Victims of Chernobyl. Scale of the disaster

Nuclear power is recognized as one of the safest and most promising. But in April 1986 the world shuddered from an incredible disaster: the reactor at the nuclear power plant near the city of Pripyat exploded. The question of how many Chernobyl victims exist is still the subject of discussion, as there are different evaluation criteria and different versions. There is no doubt, however, that the scale of this disaster is extraordinary. So what is the number of Chernobyl victims in reality? What is the cause of the tragedy?

How it was

On the night of April 26, 1986 , an explosion occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. As a result of the accident, the reactor was completely destroyed, part of the power unit also turned into ruins. Radioactive elements - iodine, strontium and cesium - were emitted into the atmosphere. As a result of the explosion, a fire began, a molten mass of metal, fuel and concrete flooded the lower rooms under the reactor. In the first hours the victims of Chernobyl were small: the employees who were on duty were killed. But the insidiousness of the nuclear reaction is that it has a prolonged, delayed effect. Therefore, the total number of victims continued to increase every day. The increase in victims is also connected with the illiterate behavior of the authorities in carrying out liquidation actions. In the early days, many forces of special services, troops, and militia were put in charge of eliminating the danger and extinguishing the fire, but no one seriously bothered to ensure their safety. Therefore, the number of victims increased many times, although this could be avoided. But here the factor was played by the fact that no one was ready for such a situation, there were no precedents for such large-scale accidents, so a realistic scenario of actions was not developed.

How the nuclear reactor works

The essence of the nuclear power plant is built on a nuclear reaction, during which heat is released. The nuclear reactor provides for the organization of a controlled self-sustaining fission chain reaction. As a result of this process, energy is released, which turns into electricity. For the first time the reactor was launched in 1942 in the USA under the supervision of the famous physicist E. Fermi. The principle of the reactor's operation is based on the chain reaction of uranium decay, during which neutrons appear, all this is accompanied by the emission of gamma radiation and heat. In its natural form, the decay process involves the fission of atoms, which increases in geometric progression. But in the reactor there is a controlled reaction, so the process of atomic fission is limited. Modern types of reactors are best protected by several types of protective systems, therefore they are considered safe. However, practice shows that the harmlessness of such devices can not always be guaranteed, so there is always the risk of accidents that result in people being killed. The victims of Chernobyl are a vivid example of this. After this catastrophe, the reactor protection system was significantly improved, biological sarcophagi appeared, which, according to the developers, are extremely reliable.

The effect of radiation on humans

In the decay of uranium, gamma radiation is released, which is commonly called radiation. This term means the process of ionizing radiation, that is, penetrating through all tissues. As a result of ionization, free radicals are formed, which are the cause of mass destruction of tissue cells. There is a norm, getting that organic tissue successfully resist. But radiation has the property of accumulating throughout life. The defeat of tissues by radiation is called irradiation, and the disease arising in this case is radiation. There are two types of irradiation - external and internal, with the second possible deactivation of radiation (in small doses). While external exposure to rescue methods has not yet been created. The first victims of Chernobyl died from the acute form of radiation sickness precisely because of external irradiation. The severity of radiation exposure is also that it affects the genes and the effects of infection most often have a negative effect on the offspring of the patient. Thus, survivors of infection often record a multiple increase in the birth of children with various genetic diseases. And the children, the victims of Chernobyl, born at the liquidators and visited Pripyat, to that horrible example.

Causes of the disaster

The catastrophe in Chernobyl was preceded by work on testing the emergency mode of "run-out". The test was scheduled for the time the reactor was idle. On April 25, scheduled shutdown of the fourth power unit was to take place. It should be noted that stopping the nuclear reaction is a very complicated process and not fully understood. In this case, the "run-out" mode should have been "rehearsed" for the fourth time. All previous attempts ended in various failures, but then the scale of the experiments was much smaller. In this case, the process did not go as planned. The reaction did not slow down, as was supposed, the power of the energy release increased uncontrollably, as a result - the security systems could not stand it. In 10 seconds since the last alarm, the reaction power has become catastrophic, and several explosions have occurred that destroyed the reactor.

The causes of this event are still being studied. The Commission for the investigation of an emergency incident concluded that it was due to gross violations of instructions by station personnel. They decided to conduct the experiment, despite all the dangerous warnings. Subsequent investigations showed that the scale of the disaster could be reduced if the leadership behaved in accordance with safety rules and if the authorities did not conceal the fact and danger of the disaster.

Also later it turned out that the reactor was completely unprepared for the planned experiments. In addition, there was no established interaction between the personnel serving the reactor, which prevented the station staff from stopping the experiment in time. Chernobyl, the number of victims of which continues to be established, has become a milestone event for nuclear energy around the world.

