There is little doubt that ARS patients, and those with severe skin injury, have The story of the reactor's catastrophic explosion, as told in an HBO/Sky miniseries, has received the highest ever score for a TV show on the film website IMDB. Read about our approach to external linking. There was a comment on a post about him. In that moment, standing where Dyatlov, and [Nikolai] Fomin, and [Viktor] Bryukhanov stood it was very chilling. [4], While the initial Soviet investigation put almost all the blame on the operators and management, later findings by the IAEA found that the reactor design and how the operators were informed of safety information was more significant. In ablaze, he does indeed talk to Akimov and how much he wanted to live.. but Read wasn't talking about Akimov when he said about skin falling off his legs. "The miners are shown as tough guys who are not afraid of anything, but not the power plant workers.". In the days that followed, 32 people died at Chernobyl, and many more suffered radiation burns. The scene where Dr. Khomyuk is jailed by the KGB was filmed in Vilnius at a real former KGB prison. Remember this scene? But Mr Breus believes most Pripyat residents would have slept through the explosion, and he only learned of the accident when he arrived at work the following morning. After the humans evacuated, wildlife grew rapidly with limited predators to hunt them downwild boar multiplied eightfold in the two years following the disaster. Select it and press Ctrl+Enter, Yegor Moskvitin reviews a poignant new depiction of the Soviet disaster, I was there, and I dont want to watch this anymore, A journalist in Baltimore shows HBO's Chernobyl to his stepfather and discovers that he was part of the USSR's military cleanup, The widow of a Chernobyl engineer remembers her husband and describes returning to work at the power plant after the 1986 nuclear accident. He had health problems afterwards.". Firefighters were also asked to help clear radioactive debris from the roof after the fire was extinguished. [3] Due to a design flaw, the descending control rods momentarily accelerated the nuclear reaction and caused the reactor to explode. [4] He worked with Akimov to manually open water valves in an attempt to increase water supply to the reactor, during which time they began to experience symptoms of acute radiation syndrome. "It was just our work. More than 600,000 civil and military personnel have been given the honorary status of Chernobyl liquidators since the cleanup began in 1986. .] Raising power after this point put the reactor into a potentially dangerous state, due to Xenon poisoning, as well as design flaws in the reactor unknown to the operators. "In hospital, I was treated with a guy who biked to that bridge in the morning on 26 April to watch it. Miners were brought in to dig a tunnel under the reactor to create a space for a heat exchanger, to stop the molten core melting through the concrete pad and contaminating the groundwater, threatening millions of lives. "However, the technological aspects have some discrepancies which may not exactly [be] lies, but merely fiction," he adds. Open Wide, O Earth is remarkable for many other details it captures about Soviet life, as well. Ultimately, though, he is happy the show has refocused attention on the disaster and the scale of damage caused. PEREVOZCHENKO It exploded. The buses which escorted the residents out of Pripyat spread the radiation to wider areas. Or something along those lines. Wrong : the poor guy who saw the skin of his leg fell off was Vyacheslav S. Brazhnik, Senior turbine operator. I don't understand why it happened. Akimov eventually succumbed to acute radiation syndrome two weeks after the disaster at the age of 33. At first, they also tried to reason with me, saying, Youre young. Can either be found at house parties telling everyone Charles Manson was only 5ft 2" or at home reading true crime magazines. 21 23 0000005085 00000 n The authors would never pass up a chance to introduce a brand new scientific discovery to the world! Toptunov had literally turned white.". And Oleksiy Breus sees their portrayal as "not a fiction, but a blatant lie". Normally, there is a strict ban on visits to the isolation ward but in hopeless cases the doctors make exceptions. [4] He left the control room but decided to return out of a sense of responsibility. Meduza shares its thoughts about the shows latest installment, Open Wide, O Earth, and looks at some of the showrunners editing decisions. In this article, we will tell you about the supervisor of the shift, Aleksandr Akimov, and his role in the accident. Children are shown playing in the radioactive dust, which falls from the sky like snow. In March 1983, Toptunov began his career at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Even after more than three decades, the death toll of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster is still wildly disputed. Alexander Akimov was the head of the night shift that worked at reactor number 4 on the night of the accident. During the test, Akimov called for the AZ-5 (scram) button to be pressed to shut down the reactor, and Toptunov operated the button. Radioecologist Sergey Gaschak explained, Animals dont seem to sense radiation and will occupy an area regardless of the radiation condition.[10]. