Those Who Are Forgotten

Now there was an absense again, this time due to me spending time in Ukraine. In Kiev to be more precise. This time I could for known reasons not visit the Zone as it's currently close to impossible to get a permission to enter. It's funny, because the moment I return to Sweden I am greeted by a message concerning that the Zone seems to be open again and there's a tourist trip areanged for January 2012. I do not know what to believe anymore. Right now it seems  that all business regarding the zone can be labeled a travesty. 

In Kiev, there are a for me still unknown number of Chernobyl memorial monuments situated in different areas of the city. I must admit that I only know of one of them, which seems to be the most recent one created but before my journey I was determined that I would pay it a visit. 

This statue of a worn out firefighter is situated at the Kruglouniversistetska no. 22. This street is a fairly anonymous stroll from the main street of Khreshatik in the centre of Kiev and a place you can be sure to find empty if you go there after 17:00 in the afternoon. As I find it in the early evening on the 15th of December, after a short walk up a long slope it's already dark as night and the street is empty. Further down this hill, stand policemen watching over the traffic, but the firefighter sits all alone. In the darkness, the sense of solitude is enhanced and I cannot stop the feeling of sadness almost overwhelming me, but still I do not go very close. Instead I keep my distance, just watching. Thinking. 

In April, previously this year, the firefighter was surrounded by flowers left there by visitors and the time was appropriate - 25 years after the disaster various acts of memorial were held in Kiev, but now the piece of rock on which he sits is clean and empty. That in itself, to me is a reminder of how easy people forget. However I did not forget that I six months ago decided to find this place and bring flowers to pay my respect for those who saved the world. This evening I have no flowers but I return in the morning, having bought one single white rose from a lady at the metro station "Universitet". In the wind and stinging rain I extract the carefully wrapped flower and place it with the firefighter. It takes a long time. Water is dripping from his ears and from my eyes and I find it difficult to leave.

Four days later I am back in Gothenburg, reading my messages. The same author stating that the Zone seems to be open again, informs me that of the last firefighter helmet, there has been a find. The heavily contaminated inlet of this helmet has been removed and left it on a bucket outside the very entrance to the Pripyat hospital. On a personal note I do not know whether to find this to be irony or just a downright mockery and disrespect. 

The Complexity of Chernobyl; the Zounds of the Zone

Trying to perform research about Chernobyl on a deeper level is not as easy as it might appear, especially not once you have been in the Zone.

Already before I left Sweden for Ukraine and Chernobyl, I experienced certain difficulties in finding the information and answers to my questions that I needed and required to add to the full picture. The first problem was finding out correct data about the average levels of radiation in different parts of the Zone. I had been told that the levels were "almost normal", but why should I believe that? I risked appearing like an anxious idiot, and still wonder how the request of correct information can be mistaken for such a thing. When finally finding some relatively up-to-date numbers, I could only sneer at the previous statement of "almost normal" readings. 

I have learnt that some people tend to follow the trend of mistaking "not lethal" for "almost normal". A one time tourist joining in for a day-trip on a bus  ride arranged by a Kiev hotel may get away with that kind of arrogance, but for those who feel the call to return more than once, greater measures of caution and respect are recommended to be taken. - The radiation isn't only in the air - it's everywhere. 

When I finally entered the Zone, I pretty soon got to see for myself that the levels of radiation naturally vary, depending on where you are, but I also realized the danger of getting used to the numbers displayed on the geiger counter. Us Swedes are great with radiation, inventing measures for Roentgen, Sieverts and so on ,and living in Sweden,  I also receive about 1000 - 4000 μSv/year. The average dose for a person  living in Australia or the U.S is between 1500 - 3000 μSv a year. Compare this with the geiger counter giving you readings of  2, 5 or 14 μSv/hour, you may realize it's not lethal, but it's far from healthy in the long run. The point is that there are no constant numbers, and you should watch out where you're going, rather than believe the numbers someone have published, or for that matter get blinded by the geiger counter, because you will get used to it. Stay aware.

During the expedition, I lost count of how many times I faced contraditions to what I thought I knew by asking "But I thought/heard that..." -The official statements are for the public and for the journalists to provide to the public, but in the Zone, you get to see another view of it all; that's it's by far not so much under control as the public statements want you to believe, and when understanding that the 90 percents of the iceberg are there, you quickly realize that you can only imagine 10 percents of it all.

"Ukraine has finally received enough money to proceed working on the New Safe Confinement (NSC)"

"They keep running into problems. Whilst working, they can suddenly run into heavily radioactive obstacles, and how to remove it raise new problems."

 "Moving the NSC into place will cause vibrations that will stir up radioactive dust. In itself it's a hazard."

