Secret pages of the Chernobyl tragedy
The secret pages of the Chernobyl tragedy.
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I think it would be of interest to everyone.
Because I worked as an engineer in Unit 4, which exploded. A little later, after the explosion, as Controller. I dealt with the aftermath of that disaster among the many engineers who were involved in it.
My role was to work with the installation crews directly at Chernobyl Unit 4.
I write about it, because all information is classified by Ukrainian authorities. Now I don't care about Ukrainian authorities. I am a citizen of Russia. This work in Chernobyl gave me cancer. I'm struggling with it. It's hard.
I start writing because I believe that all people should know the truth about how the consequences of this nuclear disaster were dealt with.
Seeing how the Japanese carefully concealed and covered up their Fukushima disaster, I feel it is my duty to reveal the secrets of the Chernobyl "cleanup" project.
At the time, it was forbidden to take pictures at work near the destroyed Unit 4. But every worker secretly did it, including me. Here you will find first hand information which was not and will not be written by mass media. Β If you would like to see the pictures I took myself - send me your email address and I will send you the pictures.
Β In any case, I worked there on a contract basis. At that time there were not enough people in Ukraine to go to work in this nuclear zone. But it was a time of huge unemployment in Ukraine. The time of President Kravchuk, Yushchenko, and then Yanukovich. People were forced to look for work even in this radiation zone. Including myself.
People with higher education and knowledge of foreign languages (for engineers) were hired to work in this zone, except for simple janitors (potential suicide bombers).
I can speak a little English. Got a contract to work with seven installers from Belgium to install and mount a very large Liebherr tower crane on unit #4 to remove the exhaust pipe on that unit that survived the explosion.
The engineers and installers had to live in a dormitory on the grounds of Chernobyl itself, near unit 4 (18 km). Every day a bus on duty transported people to work. Each worker and engineer received an individual accumulated radiation dosimeter. There was a digital dosimeter in the dormitory, which showed a norm of radiation background of 30 ΞΌR per hour.
When the norm was exceeded, all personnel had to evacuate from the area of reactor No. 4, and we had to sit in the dormitory, closing all windows and doors until the radiation background dropped below 35 microroentgen per hour. These were safety measures.
There was also free three meals a day. And two bottles of red wine a week, free, to remove radionuclides from your blood.
You could move around, but you were not allowed to take pictures. Of course, everyone took pictures with caution. The police patrolled the area in cars, and they mercilessly fined trespassers if they found them.
The problem was that the old sarcophagus, consisting of a concrete box, was constantly collapsing due to radiation, wind, rain and frost. There came a critical moment when the roof and walls turned into a sieve and did not protect the environment and the area from the radiation of the destroyed reactor. The EU decided to cover the old sarcophagus with a new roof so that the emissions through the sieve of the old sarcophagus would not spread to Europe.
This would have required dismantling the old exhaust pipe, which weighed 1600 tons. There were no helicopters of such power around the world to snag that pipe and remove it.
The EU found a Liebherr and Demag crane capable of removing this pipe.
It was decided to transport one crane from Algeria in a disassembled form to Chernobyl. There, right on the site of Unit 4, it was assembled and the pipe was dismantled. After dismantling the pipe, the kamikaze crane had to be dismantled and buried in the ground.
The project looked good on paper, but at a huge cost.
The EU feared that radiation would spread downwind to Europe.
Β Β Β When the explosion itself occurred, the radioactive cloud rushed into Belarus and Europe. Part of it reached northwest Ukraine. Including Cherkassy, where I lived at the time.
It looked good on paper. The project originally cost more than $700 million. The EU approved the project and started financing it.
It wasn't interested in Ukraine's opinion, because Ukraine itself was in a quandary. A foreign holding company was set up to deal with the consequences. And from that moment the circus began. The point was that the pipe had to be disconnected from the base of the concrete roof. We had to unscrew the bolts at the joint between the pipe and the roof. There were 64 rusty bolts, 42 mm in diameter. The radiation on the roof was 1,200 to 1,500 X-rays per hour. Exposure to such a dose would be fatal, even for a few minutes for a person. What to do?
The European Union stalled.
Β A catastrophe has struck. Ukraine stands with its hand outstretched like a beggar - help eliminate the consequences.