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. The puppies are believed to be descendants of the pet dogs that were left behind by their owners; residents were granted only a few hours notice before they were evacuated and advised to only take vital personal belongings and a certain amount of food. It was way worse for him because he received almost 100% burns from radiation both from the inside and the outside, This article in the German Magazine "Stern" describes Akimov's condition : https://www.stern.de/panorama/weltgeschehen/tschernobyl-anatomie-einer-katastrophe-3597302.html, 'Though Akimov has already recovered from the first symptoms of radiation sickness, his skin is brown and his bone marrow is irreparably damaged. What's the least amount of exercise we can get away with? Chernobyl guide Yuri Tatarchuk explained, Kopachi was very badly contaminated and so it was decided to bury it, house by house. There are many theories about the reasons for the nuclear plant explosion, but they all have the same common denominator: the human element. A few hours later Akimov is dead. 0000001208 00000 n They showed us these rooms [], the doors were quite heavy, they were padded on the inside, in case you, I dunno, attempted to smash your head against it. "When he was present at the block, it created tension for everyone. The body of one of them, Valery Khodemchuk, was never recovered from the reactor debris. Chernobyl engineer Oleksiy Breus, then and now, beside the backdrop of the TV portrayal of the disaster, By Viacheslav Shramovych and Hanna Chornous, Mr Breus revisited the reactor's control room 20 years after the disaster struck, Viktor Bryukhanov (left) sits alongside deputy chief engineer Anatoly Dyatlov (orange shirt) and chief engineer Nikolai Fomin during a trial over the accident, British actor Adam Nagaitis played Vasily Ignatenko, one of the first firefighters on the scene of the disaster, The view of the damaged building from the roof of reactor No. I've never seen any reliable source for anything regarding his face. Theres something wrong with you.. Its unknown if this incident caused his sons illness, but screenwriters considered using memories of this personal tragedy as a way to explain Dyatlovs questionable decisions during the Chernobyl disaster. It is the worst human-induced accident that the Earth has ever seen, to say the least of it. Within two weeks, both Mr Akimov and Mr Toptunov had died in a Moscow hospital of acute radiation syndrome (ARS). Unfortunately, it takes these tragic events to impress this on us.[6]. 0000012642 00000 n Witnesses reported he dried, or his body was mummified alive. It seemed a good idea at the time, but it wasnt. Because its so big! 0000001084 00000 n "Another friend treated at the same time said he had a date with his girlfriend close to the bridge that night. Answer (1 of 4): There would have been a hydrogen explosion instead of a steam explosion. Nekhaev even had to have his leg amputated. There are many charities that support facilities which help babies who were born with severe birth defects, including neurological difficulties and heart conditions. TV Shows. In the series, Pripyat residents rush to a railway bridge for a better view of the fire, unaware of the exposure. My body parts not covered by clothes - such as hands, face and neck - were red". [4] By 28 April, the symptoms of radiation sickness had mostly subsided. He was portrayed by actor Volodya Stepanenko in the 2004 Zero Hour TV series. Akimov was exposed during his work to a lethal dose of 15 Gy of radiation. The Chernobyl nuclear accident is one of the most shocking and devastating catastrophes of modern times. Those who take the responsible and leading posts are usually the ones to blame for the failures. When I finished my shift, my skin was brown, as if I had a proper suntan all over my body. They didnt have a clue. He knew he was going to die but didn't want to. Aleksandr Akimov was born on 6 May 1953 in Novosibirsk, Russian SFSR (Republic of the Soviet Union). Found an error? And still the shift leader is ruminating if the catastrophy was his fault: "What have we done wrong? 0000014730 00000 n Once she sees how Akimov is tearing entire strains of his moustache out "Don't worry", he says, "it doesn't hurt. "There are many stereotypes shown, typical of Western portrayal of the Soviet Union," argues Oleksiy Breus. Hours after the explosion, helicopters were flown over Reactor No. A subreddit to discuss the Chernobyl Disaster that happened on the night of April 26, 1986, and the Exclusion Zone that isolates the city of Pripyat from the rest of the world. All three men were sentenced to 10 years in a labour camp for their role in the disaster and series creator Craig Mazin maintains that Dyatlov in particular was a "real bully", who later made statements that were not credible. Role of Akimov in Chernobyl As we know from the official data, Akimov is wrongfully accused of being responsible for the accident. He was portrayed by Michael Colgan in the 2006 BBC production Surviving Disaster: Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster[7] and by Robert Emms in the 2019 HBO miniseries Chernobyl. Once more his temperature increases and then he falls into coma. The shows creators havent managed to keep track of all the little things (even though their attention to detail is why many people fell in love