0000001545 00000 n Wrong : the poor guy who saw the skin of his leg fell off was Vyacheslav S. Brazhnik, Senior turbine operator. Vasily Ivanovich Ignatenko was born on 13 March 1961, in the Brahin District of the Gomel Region of the Byelorussian SSR. But while many have complimented the show's attention to detail, he believes it is also one of the downsides of the TV series. Those who take the responsible and leading posts are usually the ones to blame for the failures. This later became known as the "Bridge of Death" after reports that those who stood there allegedly died from radiation sickness. 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. They were nothing like that. On the night of 26 April 1986, Leonid Toptunov was working in the control room at the reactor control panel, with Aleksandr Akimov. When I finished my shift, my skin was brown, as if I had a proper suntan all over my body. 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 . At 04:00, Moscow ordered feeding of water to the reactor. What's the least amount of exercise we can get away with? Alexander Akimov was the head of the night shift that worked at reactor number 4 on the night of the accident. [4], He was admitted to Pripyat Hospital but was quickly transferred to Moscow Hospital 6. 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. However, the deputy chief engineer of the power plant Anatoly Dyatlov ordered to proceed with the tests. Menu. Just days after the initial disaster, the wind changed direction and began blowing high levels of radiation in the direction of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. "It was clear they felt sick. Once she sees how Akimov is tearing entire strains of his moustache out "Don't worry", he says, "it doesn't hurt. Unfortunately, the first five years after the accident, the details were kept secret, but now the scientists and activists have the access to archives. BBC Ukrainian Hours after the world's worst nuclear accident, engineer Oleksiy Breus entered the control room of the No. "However, the technological aspects have some discrepancies which may not exactly [be] lies, but merely fiction," he adds. In 1976, Akimov graduated from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, with the degree of specialist in engineering and automation of heat and power processes. Akimov was the one who declared an emergency after shutting down the reactor - but it was already too late. In 2008, Akimov was posthumously awarded with what they called the 3rd degree Order for Courage. 0000017865 00000 n So from that Im assuming those could be pretty true about him, especially skin being so delicate because of the radiation. 0000009438 00000 n 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. 21 23 In the series, Pripyat residents rush to a railway bridge for a better view of the fire, unaware of the exposure. Its no better now than it was 28 years ago. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. The missing containment wasn't mentioned either', 'It is the morning of the 10th May. . As the rods were being inserted, the graphite tips of the control rods accelerated the reaction, creating neutron flux in the bottom of the core. 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. 4 to evaluate radiation levels. Cheish Merryweather is a true crime fan and an oddities fanatic. [4] Toptunov and Akimov received bone marrow transplants in attempt to restore their immune systems. Viewers dont need to see what remains of shift supervisor Alexander Akimovs face watching the reaction in Dr. Khomyuks eyes is more than enough. Mice embryos used for research have dissolved in the conditions, and horses left that lived within 6 kilometers (3.7 mi) of the power plant died due to their thyroid glands disintegrating. The locals thought they would later be returning to their homes, but this was never the case. Underreported stories. These were not random people suffering these were heroes. The guy that posted it was a Radiation Specialist and had access to records of a lot of the Chernobyl victims. "Now you look like a coal minister." It has nothing to do with reality. It's now a museum. Contrary to reports that the three divers died of radiation sickness as a result of their action, all three survived. Likewise Toptunov was Lyonya. They were very pale. 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. On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the northern part of Soviet Ukraine, an event which today is widely known as the Chernobyl disaster. 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 one thing, though, that I did feel, walking through the power plant was a little bit of a better sense of how easy it would be to deny. Undeservedly condemned, professionally slandered. During the test, Akimov called for the AZ-5 (scram) button to be pressed to shut down the reactor, and Toptunov operated the button. Chernobyl guide Yuri Tatarchuk explained, Kopachi was very badly contaminated and so it was decided to bury it, house by house. 