All language subtitles for Mysteries Of The Abandoned Chernobyls Deadly Secrets, 2017

MYSTERIES OF THE ABANDONED CHERNOBYL'S DEADLY SECRETS
DOCUMENTAL, 2017
BY PAUL EPSTEIN

PHILIP GROSSMAN: Chernobyl, Ukraine.

This abandoned wasteland is one of
the most dangerous places on earth

with nuclear radiation at every turn.

(RAPID BLEEPING)

It's the site of the nuclear accident
that became one of the worst

engineering disasters
in modern history.

But what caused this deadly nuclear
explosion in the former Soviet Union?

Some say it was simply human error.

So, it's this button right here
that caused the explosion?

Others suggest a Soviet plot.

The KGB forced us
to sign documents.

Or even American interference.

The CIA developed a faulty malware
into the Soviet Union.

I'm Philip Grossman.

And I'm obsessed with Chernobyl.

There's only one way
into this forbidden area.

The sign says, "No trespassing."

And with any luck,
I'll get out alive.

All right.
So, I've got all my gear packed.

Made sure the batteries
are all charged up.

I'm an American civil engineer
and cinematographer.

I've been to Chernobyl ten times

to document the disaster
and its aftermath.

All right, we're good to go.

I'm heading two hours north

of the Ukrainian capital city of Kiev
toward the highly restricted zone

that surrounds
the Chernobyl power plant.

Through my hard fought access into
this dangerous nuclear fallout zone,

I've produced never before seen
footage of places few dare to go.

But this time I'm here to find out
what actually caused

the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl.

Three decades after the disaster,
security into the zone is no joke.

There's no entry without a permit.

And it's sometimes a challenge
even if you have one.

So, my anxiety level is probably,
you know, near an all-time high.

Sort of anxious to get there
and start to see

if I can put together
the pieces of this puzzle

and truly understand
what may really be

the root cause of the accident
at Chernobyl,

the world's worst
engineering accident.

Based on previous trips here,

as I get closer to my destination
I know to stop in Ukraine's version

of a convenience store to pick
up any last-minute provisions.

(PHILIP SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

I buy the real necessities.

And get back on the road
toward the main checkpoint.

Approaching Chernobyl always gives me

this eerie feeling
in the pit of my stomach.

Even though the disaster
was over 30 years ago,

there's still a heaviness in the air
that you can actually feel.

So, this is Dytyatky.
This is the checkpoint into the zone.

It is the last point of civilisation
before entering the exclusion zone.

The exclusion zone was initially
a 19-mile radius set around
ground zero,

the nuclear reactor that exploded
at Chernobyl in 1986.

The zone remains off-limits
unless you're an employee,

or have a permit,
and an officially sanctioned guide.

And where I'm going is even more
tightly controlled.

Now roughly the size of Rhode Island,
the zone contains much more

than the Chernobyl nuclear complex.

The scarred landscape is dotted
with derelict villages,

as well as the entire
abandoned city of Pripyat,

which sits frozen in time.

This is Lenin Avenue.

So, this is also referred to
as "The road of death"

because it leads into the city
of Pripyat, the dead city.

There are apartment blocks
on the left and right, shops…

There's a large promenade sidewalk
that went down the city centre.

And now for the most part,
it's completely overgrown.

Once a vibrant modern city
of 50,000 people,

Pripyat's proximity
to the nuclear power plant

attracted the country's best and
brightest scientists and engineers.

It was paradise by Soviet standards.

But on April 26, 1986,

it all came crashing down
when Reactor Number Four exploded

releasing 400 times more radioactive
material into the atmosphere

than the atomic bomb
that fell on Hiroshima.

Pripyat and the surrounding area were
evacuated within days of the blast

and the exclusion zone
was established.

Today it sits a rusted shell
of its former glory.

A city reclaimed by nature.

Heading southeast of town,
my destination comes into view.

The infamous Chernobyl power plant.

And my mission to find out
what really happened

starts at Nuclear Reactor Number
Four, the source of the explosion.

Even with Reactor Number Four
sealed off

by a newly-constructed $2 billion

36,000 ton
steel containment structure,

life-threatening radiation lingers
everywhere across the facility.

And I'm about to enter this place

where few outsiders would ever dare
or be permitted to go.

