1 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:48,000 The reason why Chernobyl seems such a dire warning to so many people around the world 2 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:55,000 is the nuclear disaster that happened there affected the entire planet. 3 00:00:55,000 --> 00:01:01,000 I remember the first time going to the site itself. 4 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:06,000 It's a sinister place because you can't help remembering what happened there and how 5 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:12,000 it affected hundreds of thousands of people's lives. 6 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:21,000 Two miles from Chernobyl, the city of Pripyat, once home to 50,000 people, lies in ruins. 7 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:23,000 The vegetation is taking over. 8 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:32,000 There are trees that are growing into the upper floors of the tower blocks. 9 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:50,000 A 1,000 square mile exclusion zone has restricted access to the site for the past 36 years. 10 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:56,000 A Soviet dream that became a nightmare. 11 00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:00,000 A disaster officials tried to cover up. 12 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:10,000 As a brave few battled to stop radiation spreading across the globe, using top secret Soviet documents 13 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:13,000 and hearing from those who risked everything. 14 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:27,000 This is the story of one of the world's worst nuclear accidents. 15 00:02:50,000 --> 00:03:08,000 Early morning, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant gets ready to carry out a safety test 16 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:16,000 on reactor number four. 17 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:20,000 Three nuclear power station has to undergo a series of tests and one of the safety tests 18 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:26,000 that it needed to prove to continue to operate was to test what would happen to the coolant 19 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:30,000 system if there was a power cut. 20 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:35,000 Engineers plan to switch off four of the pumps to test their backup systems. 21 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:40,000 If there was a power cut and the emergency generators didn't kick in, there would be 22 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:40,000 a real problem. 23 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:54,000 React to number four has been running for two years when the long delayed safety test 24 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:59,000 is finally scheduled to take place. 25 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:06,000 The test will be overseen by Deputy Chief Engineer Anatoly Diatlov. 26 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:10,000 So Anatoly Diatlov was probably the most feared person at the facility. 27 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:14,000 If he was in the room, we had to listen to him and do what he said otherwise they'd 28 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:34,000 be trouble. 29 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:40,000 The test will take place on Friday the 25th of April. 30 00:04:40,000 --> 00:05:04,000 Diatlov has briefed the staff and they know what's expected of them. 31 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:08,000 Everyone turned out expecting it to be a normal shift. 32 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:19,000 As it turned out it didn't go that way and everybody would make it home alive. 33 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:26,000 Two miles away in Pripyat, Chernobyl workers and their families prepare for the upcoming 34 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:33,000 May Day holiday. 35 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:39,000 It's a normal spring day with lots of people being about. 36 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:41,000 This is late April in Ukraine. 37 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:47,000 It's beautiful weather, generally the time when you felt summer is coming, the spring 38 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:51,000 has turned the corner, it's going to be warm and lovely. 39 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:32,000 Back at Chernobyl, inside the control room preparations for the test are underway. 40 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:46,000 To operate the test, the operators needed to lower the power output of the reactor. 41 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:50,000 This makes sense if you're going to test the brakes on your bike, you don't do it at 50 42 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:59,000 miles an hour, you do it at 5. 43 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:04,000 The reactors have been gradually powering down the reactor since 1 am. 44 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:08,000 By early afternoon, the power has been reduced to nearly three-quarters of the reactor's 45 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:19,000 normal power. 46 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:23,000 Inside the control room, the phone rings. 47 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:28,000 Part way through the day, the emergency grid controller asked them to stop lowering the 48 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:33,000 power the energy was needed. 49 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:40,000 Three hundred miles away, another nuclear reactor has had an emergency shutdown. 50 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:48,000 Chernobyl must keep producing power. 51 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:54,000 Rather than say, okay, we'll cut our losses and come back another day, DL have decided 52 00:07:54,000 --> 00:08:18,000 now we'll carry on, we'll do it this evening. 53 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:25,000 For hours, the reactor continues to operate, but at a lower power. 54 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:32,000 No one really realized that while working at that lower power level, the reactor was 55 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:36,000 producing the chemical elements. 56 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:42,000 The so-called poisoning of the reactor was taking place. 57 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:54,000 With the reactor, there's been a build-up of a dangerous gas called Xenon. 58 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:58,000 Late in the evening, and the test still hasn't taken place. 59 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:04,000 The day shift transitioned into the evening shift, transitioned into the night shift. 60 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:09,000 There wasn't the information passed through each of the operators from day to evening. 61 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:12,000 New spirit, new spirit. 62 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:18,000 We're the Shiraz, we'll talk about the mobile bite. 63 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:21,000 New people came, the graveyard shift. 