Chernobyl 01:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster

by Andrew Leatherbarrow

Devair Ferreria himself survived, despite receiving a higher dose than any of the four fatalities.

Adding a proper pressure vessel, built to the standards and complexity required by the RBMK design, was estimated to double the cost of each reactor.

Unbelievably, the RBMK’s accompanying reactor building is insufficient to be labelled as a true containment building, presumably as part of further cost saving measures.

It is likely that a flaw in the reactor design or - more probable - poor manufacturing quality was identified as a principal cause of the accident, but the politicians chose to go with the easy option and blame an operating engineer instead.

I’m beginning to appreciate how nonchalant Ukrainians are.

Because 4 of the 8 water pumps were running off the decelerating turbine, less and less water was supplied to the reactor as power increased.

The volume and intensity of radioactive particles thrown into the atmosphere on that night was equal to 10 Hiroshima bombs, not including the hundreds of tons of reactor fuel and graphite that landed all over the plant.

The bitumen melted in the intense heat, sticking to the firemen’s boots, hindering their mobility and filling their lungs with toxic smoke. Blaming

Bryukhanov for this is easy, but he likely had little alternative.

Time and time again Bryukhanov and Fomin were told that the reactor was completely destroyed, and time and time again they disregarded everyone who warned them.

When a piece of history is discarded on the ground, your first instinct is to pick it up and save it, but you must remind yourself that it isn’t yours to take. It’s all part of the Chernobyl story - its place is where it lies.

It’s difficult to imagine any of the men Medvedev saw survived.

It’s so lonely here in the present.

I’m a solitary sort of person and have fantasised countless times about how extraordinary it would be to be the last person on Earth, to go anywhere and do anything I wanted with absolute freedom.

I head to the roof, joined by Katie, where we contemplate a silence that’ll last ten thousand years.

The USSR was founded on a belief in science, it had always taken pride in being a technological superpower and there was fear among the Council of a possible public backlash against nuclear power, as had occurred in America after Three Mile Island.

For those first months, futile attempts to avoid a mass panic took precedent over people’s lives.

As the city passes me by, emotions I’ve fought to suppress for days overwhelm me, and I weep silently into the glass. It’s stupid, embarrassing, I don’t even know why I’m doing it. I hide my face in shame. I was never impacted by the accident in any way, yet this trip has permanently changed who I am, leaving an indelible mark, and I know I’ll never forget it. And I haven’t. Not a day goes by when I don’t think about that place and the people whose lives were destroyed by what happened.