The "suïcide divers".
The "suïcide divers".
April 26, 1986, the lid blew off Reactor 4 at Chernobyl, in Ukraine – then under Soviet control.
A fire was extinguished within six hours but the air was contaminated with radioactive material.
Russian scientists then discovered that the core was still melting and burning through to the basement, where five million gallons of water were stored.
Experts believed that if 185 tons of molten nuclear lava hit the water below it would cause a radioactive steam explosion of 3-5 megatons – so massive that it would leave much of Europe uninhabitable for 500,000 years. Alexei was one of the few employees who knew where the latches and valves were located to drain water from the coolant system.
Senior engineer Valeri Bespalov and shift supervisor Boris Baranov were tasked with turning them off.
Firefighters drained a huge volume of water so the men would not have to swim, but they were still forced to walk through radioactive fluid three metres below ground level.
The image of them carrying search lights as they wade through a toxic soup is captured in the HBO TV drama.
But even today, Alexei looks back calmly and shrugs off all the attention. He added: “I did my job and it’s nothing to brag about.
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