64 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:26,000 People who thought that by the time they come and start, their shift, the whole thing 65 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:28,000 would be over. 66 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:33,000 So they were not prepared. 67 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:45,000 After a nine-hour delay, the control room is finally given the go-ahead to carry out 68 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:49,000 the test. 69 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:54,000 So it was the night shift that we're conducting the test. 70 00:09:54,000 --> 00:10:01,000 It actually started about 11 o'clock. 71 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:06,000 Some of the operators working the night shift is Leonid Toptenov. 72 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:15,000 Leonid Toptenov was one of the four operators that took over the operation of the reactor. 73 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:21,000 He was a young and very clearly talented engineer. 74 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:36,000 Leonid Toptenov's main job was to keep an eye on the power in the reactor. 75 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:40,000 The final steps to start the test are taken. 76 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:47,000 So having been left in this low-power state all day, the reactor was extremely unstable. 77 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:54,000 The build-up of Xenon gas inside the reactor is causing it to behave erratically. 78 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:59,000 Because the operators were relatively untrained and not prepared for the test, they didn't 79 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:11,000 really notice the signs that the reactor wasn't in a safe state. 80 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:17,000 Inside the control room, something happens that sets alarm bells ringing. 81 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:22,000 The power dropped really unexpectedly, which was unexplainable to the operators at the 82 00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:23,000 time. 83 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:26,000 They certainly would avoid the accident. 84 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:33,000 Once power began to fall in the reactor, it carried on falling and it felt at disastrous 85 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:36,000 low levels. 86 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:45,000 The reactor was now in serious danger. 87 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:53,000 Toptenov takes steps to raise the reactor's power level. 88 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:58,000 But rather than bursting back into life, the reactor's power only creeps up to a 16th 89 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:03,000 of its maximum output. 90 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:11,000 Xenon gas has poisoned the reactor. 91 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:19,000 Toptenov can't increase the power to the level needed for the test. 92 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:27,000 An argument reportedly breaks out between Deatlov and the shift foreman, Alexander Akimov. 93 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:31,000 They were seen having quite a heated conversation. 94 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:36,000 And it's fair to assume that it was Deatlov saying, I want to go ahead and Akimov saying, 95 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:37,000 no, we should stop. 96 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:39,000 It's not safe. 97 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:51,000 The deputy chief engineer Anatoly Deatlov insists the test should go ahead. 98 00:12:51,000 --> 00:13:07,000 The experiment was started at 123. 99 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:12,000 One of the eight pumps that were put in cooling water into the reactor, the power was taken 100 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:14,000 away. 101 00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:19,000 When the cooling system was switched off, that water was no longer coming up past the fuel 102 00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:21,000 rod quickly. 103 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:41,000 Any water that was in the system was boiled off. 104 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:48,000 The water was no longer being used to cool the fuel rods, and it bubbled off into steam. 105 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:53,000 This causes the nuclear reaction to speed up. 106 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:59,000 With more boiling, more steam is produced, the rate of fission increases. 107 00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:05,000 Water that kept being pumped into the reactor, with the aim of cooling it down, had the opposite 108 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:06,000 effect. 109 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:18,000 It's a never-ending cycle until you get to a very dangerous, unstable point in the reactor. 110 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:23,000 When reactor 4's control room, Leonid Toptenov is monitoring the reactor's power level. 111 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:30,000 A few seconds into the test, he's scared by what he sees. 112 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:34,000 As a reactor overheated, Toptenov finally saw this. 113 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:40,000 He called across and said temperatures are just skyrocketing inside the reactor. 114 00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:47,000 With the reactor out of control, there's only one course of action. 115 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:57,000 The emergency button to shut the reactor down was hit. 116 00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:03,000 The test had been running for just 36 seconds. 117 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:07,000 Instead of shutting down, when that emergency button was pressed, the power continued to 118 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:12,000 increase. 119 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:16,000 The fuel channels ruptured. 120 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:18,000 The amount of steam increased. 121 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:24,000 He got more heat, more power, and a runaway reaction happened. 122 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:30,000 There's nothing that can be done at this point. 123 00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:35,000 The unit 4 reactor explodes. 124 00:15:35,000 --> 00:16:04,000 They wouldn't have been prepared for what had happened inside the reactor. 125 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:09,000 Two people die instantly in the explosion. 126 00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:19,000 Others are now being exposed to lethal doses of radiation. 127 00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:30,000 Inside a nearby fire station, the telephone rings. 128 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:57,000 The fight to save Chernobyl has begun. 129 00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:01,000 The firefight has been a 17-story building. 130 00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:08,000 It's clear the reactor's finished, it's gone, it's in flames. 