So, what they're doing here

is actually measuring the entire
radiation in my body.

Once they have a baseline,
we can go into the plant.

The biological effects of radiation

are measured in units
called microsieverts.

We are all exposed to small amounts
of background radiation daily,
which is mostly harmless.

An aeroplane flight from New York
to Los Angeles is 40 microsieverts.

A chest X-ray is 100 microsieverts.

The radiation dose
to Pripyat evacuees

averaged 17,000 microsieverts,

which would normally translate to a
roughly 6% increased risk for cancer.

But since Pripyat residents actually
ingested the radioactive material,

the resulting cell damage could mean
a 10-15% increased risk of cancer.

To be allowed inside
the reactor building,

I have to leave my clothes
in a separate room

and change into a suit
that not only protects me,

but also prevents radioactive
particles from leaving with me

once I re-enter the outside world.

And I've secretly brought
along some extra protection.

Not that I don't trust
their systems here,

but this is the location of
the world's worst nuclear accident.

I did bring my own
Myriad Technologies dosimeter

so I can double-check
their numbers.

All geared up, I make my way
toward the centre of the complex.

This area is not
for the claustrophobic.

So, this is what's called
the golden corridor.

It actually connects
all four of the reactors.

Since the disaster, very few people

have been inside
the control room for Reactor Four.

The Soviets long maintained that
the accident was due to human error.

And I'm hoping that seeing this now
defunct control room first-hand

will reveal some clues
about what happened here

more than 30 years ago.

In 1986, keeping the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant operational

is a national priority.

So, when engineers prepare to test
the emergency backup systems

just after midnight on April 26,

Reactor Number Four remains online
at partial capacity.

What happens next would go down

as the worst nuclear disaster
in history.

(DOSIMETER CLICKING)

As I enter the proverbial
scene of the crime,

the gravity of where I am
hits me right in the gut.

Oh, my God!

This is actually the control room
of Reactor Number Four,

the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Under a thick layer of dust I can
still make out the control panel,

the gauges, and the emergency
button the operator pressed

to disable the reactor
over 30 years ago.

Reactor power suddenly drops…

..but, then, unexpectedly spikes
out of control.

(ALARM BLARING)

Steam pressure builds.

The operators scramble
to stop the chain reaction.

But at 1:23am,
Nuclear Reactor Number Four explodes.

(DOSIMETER CLICKING)

It's surreal.

It's still pretty radioactive.

I know I don't want to stay in here
too long.

I don't find anything here
to contradict the Soviet explanation

that the disaster was caused
by human error.

But my search has just begun.

So, I make my way to the nearly
identical control room

for Reactor Number Three.

There I meet a former Chernobyl
control room operator

named Alexei Breus who was preparing
for his shift at Reactor Four

when the accident occurred.

So, can you sort of give me
a play by play

of what would have happened
that evening?

(SPEAKS RUSSIAN)

(TRANSLATION IN ENGLISH)
To understand what happened

requires a basic knowledge
of how nuclear reactors work.

Inside the structure,

uranium fuel rods
produce massive amounts of heat

that convert water to steam.

The steam drives turbines
to generate electricity.

Control rods inserted
between the fuel rods

accelerate and slow
the reaction as needed.

To prevent overheating, cooling water
is pumped around the core.

But during the test on April 26th,

a senior engineer
mysteriously ordered

most of the control rods
to be removed.

The operators lost control
of the flow of coolant

causing temperatures to soar
and melt the core.

Despite warning signs
that something was terribly wrong,

the senior engineer insisted

that the operators
continue running the test.

So, far the human error claim
holds up

until Alexei reveals
another significant factor at play.

(TRANSLATION) In an attempt
to shut down the reactor,

one of the operators
pressed the AZ-5 button,

just like this one here,
to drop the control rods,

but the rods inside
this particular reactor model

are tipped with graphite.

Alexei tells me that
when this reactor operates
at lower capacity it's less stable.

So, instead of slowing
down the reactivity to safe levels,

the graphite triggered
an uncontrollable surge of power.

(TRANSLATION IN ENGLISH)
Because of that defect in the design

steam pressure built up
and there was a huge blast.

So, it's this button right here
that caused the explosion.

Though the first official
investigation by Soviet authorities

placed the blame on operator error,

to me as an engineer this indicates
that the accident was more likely

the result of a serious design flaw.