It is important for Europe that the nuclear emissions from the destroyed reactor do not flood Europe through the atmosphere. The EU has already given the first money. As a loan. But how was it used? It was a mockery.
They quickly issued an international tender to swallow that their own money, but shifted the debt to Ukraine. Hundreds of companies around the world wanted their piece of the Chernobyl pie.
The original plan was that the corrupt Ukrainian government system would not steal the money and that EU companies would have to clean up the consequences, but with Ukraine involved. Ukrainians were to do the black (deadly) work.
The tender was won by an unknown French company Navarka, consisting of three people !!!
Let's call it #1. In turn, this company hired two more French companies to develop the project of liquidation and hire the executors. Let's call it #2.
Four more companies were found - Americans, Belgians, Italians and Germans.
Let's call them Number Three.
But Number 3 didn't want to die under the influence of radioactive emissions.
Number 3 hired 12 companies from Ukraine (suicide bombers) to do the dirty work.
Let's call them Number 4.
A total of 45 foreign companies were involved in the cleanup.
I ended up in one of the Ukrainian companies.
The EU was planning to build a new semi-circular sarcophagus on the site in front of the destroyed reactor.
This sarcophagus was to be moved into the old sarcophagus. It was to cover it. The move was to be done on rails.
But this was prevented by an old exhaust pipe on top of the ruined old sarcophagus. That's why the Liebherr crane and Demag were brought to Chernobyl.
My job was to supervise the Belgian assembly team that was to assemble the crane. After it was put into service and performed its "kamikaze" function, dismantle the crane and bury it in the ground.
In fact, these seven installers from Belgium were also, to some extent, suicide bombers. I asked how much they were paid for this dangerous job. But none of them answered.
In addition, the project involved clearing the area on the other side of Block 4, installing and mounting a new arched sarcophagus. The Ukrainians of Unit 4 were to carry out this cleanup in the face of wild radiation. The waste was to be buried.
The only question was, where and how? They asked the European Union for more money. They designed a railroad station to load the radioactive waste. They designed a cemetery for the waste with railroad access roads. That's another $620 million. The Americans in Group 3 were heavily involved in this project. We'll discuss why. Again, everything is fine on paper. But the paper project needs to be put into action...
I'm old now. Β I have cancer and it's hard for me. I will write because this topic is still relevant.
The half-life of cesium 137 is 30 years. Amercium 241 - 433 years (alpha radiation is lethal to all life). All of this is present in Chernobyl.
I know - all information about Chernobyl has been hidden from the public. But now I must reveal the secret sides of this tragedy
Β Β Β Β Β I'll tell you a funny story that happened to me.
I was standing next to a Liebherr crane installed by the Belgians. The crane was in the first stage of installation.
As I was walking along the reactor wall 1 meter away, a piece of tar from the roof of the Unit 4 reactor fell down next to me. It was carried away by the wind.
I thought I was not an athlete. It turned out to be the opposite. I started from there, like a sprinter at the Olympics. I ran 100 meters and then I came to my senses. I did it in seconds.
The fact is that all the materials on the roof were thousands of times more contaminated by radiation than on the ground near the reactor. When I was out of breath, I called a decontamination team.
A team in spacesuits arrived. It took them a long time to isolate this piece of tar and the ground next to it. Until the radiation background in the area returned to normal. Because of this incident, crane installation work was suspended for a week.
I thought - how many pieces of shrapnel like this fall off the roof unnoticed every day?
The dosimetric crews, of course, went around Block 4 every day, in the mornings. A lot of contaminated nastiness could fall from the roof before evening, and no one saw or followed it. The accumulation dosimeters in each worker's pocket did not signal danger. They were primitive accumulation dosimeters, that's all.
They read body contamination once a week and at dismissal. If a worker "overdosed" on radiation, he was fired and his contract was terminated.
Β After the financial reconstruction of the project, the European holding company began to have problems with the rush and rupture of finances in the European Union itself - who would get more.
Confusion and haste led to the fact that the project drawings were incorrectly translated into Ukrainian by a foreign party.
In addition, the drawings themselves were incorrectly copied (mirrored). This led to the collapse of the concrete work. In particular, during the construction of the railway station for the removal of nuclear waste.
The wagons had to come up on the wrong side. Everything was reversed, like in a mirror. Because of these mistakes, there was again a problem with financing.
A $240 million fine was announced.