131 00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:11,000 The firefight has actually melted under the intense heat. 132 00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:16,000 The ashfall under their feet was melting to sucking their boots off. 133 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:22,000 The severe heat is the least of the firefighters' problems. 134 00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:28,000 The firefighters who were first on scene reported tasting and metallic taste in the 135 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:29,000 air. 136 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:34,000 This was essentially particles of the nuclear fuel itself. 137 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:43,000 The outloving his colleagues in the control room are trying to make sense of what's just 138 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:44,000 happened. 139 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:50,000 The control panel is telling Diaplov there's no water in the reactor system. 140 00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:53,000 That would be amazingly terrifying. 141 00:17:53,000 --> 00:18:00,000 I can't imagine what that must have been like. 142 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:05,000 You have to have constant supply of very large amounts of water to keep the reactor cool 143 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:16,000 or it will melt down. 144 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:21,000 Diaplov orders the gates of the coolant pipe valves to be opened to get more water into 145 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:25,000 the reactor. 146 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:30,000 One of the operatives from outside comes running in and he's got what's called a nuclear 147 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:31,000 tan. 148 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:34,000 His face is red and burned from exposure to radiation. 149 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:39,000 And he tells Diaplov that the Unit 4 reactor has exploded. 150 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:41,000 It's up in flames, it's not there anymore. 151 00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:46,000 Diaplov flat out refuses to believe him. 152 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:51,000 He can't acknowledge the possibility that something so terrible has happened. 153 00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:55,000 And Diaplov just carries on. 154 00:18:55,000 --> 00:19:01,000 Even though the reactor he's trying to save no longer exists. 155 00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:19,000 Twenty-five minutes after the explosion, making his way to Chernobyl is the power 156 00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:24,000 plant's director, Victor Rucharnov. 157 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:27,000 Rucharnov receives a phone call at home and he's told there's been an accident at the 158 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:28,000 plant. 159 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:34,000 He's not told how serious it is so he doesn't really have a huge sense of urgency. 160 00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:38,000 He actually takes the bus to the plant. 161 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:44,000 Rucharnov has been plant director here since construction started in 1970. 162 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:48,000 And he's been looking forward to the day Chernobyl is completed and he will preside 163 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:53,000 over the largest nuclear power plant in the Soviet Union. 164 00:19:53,000 --> 00:19:59,000 But now he sees the wreckage of the Unit 4 reactor glowing red. 165 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:06,000 He retreats to what's known as the bunker, a safe room as it were, underground. 166 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:12,000 Built at the height of the Cold War as a shelter in case of nuclear attack by the West, now 167 00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:19,000 it will act as a crisis center for the worst nuclear disaster in history. 168 00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:25,000 Here, Rucharnov is soon joined by the power plant's resident officer from the security 169 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:30,000 services, the KGB. 170 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:38,000 They were the government watchdog really, performing the role of the nuclear regulator. 171 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:50,000 This question's need to be answered. 172 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:56,000 On the other side of the site, the fire around reactor 4 is still raging. 173 00:20:56,000 --> 00:21:04,000 This huge fire, the spray extremely radioactive material into the air, the fuel itself, the 174 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:10,000 uranium fuels getting blasted up onto the bits of the roof that survived. 175 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:16,000 It's estimated that on parts of the destroyed roof, radiation is 16 times stronger than 176 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:18,000 a fatal dose. 177 00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:22,000 The problem with radioactivity is that you can't see it, you don't know you're being 178 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:26,000 exposed to it until much later. 179 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:30,000 The firefighters are realising this is no normal fire. 180 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:42,000 The fire is starting to vomit. 181 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:50,000 In the bunker, Rucharnov is told radiation readings at the plant are off the scale. 182 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:57,000 He refused to accept the high levels of radiation that were given to him. 183 00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:00,000 Rucharnov had a very difficult phone call to make to Moscow. 184 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:05,000 It was convenient for him to believe that maybe it's not as bad as we think it is. 185 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:13,000 Rucharnov orders water to be put into the system to save the reactor. 186 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:15,000 There was nothing to save anymore. 187 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:45,000 Five hours after an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in the daylight it becomes 188 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:52,000 clear this accident is catastrophic. 189 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:58,000 The reactors nuclear core is exposed and sending smoke into the air. 190 00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:02,000 Inside the smoke from the fire were particles of nuclear fuel itself. 191 00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:10,000 So the actual radioactive material inside of the reactor core was emitted as smoke. 192 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:16,000 Toxic radiation, thousands of times higher than normal background levels, is spreading 193 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:34,000 far beyond the plant. 194 00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:41,000 The town of Pripyat, two miles from the power plant. 195 00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:48,000 It's a normal day, a spring day with lots of people being about. 