with the miniseries in the first place): Valery Legasov, the character played by Jared Harris, drinks his vodka from a large glass in small sips, as if it were whiskey, and everyone in the cast keeps addressing each other as comrade in complete seriousness. Before he was gone, he told about the test proceedings. [4] During the accident, he was exposed to a fatal radiation dose of 1300rem. Ultimately, though, he is happy the show has refocused attention on the disaster and the scale of damage caused. Pretty sure its true, the story of his face being gone came from just before he died while they were questioning him. DYATLOV We know. I wasn't aware of this new documentary. However, they didnt know about the faults that had been made during the construction of the reactor. "Their characters are distorted and misrepresented, as if they were villains. He was the one who refused to continue with the test. Of course, you can criticize the episode for excessive melodrama: Legasov is suddenly partial to Khomyuk, and the miners who stand up to a coal minister recruiting them for the Chernobyl liquidation effort are too theatrical. Once more his temperature increases and then he falls into coma. Warning: spoilers ahead. For example, Mazin says the showrunners deliberately outfitted the divers at the beginning of the episode with authentic Dynamo wind-up flashlights, using the wonderful noise they emit to create the scenes atmosphere. "The operators were afraid of him," Mr Breus agrees. At first, the head of the tests, Dyatlov A. S., forced them, with his orders, to move away This is how they decided to portray the Minister of Coal Industry Mikhail Shchadov. Their skin had a bright red colour. The locals thought they would later be returning to their homes, but this was never the case. Mr Breus says the series creators showed the radiation effects on the human body well. 03:30 - Telyatnikov contacted Akimov, asking what was happening to his firemen; Akimov sent him a dosimetrist. They later died in hospital in Moscow.". Warning: This story contains plot details from the miniseries. AKIMOV . Some of the events he witnessed that morning were realistically depicted in the show, he says, but others he describes as fiction. The nurses let me in. "It was our job," says Oleksiy Ananenko, who was on shift at the time, while the others had been ordered in by their manager. When the situation got out of control, the AZ-5 button was pressed. During the evening of April 25, engineers made several fatal mistakes, including disconnecting Reactor No. [. Dyatlov ordered Toptunov and Akimov to raise the power to the requisite 700 MW. Instead, the job was handed over to humans, who could not be exposed for any longer than 40 seconds. Months after the Chernobyl disaster, the radioactivity had spread to Galsjo Forest in Sweden. 9:23 into the video, to me it looks like him, Oh God. The city held its annual May Day parades as the government assured citizens everything was normal. Hes not a man anymore, but a reactor. 9:25 is very likely Khodemchuk, and 9:29 is Davletbayev. Two weeks have passed since the explosion as Akimov's suffering is ends. 0000006239 00000 n Akimov heard reports of massive reactor damage, but did not believe it, and as a result relayed false information about the state of the reactor for hours after. . Biography Akimov was born in 1953 in the Soviet Union. When the operators pushed the red button, the reactor didn't stop but exploded.". However, the power reduction had been too abrupt, which put the reactor into a "poisoned" condition (a buildup of 135Xe, a strong neutron absorber), and made the reactor stall. Withdrawing a dangerous number of control rods, the operators could only reach 200 MW due to xenon poisoning. his younger brother is donating bone marrow but the transplant can't stop the decay of the tissue. But Mr Breus believes most Pripyat residents would have slept through the explosion, and he only learned of the accident when he arrived at work the following morning. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Vasily Ivanovich Ignatenko was born on 13 March 1961, in the Brahin District of the Gomel Region of the Byelorussian SSR. The Chernobyl disaster is one of the most famous nuclear catastrophes in the world, but not many people know that if it hadn't been for one man, the damage would have been much worse. His famous quote We did everything correctly has been used in the Chernobyl series by HBO. "They were not looking good, to put it mildly," he says. Also, emotions and mood at that time are shown quite precisely, both among the personnel and the authorities. One of the most dramatic scenes in the miniseries shows three power plant workers volunteering to go into an underground tunnel beneath the damaged reactor to open a vital drainage valve. There was no mention of the flawed construction. xref On the night of April 26, 1986, Alexander Akimov was at work as the shift supervisor of the night crew of Chernobyl Plant Unit Four. ", I'd say it is indeed Akimov, and the man standing next to him might be Kovalenko, reactor#4 supervisor. His burnt lungs hardly let him breathe, his intestines have decomposed, excrements mixed with blood are oozing from his body. startxref Contrary to reports that the three divers died of radiation sickness as a result of their action, all three survived. Many of the liquidators have since suffered from severe health problemssome of which were fatal. Because what it can do is savage. Nevertheless, Mazin says the creators wanted to avoid abusive filmmaking and decided not to show the absolute extremes of radiation sickness. .] The dogs have been driven out of the woods by the wild wolves that habitat the area. [3] However, the reactor stalled unexpectedly during test preparations, dropping to a low 30 MW. They knew where the valves were, so they were the right men for the task. "Its high rankings show that people are still interested in Chernobyl. 