Advertisement

The Battle of Chernobyl

It’s a documentary which analyzes the Thursday 26th April 1986 that became a momentous date in modern history, when one of the reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in northern Ukraine, exploded. It was the most significant reactor failure in the history of nuclear power, a Maximum Credible Accident (MCA). The plant, just 20 km away from the town center, was made up of four reactor units each generating an output of 1,000 megawatts. The reactor in question exploded due to operational errors and inadequate safety measures and the meltdown was directly linked to routine testing on the reactor unit’s turbine generators.

The test required reactor activity and the thermal reactor output to be run down to a lower level. During the procedure, however, the reactor plummeted to an unexpectedly low and unstable level of activity. At this point, it should have been shut down; as the operators chose to continue with the test, the events subsequently proved to be catastrophic.

More than 200 people died or were seriously injured by radiation exposure immediately after the explosion. 161,000 people had to be evacuated from a 30 kilometer radius of the reactor and 25,000 square km of land were contaminated. As time went on millions of people suffered radiation related health problems such as leukemia and thyroid cancer and around 4,000 people have died as a result of the long-term effects of the accident.

Nobody was prepared for such a crisis. For the next seven months, 500,000 men will wage hand-to-hand combat with an invisible enemy – a ruthless battle that has gone unsung, which claimed thousands of unnamed and now almost forgotten heroes. Yet, it is thanks to these men that the worst was avoided; a second explosion, ten times more powerful than Hiroshima which would have wiped out more than half of Europe. This was kept secret for twenty years by the Soviets and the West alike.

Join The Conversation

23 Comments / User Reviews

Leave Your Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. Bio-robots are true heroes.

  2. I hate when they put the voice in english over the original one, in this case in russian. Is not only disrespectful yo whoever is speaking but also makes it very difficult to understand… please use subtitles next time, then I would be glad to watch. Thanks.

    • Not everyone can read, and not everyone has eyesight… you are the one being disrespectful with your ableist entitlement and your fetish for (and addiction to) instant gratification. Try considering others when dare to speak on the behalf of others.

  3. This documentary has opened my eyes

  4. amazing!! Imagine just being there must have been so scary!

  5. I never knew what happened after Chernobyl. This documentary keeps you glued to your screen the entire time. 5 stars

  6. I agree, Spooky shit indeed, no country should medal in this stuff but i do get the feeling N Korea or Pakistan will end up fucking around with it anyway……. There’s always one or more countries willing to risk the planet just to show they can “Flex muscle” or make some idiot fuck religious point to the world

  7. Wow!!!…scary stuff.So many lives destroyed, disfigured and mutated and it’s not finished after more than20 years. Nuclear power is so dangerous and it’s damaging effects are so terrifying and long lasting that strong restrictions should be placed on countries like North Korea and Syria on developing nuclear reactors for any reason. They sure aren’t stable enough, religiously and socially, or scientifically developed enough to control it! Nuclear power is the most dangerous form of energy ever!!…I’m building up a supply of Energizer batteries to power my computer so I can watch more documantaries, safely in the future.

  8. Wow. Truly an amazing documentary that everyone should see.

  9. a true documentary. speechless!!! watch it now.
    10/10 

  10. amazing. everyone on earth should know the details of this story.

  11. amazing. everyone on earth should know the details of this story.

  12. amazing. everyone on earth should know the details of this story.

  13. amazing. everyone on earth should know the details of this story.

  14. amazing. everyone on earth should know the details of this story.

  15. Actually the New York Jets are one of the top three leading Super Bowl contenders at the moment. I would make a Superbowl futures bet on them while the odds are really high.

  16. Hi please pardon my English, I am still learning. I found your post on Yahoo ” The Battle of Chernobyl | Documentary Heaven | Watch Free Documentaries Online” was somewhat close to what I was looking for, but after browsing through your blog post I still was not able discover straight-forward solution to my question and this is driving me nuts. I enjoy your blog and think it is surely handy but I think you can make it even better if you fine-tune your blog search to make it easier for searchers to locate needed information within your website. It can be easily done by adding wordpress addon… If I am not mistaken it was called enhanced wordpress search it has several handy features like searching pages, search comments. If you need help about installing internal search you can find me me at [email protected] Thank you I hope you have a great day

  17. I have typed up notes of the documentary which you can see here:
    http://bit.ly/bVL0SG

  18. I’ve seen a history channel doc on how Chernobyl happened.. Glad to see this one.. Never knew what went on after.. Hopefully another sarcophagus can be built.. You would figure we have so much recycled materials why not melt some shizzle down..