196 00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:18,000 Among them was electrical engineer, Vladimir Kagan. 197 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:50,000 There are lots of children about, the weddings taking place and they are absolutely unaware 198 00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:53,000 of the catastrophe that has already happened and of the danger that they're in. 199 00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:18,000 At the power plant, senior reactor control engineer Leon the Antonov and his foreman 200 00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:22,000 are on a doomed mission. 201 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:30,000 They're following orders to get water into the reactor system to prevent nuclear meltdown. 202 00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:39,000 But the electrics have failed, so they're doing the job manually. 203 00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:43,000 They turn on the valves, allow more water to flow into the reactor. 204 00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:49,000 But of course it's all to no avail, the reactor's not there anymore. 205 00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:56,000 But in the process what they are doing is they're exposing themselves to what turn out to be 206 00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:59,000 fatal levels of radiation. 207 00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:15,000 In less than three weeks, Antonov would be dead. 208 00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:21,000 At Pripyat hospital, the steady flow of plant workers and firefighters arriving from Chernobyl 209 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:24,000 is increasing. 210 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:30,000 They now had around 90 patients, all suffering from something the doctors had never encountered 211 00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:32,000 before. 212 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:34,000 Radiation sickness. 213 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:40,000 If you get a big dose of radiation, it's got enough energy to damage DNA. 214 00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:45,000 The reason it's called radiation sickness is because one of the first symptoms is vomiting 215 00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:51,000 because the cells of this lining of your digestive system replicate rapidly and they're vulnerable 216 00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:55,000 to radiation. 217 00:26:55,000 --> 00:27:01,000 After the initial vomiting, other symptoms develop, like hair loss, fever and radiation 218 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:13,000 burns. 219 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:18,000 Tanka trucks start spraying the streets of Pripyat. 220 00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:23,000 Mr Turgent is supposed to absorb the radioactive material from Chernobyl that already reached 221 00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:31,000 the town. 222 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:36,000 But the people of Pripyat, going about their Saturday morning, have been told nothing 223 00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:38,000 about the accident. 224 00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:42,000 The Soviet Union wanted to keep a lid on this, they didn't want to tell anybody about that. 225 00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:48,000 A man applied both to the West, but also to their own citizens. 226 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:56,000 They couldn't control radiation, so they were trying to control the information. 227 00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:59,000 There was a ring of steel imposed around Pripyat. 228 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:04,000 If anyone tried to leave the city, they wouldn't have had much joy. 229 00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:10,000 They cut down almost immediately the telephone communication between the city of Pripyat 230 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:15,000 and outside the world. 231 00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:20,000 The Soviet Union didn't do bad news. 232 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:24,000 Catastrophies, accidents, nuclear disasters, didn't happen in the Soviet Union, they may 233 00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:33,000 happen abroad, they may happen in capitalist countries, but not in the Soviet Union. 234 00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:40,000 But word is starting to spread around Pripyat, about an accident at the plant. 235 00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:08,000 The security services need to take action. 236 00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:13,000 Secret documents reveal how they ensured silence. 237 00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:18,000 The KGB reports measures have been taken to prevent the spread of information about 238 00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:25,000 the accident and dissemination of panic causing rumours. 239 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:30,000 Panic is euphemism for people learning the truth. 240 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:38,000 The KGB was considered to be all-powerful organization with ears and eyes everywhere. 241 00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:45,000 It didn't take much to convince the population that they had to be really careful. 242 00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:54,000 No one is to find out what happened earlier that night at Chernobyl. 243 00:29:54,000 --> 00:30:01,000 Moscow, more than 400 miles away from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. 244 00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:08,000 A report about the accident arrives for the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. 245 00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:14,000 If you read that document, it looks like yes, something bad happened, but all that bad 246 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:21,000 mostly was in the past, that the radiation levels were low, manageable, the fire, extinguished. 247 00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:39,000 But the Chernobyl disaster is so huge, it would prove impossible to hide. 248 00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:44,000 With radiation continuing to pour out of the reactor, the government in Moscow will be 249 00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:48,000 forced to act. 250 00:30:48,000 --> 00:31:14,000 But in Pripyat, life carries on as usual. 251 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:21,000 Then, a day and a half after the accident. 252 00:31:44,000 --> 00:32:00,000 The residents of Pripyat were told the city was being evacuated. 253 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:05,000 They were given one hour to collect together some belongings, a couple of days worth of 254 00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:12,000 clothing, their identity papers, and told to assemble various points throughout the city 255 00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:19,000 where buses had been laid on to take them away. 256 00:32:42,000 --> 00:33:07,000 In just four hours, the entire population of Pripyat would be evacuated. 257 00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:14,000 This was much too late, people had already been exposed to very large amounts of radiation. 