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The fourth episode of HBO's five-part miniseries Chernobyl is mostly about liquidators. They were the 400,000 - 700,000 men (nearly all were men) conscripted to clean up in the exclusion zone. They came in once the destroyed nuclear reactor was at least stabilized so as not to risk causing imminent additional explosions and the region was evacuated— though some residents were... reluctant... to leave.
Liquidators had a variety of tasks. One big effort was to till all the soil in the exclusion zone, burying the radioactive dirt so it wouldn't be exposed to dusting or runoff. Another, which I wrote about in my previous blog on the movie, was to kind and kill all the abandoned pets in the zone. Other combed through fields and streams looking for irradiated items that had been carried away from near the reactor and then abandoned. But the most dangerous jobs were at the reactor itself. While the open core had been rendered safe from further imminent explosion it was still highly radioactive.
In particular, there was radioactive debris on the roofs of several connected buildings in the power plant. Among these was the roof of reactor 3. Yes, there was another reactor right next to the one that exploded— and it was still running. (In fact the last of the 3 remaining reactors at Chernobyl didn't shut down until 2000.)The radioactive debris needed to be removed because it was a danger to the environment in general and to remaining plant workers in particular.
At first the Soviets deemed the roof areas too dangerous for people to work in. The debris on the roof of reactor building 3 emitted such intense radiation a person would absorb a fatal dose in less than 2 minutes standing there. Thus they sent robots to clean the roof.
The robots were basically remote-operated bulldozers. They were meant to collect radioactive debris and sweep it off the edge of the roof, into the pile around the core of reactor 4. But the radiation there was too intense. Ionizing radiation at the level of 10,000-15,000 Roentgen/hour or higher quickly fried the control circuitry of every robot brought in.
Thus the Soviets turned to bio-robots.
3,828 "Bio-Robots"— aka people— cleared 90% of the radioactive debris from the roof. The side-by-side picture shows a scene from the HBO miniseries (left) and a file photo from 1986 (right).
Bio-robots, as you might have guessed, is a euphemism for people. But that's what they called it.Bio-robots People cleared 90% of the debris from the roofs.
The areas still were highly radioactive. Leaders determined that a liquidator could spend just 90 seconds on the roof. And that wasn't "90 seconds, then you're done for the day"; it was "90 seconds, then you're done with radiation for your entire life. Don't come back." But records show some workers did go back out on the roof for a second or even third sortie.
Per records there were 3,828 bio-robots at Chernobyl. Every one of them is a brave soul as they had to work with minimal protection. And those who went back a second or third time beyond the call of duty are especially selfless.
Next in this series: The Cost of Lies, the Futility of Truth
Liquidators had a variety of tasks. One big effort was to till all the soil in the exclusion zone, burying the radioactive dirt so it wouldn't be exposed to dusting or runoff. Another, which I wrote about in my previous blog on the movie, was to kind and kill all the abandoned pets in the zone. Other combed through fields and streams looking for irradiated items that had been carried away from near the reactor and then abandoned. But the most dangerous jobs were at the reactor itself. While the open core had been rendered safe from further imminent explosion it was still highly radioactive.
In particular, there was radioactive debris on the roofs of several connected buildings in the power plant. Among these was the roof of reactor 3. Yes, there was another reactor right next to the one that exploded— and it was still running. (In fact the last of the 3 remaining reactors at Chernobyl didn't shut down until 2000.)The radioactive debris needed to be removed because it was a danger to the environment in general and to remaining plant workers in particular.
At first the Soviets deemed the roof areas too dangerous for people to work in. The debris on the roof of reactor building 3 emitted such intense radiation a person would absorb a fatal dose in less than 2 minutes standing there. Thus they sent robots to clean the roof.
The robots were basically remote-operated bulldozers. They were meant to collect radioactive debris and sweep it off the edge of the roof, into the pile around the core of reactor 4. But the radiation there was too intense. Ionizing radiation at the level of 10,000-15,000 Roentgen/hour or higher quickly fried the control circuitry of every robot brought in.
Thus the Soviets turned to bio-robots.
3,828 "Bio-Robots"— aka people— cleared 90% of the radioactive debris from the roof. The side-by-side picture shows a scene from the HBO miniseries (left) and a file photo from 1986 (right).
Bio-robots, as you might have guessed, is a euphemism for people. But that's what they called it.
The areas still were highly radioactive. Leaders determined that a liquidator could spend just 90 seconds on the roof. And that wasn't "90 seconds, then you're done for the day"; it was "90 seconds, then you're done with radiation for your entire life. Don't come back." But records show some workers did go back out on the roof for a second or even third sortie.
Per records there were 3,828 bio-robots at Chernobyl. Every one of them is a brave soul as they had to work with minimal protection. And those who went back a second or third time beyond the call of duty are especially selfless.
Next in this series: The Cost of Lies, the Futility of Truth