1953. For example, everything the show depicts about Lyudmilla and Vasily Ignatenko the bribes, the questions about children, the game of cards, the ban on touching all really happened. Hours after the world's worst nuclear accident, engineer Oleksiy Breus entered the control room of the No. Shift leader Borys Baranov died in 2005, while Valery Bespalov and Oleksiy Ananenko, both chief engineers of one of the reactor sections, are still alive and live in the capital, Kiev. Leonid Fedorovych Toptunov ( Ukrainian: , Russian: ; 16 August 1960 - 14 May 1986) was a Soviet engineer who was the senior reactor control chief engineer at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Reactor Unit 4 on the night of the Chernobyl disaster . Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnFeTe0nDw8. "However, the technological aspects have some discrepancies which may not exactly [be] lies, but merely fiction," he adds. Toptunov, along with non-essential personnel, was dismissed. Don't have high hopes going into this one guys. Mr Breus says the series creators showed the radiation effects on the human body well. It was a cruel time.[7]. According to Sources: Akimov suffered severe Leg Burns and the high amount of radiation caused it face to slowly dissolve away. There were fears that "lava" from the molten reactor could reach the water, triggering a further, potentially far more powerful explosion. Frantic. [4], In 2008, Akimov was posthumously awarded with the 3rd degree Order For Courage by Viktor Yushchenko, then the President of Ukraine.[5]. Their faces were only partially covered by respirators, so they could speak to each other, they were not offered a reward, and they were not clapped on their successful return. Unknown to Akimov, during his work he was exposed to a lethal dose of radiation that was later determined to be 15 Gy. The interviewer said he has no face. I can guarantee that nothing other than necrosis of the skin took place. When Alexander has taken his duties, the reactor was in the state of preparation for the shutdown of the power. This should come as no surprise that the reasons for the explosion are being thoroughly investigated. There have been reports that the skin on his legs fell off like a sock when trying to stand. He was portrayed by actor Aleksandr Khoroshko in the 2004 Zero Hour television series, by Alex Lowe in the 2006 BBC production Surviving Disaster: Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster[6] and by Sam Troughton in the 2019 HBO miniseries Chernobyl. "Now you look like a coal minister." It has nothing to do with reality. And finally they said, The hell with it! Hours after the world's worst nuclear accident, engineer Oleksiy Breus entered the control room of the No. By Rod Adams April 1, 1996. The Emmy-winning HBO mini-series "Chernobyl," which is a dramatized account of the 1986 nuclear power plant disaster, has rekindled conversation about the accident, its subsequent cleanup and the long-term impacts on people living near the power plant. He was talking about another operator Brazhik. In an attempt to contain the disaster, helicopters dumped lead slabs weighing 40 kilograms (88 lb) each on the reactor, followed by several tons of radiation absorbing-sand. They were saving lives, and in doing so they put themselves in the line of fire, and this is a fire that doesnt kill you quickly. This actor is also famous for his acts in the BBC Robin Hood series. Its estimated that more than 900 stray dogs live in the Exclusion Zone. This is some other smaller problem.. The actor playing Alexander Akimov, for instance, was never even put in makeup to depict the loss of his face. International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group, Last edited on 13 February 2023, at 00:49, National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Obninsk Institute for Nuclear Power Engineering, INSAG-7 The Chernobyl Accident: Updating of INSAG-1, "Presidential Decree No. In preparation, Anatoly Dyatlov ordered the power to be reduced to 700 MW, as the test plan stipulated. He has only two weeks left to live. There was one in particular where the floor sloped down, so it was lower than the entrance to the door, and the idea was that youd go into that room, and they would fill it with water, up to your knees or so, so you couldnt sleep. A subreddit to discuss the Chernobyl Disaster that happened on the night of April 26, 1986, and the Exclusion Zone that isolates the city of Pripyat from the rest of the world. I always wonder why toptinov called him sasha? The digging only pushed radioactive material deeper into the soil and closer to the water table, so that contamination spread even further., Today, only two buildings are left standing, one of which is the former kindergarten, where