258 00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:30,000 Nobody knows how many people died as a result of that delay. 259 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:38,000 As Pripyat began to empty, a helicopter is taking off on a special mission. 260 00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:48,000 It was pretty quickly clear that spraying water into the reactor was not going to put out these fires. 261 00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:55,000 So they decided that they would have to smother the fire, and the only way to do that was to bring in helicopters. 262 00:33:55,000 --> 00:34:02,000 These were military trained helicopters. So they knew what they were doing. They were very skilled. 263 00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:06,000 And of course, they were very brave. 264 00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:16,000 Captain Alexander Maruhin flew alongside other helicopter pilots who were trying to put out the fire. 265 00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:19,000 These were the kinds of Velocirons. They didn't tend today up on threat, as the 266 00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:29,000 automatically 267 00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:34,000 They didn't live on the road before any of theicycle 268 00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:39,000 It was a very risky undertaking. 269 00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:42,000 They had to fly low because they were dropping material 270 00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:45,000 into a space like five meters wide. 271 00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:49,000 So the lower they were, the better chance they had of success. 272 00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:54,000 But of course, the lower they were, the more radiation they were exposed to. 273 00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:57,000 The more they were exposed to him. 274 00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:00,000 The more they were exposed to him. 275 00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:03,000 The more they were exposed to him. 276 00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:34,000 Workers at a nuclear power plant north of Stockholm in Sweden went into work. 277 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:39,000 On their way walking to work, there was some rain. 278 00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:44,000 They had to pass through the testing area, 279 00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:49,000 designed to make sure they didn't take any radiation out after they'd been at work. 280 00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:53,000 They were setting off the alarm bells as they walked in. 281 00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:55,000 The Swedes didn't know to start with. 282 00:35:55,000 --> 00:36:02,000 Why should workers coming into work in a nuclear power plant in the morning set off the alarm? 283 00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:06,000 The radioactivity that was emitted into the atmosphere at Chernobyl, 284 00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:11,000 it didn't form a single cloud that sat over the countryside and just poured radioactivity down. 285 00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:14,000 It was spread out across a vast part of Europe. 286 00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:22,000 And so any time that it did rain, there was a chance that radioactivity would come from the sky and fall onto the ground. 287 00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:31,000 In Sweden, engineers check the power plant for a radiation leak. They find no problems. 288 00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:38,000 They knew it wasn't from their reactor. They worked out where the wind had come from. 289 00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:47,000 They realised it came from the south and it very quickly became clear that something had happened in the Soviet Union. 290 00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:51,000 Despite the Soviets' best efforts to hide Chernobyl, 291 00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:54,000 the accident is impossible to conceal any longer. 292 00:36:54,000 --> 00:37:21,000 RS-TV 293 00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:24,000 3 days after the toxic nuclear smoke started to be released by Reacto4 at Chernobyl, 294 00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:28,000 novel. Radio Moscow broadcast this statement. 295 00:37:54,000 --> 00:38:03,000 The 296 00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:08,000 sort of a 22nd report that something has happened at the Chernobyl power plant. There's nothing 297 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:14,000 concrete that's telling people anything that they really need to know. 298 00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:21,000 Despite the danger, life in the Soviet Union carries on as normal. 299 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:27,000 The May Day parades were coming up very soon in Ukraine and across the rest of the Soviet 300 00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:33,000 Union. Tens of thousands of people on the street celebrating and exposing themselves to potentially 301 00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:38,000 daily radiation. 302 00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:44,000 First of May was a major holiday in the Soviet Union. It was the Labor Day as it is in this 303 00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:49,000 country. But of course in the Soviet Union it had enormous political significance because 304 00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:57,000 the Soviet Union is the state of the workers, the state of the laborers. 305 00:38:57,000 --> 00:39:04,000 It was the day when you celebrated socialism. So there were military parades, people's parades, 306 00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:11,000 everybody was out on the street. 307 00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:17,000 May Day parades are also taking place throughout the USSR, including the towns and cities much 308 00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:26,000 closer to Chernobyl. 309 00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:31,000 Cancelling the May Day celebrations it would have sent a clear message that something was 310 00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:37,000 clearly up, both at home and abroad. Gorbachev couldn't have allowed that to happen. It's 311 00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:45,000 one of the more controversial decisions of his career. 312 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:50,000 But as the celebrations continued, the wind direction changed. 313 00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:58,000 Refailing winds and the weather systems were moving the radiation cloud away from Ukraine 314 00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:06,000 across Belarus and into Russia. 315 00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:11,000 Within the Soviet Union all states are supposed to be equal, but clearly some are more equal 316 00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:17,000 than others. And at the top of the tree was always Russia and it needed to be protected. 317 00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:22,000 Reportedly a top secret operation named Cyclone begins. 