0000001208 00000 n "Another friend treated at the same time said he had a date with his girlfriend close to the bridge that night. There are many charities that support facilities which help babies who were born with severe birth defects, including neurological difficulties and heart conditions. 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. He points to a few inaccuracies in the TV portrayal. "However, the technological aspects have some discrepancies which may not exactly [be] lies, but merely fiction," he adds. 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. endstream endobj 22 0 obj<> endobj 23 0 obj<>/Encoding<>>>>> endobj 24 0 obj<> endobj 25 0 obj<>/Font<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageC]>> endobj 26 0 obj<>stream [. Aleksandr Akimov was born on 6 May 1953 in . 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. 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. [1], Leonid Toptunov was born on 16 August 1960 in Mykolaivka, Buryn Raion, Sumy Oblast. 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. 4. He knew he was going to die but didn't want to. Withdrawing a dangerous number of control rods, the operators could only reach 200 MW due to xenon poisoning. 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. Biography [ edit] He points to a few inaccuracies in the TV portrayal. "Their characters are distorted and misrepresented, as if they were villains. Hours after the world's worst nuclear accident, engineer Oleksiy Breus entered the control room of the No. A member of staff at the plant from 1982, he became a witness to the immediate aftermath on the morning of 26 April 1986. HWr6'/u;6;vL&uJIZ$U|}b5bFB(D9/Wa"wFdezT$~0An0:1z34Pd6:8xk67muc4AUW['n|1yb-,{R;&]<47LVSIqNpsiw8$<7[sA{M`D)Q|i>v`H;h\ul) #@rGF0#?uUs$ [2_\qM/0[KW.jPqA^|)>FCNM]-` e?5"`JjHLkl}o! Thank you! 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. Although he could walk, his parents could see he had strange skin damage. There was no smoke or fire, just fumes coming from the damaged part. However, it is about respecting it for what it can do. TV Shows. Warning: This story contains plot details from the miniseries. 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. 0000013685 00000 n Some of the events he witnessed that morning were realistically depicted in the show, he says, but others he describes as fiction. I havent seen this one yet, looking forward to watching! [] It was a kind of torture I would have never even contemplated. "A thin stream the firemen poured probably evaporated before it even reached reactor.". It was supposed to shut down the reactor, but the result turned out to be the exact opposite. "The reactor looked so damaged, it seemed there was nothing else to do there.". Even after more than three decades, the death toll of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster is still wildly disputed. The roles of three key personalities lie at the heart of the story: Plant director Viktor) Bryukhanov, chief engineer Nikolai Fomin and deputy chief engineer Anatoly Dyatlov. "They were not looking good, to put it mildly," he says. 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. Toptunov had literally turned white.". "If I didn't do it, they could just fire me. They didnt have a clue. Two weeks have passed since the explosion as Akimov's suffering is ends. Arriving at work that morning, Mr Breus says he did not see any fire. Firefighters sent from neighbouring Pripyat did not know of any radiation exposure and Ignatenko died of acute radiation syndrome on 13 May 1986. Akimov received fatal, three-dimensional burns to his entire system. During the evening of April 25, engineers made several fatal mistakes, including disconnecting Reactor No. [3] The operators attempted to perform a rundown test before scheduled routine maintenance, during which reactor 4 exploded. Radioecologist Sergey Gaschak explained, Animals dont seem to sense radiation and will occupy an area regardless of the radiation condition.[10]. "I was surprised they even brought us there," Mr Breus says of arriving at work the morning after the explosion. [2], Akimov worked with his crew in the reactor building after he learned the extent of the accident. 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. "A thin stream the firemen poured probably evaporated before it even reached reactor.". The turbine was shut down. Lyuba tries to cheer her husband up, she brings him pictures that their children drew. He's growing weaker, wheezes, can hardly talk anymore. Pilot Alexander Petrov, who responded to the scene, recalled, It took us more than 24 hours to get things going. ", "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. 