The tragedy that occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant claimed the lives of people and forced the inhabitants of Pripyat to leave the city forever. The scale of the damage caused by this catastrophe still amazes humanity.
Tragedy of the century
It happened on the night of April 26, 1986: an explosion thundered at the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which was located in the city of Pripyat. A terrifying amount of radioactive substances burst out. In especially dangerous places, the level of radiation pollution is thousands of times higher than the standard background radiation. Then the inhabitants of a small town - Pripyat, could not even imagine what awaited them in the future.
A team of 30 firefighters immediately arrived at the scene. They bravely fought the deadly flames, despite the fact that there was no special protective uniform - only masks and shoes. By morning the fire was extinguished. Unfortunately, this cost the lives of many Chernobyl workers.
37 hours after the destruction of the nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, it was decided to evacuate and resettle the population. People were forced to leave their homes, take only documents, the most necessary things and food for several days.
Over the next two weeks, radioactive material was carried by the wind for many thousands of kilometers. Land, water, vegetation within a radius of thirty kilometers became unsuitable for human life, as they posed a health hazard.
After the most grandiose man-made disaster, measures were taken to prevent the danger from spreading. For several weeks, sand and water were poured onto the reactor, but this was not enough. A huge ditch was dug near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where the remains of the reactor, fragments of concrete walls, the clothes of the explosion liquidators were "buried". A month and a half later, a concrete "sarcophagus" was erected over the reactor to prevent radiation from spreading.
Who is guilty
To this day, experts cannot come to a common point of view about the causes of the disaster. It is believed that the reason is the negligence of the designers and builders who built the nuclear power plant. Another point of view is that the failure of the reactor cooling is to blame. Some believe that the explosion was caused by errors in the load-carrying experiments conducted that night. Someone blames the Soviet government, because if the disaster had not been hidden for so long, the damage would have been much less.
It is unambiguous that the so-called "human factor" was at work here. People have made mistakes that cost many health or life, a happy future, a healthy generation.
The echoes of the catastrophe will haunt more than one generation of mankind all over the world.