Lyuba tries to cheer her husband up, she brings him pictures that their children drew. The scene where Dr. Khomyuk is jailed by the KGB was filmed in Vilnius at a real former KGB prison. Also, emotions and mood at that time are shown quite precisely, both among the personnel and the authorities. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. I havent seen this one yet, looking forward to watching! Aleksandr Akimov | Fact and Fiction Wiki | Fandom Yet, with us, death is a biological event. 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. 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 . Read about our approach to external linking. Now, volunteers, including veterinarians and radiation experts, have formed the nonprofit charity Dogs of Chernobyl. it's not bad, it was probably made in the past few months before February 24th. But no matter how strict he was, he was still a high-level professional.". Akimov tries reassuring his even more shellshocked colleague, reactor engineer Leonid Toptunov, that they did everything right. 2023 BBC. The reactor power level had been reduced, preparing for a planned safety test. Also, emotions and mood at that time are shown quite precisely, both among the personnel and the authorities. The original footage was probably taken at reactor 4 control room during the time our guys were on crew, that's why many of them can be seen. BBC Ukrainian Hours after the world's worst nuclear accident, engineer Oleksiy Breus entered the control room of the No. Only a Second World War survivor can imagine a similar scene.[4]. It is the worst human-induced accident that the Earth has ever seen, to say the least of it. 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. The The judges of the show trial claim one year later: The engineers are at fault who started operation of the reactor in 1983, despite not all safety tests having been passed. In the series, Pripyat residents rush to a railway bridge for a better view of the fire, unaware of the exposure. 4. "I've never heard there was a crowd of people who went to watch the fire at night," he says. In a weird way, it was more moving to me than moving through the actual power plant itself. In 1986, Dr. Gale and the director of the Soviet Unions Central Institute for Advanced Medical Studies signed an agreement to monitor the 100,000 people who were residents in the danger zonea 30-kilometer (18.7 mi) radius surrounding the site which ultimately became the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. "The operators were afraid of him," Mr Breus agrees. Is there any truth or is it all here say? Finally, 11 days after the disaster, officials warned the residents of Kiev that they should avoid eating leafy vegetables and to stay indoors. Im not a religious man, but I suppose thats as religious as Ill ever feel. I will start a new life. 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. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts, https://www.stern.de/panorama/weltgeschehen/tschernobyl-anatomie-einer-katastrophe-3597302.html. %PDF-1.6 % Poor guy. He was portrayed by actor Volodya Stepanenko in the 2004 Zero Hour TV series. trailer Chernobyl (TV Mini Series 2019) - IMDb However, it is about respecting it for what it can do. [. VideoRussian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims, The children left behind in Cuba's mass exodus, Xi Jinping's power grab - and why it matters, Snow, Fire and Lights: Photos of the Week. [4] They were found by other workers and taken to the infirmary. "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. I think you mean Aleksandr Akimov at Chernobyl, who was the shift supervisor on the night of the disaster. "Their characters are distorted and misrepresented, as if they were villains. It was supposed to shut down the reactor, but the result turned out to be the exact opposite. 9:25 is very likely Khodemchuk, and 9:29 is Davletbayev. Vasily Ignatenko, depicted in the series, was among the first firefighters sent to tackle the blaze. 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. Undeservedly condemned, professionally slandered. Warning: This story contains plot details from the miniseries. Its estimated that more than 900 stray dogs live in the Exclusion Zone. "Radiation exposure, red skin, radiation burns and steam burns were what many people talked about but it was never shown like this. And finally they said, The hell with it! Nearly 8.4 million residents of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia were exposed to the radioactive cloud that was released. It was important to me that people understood what was happening to these men, because they suffered in terrible ways, Mazin told The Chernobyl Podcast. "I saw the damage at reactor No. Mr Breus says the series creators showed the radiation effects on the human body well. I know he has been brought up alot in discussions especially about his face. 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. 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. The actor playing Alexander Akimov, for instance, was never even put in makeup to depict the loss of his face. 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. Sputnik/RIA Vasily Ignatenko was 25 years old when he died of radiation. 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. 4's emergency safety systems and its power-regulating system. 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. Youll burn together. I followed them around them like a dog I stood by the door for hours, asking and begging. That is how you advance your career and win awards. Its no better now than it was 28 years ago. It kills you slowly, and it kills you in an excruciating manner. "If I didn't do it, they could just fire me. They didnt have a clue. At 1:23 AM, the reactors power levels surged, and the events that followed led to an explosion which released more than 50 tons of radioactive material into the atmosphere.[1]. .] He got a mild type of acute radiation syndrome, a doctor said. A Soviet machine made to cut apples into four pieces!) to hospital beds and zinc-lined coffins. 0000001387 00000 n The locals thought they would later be returning to their homes, but this was never the case. Everyone stay calm. [1], On the night of 26 April 1986, Akimov was on duty as the shift supervisor of the 4th power unit. As we moved through it, we were aware that there were the ghosts of history around us, Mazin said. In 2014, Michael Donnelly, chairman of Chernobyl Childrens Appeal, said, These children are forced to suffer through no fault of their own. 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. During the test, Akimov called for the AZ-5 (scram) button to be pressed to shut down the reactor, and Toptunov operated the button. 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. ", Most of the firefighters were pouring water on the damaged reactor, he says. Our first priority is--PEREVOZCHENKO, 30's, bursts in. He said, A physician deals with life and death every day. When we talk about the events that have changed the world, we always remember the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion. [4] He died from the acute radiation poisoning on 14 May 1986 and was laid to rest at the Mitinskoe Cemetery in Moscow. I wasn't aware of this new documentary. 