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. See a comparison with a very old photo of Stolyarchuk: https://bit.ly/3wBuX2S Pay attention to the "indentation" of the line of his moustache on the right side of the face. his younger brother is donating bone marrow but the transplant can't stop the decay of the tissue. [1], On the night of 26 April 1986, Akimov was on duty as the shift supervisor of the 4th power unit. At first, our commanders didnt know what to do. In the shows podcast, writer and executive producer Craig Mazin shared some details about filming the third episode of Chernobyl, revealing that two scenes were cut from the start that would have introduced supervisor Anatoly Dyatlovs son, who died of leukemia at the age of 10, years before the Chernobyl disaster. "I've never heard there was a crowd of people who went to watch the fire at night," he says. [3][page needed] At some point he gave deathbed confessions stating repeatedly: I did everything correctly. A Soviet machine made to cut apples into four pieces!) to hospital beds and zinc-lined coffins. Read about more radioactive calamities on 10 Modern Radiation Accidents Involving Civilians and 10 Famous Incidences of Death by Radiation. This should come as no surprise that the reasons for the explosion are being thoroughly investigated. When the operators pushed the red button, the reactor didn't stop but exploded.". His family was informed that his death was the only reason he was not prosecuted for the accident. Armen Abagian, who was the director of one of the Moscow nuclear power research institutes at the time, advised the Soviet government to evacuate Pripyat immediately. 0 "', 'In Moscow, doctors are trying to save Alexander Akimov's life. On April 26th, 1986, at 1:23 am, Alexander Akimov did what he and thousands of other nuclear plant operators have been trained to do. Residents started to panic when there was a metallic smell in the air, and the atmosphere appeared different. 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. Tatiana Ignatenko was a collective farm fieldworker, and Ivan Ignatenko a tractor, and later truck . 9:25 is very likely Khodemchuk, and 9:29 is Davletbayev. Firefighters were also asked to help clear radioactive debris from the roof after the fire was extinguished. [4] During the accident, he was exposed to a fatal radiation dose of 1300rem. Creator Craig Mazin Stars Jessie Buckley Jared Harris Stellan Skarsgrd See production, box office & company info Watch on HBO Max S1 with Prime Video Channels More watch options 2023 BBC. Press J to jump to the feed. He has only two weeks left to live. Within two weeks, both Mr Akimov and Mr Toptunov had died in a Moscow hospital of acute radiation syndrome (ARS). Nah Im good. Akimov tries reassuring his even more shellshocked colleague, reactor engineer Leonid Toptunov, that they did everything right. 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. My body parts not covered by clothes - such as hands, face and neck - were red". My body parts not covered by clothes - such as hands, face and neck - were red". The precautions were not enough, as, since 1986, physicians have reported a rise in birth defects. <]>> Founder of Crime Viral community since 2015. 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. There was no smoke or fire, just fumes coming from the damaged part. Pretty sure its true, the story of his face being gone came from just before he died while they were questioning him. "I saw the damage at reactor No. Their skin had a bright red colour. 0000000756 00000 n "I saw other colleagues who worked that night. On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the northern part of Soviet Ukraine, an event which today is widely known as the Chernobyl disaster. ", By now Akimov's wife Lyuba was allowed to come to Moscow. Frantic. I don't understand why it happened. Akimov eventually succumbed to acute radiation syndrome two weeks after the disaster at the age of 33. Temperatures beneath the reactor were high and the series shows them stripping naked. The Chernobyl nuclear accident is one of the most shocking and devastating catastrophes of modern times. He's growing weaker, wheezes, can hardly talk anymore. Does anybody know what the sources the author of this article could have used? 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 nurses let me in. Don't have high hopes going into this one guys. Ill say its him until proven otherwise! This may be, in part, why the hype around the HBO and Sky series about the disaster has been so substantial. 21 0 obj <> endobj Sputnik/RIA Vasily Ignatenko was 25 years old when he died of radiation. This is some other smaller problem.. "When he was present at the block, it created tension for everyone. Once more his temperature increases and then he falls into coma. He was exposed to a lethal dose of radiation and died two weeks after the explosion. 