After undergoing a decontamination
process, we step outside.

Here. Sit.

And I press Alexei further
on the Soviets' human error story.

So, what happened after the accident?

(SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

(TRANSLATION)
After the explosion,

the KGB forced us to sign documents

saying that it was the incompetence
of the reactor operators

that caused the accident.

But why would the KGB coerce
employees to accept blame

for mishandling the reactor?

Could they have been hiding
something else at Chernobyl?

(TRANSLATION) After the accident

I reported that these reactors
have dangerous design flaws,

including the graphite tipped rods
that caused the power surge.

But it turns out that the report
with this exact information

was already circulated prior
to the disaster.

If the disaster was the result
of a design flaw,

it could have been prevented.

But what might the Soviets have
been hiding that could prompt them
to keep a faulty reactor online?

To find out,

my investigation will take me
to a rarely explored location -

one of the most desolate places
in this abandoned landscape…

..the Pripyat Hospital.

I'm engineer and Chernobyl expert,
Philip Grossman.

My mission is to determine what
really caused the horrific disaster

at the Chernobyl nuclear
power plant in 1986.

I've just learned from
a former Chernobyl employee

that the reactor had design flaws

that were known
well before the accident.

The Soviet government was infamous
for its cover-ups

to Western powers
and its own citizens.

But what could have motivated them
to cover up a design flaw?

Based on my research
and previous trips to the zone,

I know the perfect place
to look for signs of Soviet secrecy

where the devastation
of the Chernobyl disaster

first became fully clear.

The Pripyat hospital.

At the end of the road,
I'm forced to ditch my wheels

and continue to make my way there

through the overgrown streets
on foot.

It's a haunting walk through
a dead world.

Empty streets,
empty houses, empty shops.

On my way to the hospital,
there's an old ship graveyard,

a stark reminder of the devastation
that happened here

and the extraordinary human efforts
in the face of danger

to clean up the mess.

It looks unsafe to touch all
the sharp, rusty, radioactive metal,

so I brought along these
leather gloves.

These barges were used to carry

materials for concrete up the
Pripyat River to the city of Pripyat

where they unloaded it
and used it in helicopters

to fly over and drop into the reactor

and try and put out
the graphite fires.

And the helicopter pilots,
unbeknownst to them,

were flying straight
through that radioactive cloud

that's emanating from this
giant hole in the ground
that was Reactor Number Four.

The reason that these things
are typically radioactive

is because as they moved
up and down into the zone
where the reactor had exploded,

they picked up a lot of Caesium-137.

And now it appears they're cutting
these things up and recycling them.

I don't know
where that steel's going.

The scrap metal pieces that appear
to be missing from these boats

is just another example
of how Chernobyl's effects

might still linger with us today.

Who knows where the recycled
radioactive scrap might have
ended up?

So, there's…
there's water, obviously.

The ship's on its side, and…
This is a bit more stagnant.

So, it's as much a worry about
radiation as it is about bacteria,

and, you know, maybe zombies.

Incredibly evocative spots
like this decaying shipyard

exist all over the Chernobyl
exclusion zone.

Some stay the same.
And some are constantly changing.

It makes each time I visit here
a completely new experience.

Located just two miles
from Reactor Number Four,

the Pripyat Hospital
is where fire-fighters
and power plant employees

were taken in the immediate
aftermath of the explosion.

I want to see if there was anything
left behind that might prove

that the Soviet authorities tried to
cover up the cause of the disaster.

Those abandoned walls could hide
all kinds of secrets.

As I approach the hospital,

I'm faced with the fact
I really don't like hospitals.

Never have.
And this one is extra unsettling,

falling apart,
and possibly radioactive.

(CHUCKLES) A lot of openings.
Need an appointment.

I cautiously proceed
through the decrepit wards

constantly checking my Geiger counter
for radiation spikes.

So the readings here
are about 28 microsieverts.

Which is a little higher
than background radiation.

Numbers keep going up.
It's getting hotter.

Why would that be in this building?

And that's when I see the fabric
that's registering the spikes.

Whoa.
(CLICKING)

(BEEPING)
429 microsieverts.

That's very radioactive.
Why is that here?