318 00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:27,000 It sounds like something out of the sci-fi movie or sounds ridiculous but it actually 319 00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:30,000 happened. 320 00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:36,000 Military airplanes loaded with silver iodide, took to the skies and chased those clouds 321 00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:43,000 moving from the crane in the direction of the Russian Republic and shot the clouds. 322 00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:52,000 Literally shot the clouds with silver iodide capsules to make it rain. 323 00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:58,000 It rained of Belarus and the rain brought down the radioactive fallout matter onto the ground 324 00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:01,000 and onto the people who lived there. 325 00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:09,000 Over 100,000 people became victims of the radioactive rain. 326 00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:13,000 In many respects Belarus has forgotten victim of Chernobyl. 327 00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:15,000 It suffered extensive damage. 328 00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:21,000 Its economy was ruined for many years and a large part of this or a contributory part 329 00:41:21,000 --> 00:41:27,000 of this is the fact that the huge areas of its productive farmland, forests became irradiated. 330 00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:40,000 Six days after the accident an exclusion zone is set up around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. 331 00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:47,000 The higher ups decided that maybe after all they ought to evacuate people. 332 00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:55,000 From the 100 or so other villages in the surrounding areas so they created this 20 mile exclusion zone 333 00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:59,000 around the reactor and that remains in place to this day. 334 00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:06,000 But the exclusion zone is not the only area that has suffered radioactive fallout. 335 00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:13,000 The whole of Europe was frightened by what might happen. 336 00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:33,000 It's been eight days since Chernobyl's fourth nuclear reactor exploded. 337 00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:42,000 The core of the reactor is smoldering, releasing large amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere. 338 00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:51,000 Helicopters battled to stop this deadly radiation escaping from the molten core. 339 00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:53,000 A number of different things were tried. 340 00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:58,000 It was decided to dump a lot of sand on top of the reactor core. 341 00:42:58,000 --> 00:43:03,000 Lead and a rare element called boron are added to the sand. 342 00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:06,000 Up to 200 drops are made every day. 343 00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:16,000 They were tasked with going what they call bombing runs, filling up sandbags and dropping them through quite a narrow hole in the roof onto the reactor below. 344 00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:21,000 It's incredibly dangerous work. 345 00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:27,000 The entire time the people in the helicopter were receiving quite high dose of radioactivity. 346 00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:36,000 The reactor is leaking radiation that's up to ten times above a lethal dose. 347 00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:42,000 One of the pilots who flew over the disaster site is Soviet captain Alexander Maruhin. 348 00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:25,000 In total, 5,000 tons of materials are dropped onto the reactor. 349 00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:38,000 Nine days after the disaster, the temperature begins to fall, and the radiation leak suddenly drops by 99%. 350 00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:44,000 But by then, the radiation leak outside the plant is huge. 351 00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:51,000 Large areas of Ukraine are now highly radioactive. 352 00:44:58,000 --> 00:45:02,000 The Soviet government announced an ambitious cleanup operation. 353 00:45:02,000 --> 00:45:07,000 Thousands of people are drafted into Chernobyl from across the Soviet Union. 354 00:45:10,000 --> 00:45:14,000 They become known as liquidators. 355 00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:20,000 Liquidators was a Russian term to describe the people who were engaged in the cleanup. 356 00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:28,000 Mostly soldiers and other military people, many often conscript, brought in to do the dirty work. 357 00:45:33,000 --> 00:45:35,000 This is a high risk operation. 358 00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:42,000 Working in and around the disaster site, the liquidators risk being exposed to high levels of radiation. 359 00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:12,000 The liquidators were definitely inadequately equipped for the dangers that they were facing. 360 00:46:20,000 --> 00:46:23,000 Many liquidators travel miles from Chernobyl. 361 00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:28,000 They move from village to village, searching for radiation hotspots. 362 00:46:33,000 --> 00:46:40,000 Where a building was infected, it was sprayed with a decontuminate. 363 00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:45,000 It was a viscous liquid that caused any radiation to adhere to the side of the building. 364 00:46:45,000 --> 00:46:53,000 So the building itself became a kind of almost fly paper, where the radiation material was stuck to it. 365 00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:59,000 In other places where the radiation levels were even higher, 366 00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:04,000 all those were sent in and entire villages were completely flattened. 367 00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:13,000 Abandoned homes are searched. 368 00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:16,000 Cars are collected. 369 00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:22,000 Anything registering high levels of radiation is removed and buried. 370 00:47:22,000 --> 00:47:33,000 Then some liquidators are sent on a bleak search and destroy operation. 371 00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:46,000 You needed to remove all the livestock and much of the wildlife as well, because it was radioactive. 372 00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:57,000 They went into towns, villages, found animals, pet dogs, cats and shot them. 373 00:47:57,000 --> 00:48:00,000 It was terrible soul destroying work. 374 00:48:07,000 --> 00:48:15,000 As the cleanup operation continues, helicopter pilot Alexander Maruhin is recruited for a special mission. 375 00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:26,000 During one flight over this contaminated countryside, Alexander makes a surprise discovery. 376 00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:35,000 Now we have no major strain back in time, not just here, so we can sell off more items. 377 00:48:35,000 --> 00:48:42,000 The virus in the United States themselves has a...? 378 00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:44,000 ...rel excluded Cooper. 379 00:48:45,000 --> 00:48:49,000 The situation none of us operate this much, it's not just highways. 