Events and sacrifices of the first days

At the time of the accident, only a few people were in the reactor zone. The first victims of Chernobyl are two station employees. One died instantly, his body could not even extract from the 130-ton debris, the second died of burns the next morning. A special detachment of firemen was sent to the scene of the fire. Thanks to their efforts, the fire was stopped. They did not allow the fire to reach the third power unit and prevented even greater destruction. But 134 people (rescuers and station personnel) received a huge dose of radiation and 28 people died in the next few months. Of the personal protective equipment, the rescuers had only a tarpaulin uniform and mittens. Major L. Telyatnikov, who took over the leadership of extinguishing the fire, underwent a bone marrow transplant operation, and this helped him survive. The least affected were car drivers and ambulance personnel who arrived when rescuers had acute signs of radiation sickness. Avoid these victims could have been if the rescuers had at least had devices for measuring radiation and basic means of protection.

Actions of the authorities

The scale of the catastrophe, perhaps, would be less if it were not for the actions of the authorities and the media. The first two days were conducted by radiation investigation, and people continued to live in Pripyat. The media was forbidden to talk about the accident, after 36 hours after the accident two short news reports appeared on television. And people were not informed about the threat, there was no necessary deactivation of the infection. When the whole world looked anxiously at the air flows from the USSR, in Kiev people went to the May Day demonstration. All information about the explosion was classified, even doctors and security officials did not know about what happened and to what extent. Later power was justified, saying that they did not want to sow panic. Only in a few days the evacuation of the inhabitants of the region began. But if the authorities started acting earlier, the victims of Chernobyl, whose photos appeared in the media only a few weeks later, would be much smaller.

Elimination of the consequences of the disaster

The contamination zone was cordoned off from the very beginning and the primary elimination of the danger began. The highest dose of radiation was received by the first 600 firefighters who were sent to deactivate radiation. They courageously fought to prevent the spread of the fire, and the nuclear reaction to resume. The territory was covered with a special mixture that prevented the reactor from heating up. In order to prevent a re-heating from the reactor, water was pumped out, beneath it was dug a tunnel that protected from penetration of molten masses into water and soil. Within a few months a sarcophagus was built around the reactor, dams along the Pripyat River were built. People who went to Chernobyl often did not understand the danger, at this time there were a lot of volunteers who wanted to take part in the sweeping of the territory. Some artists, including Alla Pugacheva, gave concerts to the liquidators.

The true scale of the disaster

The total number of "liquidators" for the whole period of work was about 600 thousand people. About 60 thousand of them died, 200 thousand became invalids. Although, according to the government, the victims of Chernobyl, whose photos can now be seen on the websites devoted to the accident, accounted for a much smaller number, only 200 people were officially deemed to have died from the consequences of the liquidation in 20 years. Officially, the zone of alienation is a 30-kilometer territory. But experts say that the zone of defeat is much larger and covers more than 200 square kilometers.

Assistance to the victims of Chernobyl

The state took responsibility for the lives and health of Chernobyl victims. Those who eliminated the consequences of the accident, who lived and worked in the resettlement zone, are entitled to benefits, including a pension, free sanatorium treatment, medicines. But in practice, these benefits were almost ludicrous. After all, many people have to get expensive treatment, for which the pensions are clearly not enough. In addition, it was not easy to get the category "Chernobylets". This led to the emergence of many charitable foundations in the country and abroad that support Chernobyl victims, money donated by people, a monument to the victims of Chernobyl in Bryansk was built, numerous operations were carried out, and benefits were paid to the relatives of the deceased.

New generations of Chernobyl victims

In addition to direct participants and victims of the tragedy called "Chernobyl", the victims of radiation are the children of liquidators and immigrants from the contaminated zone. According to the official version, among the Chernobyl victims of the second generation, the percentage of unhealthy children is slightly higher than the number of similar pathologies among other residents of Russia. But statistics speaks of another. Chernobyl children are much more likely to suffer from genetic diseases, for example, Down's disease, are more prone to oncological diseases.

Chernobyl today

A few months later the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was put into operation. Only in 2000 the Ukrainian authorities permanently stopped its reactors. Over the reactor, a new sarcophagus was built in 2012, construction in 2018 will be completed. Today, the level of radiation in the exclusion zone has significantly decreased, but still 200 times higher than the maximum allowable dose for a person. In Chernobyl, animals continue to live, plants grow and people go there on excursions, despite the danger of infection, some even hunt there and pick mushrooms and berries, although this is strictly prohibited. The victims of Chernobyl, photos of infected places, do not impress modern people, they do not realize the full danger of radiation and therefore consider visiting the Zone as an adventure.

Memory of the victims of Chernobyl

Today, the tragedy is gradually becoming a thing of the past, less often people remember the dead, think about the victims. Although a large number of Chernobyl victims are struggling with serious illnesses, with the ailments of children. Today, more often than not, the Memorial Day of the victims of Chernobyl - April 26 - forces people and the media to remember the tragedy.

The fate of nuclear energy in the world

The catastrophes of the 20th and 21st centuries at the Chernobyl and Fukushima NPPs raised the acute issue of the need to approach the use of nuclear energy more seriously. Today, about 15% of the total energy comes from nuclear power plants, but many countries intend to increase this share. Since it is still one of the cheapest and safest methods of extracting electricity. Chernobyl, whose victims of the accident became a reminder of caution, is now perceived as a distant past. But nevertheless, since the accident, the world has made significant progress in ensuring the safety of nuclear power plants.