| Afterword to "Ghost
Town" and "Land of the Wolves" |
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Here is two Chernobyl tales with pictures. "Ghost Town" was written in 2003-2004 and "Land of the Wolves" in 2005. "Ghost Town" was under attack since the day I put it online. Many do not appreciate my efforts. Chernobyl is a disaster we don't want to remember; it is human made and it never ends. In 2004, my Chernobyl site was among the most visited sites on the internet. It is when my account was blocked and papers all around the world started writing that I was a commercial trick, computer game advertisement, Photoshop etc., I succeeded to hit a raw nerve and I am proud about that. With all these experiences, I realized that one who wants to tell the truth must be able to stand for it, and this inspired me to create the second part of the Chernobyl story, "Land of the Wolves". There is "big money" promised to be made in the atomic energy
industry. Just No matter how hard they tried to discredit my site, it is still here and more people continue to read it. I am not pro- or anti- nuclear activist, I am just a pro-human author, who think that Chernobyl is a warning to mankind. I do not think that atom itself is evil. It only becomes evil in human hands. Under the right conditions, atoms can serve humans, under conditions where there are no wars, when the atom does not belong to communists, Islamists, or capitalists. The problem is that the life of nations is nothing but wars and tumults; the peaceful years appears only as occasional brief pauses and the communists, Islamists and capitalists are always the first who try to possess the atom. IT IS INEXCUSABLE ERRORS IN DESIGN OF HUMANS THAT MAKES REACTORS DANGEROUS. My interest in Chernobyl began in 1992, when I first traveled through Belorussian villages north of the reactor. I was young and I was impressed. What struck me most was some of the dark beauty of the place; the beauty that others could not see. The "hotspots," like Vilcha, is a common name for all areas contaminated with Chernobyl radiation. 60 curie of cesium was measured in 1991. The level of radioactive isotopes of Plutonium was measured 0.7 curies/ square km. Strontium was measured at 15 curies/ square km. By Chernobyl standards, Vilcha is a typical hotspot. On a page about "Red Wood". When I said, I'd glow in the dark, I was kidding. Radiation is not seen. It's just our common expression. Extremely high radiation can be seen on some videos, depending of brand of the film. It appears as a little sparks. Radiation is seen on the video, "Last day of Pripyat" The author of this video, Michail Nazarenko, was making a film about an atomic plant and happened to be in Pripyat. He also filmed the evacuation there. At the day of evacuation, the official level of radiation in Pripyat reached 1 Roentgen per hour, but people say it was 7 Roentgens. This makes a difference, because in first case, the population would die within two or three months. While in second, people would die in several days. My stories are a record of how I saw Chernobyl some 17-19 years after the accident, so I didn't update any info about radiation levels, number of people living in the area, etcetera. A couple of photos came from another site. I've placed them on my site with the permission of their respective authors. I got to thank everyone who helped me with this site and those who still help. "Ghost Town" song is a special present for me from a musical duo "Huns and Dr.Beeker" I was trying to avoid using scientific terminology and basically was trying to tell about sophisticated issues with simple words, if something is unclear, please check out Glossary The scientific part of this story, relating to the radioactivity of
Americium, is an incredibly complex field and it is almost impossible
for anyone to get it right. The difference between radiation tests in
laboratory and radioactivity in life is as big as between shooting range
and combat. My observations are based on experience and my approach is
always practical . Below is an approximate graph that shows the decay process of Pu-241 creating the accumulation Am-241. Mass is on the vertical scale. Time is on the horizontal scale. |
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| Unfortunately, photo of "Elephant foot" in
bad quality, as all pictures of this miracle it is taken with remote
control. No one goes inside of that room, because radiation is about
10,000 roentgen per hour. |
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| The "Elephant's Foot" is just the biggest
formation, but it is really a small part of all the fuel that was in the
reactor. The explosion forced down the reactor base and melted material
had poured out of the reactor vessel and spilled into the rooms and
corridors below. In this way, the reactor is empty and fuel is not
concentrated in one place. This is sort of good news, because it reduces
the chances of another chain reaction. The pictures below make it easier
to understand how the reactor was built and where the fuel is now. |
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| That radioactive magma has glassy look,
because fuel was mixed with sand that was routinely packed around the