These dangerously contaminated
pieces of fabric

must have once belonged
to the radiation sickness patients

brought here after the explosion.

The Geiger counter readings
continue to rise

and I follow the trail spikes
into an adjacent room

hoping to find
more traces of the victims.

Whoa!
(METER CLICKING)

Why is all this sand here?

You wouldn't back all this sand

if you weren't trying to cover
something up.

Clues about the Soviet response
to Chernobyl

may be beneath that sand,
a literal cover-up.

To find out
what's being covered, though,

I need to find another way
under the room.

I go around the corner
following the edge of the building,

letting the radiation levels guide me
to an opening in the foundation.

So, the readings here…
ten times normal background
radiation or higher.

Keeps getting hotter as I get closer
and closer to this window.

The levels are too high just to go
in there without any gear on.

I'll go back
and get my respirator and gloves.

Radiation is really dangerous.

If you breathe it in,
the ionising radiation

has direct access to your cells,

it'll destroy your cells
and the DNA in your cells.

The respirator is capable
of filtering

minute particles from the air.

So, while I still have to worry
about radiation exposure,

at least I can keep it
out of my lungs.

I'm eager to get into that basement
and see what's hiding down there

that's setting off
my radiation detector.

(METER CLICKING)

(CLICKING INCREASES)

(BEEPING)

The boots are even hotter
than the clothing I found upstairs,

and I know I'm on to something.

Could whatever's in this basement
reveal the secrets
behind a Soviet cover-up?

I'm in Chernobyl's highly restricted
exclusion zone

at the abandoned
and crumbling Pripyat Hospital.

I'm hoping to find some lingering
evidence of a Soviet cover-up

that might reveal more than

just the nuclear reactor's
known design flaw.

Among these radioactive ruins
I found highly contaminated boots,

and now clothes
with the same intense levels.

(METER CLICKING)

(CLICKING INTENSIFIES)

The first responders who ran
in to fight the Chernobyl fire,

likely had no idea the dangers
they were facing.

And many died
from radiation poisoning

within the first few weeks.

After the disaster,
the Soviets chose not to alert
international authorities.

The radioactive cloud travelled
as far as Northern Europe.

And it wasn't until a power plant
nearly 800 miles away in Sweden

detected dangerously elevated
levels of radiation

that the USSR finally
owned up to what happened.

The final death toll due to Chernobyl
is incalculable.

The firefighters who must have worn
these uniforms were only the first.

The question is why?

It appears that the Soviets
wanted to conceal

not only that they knew
about the faulty nuclear reactor,

but also the extent of the human toll
and of the radiation fallout.

Though I don't find any further clues

as to what caused
the nuclear meltdown,

the uniforms,
still highly radioactive,

represent strong evidence

that everything about the Soviet
response to the Chernobyl explosion

was an elaborate smokescreen.

The levels were insane down there.

Cover up the entrances,
stash the evidence in the basement,
no one will know.

The next morning I prepare
for spending another day

in this dystopian wasteland
to get to the bottom

of what caused the disaster,

and why the Soviets may
have wanted to cover it up.

What I saw at the Pripyat Hospital
indicates there might well be more

to the Chernobyl story than human
error or a design flaw.

If local authorities were desperate

to conceal the true extent
of the accident, what other secrets

might be hidden in close proximity
to the ill-fated nuclear power plant?

To find out I prepared to investigate
another area of the fallout zone

that the Soviets
clearly tried to hide.

In old maps of the region,

about six miles from the reactor
is an area labelled as a youth camp.

So, the sign says, "No Trespassing."

Sorry, we're trespassing.

But, back in the '70s
it was discovered

that this spot was
something else entirely.

Whoa! That thing's huge!

Those towers
are at least 500 feet tall.

And by the looks of it,
at least 500 feet wide as well.

I mean, those things go on forever.

This is no youth camp.

These are the towers of a Soviet era
radar station called the Duga.

This thing is massive.

And going to the Duga
means I'll be at the centre

of a 40-year-old mystery
known as the Russian Woodpecker.

In the mid-1970s,
a strange radar signal

jammed radio frequencies
all over the globe

disrupting broadcasts and commercial
aviation communication.

(TAPPING OVER RADIO)

It sounded like
a repetitive tapping noise

earning it the nickname
the Woodpecker.