The head of the French project side (Group 2) could not stand this pressure and shot himself.
But the work had to go on. The European Union was forced to finance the elimination of errors in the project.
The work continued. The site in front of Block 4 had to be prepared for the installation of the second sarcophagus.
They started digging with the help of Ukrainian "suicide bombers" and ... found a graveyard of old military and civilian equipment that was hundreds of thousands of times more contaminated with radiation.
The Ukrainian side kept quiet about it because it wasn't ...
Dozens of trucks, tractor-trailers, earthmoving equipment were buried in the ground in April 1986 during the elimination of the accident in front of the 4th block.
Where to dispose of this contaminated scrap metal? The planned cemetery was already filled with preliminary waste.
The foreign investors in this project were clutching their heads. The whole project threatened to collapse.
A solution was proposed by the Ukrainians. They proposed to create a landfill directly in front of Block 4.
For the sake of economy and not to interfere with the project. In the version of the cemetery, open to the atmosphere. Something like a temporary nuclear waste repository.
The foreigners agreed - it was not their territory, and the Ukrainians were to die later from radioactive contamination as a result of atmospheric fallout.
All the scrap metal was quickly raked aside and fenced off with three rows of barbed wire.
That's where the Americans stepped in.
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Β Β Β Β Β Β Β They raised the question of expanding the backfilled old burial ground as designed. They insisted on building a new, larger facility - burial ground #2 in Chernobyl. They proceeded from the idea to export the American nuclear waste from the territory of the USA. And to take this waste to Ukraine. The European Union agreed with the arguments of Americans, because they are interested in the management of their nuclear wastes. The Ukrainian rulers had their jaws dropped. No one took them into account or even considered their wishes.
The European Union, under pressure from the U.S. government, decided to create an additional large nuclear waste repository on the territory of Chernobyl within a radius of 30 km (in the exclusion zone). In fact, it was a project to create a worldwide storage facility for nuclear waste in the Chernobyl zone. The EU agreed because it was in their favor, and American capital participated in the project along with the Europeans. No one paid any attention to the Ukrainian government and its pathetic attempts to oppose it. It was like a punch in the side of a pathetic skinny dog yapping.
The construction of the new burial ground was financed.
But it was not filled. The temporary repository remained in place in front of Unit 4. A new repository was waiting for nuclear waste from the U.S. and Europe. A landfill site for nuclear waste was created in Ukraine.
But here a new problem arose.
When they started driving 32-meter concrete piles to secure the new carpet for the concrete base of sarcophagus 2.
A new stressful situation arose.
The piles were driven into the ground using a conventional pile-driving machine. On the site of Unit 4, several buildings were constructed for maintenance personnel. Buildings for engineers, surveyors, workers, concrete workers, electricians, etc. These buildings began to collapse due to vibration during pile driving. Cracks appeared in the buildings and the walls began to collapse.
In addition, collapses occurred inside Sarcophagus No. 1 itself. Because of the vibration, the nuclear fuel that was in the boiler, which leaked out of the boiler and moved along with the debris, began to take on a new shape the moment the piles began to be driven.
The fact is that some of this fuel had sublimated into balls (small metal and glass balls that were mixed with the sand that had been dropped from helicopters into the boiler in April 1986).
From the vibration of the piles, these nuclear fuel balls, consisting of cesium 137, polonium, and other fuel residues, began to pile up and form one solid mass. in different places in the sarcophagus - 1.
It's like if you took a funnel of sand, put some lead pellets in it and started tapping the funnel with your finger, creating a vibration. After a while, all the pellets sink into the sand and merge into one lump of lead at the bottom of the funnel. Β
Β Thus, from the vibration, a nuclear critical mass started to form in different places of the sarcophagus - 1, from which a nuclear chain reaction could start.
In fact, several nuclear bombs began to form simultaneously and spontaneously in different places of the sarcophagus-1.
Thank God, the Ukrainian surveyors working inside the sarcophagus noticed that cesium and polonium were flowing into one mass in several places at once and sounded the alarm.
Immediately thereafter the piling was stopped and EU leaders again clutched their heads, cursing Ukraine and the disaster. What to do?
Several governments were involved in the game.