0000007280 00000 n The roles of three key personalities lie at the heart of the story: Plant director Viktor) Bryukhanov, chief engineer Nikolai Fomin and deputy chief engineer Anatoly Dyatlov. Press J to jump to the feed. Yes, i thought the same about Razim Davletbayev. Vasily Ignatenko was just 25 when he succumbed to slow death via radiation poisoning after fighting the fires of Chernobyl. 04:00 - Further fire fighting units arrive from Chernobyl, Polesskoe and Kiev. More than 500,000 residents in Ukraine were ultimately forced to leave their homes. The scene where Dr. Khomyuk is jailed by the KGB was filmed in Vilnius at a real former KGB prison. 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. Many can be found playing inside the abandoned cooling tower at the former power plant. Arriving at work that morning, Mr Breus says he did not see any fire. Vasily Ignatenko, depicted in the series, was among the first firefighters sent to tackle the blaze. ", Most of the firefighters were pouring water on the damaged reactor, he says. 4s emergency safety systems and its power-regulating system. Hours after the world's worst nuclear accident, engineer Oleksiy Breus entered the control room of the No. 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. (k[YUWvP When the operators pushed the red button, the reactor didn't stop but exploded.". [5] However, the operators were found to have deviated from operational procedures, changing test protocols on the fly, as well as having made "ill judged" actions, making human factors a major contributing factor. In the hours after the explosion, he spoke to Oleksandr Akimov, the shift leader at the No. DYATLOV (to the room) This is an emergency. It was close to midnight at the end of April 26 when an evacuation was ordered; 1,200 buses and 200 trucks relocated 47,000 residents of Pripyat. Theres something wrong with you.. "For example, that useless secrecy, which became one of the reasons behind the Chernobyl disaster. How would I find another job after that?". Ultimately, though, he is happy the show has refocused attention on the disaster and the scale of damage caused. 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. "The miners are shown as tough guys who are not afraid of anything, but not the power plant workers.". In a weird way, it was more moving to me than moving through the actual power plant itself. Sam Troughton, an English actor, performed the role of Chernobyl supervisor of the shift in the Chernobyl series by HBO in 2019. Temperatures beneath the reactor were high and the series shows them stripping naked. Belarus shares a border with Ukraine, and the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is quite close to said border; in 2010, UNICEF reported that 20 percent of adolescents in Belarus suffer from chronic illnesses or disabilities caused by birth defects. Leg burns are a given, as pretty much everyone who worked on coolant supply in the morning had them. HBO. Children are shown playing in the radioactive dust, which falls from the sky like snow. And the atmosphere was radioactive.[3]. The reactor was already in a run-away state. More than 600,000 civil and military personnel have been given the honorary status of Chernobyl liquidators since the cleanup began in 1986. 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. Our first priority is--PEREVOZCHENKO, 30's, bursts in. At least one of the survivors ended up with permanently reddened, damaged skin. Ultimately, though, he is happy the show has refocused attention on the disaster and the scale of damage caused. Following the disaster, citizens in the city of Kiev were advised by authorities to take regular warm showers, keep their windows closed, and regularly wash their furniture. ", 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. And finally they said, The hell with it! The control rods had graphite moderators to speed up reaction and the other part of the rods were made of boron to decrease reaction. "The Chernobyl catastrophe is depicted in a very powerful way, as a global catastrophe that absorbed huge numbers of people. He was 33 at that time. The third episode of Chernobyl is a conversation about causes and consequences. The Accident at Chernobyl: What Caused the Explosion? At 9:25 time mark, do you think it might be Khodemchuk? 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. Open Wide, O Earth is remarkable for many other details it captures about Soviet life, as well. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. "The miners are shown as tough guys who are not afraid of anything, but not the power plant workers.". 4 reactor, and operator Leonid Toptunov, who both feature prominently in the series. [. Normally, there is a strict ban on visits to the isolation ward but in hopeless cases the doctors make exceptions. Russians and Ukrainians have watched it via the internet, and it has had a favourable rating on Russian film site Kinopoisk. Mazin also says he visited Chernobyl as a tourist, to prepare for the miniseries. His famous quote We did everything correctly has been used in the Chernobyl series by HBO. There are many theories about the reasons for the nuclear plant explosion, but they all have the same common denominator: the human element. This is how they decided to portray the Minister of Coal Industry Mikhail Shchadov. Unfortunately, it takes these tragic events to impress this on us.