Amateur radio operators and NATO

triangulated the signal to a location
in the Soviet republic of Ukraine

close to Chernobyl.

There's a lot of conspiracy theories,
you know.

Could it control the weather?
Was it a mind control device?

But it was ultimately discovered
that the Duga

was an over-the-horizon
long-range radar system.

It used radio frequencies,

those same clicks
heard across the world

to detect incoming intercontinental
ballistic missiles or ICBMs.

The kind they assumed
the US was aiming at them.

There's no guards.
There's no lock on the gate.

So, maybe, I'm allowed to go in.

This is a pretty awesome structure.

Tubular steel. 15 to 20 towers.

The whole structure of cages, ladders
and wires is intricately woven

to maximise
the radar's range and power.

But why label it a youth camp
on civilian maps?

A complex of buildings sits
at the foot of the massive structure.

And I'm eager to see what's inside,

and see how this defence radar might
be linked to the nearby power plant.

Whoa! Holy crap!

Obviously, looks like
some kind of control room.

Obviously, this is the US.

That looks like Atlanta.

My hometown's on a map…

..in a secret Russian military base
in the Ukraine.

That's crazy! This is definitely
a military institution.

Almost looks fake.

I mean, there's fake
Plexiglas buttons.

There aren't real buttons on here.

With a diagram of the US
and US cities marked on it,

this has to be some type
of training room.

But a training room for what?

My Russian's not real good.

But I think that says, "Don't talk.
Don't give away secrets."

Secret's out.

Under 30 years of chipped paint
is a chilling reminder of the stakes

the Soviet soldiers were playing for.

Whoa.

So, that's a mushroom cloud.

Definitely a military base
dealing with nuclear bombs.

Does this mean that Duga was more
than just a defensive facility

for detecting a potential US threat?

Could the Duga also have
been secretly engaged in offensive

strategies against the West?

And if so, is its location six miles

from the Chernobyl nuclear power
plant just a coincidence?

I cut around to another part
of the complex

to see what else this military
installation might be hiding.

It's like 1986 all over again.

Look at this.

Old cathode ray TV, capacitors,
maybe the flux kind.

Wow.

Oh, my God. Look at this place.

I come face to face
with the control panel

for the massive antenna outside.

The nerve centre for the Duga radar.

The tuk, tuk, tuk… the Woodpecker.

This is what generated it.

These are the units that are actually

generating the 50-60 megawatts
of electrical power

that is being used
to detect incoming missiles.

From what I understand,
they would have been bouncing waves

off of the ionosphere.

And as the intercontinental
ballistic missile was launched

its exhaust plume
would have disrupted that radio wave.

What that means is it literally can
detect things over the horizon,

over the bend of the earth,
which would make sense

in the training room
that we saw earlier.

It showed the earth.
It showed sort of the extent

of where that radar could reach.

This is an amazing location.

There are just trays and trays.

This is how you computed in
the early '80s. I mean…

There's just a lot of calculations
that need to be done

to make that determination,
"Is this a missile being launched?"

This is the best
of Soviet technology, circa 1980.

2000 amps, 125,000 kilovolts.

And there are…

one, two, three, four, five,

six, seven, eight, nine…
ten units on each side.

That's a lot of power
coming into this place.

It looks like the Duga could put out
roughly the same amount of power

used by 25,000 homes.

They needed power,
which would make sense for them
to build a nuclear power plant.

Connecting the dots
I believe it's possible

that what the Soviets
were trying to cover-up

before, during and after
the Chernobyl accident

was more than a radar facility,
but a military base

that could be instrumental
in strikes against the West.

For the Soviets,
the relationship between

the Chernobyl power plant
and the Duga was tightly intertwined.

You take out Chernobyl,
you take out this facility.

Perhaps, this is why the Soviets
kept Chernobyl running

despite the warnings.

But could it also be a reason
that their arch nemesis America

would want the nuclear reactor
shut down?

That could have put Chernobyl
on the CIA's hit list.

Before coming back to Chernobyl,

I met with two former
US intelligence agents.

They told me about a KGB Cold War
air mission called Line X

that was assigned to steal
technological secrets from the West.

The Soviet Union
had this enormous programme

to collect all of our intelligence -
hardware, software.

The CIA got wind of this.

So, the US mounted
their own response.