380 00:48:49,000 --> 00:48:52,000 It's not a private boat. 381 00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:55,000 Thanks Markblin. 382 00:48:56,000 --> 00:49:01,000 And the only thing is that the 383 00:49:01,000 --> 00:49:07,000 cows are likely producing milk that's highly radioactive. 384 00:49:07,000 --> 00:49:14,000 If radioactive iodine gets into the food chain and particularly into milk, 385 00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:19,000 almost all of it goes to this small thyroid gland in our neck. 386 00:49:19,000 --> 00:49:26,000 And so they got really very very high doses of radiation to their thyroid gland. 387 00:49:26,000 --> 00:49:32,000 Across the vast radioactive landscape, many people fear that they've been poisoned. 388 00:49:32,000 --> 00:49:37,000 They didn't know what physical damage they'd suffered. 389 00:49:37,000 --> 00:49:45,000 Whether they had radiological symptoms, whether they were suffering more cancers than you would have expected, they feared it. 390 00:49:49,000 --> 00:50:07,000 Soviet authorities face a dilemma. 391 00:50:07,000 --> 00:50:14,000 Chernobyl used to produce 10% of Ukraine's electricity, and that power is still needed. 392 00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:22,000 Despite the huge dangers involved, it's decided the three working reactors must be switched back on. 393 00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:40,000 Before Chernobyl can begin producing power again, two things must happen. 394 00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:48,000 Highly radioactive material has to be disposed of, and the destroyed reactor must be enclosed. 395 00:50:48,000 --> 00:50:54,000 This was easily said to them because nothing like this had ever happened before. 396 00:50:54,000 --> 00:51:01,000 And nobody had the experience of building a containment device to prevent further radiation escaping. 397 00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:11,000 An ambitious plan is drawn up. A large metal structure will be built called the sarcophagus. 398 00:51:11,000 --> 00:51:26,000 It was essentially a series of flat-packed slabs of concrete and steel built off-site, put together, moved into position around what was left of the reactor building, and then assembled. 399 00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:40,000 The walls of the sarcophagus are built, but next to the exposed reactor is a roof, covered in highly radioactive material. 400 00:51:41,000 --> 00:51:46,000 Before operators can go back to work, this has to be cleared. 401 00:51:46,000 --> 00:51:53,000 They tried using robotic vehicles, automated vehicles, but it didn't work. 402 00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:59,000 Essentially, the radioactivity fried the circuits of those robots, and they died. 403 00:52:00,000 --> 00:52:05,000 It became very clear, very quickly, the only solution was to use humans to do this work. 404 00:52:05,000 --> 00:52:09,000 And in a grim piece of soviet irony, they became known as biorobots. 405 00:52:19,000 --> 00:52:22,000 Radiation levels on the roof are extreme. 406 00:52:22,000 --> 00:52:30,000 Liquidators are given strict time limits. Within 90 seconds, they could receive an entire year's dose of radiation. 407 00:52:37,000 --> 00:52:41,000 Things people were following more than they were told to do. 408 00:52:52,000 --> 00:52:55,000 Hey, what too meant seeing the 409 00:52:56,000 --> 00:52:59,000 battery, or what designed 410 00:52:59,000 --> 00:53:01,000 theAVA stocking. 411 00:53:01,000 --> 00:53:04,000 Has your Honor created more than you ever have, Kyle? 412 00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:06,000 ? 413 00:53:06,000 --> 00:53:10,000 risen more than you ever knew from soon. 414 00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:13,000 As if I was aese officer, my mother was born with... 415 00:53:19,000 --> 00:53:22,000 And after an overnight night we had pretty early time. 416 00:53:22,000 --> 00:53:25,000 I'm not a person. I'm a person. 417 00:53:25,000 --> 00:53:27,000 I'm a person. 418 00:53:27,000 --> 00:53:28,000 I'm a person. 419 00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:30,000 I'm a person. 420 00:53:30,000 --> 00:53:32,000 I'm a person. 421 00:53:32,000 --> 00:53:34,000 I'm a person. 422 00:53:40,000 --> 00:53:45,000 The official death toll stands at just 31. 423 00:53:45,000 --> 00:53:47,000 But those who are at the disaster site 424 00:53:47,000 --> 00:53:49,000 tell a very different story. 425 00:53:50,000 --> 00:53:55,000 They think that thoseULE 426 00:53:55,000 --> 00:54:02,000 in return 427 00:54:03,000 --> 00:54:05,000 What an ironically 428 00:54:05,000 --> 00:54:08,000 The mission. 429 00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:12,000 It's the inside of the surreallook. 430 00:54:12,000 --> 00:54:16,000 When weACE the whole nation. 431 00:54:16,000 --> 00:54:18,000 but we don't trust... 432 00:54:18,000 --> 00:54:33,000 The exact number of deaths caused by the radiation will never be known. 433 00:54:33,000 --> 00:54:43,000 But the UN estimates it could be as high as 4,000. 434 00:54:43,000 --> 00:54:50,000 Five months after the explosion, the roof's radioactive material has been cleared. 435 00:54:50,000 --> 00:55:02,000 The Chernobyl power plant's three working reactors can now be switched back on. 436 00:55:02,000 --> 00:55:10,000 They managed to put up the entire erection in around about 250 days, which is quite remarkable. 437 00:55:10,000 --> 00:55:16,000 In late November, the sarcophagus is sealed. 438 00:55:16,000 --> 00:55:19,000 The radiation leak has finally been stopped. 439 00:55:19,000 --> 00:55:26,000 The world breathes a sigh of relief. 440 00:55:26,000 --> 00:55:32,000 The summer of 1987, Chernobyl makes headlines once more. 441 00:55:32,000 --> 00:55:39,000 Twelve miles from the disaster site inside this building, a trial is taking place. 442 00:55:39,000 --> 00:55:45,000 In the dock are six people, including Anatoly Diatlov, who was in charge on the night of 443 00:55:45,000 --> 00:55:53,000 the disaster, Chief Engineer Nikolai Fomen, and Chernobyl's plant director, Viktor Brukharnov. 444 00:55:53,000 --> 00:55:59,000 Brukharnov, you quite well that sooner or later he would end in prison. 445 00:55:59,000 --> 00:56:03,000 That was part of the unwritten rules of the game. 446 00:56:03,000 --> 00:56:09,000 Within the Soviet managerial system, the director would be always kept responsible for what 447 00:56:09,000 --> 00:56:11,000 happened. 448 00:56:11,000 --> 00:56:15,000 For many, the verdict in this trial is a foregone conclusion. 449 00:56:15,000 --> 00:56:18,000 The authorities have made up their mind who was responsible, but there needed to be some 450 00:56:18,000 --> 00:56:26,000 form of public acceptance and show of trial and retribution. 451 00:56:26,000 --> 00:56:33,000 As authorities prepare to pin the blame, secret KGB documents now reveal they knew these people 452 00:56:33,000 --> 00:56:35,000 weren't responsible. 453 00:56:35,000 --> 00:56:39,000 Chernobyl's style of reactor had major design flaws. 454 00:56:39,000 --> 00:56:45,000 This document states that in 1987 there were 66 emergency shutdowns at nuclear power 455 00:56:45,000 --> 00:56:51,000 facilities across Ukraine, which seems to be really very high. 456 00:56:51,000 --> 00:57:01,000 80% of these shutdowns are associated with design and process equipment. 457 00:57:01,000 --> 00:57:08,000 It tells me straight away that the design is arguably not fit for what its purpose would 458 00:57:08,000 --> 00:57:09,000 be. 459 00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:14,000 Rather than admit, Soviet design was at fault. 460 00:57:14,000 --> 00:57:22,000 Witnesses are called to try and pin the blame on those on trial. 