Open Wide, O Earth: Divers & Miners
Episode 2 of the HBO miniseries Chernobyl ended on a cliffhanger. Three engineers headed into flooded tunnels beneath destroyed reactor 4 to open sluice gates. These valves need to be opened to drain huge water tanks that could cause an enormous explosion if molten nuclear core material burned through them. The engineers were moving through dark, flooded corridors, with only flashlights to guide them, their Geiger counters clicking away like mad... and then all of their flashlights failed!
Episode 3, Open Wide O Earth, shows how the "divers" complete their mission successfully— and live to tell about it. In the HBO series they have hand-cranked flashlights as backups. They move quickly to valves, open them, then back to the surface. An account from one of the engineers acknowledges that their flashlights died... but does not mention backups. He says they navigated in the dark! That's why it was critical the men sent for this job were intimately familiar with the layout of the plant. Although they're referred to as "divers" they were plant engineers.
BTW, it was widely believed these three men suffered such strong radiation doses that they died not long after. That's not true! They were treated at hospitals and released. One of the men died of a heart attack in 2005, nearly 19 years later. The other two are apparently still alive today!
The engineer-divers weren't the only people who braved hard, deadly conditions to prevent a wider tragedy at Chernobyl. After the water tanks were drained there remained another peril. If the nuclear core melted down through the (dry) tanks and then through the concrete pad beneath it would reach groundwater eventually, causing an explosion and an enormous cloud of radioactive particulates. This is the so-called China Syndrome.
To prevent a China Syndrome, Legasov and other scientists planned to build a heat exchanger beneath the concrete pad under the reactor. Getting underneath the concrete meant tunneling in from the side. For this they needed the best diggers in the Soviet Union.
Some 400 coal miners were recruited for the digging. It had to be done by hand— no power machines— because of the delicate situation. The miners toiled in harsh conditions, where temperatures in the tunnel were up to 130° F (50° C), and of course radiation levels were high. The fates of the miners is not known as the Soviets kept few to no records of their health, and the USSR in 1988 made it unlawful for doctors to record radiation sickness as a cause of death, but it's estimated that 1/4 of them suffered early deaths.
The stories of the divers and the miners, along with the firefighters in episode 1, are stories of heroic sacrifice. Some had no idea of the danger they faced while many knew it was likely a death writ; yet person after person put themselves at risk to prevent harm to countless others.
Making the story of the miners even more bittersweet is that ultimately the heat exchanger was never built. The core cooled down enough that it no longer threatened to burn through the lower concrete shield and trigger the China Syndrome. Scientists like Legasov were aware of that possibility, though. Part of their tragedy was knowing that there was only a chance of some of these really terrible outcomes happening, yet having to send courageous men to sacrifice themselves just to prevent that chance.
Keep reading: Burying the Dead
Episode 3, Open Wide O Earth, shows how the "divers" complete their mission successfully— and live to tell about it. In the HBO series they have hand-cranked flashlights as backups. They move quickly to valves, open them, then back to the surface. An account from one of the engineers acknowledges that their flashlights died... but does not mention backups. He says they navigated in the dark! That's why it was critical the men sent for this job were intimately familiar with the layout of the plant. Although they're referred to as "divers" they were plant engineers.
BTW, it was widely believed these three men suffered such strong radiation doses that they died not long after. That's not true! They were treated at hospitals and released. One of the men died of a heart attack in 2005, nearly 19 years later. The other two are apparently still alive today!
The engineer-divers weren't the only people who braved hard, deadly conditions to prevent a wider tragedy at Chernobyl. After the water tanks were drained there remained another peril. If the nuclear core melted down through the (dry) tanks and then through the concrete pad beneath it would reach groundwater eventually, causing an explosion and an enormous cloud of radioactive particulates. This is the so-called China Syndrome.
To prevent a China Syndrome, Legasov and other scientists planned to build a heat exchanger beneath the concrete pad under the reactor. Getting underneath the concrete meant tunneling in from the side. For this they needed the best diggers in the Soviet Union.
Some 400 coal miners were recruited for the digging. It had to be done by hand— no power machines— because of the delicate situation. The miners toiled in harsh conditions, where temperatures in the tunnel were up to 130° F (50° C), and of course radiation levels were high. The fates of the miners is not known as the Soviets kept few to no records of their health, and the USSR in 1988 made it unlawful for doctors to record radiation sickness as a cause of death, but it's estimated that 1/4 of them suffered early deaths.
The stories of the divers and the miners, along with the firefighters in episode 1, are stories of heroic sacrifice. Some had no idea of the danger they faced while many knew it was likely a death writ; yet person after person put themselves at risk to prevent harm to countless others.
Making the story of the miners even more bittersweet is that ultimately the heat exchanger was never built. The core cooled down enough that it no longer threatened to burn through the lower concrete shield and trigger the China Syndrome. Scientists like Legasov were aware of that possibility, though. Part of their tragedy was knowing that there was only a chance of some of these really terrible outcomes happening, yet having to send courageous men to sacrifice themselves just to prevent that chance.
Keep reading: Burying the Dead