0000000756 00000 n It's now a museum. Once more his temperature increases and then he falls into coma. The actor playing Alexander Akimov, for instance, was never even put in makeup to depict the loss of his face. What happened to Akimov Chernobyl? - Quora his younger brother is donating bone marrow but the transplant can't stop the decay of the tissue. It would have eventually boiled . Leg burns are a given, as pretty much everyone who worked on coolant supply in the morning had them. 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. Press J to jump to the feed. At 04:00, Moscow ordered feeding of water to the reactor. The guy that posted it was a Radiation Specialist and had access to records of a lot of the Chernobyl victims. His wife Lyuba is at his side.'. [3] The operators attempted to perform a rundown test before scheduled routine maintenance, during which reactor 4 exploded. Because Id spent so much time living in that space, in multiple areas of those spaces for so long, and with the people in my mind for so long to walk where they walked felt so strange. The traffic was insane. "The reactor looked so damaged, it seemed there was nothing else to do there.". During the evening of April 25, engineers made several fatal mistakes, including disconnecting Reactor No. The reason was the reactors unstable condition due to low electrical network power. "The miners are shown as tough guys who are not afraid of anything, but not the power plant workers.". Likewise Toptunov was Lyonya. [] And the last thing that I want this show to do is to scare people about nuclear power. The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear disaster that occurred in the early hours of 26 April 1986, at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Ukraine.The accident occurred when Reactor Number 4 exploded and destroyed most of the reactor building, spreading debris and radioactive material across the surrounding area, and over the following days and weeks, most of mainland Europe . This is an eerie and deserted location, as the homes of Kopachi were completely bulldozed and buried by the Soviet Army. I'd love to see the original footage they used from CNPP reactor #4, there are shots of Kovalenko, Akimov, Davletbayev and even Khodemchuk. But while many have complimented the show's attention to detail, he believes it is also one of the downsides of the TV series. 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. PDF CHERNOBYL Episode 1 - 1:23:45 Written by Craig Mazin - John August 2023 BBC. Ill say its him until proven otherwise! Even after more than three decades, the death toll of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster is still wildly disputed. To capture the gruesome deaths that befell plant engineers and first responders, makeup and prosthetics designer Daniel Parker studied the stages of radiation sickness, identifying seven kinds of wounds that depend on a victims proximity to the radiation source. 0000016820 00000 n ", "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. The HBO miniseries includes many of the real people operating the reactor at the time of the meltdown. Read about more radioactive calamities on 10 Modern Radiation Accidents Involving Civilians and 10 Famous Incidences of Death by Radiation. This later became known as the "Bridge of Death" after reports that those who stood there allegedly died from radiation sickness. We flew out to see what was happening, then returned and flew back in the morning.[2], The amount of radiation the Chernobyl disaster released into the atmosphere was 50 million curiesequivalent to around 500 Hiroshima bombs. Cheish Merryweather is a true crime fan and an oddities fanatic. "In hospital, I was treated with a guy who biked to that bridge in the morning on 26 April to watch it. Unfortunately, the first five years after the accident, the details were kept secret, but now the scientists and activists have the access to archives. [4] His parents once asked about the cause but he only could say they had followed regulations. It's not just a local interest, for a small group of people, but it is still worldwide. In the series, Pripyat residents rush to a railway bridge for a better view of the fire, unaware of the exposure. Although he could walk, his parents could see he had strange skin damage. He was entirely black, due to skin necrosis, but I never read anywhere that he had no face left, Jesus Christ he mummified, that sounds horrific. The miniseries has shed the suspense of its first two installments, when the story unfolded like a disaster movie, and it now wants to know the reason for this tragedy. 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. Russians and Ukrainians have watched it via the internet, and it has had a favourable rating on Russian film site Kinopoisk. I always wonder why toptinov called him sasha? At 9:25 time mark, do you think it might be Khodemchuk? More than 500,000 residents in Ukraine were ultimately forced to leave their homes. Viewers dont need to see what remains of shift supervisor Alexander Akimovs face watching the reaction in Dr. Khomyuks eyes is more than enough. But Chernobyl continues to hit its mark, from a bonafide miners joke (Whats as big as a house, burns 20 liters of fuel every hour, puts out a shit-load of smoke and noise, and cuts an apple into three pieces? Toptunov had literally turned white.". In 1976, Akimov graduated from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, with the degree of specialist in engineering and automation of heat and power processes. [. Oleksiy Breus says the accident helped reveal the substantial flaws of the Soviet system. He wanted to live. 0000003954 00000 n ", he asks the one in the neighbouring bed, "We only pressed the shutdown button!" 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. When I finished my shift, my skin was brown, as if I had a proper suntan all over my body. There was no smoke or fire, just fumes coming from the damaged part. [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. 21 0 obj <> endobj "I've never heard there was a crowd of people who went to watch the fire at night," he says. Temperatures beneath the reactor were high and the series shows them stripping naked. . Just found this on Sky. ", Russia to make its own show about Chernobyl, Giant structure moves in to cover Chernobyl, TV drama Chernobyl: 'So chilling, it spares you nothing', Chernobyl: The end of a three-decade experiment, Street fighting in Bakhmut but Russia not in control, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims. When confronted with confusing reactor indications, he initiated an emergency shutdown of Unit 4 of the large electricity . Hours after the explosion, helicopters were flown over Reactor No. "I saw the damage at reactor No. 0000012642 00000 n This is some other smaller problem.. 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. The Real Chernobyl: Q&A With a Radiation Exposure Expert As the fire department arrives on-site and begins dealing with the titanic blaze, Vasily's colleague, Misha notices a lump of the same black mineral that Dyatlov noticed earlier. They were very pale. Radioecologist Sergey Gaschak explained, Animals dont seem to sense radiation and will occupy an area regardless of the radiation condition.[10]. Contrary to reports that the three divers died of radiation sickness as a result of their action, all three survived.