Β Β Β The U.S. and the EU have quietly created a global nuclear waste dump on Ukrainian territory. And this dump pollutes the environment. Even now. Β The atmosphere is doing its dirty work of spreading radiation. Every day there may be whirlwinds carrying nuclear dust into Europe. It may last a day or two, and then the wind will turn the other way. It is impossible to predict where the next nuclear cloud will go. If the background radiation rises in Europe, the governments of the countries where it happened will cover it up so as not to alarm the public. Because the source of the increased background radiation is supposedly unknown. But there is one - Chernobyl.
That's why the number of cancer cases in Europe has increased. This is exactly what I said earlier - no one in the world, rich or poor, is immune from cancer. The poorly controlled nuclear waste dumps in Ukraine created by the United States and the European Union contribute to this. And no money has been earmarked for upgrading these dumps in Chernobyl because Ukraine has bored both the US and the EU with its pathetic claims.
Ukraine has entered a stage of politically progressive unruly Nazism and chauvinism, and none of the Nazi rulers are going to deal with ecology and Chernobyl.
Hence the problem with the sarcophagus 2 base. The concrete base of sarcophagus 2 was to be a huge concrete carpet three meters thick that was to be laid on a layer of gravel and sand.
It was to be a layered paste of concrete. The carpet was to be supported by concrete piles. But a critical mass of cesium leaks stopped the process. Money and a new project to install the concrete carpet was needed again. A solution was found.
It was financed. Drilling of boreholes and pouring of concrete without vibrations began. The so-called underground piles.
Ukraine watched the process and giggled from the corner.
Finally, the concrete carpet was laid. But here again there was a problem.
Ukraine complained that the rails that will move sarcophagus 2 into sarcophagus 1 will not support the load and weight of sarcophagus 2, because the foreigners miscalculated the steel (rails and rollers). Ukraine presented its calculations. Sarcophagus 2 will not be able to move on these rails. The rails and rollers will collapse under these loads. The European Union agreed and is clutching its head for the fourth time.
The political game called "disaster management" has reached its climax!
The Ukrainians put out a tender to find self-killers who would be able to remove the pipe from the roof in conditions of wild radiation. And they found them. Eighteen volunteers agreed to do the job for big money. The crane was ready and assembled. He was ready to remove the old exhaust pipe.
This suicide crew began working around the clock. They were cutting the pipe, unscrewing the bolts. The radiation on the roof, even through the concrete on which the pipe stood, was 1200 X-rays per hour. After a week, the pipe was cut, all the bolts were unscrewed. The pipe was removed. What happened to the installers after that - I don't know. Most likely, they died for their families and children.
Β So what happened next, after the EU first accepted Ukraine's evidence.
The Ukrainian government demanded money for a new rolling system design to collapse the new sarcophagus onto the old one.
The first official damage estimate, made in mid-1986, put the damage at between $3 billion and $5 billion. A few years later it was estimated that up to $120 billion would have to be spent by the year 2000. (SECC, 1996). In 1990 the figure was already $358 billion (WISE News, 1990). These are the official figures. But in reality, somewhat more was spent.
So Ukraine got its share of the funding. The famous Ukrainian Welding Institute named after academician Paton was commissioned to develop the project. The old design (rails, rollers) was completely withdrawn. A new project was developed - a smooth granite base, on which the new sarcophagus-2 will slide in the direction of the old sarcophagus 1 and cover it by sliding on granite rollers.
The project was approved and funded.
By this time my contract had expired. Construction of the new smooth granite base had begun. For me, the process of getting out of the contract began. It went on for over a week. I enjoyed it - did nothing. Walking around, being examined by the medical team in the lab. Enjoyed the view of the empty, abandoned city.
The wild animals living in the forest around Chernobyl had mutated. Several generations of animals had mutated - they were completely unafraid of humans. There were almost twice as many of them around Chernobyl as in the regular forest. When I drank vodka with friends on the Pripyat River (the river for cooling the reactors), I even bathed in the river while intoxicated. It is understandable - a man in a state of alcoholic intoxication is not afraid of anything. Β My friends encouraged me and they themselves bathed in the Pripyat River. From the bridge near the reactor we threw saiki bread into the Pripyat river. Huge river catfish reacted to these loaves by surfacing like submarines and swallowing the loaves. It was fun to watch. These river catfish were up to 3 meters long. We had fun competing to see who would get closer to a female boar that was eating roots by the trees with her piglets. The piglets were as big and black as the female boar herself. She wasn't paying attention to us. Animals, cats and dogs in the city were getting wild and big. Birds would land on our hands if we had bread crumbs in our hands. Hares the size of dogs. Foxes would brazenly walk up to people and ask for a light meal.