461 00:57:22,000 --> 00:57:26,000 All are found guilty of violating safety measures. 462 00:57:26,000 --> 00:57:33,000 The Atlov, Brukharnov and Fomen received the maximum sentence, 10 years hard labor. 463 00:58:08,000 --> 00:58:28,000 5 years after the Chernobyl disaster and its impact is still being felt. 464 00:58:28,000 --> 00:58:34,000 Disillusioned with how it has been handled, the Ukrainian people declare their independence. 465 00:58:34,000 --> 00:59:02,000 It's the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union. 466 00:59:02,000 --> 00:59:12,000 The city, just two miles from the disaster site, remains a haunted wasteland. 467 00:59:12,000 --> 00:59:23,000 Without human interference, nature is reclaiming the area. 468 00:59:23,000 --> 00:59:28,000 But at Chernobyl, there's a growing problem that threatens to raise radiation levels once 469 00:59:28,000 --> 00:59:35,000 more. 470 00:59:35,000 --> 00:59:39,000 Inside the sarcophagus, it was essentially continually raining. 471 00:59:39,000 --> 00:59:45,000 It was because of the heat difference between the inside of the sarcophagus and the outside. 472 00:59:45,000 --> 00:59:50,000 So everything inside of the reactor building, inside of the sarcophagus, was corroding really 473 00:59:50,000 --> 00:59:56,000 very badly, including the fuel itself, which when it corrodes, it creates radioactive dust. 474 00:59:56,000 --> 01:00:09,000 The sarcophagus is falling apart. 475 01:00:09,000 --> 01:00:15,000 Recognizing the threat Chernobyl still poses, 45 countries including the United States, 476 01:00:15,000 --> 01:00:24,000 Russia and the United Kingdom all donate towards a new, safe confinement shelter. 477 01:00:24,000 --> 01:00:32,000 It was decided that the best solution was an arch that could be built some distance 478 01:00:32,000 --> 01:00:38,000 away with a relatively low levels of radiation exposure and then slid over the facility once 479 01:00:38,000 --> 01:00:46,000 it's completed. 480 01:00:46,000 --> 01:00:56,000 This is to be the largest movable land-based structure ever built. 481 01:00:56,000 --> 01:01:01,000 Sliding something three times the weight of the Eiffel Tower was a millimetric precision 482 01:01:01,000 --> 01:01:04,000 over several days. 483 01:01:04,000 --> 01:01:09,000 We encountered tremendous challenges in terms of the radiological risk there. 484 01:01:09,000 --> 01:01:14,000 The worst was places where workers could work for about five minutes a day in terms of sealing 485 01:01:14,000 --> 01:01:25,000 the old structure because of the radiation levels so high. 486 01:01:25,000 --> 01:01:30,000 The shelter is finally in position. 487 01:01:30,000 --> 01:01:42,000 As the new confinement structure is sealed into place, radiation levels fall by 90%. 488 01:01:42,000 --> 01:01:46,000 Lifetime with the new safe confinement is 100 years. 489 01:01:46,000 --> 01:01:47,000 It's designed life 100 years. 490 01:01:47,000 --> 01:01:55,000 I have every expectation that it will actually last considerably longer than that. 491 01:01:55,000 --> 01:02:01,000 Reactor 4 is now safer than it has ever been. 492 01:02:01,000 --> 01:02:08,000 But six years on, the contained Chernobyl plant is about to face another catastrophe. 493 01:02:08,000 --> 01:02:09,000 Ukraine is under attack. 494 01:02:09,000 --> 01:02:15,000 It has been since the early hours of the morning. 495 01:02:15,000 --> 01:02:20,000 Russia pouring troops and tanks into the Chernobyl exclusion zone. 496 01:02:20,000 --> 01:02:29,000 In some areas, the indicators were showing that the radiation level went ten times up. 497 01:02:29,000 --> 01:02:39,000 What happened was that Russia was moving tanks and heavy equipment through the zone. 498 01:02:39,000 --> 01:02:45,000 And that raised radioactive dust. 499 01:02:45,000 --> 01:02:49,000 The rise in radiation levels is relatively low. 500 01:02:49,000 --> 01:02:54,000 But it's a frightening reminder of what could happen. 501 01:02:54,000 --> 01:03:01,000 After 13 hours after the invasion begins, Russian forces take over Chernobyl. 502 01:03:01,000 --> 01:03:08,000 200 workers are taken hostage. 503 01:03:08,000 --> 01:03:13,000 Information leaks out that the Russian soldiers don't understand the danger that Chernobyl 504 01:03:13,000 --> 01:03:14,000 plant holds. 505 01:03:14,000 --> 01:03:17,000 They won't have been briefed of the hazards in Chernobyl. 506 01:03:17,000 --> 01:03:21,000 In fact, there are reports to suggest that many of them had never even heard of the Chernobyl 507 01:03:21,000 --> 01:03:23,000 disaster. 508 01:03:23,000 --> 01:03:29,000 With every passing day, there's a growing fear about what's happening inside the plant. 509 01:03:29,000 --> 01:03:42,000 Suddenly, all monitoring systems and all communications to the outside world are cut. 510 01:03:42,000 --> 01:03:45,000 Communication is absolutely key. 511 01:03:45,000 --> 01:03:59,000 Once you lose your situational awareness, then one's mind starts to run rise. 512 01:03:59,000 --> 01:04:04,000 After five days, Chernobyl is reconnected to the power grid. 513 01:04:04,000 --> 01:04:09,000 When we realized that actually, Chernobyl was back up and running the powers, running 514 01:04:09,000 --> 01:04:10,000 people were there. 515 01:04:10,000 --> 01:04:13,000 The flow of information was happening. 516 01:04:13,000 --> 01:04:19,000 That was a huge relief. 517 01:04:19,000 --> 01:04:26,000 Russian troops have now pulled out of the heavily contaminated Chernobyl nuclear site. 518 01:04:26,000 --> 01:04:32,000 After 24 days of captivity, the hostages are finally released. 519 01:04:32,000 --> 01:04:36,000 And replacement workers are allowed to enter the site. 520 01:04:36,000 --> 01:04:37,000 It was a relief. 521 01:04:37,000 --> 01:04:39,000 Things were starting to get back to normal. 522 01:04:39,000 --> 01:04:43,000 But it's a reminder that in order for the safety procedures to function properly, people 523 01:04:43,000 --> 01:04:49,000 need to be allowed to go in and out, not kept there in circumstances which must have 524 01:04:49,000 --> 01:04:56,000 been at times terrifying. 525 01:04:56,000 --> 01:05:01,000 The Russian targeting of Chernobyl has highlighted the potentially devastating role of nuclear 526 01:05:01,000 --> 01:05:03,000 installations in wartime. 527 01:05:03,000 --> 01:05:07,000 At the last time that we had a large-scale war in Europe, the Second World War, this 528 01:05:07,000 --> 01:05:10,000 was not a Europe weather and nuclear power stations. 529 01:05:10,000 --> 01:05:14,000 And I think the return of 20th century war combined with this technology that was supposed 530 01:05:14,000 --> 01:05:24,000 to be part of a peaceful future has really scared people. 531 01:05:24,000 --> 01:05:30,000 The unthinkable of attacking nuclear power stations has happened. 532 01:05:30,000 --> 01:05:35,000 And we must make sure that it doesn't happen in future. 533 01:05:35,000 --> 01:05:41,000 Chernobyl's deadly legacy began over 30 years ago. 534 01:05:41,000 --> 01:05:46,000 And we'll continue long into the future. 535 01:05:46,000 --> 01:05:54,000 The Chernobyl reactors today are a stark reminder of what happens when you don't think things 536 01:05:54,000 --> 01:05:59,000 through, when you don't have a plan for what to do when something goes wrong. 537 01:05:59,000 --> 01:06:06,000 Particularly when we're talking about radioactive materials that could have severe health consequences, 538 01:06:06,000 --> 01:06:09,000 those materials are now there. 539 01:06:09,000 --> 01:06:18,000 They may still be there for another 30 years, maybe 300 more years. 540 01:06:18,000 --> 01:06:24,000 On My 5, the incredible documentary with Ben Fogel, Inside Chernobyl streaming now on My 5. 541 01:06:24,000 --> 01:06:28,000 It killed Britain's and left devastation as it swept across the country, the story of 542 01:06:28,000 --> 01:06:32,000 Britain's killer hurricane of 1990, brand new, tomorrow at 935.