The CIA developed this programme

to feed faulty hardware, software,
malware into the Soviet Union.

The Soviets were building,
wanted to build a pipeline

to bring gas from Siberia
all the way to Germany.

And, so, we adjusted the software
where we put in a Trojan horse.

And so the Trojan horse basically
said, you'll do all this stuff,
run the pipes,

except on some day,
we're going to run a pressure test

and run the pipe
at twice the rate of pressure.

We did that and blew
up the pipelines.

So, is it possible that all this
information that was getting

into the Soviet hands,
this misinformation,

could have made it
to the Chernobyl plant?

It would not be unreasonable
to assume that

some of that junky
technology made it to Chernobyl.

It feels plausible that the US

would want to put Chernobyl
and the Duga out of commission.

But would America
risk a nuclear meltdown

and countless lives to do it?

Or, could the Chernobyl explosion
be an example

of early cyber warfare gone wrong?

I'm hoping to find the answers
inside an actual nuclear reactor.

So, I secure permission
to return to Chernobyl

and for Alexei to show me one.

Since Reactor Number Four
is sealed off,

he leads me into the nearby reactor,
Number Three.

I've read about this,
I've seen photographs.

Never in my life did I think
I'd ever actually be standing

on top of a reactor in the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant,

the exact same reactor
type that exploded.

The Number Three and Number Four
are identical RBMK reactors.

An RMBK is a Soviet designed
and built Cold War era model

that produces nuclear power,

but can also be modified
for other purposes.

So, what we're seeing here is
the top of the fuel assemblies.

So, all the grey boxes
are fuel assemblies,

all the coloured boxes
are actually control rods.

As an engineer,
I can't help but notice

one significant problem
with this reactor.

It doesn't have
a containment building -

usually a steel
and concrete dome structure

that encloses the reactor

to prevent the escape
of radioactive gases.

So, typical American
or Western reactors

have a secondary
containment facility.

How come this reactor doesn't?

(SPEAKS RUSSIAN)

This is not only
a nuclear power producing reactor,

it is a military type of reactor
that can be reconfigured

to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

Weapons-grade plutonium?

Wow!

The area around Chernobyl's
nuclear power plant

sits a forsaken ghost town
frozen in time.

I'm engineer Philip Grossman.

Through my contacts developed
over nearly a dozen trips to the zone

I've secured special permission
to see inside the highly restricted

nuclear reactor Number
Three for the first time.

And former Chernobyl employee,
Alexei Breus, has just told me that

this facility could do
something far beyond

supplying power to the masses.

(TRANSLATION)
It is a military type of reactor

that can be reconfigured to produce
weapons-grade plutonium.

To do so requires easy access,

which means it was built
without the containment dome

that Western reactors have.

The theory of US involvement
may seem far-fetched at first.

But during the Cold War
if the CIA was aware

of the Chernobyl power plant's
military weapons producing
capabilities,

that would make covertly sabotaging
it a potentially attractive prospect.

To harness the power
of weapons-grade plutonium

would require the military
hardware to carry it.

Which leads me to wonder.

Were there facilities in the area
that produced such hardware?

To find out I meet with a woman
named Margarita Kulbabchuck.

(PHILIP SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

Margarita lived in Pripyat.

And for six years
before the Chernobyl accident

she worked at the nearby
Jupiter factory

that allegedly manufactured
consumer goods.

What kind of consumer goods
remain there?

(SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

(TRANSLATION) Officially,
the factory produce metal

and plastic household items like
cassette players and alarm clocks.

But there was another separate area

where workers were making
some sort of small components.

Did you have any idea what
the end components were used for?

(TRANSLATION) No,
we didn't know what they were for.

The factory
had security restrictions.

Some of the departments
were off-limits.

And I didn't have access there.

Could that mean
the mysterious Jupiter factory

was a cover-up
for Soviet military operations?

If the factory was abandoned
right after the reactor blew,

there might have been some
relevant materials left behind.

So, I'm eager to get over there
to see what I can find.

(CLICKING) The levels here
are getting a little bit hotter.

So, just to be safe
I'm going to put my mask on

and give myself some protection.

(CLICKING)
As I get closer to the factory,

my Geiger counter continues to climb.

And that's when
I see the Cold War relics

that are likely causing the spike.