[6]. "I saw the damage at reactor No. He began his career at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in September 1979. When the reactor has been put into a poisoned condition, they tried to raise the power at whatever the cost. endstream endobj 27 0 obj<>stream 3, Firefighters pictured in 1986 before cleaning debris from the roof of the No. Not really regarding to Akimov specifically, but in my book Im reading the wife of the firefighter who stayed by his side all the way described lots of horrific side affects from the radiation, and he wasnt even in the same situation as Akimov. Originally, robots from West Germany, Japan, and Russia were used to help clean the debris, but they could not operate due to the high levels of radiation. ", he asks the one in the neighbouring bed, "We only pressed the shutdown button!" "The operators were afraid of him," Mr Breus agrees. Can either be found at house parties telling everyone Charles Manson was only 5ft 2" or at home reading true crime magazines. They were very pale. There was no mention of the flawed construction. trailer HWKF=1Zz& TfOku]T#t4d-Ti,J$bTM7d)clC2 VFO&3 zE_6tVQjA[ri&xHG|/4^})-}IrT8bv_d O7fj8jGX a?2`/gn)/nXo]}JR'.H}k%L,CXBk>:+l(]9[F|/#O5X# Y0Gl8f,1 qCy*$ Ao6!^TqRVPyQG. When I finished my shift, my skin was brown, as if I had a proper suntan all over my body. Who is the man on the time stamp on 9:20? By Rod Adams April 1, 1996. Thanks for the tip off. Ive never heard anything about his face, only his skin blackening and shriveling. "I saw other colleagues who worked that night. He and his colleagues who died from ARS suffered a prolonged and agonising death as the very chromosomes of their bodies were destroyed and organ failure escalated." The bones of your body, he says, "decompose as you become a seeping, foul smelling soup of human material". Most of the liquidators were military reserves, and the army did not have enough uniforms suitable for working in radioactive conditions. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. "It was our job," says Oleksiy Ananenko, who was on shift at the time, while the others had been ordered in by their manager. After two episodes, with the initial fire extinguished and early panic beginning to subside, the focus shifts to questions about why the reactor exploded and who was responsible for the disaster. Youll burn together. I followed them around them like a dog I stood by the door for hours, asking and begging. He is reported to have stated that he believed he had done everything correctly. I've never seen any reliable source for anything regarding his face. Everyone stay calm. Akimov was exposed during his work to a lethal dose of 15 Gy of radiation. His burnt lungs hardly let him breathe, his intestines have decomposed, excrements mixed with blood are oozing from his body. There was a comment on a post about him. The level of radiation in the Chernobyl zone is still the same today as it was in 1986.[9]. 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. This is not a polemic about nuclear power. They knew where the valves were, so they were the right men for the task. Cheish Merryweather is a true crime fan and an oddities fanatic. Later this perception changed.". Its estimated that more than 900 stray dogs live in the Exclusion Zone. Two weeks have passed since the explosion as Akimov's suffering is ends. It is the worst human-induced accident that the Earth has ever seen, to say the least of it. Police roamed the streets wearing gas masks, but the residents were kept in the dark and only heard rumors. Who would applaud that?". Firefighters were also asked to help clear radioactive debris from the roof after the fire was extinguished. Nekhaev even had to have his leg amputated. Aleksandr Akimov and Leonid Toptunov did their best at saving the situation. 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. FromBudapesttoBishkek. Only a Second World War survivor can imagine a similar scene.[4]. I am still very convinced, that this footage actually shows Boris Stolyarchuk. 0000006239 00000 n . This later became known as the "Bridge of Death" after reports that those who stood there allegedly died from radiation sickness. A member of staff at the plant from 1982, he became a witness to the immediate aftermath on the morning of 26 April 1986. Its a little like if you were in a skyscraper, and you said to yourself, This is solid! [] You just feel safe within it. [. 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. 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. What interviewer? Some of the stories, however, only seem like they were cooked up in a Hollywood screenwriters room.