Schools/Education

Fate of the Liquidators

Liquidators are the names used to describe the 800,000 men conscripted into the Chernobyl area from throughout the former Soviet Union to “liquidate” or “blot out” the released radiation. The intercession of these hundreds of thousands of young men- miners, soldiers, firemen- the “liquidators”-is unparalleled in history. The self- sacrifice of these men cannot be overstated, as they prevented a highly likely nuclear explosion. To date, according to the governments of the three affected countries, at least 25,000 of these men have died and a further 70,000 are disabled. Twenty per cent of these deaths were suicides. They were deemed heroes in 1986, but are now discarded and forgotten, vainly trying to establish that their ill health is the result of the extraordinary levels of radiation they were exposed to.

CCPI spoke to these men to hear from them exactly what their work had entailed. The first man we spoke to had been in charge of the robots that had been brought in from Germany and Japan to remove the highly radioactive graphite from the rector’s core. The robots ceased to function because the levels of radiation were too high and interfered with their circuitry. That was then when they conscripted the human “bio-robots” to take the place of the now-defunct mechanical robots. These young men unwillingly exposed themselves to enormous doses of radiation. According to the survivors, the decision to use humans had not been based on scientific or technical grounds but on political ones. The job was to be done at any cost and as quickly as possible. Many scientists objected strongly but they were not heeded.

On the night of the explosion, about 600 liquidators were at the site, mostly plant workers and firemen. They exposed themselves to horrific amounts of radiation. Twenty-eight of them died within three months due to acute radiation sickness. Ivan Shavre, a fire-fighter who survived recalls “After about 40, 50 minutes of fighting there were two more explosions. There was a big black cloud, followed by an intense blue light. Then a ball of fire covered the moon. I felt sick and fell unconscious. I woke up in the hospital in Moscow with 40 other fire fighters. At first we joked about radiation. Then we heard that a comrade had begun to bleed from his nose and mouth and his body turned black and he died. That was the end of the laughter.

Tens of thousands of coal miners were conscripted because of their expertise in working underground and tunneling. Their task was to dig out the tunnel under the reactor and to reinforce any cracks appearing in the slab. The miners had to work in appalling conditions, not only in extremely high temperatures, but also very high levels of radiation. Their job was to prevent the block from disintegrating. The conscripts received insufficient clothing to carry out their work and in some cases none at all. Sometimes the men had to lift radioactive graphite with their bare hands. Officials ignored the radiation levels during this clean-up and had deliberately obstructed efforts by some to monitor the doses that the workers were receiving.

Liquidators were also given the task of clearing contaminated villages of people and livestock. Entire villages were bulldozed and buried along with their contents. The men spoke about their personal fears for themselves and their families, but also about the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities regarding the millions of acres of heavily contaminated land and the hundreds of uncategorized radioactive waste disposal sites scattered throughout the zone. They were also promised weekly check-ups. None took place and they were not given iodine tablets to prevent then from contracting thyroid cancer.

Those of us living on the landmass of Europe need to be eternally grateful to the bravery and courage of these men who risked their own lives to save Europe from what would have been an extremely serious nuclear catastrophe. The years are passing, but the memory of those who gave their lives and health for others will be with us forever. Lest we forget their heroism, CCPI call on all people to remind ourselves of how we escaped this nightmare by placing flowers for them in a symbolic place on the 26 April each year as our homage to the liquidators.