reactor vessel. If someone want to learn more, click here for video that was taken deep in a basement of reactor N4 and shows the "Elephant's Foot" The amount of fuel that is left under the sarcophagus is the subject of discussion among scientists. It is hard to explore all rooms and corridors, because radiation levels can be up to 1000 Roentgens and higher. Scientists run, when they pass such a highly radioactive place. 1000 Roentgens kills a person in just one hour. Protective suits are not effective. There are no means that can protect humans from this level of radiation. Until the ill fated day of 26 April 1986, Chernobyl's power plant was a success. It's energy output exceeded all expectations and it's safety record was unstained. The Chief Engineer who designed Chernobyl reactor used to brag that this type of reactor is so safe, that it could be built on Red Square in Moscow. Chernobyl plant was providing 2 millions people with electricity and night was the best time to run experiment, because the energy consumption was the lowest. When the safety experiment was scheduled to run that day control operators were about to run their business with the same confidence as always. The purpose of contest was to evaluate the reactor's response to a loss of electrical power. But what they fail to understand was just how unstable their soviet design of reactor would become when operating at low power. All reactors operate under following principal: In the presence of uranium fuel neutrons split the uranium atoms and what is called a self sustaining chain reaction. The energy released heats the fuel, waters circulate over this fuel some of it turns to steam and power the turbine which generate electricity. Then all the waters recycle and return to cool the core. At Chernobyl's reactor number 4 the uranium is contained in seventeen hundred separate tubes surrounded by blocks of graphite that help to keep the chain reaction going. Control rods had absorb neutrons and does slow the chain reaction are raised out of the core to increase power and lowered to decrease it. For safety a minimum of 30 control rods should remain at the core at all times. The cooled water absorbs extra neutrons and helps to regulate the rate of the chain reaction. The danger of this reactor's design is that if the water is lost or boils away the extra neutrons can speed up the chain reaction until the reactor is out of the control. This is what happened at Chernobyl. |
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| The explosion was caused mainly by a
combination of following things: 1) There were only a few (may be less
then 10) control rods in the reactor at the time which could instantly
move to counter a reactivity insertion. 2) The shut down rods went in
slowly- acceleration about one fourth of what would be in free fall
(g/4) in contrast to being driven in very fast as they should be. 3)To
save money the tip (1 meter) of the shut down rods was GRAPHITE! This
gave an instant positive surge of reactivity which could not be
countered for perhaps 1/20 second. Among other defects, flaws and failures worth mentioning are the absence of the cap (secondary containment) which prevented a similar catastrophe on Three Mile Island in the United States. Soviets were told many times that atomic plants with no caps are dangerous, but they kept building those plants, because it was 30% less expensive. After explosion, the only way to slow chain reaction was to bomb reactor from helicopters with neutron absorbers and other chemicals, soon after, many of brave pilots died. Their photos and videos have survived. Click here for video from helicopter. Don't miss 6 minutes long video of Vladimir Shevchenko, called "Chronicle of Severe Days" Here is video that shows "biorobots" at work, it is final stage of cleaning on the roof. Below are photos of our May 1st milliroentgen parade. It probably was only parade without party bosses and members of their familes taking part in it. As is true of all times, first class passengers left the sinking ship first, so their families left Kiev on April 26, as soon as they learned about explosion at the nuclear plant. No one was punished for hiding the truth from people. |
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| Punished were only the guys from the nuclear
plant. Photos of trial. A group of six atomic plant personal have been
sentenced to different terms from 2 to 10 years. Only Deputy Chief
engineer partly admitted his guilt. "I was guilty but so was the system,
he said. |
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| In 1991, the Soviet Union has collapsed.
Since then, some things have changed: communists became democrats,
Komsomol leaders became businessmen, judges and prosecutors became
ministers. What became to people who once trusted to their leaders and
went out to clean up area around the reactor? Now each, left alone with
his or her own cancer, knows that he or she will die and after his or
her death, the toll of victims will still remain 31. |
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Materials from this site can be printed, copied and translated or used for any purposes, no rights reserved. My aim is to show those pages to as many people as possible. Thanks to everyone for reading.
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Updated 17 Jan 2008