children were not evacuated until 36 hours of exposure. Video, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims, Chernobyl mini-series review: 'It stops you sleeping', Chernobyl disaster: 'I didn't know the truth', Craig Mazin maintains that Dyatlov in particular was a "real bully", The people who moved to the Chernobyl exclusion zone, US-made cheese can be called 'gruyere' - court, AOC under investigation for Met Gala dress, Saving Private Ryan actor Tom Sizemore dies at 61, The children left behind in Cuba's exodus, Walkie Talkie architect Rafael Violy dies aged 78, Alex Murdaugh's legal troubles are far from over, Mother who killed her five children euthanised. Aleksandr Fyodorovich Akimov and Leonid Fedorovych Toptunov "In my opinion, [Aleksandr Akimov and Leonid Toptunov] are the most tragic figures from the Chernobyl personnel. Shift leader Borys Baranov died in 2005, while Valery Bespalov and Oleksiy Ananenko, both chief engineers of one of the reactor sections, are still alive and live in the capital, Kiev. [5], In 2008, Toptunov was posthumously awarded with the 3rd degree Order For Courage by Viktor Yushchenko, then the President of Ukraine.[6]. The Chernobyl disaster, considered the worst nuclear disaster in history, occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, then part of the Soviet Union, now in Ukraine. When I finished my shift, my skin was brown, as if I had a proper suntan all over my body. 4 to evaluate radiation levels. It took 3.5 hours to evacuate. On May 21, the American premium cable network HBO aired the third episode of Chernobyl, a new miniseries about the catastrophic nuclear accident in April 1986 that rocked the Soviet Union. UC San Francisco's Lydia Zablotska, MD, PhD, grew up in Ukraine, trained as physician . Movies. In the weeks immediately after the explosion, 29 power plant workers and firefighters died from ARS, caused by exposure to high doses of ionising radiation, according to Soviet officials. "My chances are small", he told his colleagues "But if I survive this, one thing is sure: I will never work in a power plant again. Literally says the graphite displacers were the for "lubrication. Always nice to see new programs about this :). Sputnik/RIA Vasily Ignatenko was 25 years old when he died of radiation. Identical. Cheish Merryweather is a true crime fan and an oddities fanatic. Alexander Akimov worked with other employers in the reactor after the explosion. Read about our approach to external linking. Aleksandr Fyodorovich Akimov (Russian: ; 6 May 1953 11 May 1986) was a Soviet engineer who was the supervisor of the shift that worked at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Reactor Unit 4 on the night of the Chernobyl disaster, 26 April 1986. April 1986, it turns out, wasnt Dyatlovs first nuclear accident. It is the same in the case of the Chernobyl disaster. The Accident at Chernobyl: What Caused the Explosion? ", "Possibly, Anatoly Dyatlov became the main anti-hero in the show because that was how he was perceived by the power plant's workers, his subordinates and top-management, in the beginning. "Another friend treated at the same time said he had a date with his girlfriend close to the bridge that night. On 10 July 1984 Aleksandr Akimov was appointed to the position of shift supervisor of Reactor Unit 4. The reason was the reactor's unstable condition due to low electrical network power. Everyone who worked to restore coolant flow would have suffered greatly from leg burns, because they were standing in the water. "They took off their clothes, but not like it was shown in the film, not right down to nothing," Mr Breus insists, also pointing out that their role was ultimately not significant to the story. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. He got a mild type of acute radiation syndrome, a doctor said. It kills you slowly, and it kills you in an excruciating manner. 2023 BBC. 1156/2008 of 12 December 2008", https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/en/1156/2008/sp:max100, Shift supervisor of Night shift at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. They knew where the valves were, so they were the right men for the task. Raising power after this point put the reactor into a potentially dangerous state, unbeknownst to the operators. Dyatlov could be Tolya, Scherbina could be Borya, Legasov could be Valera, etc. Thanks for the tip off. Why Alex Murdaugh was spared the death penalty, Why Trudeau is facing calls for a public inquiry, The shocking legacy of the Dutch 'Hunger Winter', Why half of India's urban women stay at home. 4 reactor, Oleksiy Ananenko (then and now) with a scene from the TV series showing the three workers wearing respirators, The TV series portrays how 400 miners were involved in digging the tunnel under the damaged reactor, The TV series shows Pripyat residents watching events unfold on what was later nicknamed the "Bridge of Death", The damage caused to the facility by the biggest nuclear disaster in history, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims. I also heard that his otopsy file is closed to the public and is only accessible with specific permission. Warning: This story contains plot details from the miniseries. He had health problems afterwards.". In fact, theyre completely true. 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