It's a graveyard of abandoned
and rusted over

passenger, construction
and military vehicles.

This derelict train has been sitting
here for more than three decades.

The Soviets tried to hide

the severity of what happened
at Chernobyl.

Large vehicles and equipment
were used as part of
the clean-up effort

in the immediate aftermath.

Now I know where some of those
machines ended up.

(RAPID CLICKING)

After an hour long hike,

I arrive at Margarita's former
workplace, the Jupiter factory.

And it's not at all what I expected.

What kind of factory
that makes alarm clocks

has a 12-foot-high concrete fence
with a giant steel gate?

Wow!

It's hard to believe this abandoned
place was once a manufacturing floor

bustling with people
and the sounds of industry.

This place is pretty huge.

And, now, it's just eerily deserted.

Whoa!

They're big kilns,
they're not industrial size.

Making consumer goods,
you'd expect something bigger.

It's dated 1982.

It's like a newspaper for people
in the energy industry.

Why would somebody be reading
a paper about nuclear energy

in a location that made
consumer goods?

(THUNDER CRASHES)

The sound of the rain makes
this already creepy place

feel even more so.

This came out of nowhere.
(THUNDER RUMBLING)

(CREAKING)

Whoa!

OK. What are these?

Looks like a vault for storing
radioactive material.

But there's nothing inside of them.

(CLANKING)
It's a welded steel room.

The floors are covered
with some kind of thick plastic.

This is really not adding up at all.

Whoa!

I have no idea what's in that water.

So, I'm putting on a Pivot suit.
Water resistant.

It'll keep anything off me
so I don't bring it out,
whatever maybe down there.

Got my waders, cos I've no idea
how deep that place is going to get.

And from the looks of this place,

who knows how long it's been
since anyone's been down there?

Similar to minute radioactive
particles in the air,

contaminated water can be
one of the most dangerous

delivery systems of radiation.

The trail of test tubes
leads me to a room

with shelves upon shelves
of glass containers.

Could this be the restricted area
that factory employees like Margarita

were forbidden from entering?

The question is,
what was it used for?

These remnants suggest
that this facility

may have been involved
in nuclear production in some way,

potentially for weaponry.

If that's the case,
I can see why it would be

a potential target
of interest to the CIA.

I round a metal fence barrier
finally hitting a dead end,

and that's when my monitor
goes crazy.

(RAPID CLICKING)

(CLICKING CONTINUES)

Unlike the sand at the hospital,

the sand I found here wouldn't have
been used to cover something up.

Its high radioactivity suggests it
could have been used

in testing chambers to determine
how the components manufactured here

react in a strong field
of ionising radiation.

(SIGHS) That gets the heart pumping.

You know, room full of chemicals,
labs upon labs.

And last but not least,

these two chests filled
with radioactive sand of some sort.

This place didn't make alarm clocks.

Did it make parts
for nuclear weapons?

We have a nuclear power plant that
was designed to produce plutonium.

Maybe this was part of that complex
as well.

There's compelling evidence

that points at Chernobyl's dual
purpose in the war machine,

as a power source to neighbouring
secret military sites,

and as a potential
plutonium production facility

for the manufacturing
of military weapons.

It may be an outlandish theory,

but is it plausible
that this entire area

was an attractive
strike target for America

to attack the Soviet Union
where it would hurt the most?

As the clouds part,
I head up to the roof

for a bird's eye view of the desolate
and enigmatic Chernobyl complex

to ponder all the information
I've collected.

So we know the CIA had a reason
and they had a means.

On the other hand,
we know that the Soviet government

knew about the flaws of the reactor
and did nothing about it.

I've explored the extent
of Chernobyl's devastation,

and now overlooking miles
and miles of this abandoned city,

it stands a symbol of aspirations
gone wrong

and utopian dreams
turned upside down.

In surveying this human tragedy,
personally, I don't believe the US

would knowingly trigger such an event
and risk nuclear war

fully understanding
the great potential for casualties,

not only on their Cold War
enemy's side

but also in other parts of Europe.

As an engineer, I'm trained to look
solely at the evidence.

In this case,
I believe that it points the finger

at the reactor's design flaws

combined with the misguided
and secretive Soviet system

that covered up one of the largest
engineering disasters in history.

subtitles Deluxe