There was such an incident.
By some miracle a huge wolf managed to break through three rows of barbed wire and tried to get to the leftover food in the bins outside the canteen building.
The police organized a military operation against the wolf with guns.
But the wolf turned out to be cunning and very aggressive. He skillfully hid from police shots among the trash bins. It was impossible to kill him from afar.
Several police officers decided to approach the wolf's ambush. But the wolf jumped out from behind the trash cans, and two policemen were wounded by its teeth. In the end, the wolf was shot. This was entertainment for the workers who were watching this military operation.
The wolf was also mutant and completely black in color.
I would like to say one more thing.
Contrary to the bans on visiting this Chernobyl zone, many people live in their abandoned private homes.
Most of them are elderly people who do not care about the banned laws and their health.
They sneak into the zone along forest trails and settle in abandoned houses. If the police catch them, they are deported from the zone.
But they show up and continue to live there.
Finally, seeing this problem, the Ukrainian government allowed a minimum quota for settlement in Chernobyl. It is now possible to get a settlement permit if a person has private property there.
Β Β But these people cannot qualify for health insurance. They have to give it up.
That's how my work at Chernobyl ended. I didn't make much money there. That was the basis of the Ukrainian policy towards Ukrainian citizens.
And now fascist nationalism is rampant, and I'm sure that no one particularly monitors the safety of closed reactors. Ukraine has entered the third stage of poverty. It has entered into a confrontation with Russia.
The European Union and the United States are fed up with claims from Ukraine.
What the future holds for Ukraine, I don't know.
The current situation is in Chernobyl.
The cemetery that remains at the site of the fourth power unit is left in the open air. Ukraine has no money to move this burial site and bury the contaminated scrap metal. The EU thinks it has accomplished its mission (to protect itself from nuclear clouds). No one wants to invest money. In spring, summer and autumn, when the wind blows, all the radioactive dust rises from the burial ground into the atmosphere and begins its victorious march across Ukraine, Europe and Russia. The authorities, of course, fix it. But they never talk about it. The whole catastrophe is gradually forgotten.
Nevertheless, the catastrophe has consequences.
Β The same thing is happening now in Japan at Fukushima. Only it's even worse there.
The Japanese are hiding everything and keeping it a secret. Radiation pollution occurs not only through the atmosphere, but also through the ocean. The Japanese are good students of Chernobyl.
Β What happened to that notorious Greenpeace? Was he bought with all his guts? Yes, it probably was!
Β We are all ordinary people in the world - hostages of power and oligarchs who think only about their personal gain and personal well-being. They absolutely do not care about the problems of ordinary people in the world, and the Chernobyl disaster proves this.
Β The way people live now is the answer for everyone. People live in Chernobyl and grow gardens and vegetable gardens. Of course, growing food on contaminated soil is a mistake. I tried to go into such an abandoned house with friends along with a working dosimeter. But even approaching this house, the radiation dosimeter "squealed". We rushed out of that house. But in Chernobyl, radiation levels vary. There are places with high levels, there are places with low levels. But the ground is all contaminated. We walked on the contaminated land with a level of about 40 microroentgen per hour. All the animals (wild and domestic) ate food from this ground. Hares were gnawing on tree bark. Moose ate poisoned mushrooms. The animals did not live long, but they multiplied quickly. With each new generation of offspring, the mutation increased. It's not as fast as it's shown in Hollywood movies, and it's not as scary. But it is still real. And people living in their abandoned and infected homes don't live as long, and neither do animals. They have accepted their fate. I was talking to an old man who lives in his own house (there is a picture of my house). Their philosophy: I live alone. I don't get in anyone's way. I buy my groceries at the store that works for the Chernobyl victims. I grow a garden on this land. I don't disturb my children in Kiev. As long as God gives me life, I will. He was 74 years old at the time. Who buried him after his death, I don't know. The zonal administration had to take the dead outside the zone and give them to relatives. That must have been the case. It's a scary story. That's the life of Chernobyl. All information about modern Chernobyl is still hidden.
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