Immediate Aftermath

The fire at the reactor burned for a full ten days and a major emergency operation began. Scientists were worried that a further explosion could occur, producing a force of 3-5 megatons (90-150 times greater than the force of the Hiroshima bomb). An explosion of this magnitude would have resulted in the whole of Europe being exposed to enormous radioactive contamination. Around 250 firemen were called and, despite being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation, many of them stayed and risked their lives to bring the situation under control.

Tens of thousands of coal miners were conscripted because of their expertise in tunneling and working underground. Their task was to dig out a tunnel under the reactor, install a cooling coil to cool the reactor’s concrete base and reinforce any cracks appearing in the slab. The miners now called "liquidators" had to work in appalling conditions, not only in extremely high temperatures but also very high levels of radiation. Heroic efforts were made to smother the fire and bring it under control through flying in and dropping 5,000 tons of clay, sand, lead and dolomite onto the burning exposed reactor. Many of them died between the ages of 30 and 40 and the majority of them became handicapped.

The raging fire was eventually put out on 7 May 1986. The contribution of hundreds of thousands of miners, soldiers and firemen – known as ‘the liquidators’ – prevented a highly likely nuclear explosion. Their self-sacrifice cannot be overstated. With inadequate protective clothing, they were exposed to horrific levels of radioactivity and are now paying a terrible price.

It’s conservatively estimated that about 100 million curies of radiation were released, although many scientists now believe it was closer to 250 million curies. The day after the fire was brought ‘under control’ it released 150,000 curies of radiation-more than the total amount emitted during the 1957 Windscale Fire in England. By the end of May, more radioactive material was being released each day than the total amount from the Three Mile Island accident in the United States. In October 1986 the reactor ceased to be a source of airbourne fallout when the ‘sarcophagus’was finally built with 400,000 tons of reinforced concrete.

The UN estimates that an area the size of England, Wales and Ireland combined has been contaminated. Of the curies released into the atmosphere, covering 155,000 square kilometres of land, 70 per cent fell onto the population of Belarus. Between the stricken regions of Belarus, western Russia and Northern Ukraine, the UN estimates that the fallout has directly and indirectly affected up to 7 million people. The consequences of this fallout will not be fully seen for another 50 years.