actually
good or positive.