 Then what to believe? -We're facing a problem larger than most people imagine, and the controversies outside, contra inside the Zone, doesn't make anything easier: Whilst some are optimistic about the NSC, believing that during the 100 years it's supposed to last, we will have developed the technology to get rid of the radioactive dust of the Sarcophagus, constantly acumulating, into safe storage, others are against the disassemblance of the broken chimney of Reactor 4, as it in their opinion would destroy the monument of the disaster.

The above mentioned are more or less public matters. Let's move in closer to the Zone. Let's go past Reactor 4 and into Pripyat and its surroundings. Let's re-enter the Jupiter factory, where they once produced tape recorders, and other electronic gear.

When entering the Jupiter factory, I was told it was perfectly safe, but only a few weeks after I had returned to Sweden I was warned about this place:

"Do not go into those places without wearing at least a respiratory mask."

"The water is highly radioactive"

 We have only pieces of information contradicting each other all the time, and that's a reason good enough for anyone interested enough to go there and see with own eyes rather than believe what other people say. Everyone have a different view on this, and focus on different things, but the only way to find out, is to find out by yourselves. I want the entire truth, but still - dont believe everything you read here, because I might be wrong. 

Concerning the Zone only one thing is certain - radiation.. 

 

The disaster- how and why it happened.

It would be wrong to take for granted that everyone, or even most people know about the series of events that lead to what would become one of the major catastrophes of modern times, and that's why I want to give you a short briefing on what went on in Reactor 4 on that early morning of April 1986.

The reactors used in the Chernobyl NPP (Nuclear Power Plant) were of the type called RBMK, Реактор Большой Мощности Канальный (Reaktor Bolshoy Moshnosti Kanalniy), or to be more precise - RBMK-1000, and to put it short, you could say that the accident was due to partly the construction of the reactor, partly due to the lack of knowledge of the operating personnel present, but as such a statement without explanation could lead to wrong conclusions and assumptions being made, I will try to explain further.

It's said that back then "no one really knew how these reactors worked" and even though the amount of truth of statements as such could be doubted, one thing is for certain: The RBMK reactors were completely differently constructed compared to any other nuclear reactor in the world. In a RBMK reactor every fuel element is surrounded by a pressure tube, where water is pumped through the fuel element to make it boil. Every pressure tube is surrounded by graphite which acts as the neutron moderator in the chain reaction. At low effects this construction leads to that the reactor easily becomes unstable and an increased effect will lead to increasement of the amount of steam, which in turn leads to further increased effect. This is called positive void coefficient. Most reactors run a negative void coefficient, which means that increased heat and steam leads to poorer moderation, thus also decreased fission and thereby a lesser effect.

At the night of the accident, an experiment was run in the 4th reactor. The purpose of the test was to determine whether the turbines could keep on delivering power if the external power supply was interrupted and in order to perform this experiment, certain security systems had been temporarily disconnected. During the experiment, the 4th reactor's providing of power to Ukraine's capital Kiev was supposed to be interrupted, but as there occured a lack of power in the grid, new orders were received to continue the power supply and return to normal production. When the effect again suddenly increased, the core lacked of certain neutron absorbing isotopes that slow down the effect. The rapid and unplanned increased effect could thus happen at a much faster pace than during normal circumstances.

The cooling water in the reactor vaporized, which further increased the effect and the result was an explosion that destroyed the very reactor vessel and lit the moderating graphite.

The upper part of the reactor building had a thin roof and thin walls and the lower parts of the building's walls were made of concrete. The steam explosions and the intense heat lifted the 2000 tons heavy reactor lid and dislocated it, which made it possible for radioactive particles to spread over a large area.
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The reactor contained many radioactive elements with varying half life - from seconds to weeks and when these decay, they produce heat and due to the extreme temperatures it became very difficult to put out the graphite on fire. Water could not be used. If water would have been used in the extinguishing process, the river Pripyat, close to the nuclear power plant, would have transfered radioactive substance to other towns by the river. Instead they tried smothering the fire from the sky...

Helicopters flew back and forth over the reactor, carrying soldiers who threw down sand bags into the broken chimney (later the sand was replaced by lead), thus exposing themselves to lethal levels of radiation. A pilot would take several turns a day and there are witnesses' reports of pilots throwing up and fainting during flights.

The extingushing process went on for nine days and during this time, a large amount of radioactive dust was spread through the air and the fire was the main cause of this.

But what about the personnel of Reactor 4 that morning? Why didn't they do anything? The answer is simple - they couldn't do anything. Only the day shift personnel had gone through training and simulations but those operating at night, had not.

Two workers were killed by the first explosion. In the following three months, 28 fire fighters and liquidators would die from acute radiation sickness.

On the 27th of April, 1986, the evacuation of Pripyat began, and this is the alarm that went out to the almost 50 000 inhabitants.

Note: all of the photos in this post are official photo matters of the Ukrainian government, but I have no information about the exact dates they were taken. The mid right image is said to be a part of the control room of Reactor 4.