El accidente de Chernóbil1 fue un accidente nuclear ocurrido el sábado 26 de abril de 1986 en la central nuclear Vladímir Ilich Lenin ubicada en el norte de Ucrania, que en ese momento pertenecía a la Unión Soviética, a 2,7 km de la ciudad de Prípiat, a 18 km de la ciudad de Chernóbil y a 17 km de la frontera con Bielorrusia. Es considerado el peor accidente nuclear de la historia, y junto con el accidente nuclear de Fukushima I en Japón en 2011, como el más grave en la Escala Internacional de Accidentes Nucleares (accidente mayor, nivel 7). Asimismo, suele ser incluido entre los grandes desastres medioambientales de la historia
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00:00:00April 1986. An explosion destroys the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, releasing a poisonous atomic cloud.
00:00:08Tens of thousands of people flee the area. An entire city is abandoned.
00:00:16The causes of the worst nuclear disaster in history have been fiercely debated by the people of Chernobyl.
00:00:25The causes of the worst nuclear disaster in history have been fiercely debated for decades.
00:00:31But now, a set of new evidence, top-secret files from the Soviet KGB, will reveal a story that no one suspected.
00:00:40There were 17 KGB agents and 50 informants working at the Chernobyl nuclear plant.
00:00:51The agents reported that the atomic plant was like a huge time bomb.
00:00:57But would anyone listen to their warnings?
00:01:02We tell the truth. What happens is that the KGB was not omnipotent.
00:01:09Chernobyl is still highly radioactive today.
00:01:13A scientist will inspect the control room where the explosion originated.
00:01:19The dose rate is still very high.
00:01:22We are very close to the nuclear fuel that still remains inside the reactor unit.
00:01:28These new evidences finally remove the veil of secrecy to reveal the story never told of the worst nuclear disaster in history.
00:01:50CHERNOBYL
00:01:54Chernobyl was the horror story that marked a whole generation.
00:02:00An explosion and a nuclear fusion.
00:02:05A cloud of deadly radioactive rain covered much of Europe and was detected all over the world.
00:02:13Meteorologists have predicted that the winds will transport the clouds to Kent, East England, at the last hour of the day, and will move slowly north along the coast.
00:02:23It caused at least 5,000 cases of cancer, and even today more cases are still reported.
00:02:32The decontamination work required half a million workers, and contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
00:02:41Entire districts were evacuated.
00:02:46The farms are still abandoned, and their crops are still too dangerous to eat.
00:03:02But the chain of events that culminated with the explosion in 1986 goes back many decades.
00:03:09To the Cold War, at its peak, when Russia launched its nuclear arsenal through the Red Square in Moscow.
00:03:21The new evidences show that the accident originated in the isolation and Soviet paranoia of the post-war period.
00:03:29That was what led the KGB, the most feared espionage agency in the world, to put its agents inside the Soviet nuclear power plants.
00:03:44Sergei Plokhi grew up in Ukraine.
00:03:48Today he is a professor at Harvard University, and the author of a book about the Chernobyl disaster.
00:03:56The people who created the Soviet nuclear industry were the ones who made the bombs in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
00:04:09They genuinely believed that if they didn't make the bomb, they themselves would be bombed by the United States.
00:04:16They were second in getting the atomic bomb.
00:04:21But they were the first to build a reactor designed specifically to produce electricity.
00:04:28This happened in 1954.
00:04:33In Kiev, the historic capital of Ukraine,
00:04:36evidence shows that everything related to nuclear energy became a state secret.
00:04:43In the dusty archives of the Ukrainian secret police,
00:04:47a historian has been able to access the highly secret documents of the former KGB,
00:04:53including the reports on Chernobyl.
00:05:03Oleg Basan was a first-year history student when the reactor exploded.
00:05:08Like many Ukrainians, he considered that the true history of the disaster had been silenced.
00:05:16But now, the Ukrainian government has not allowed him to study the archives,
00:05:20formerly secret, which shed light on the time when Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union.
00:05:30When they began to build the nuclear power plant,
00:05:35the KGB created the special department of the Chernobyl district
00:05:40to supervise the construction and operation.
00:05:50When we talk about the Chernobyl nuclear power plant,
00:05:54we have to consider it a strategic installation under the control of the nuclear industry.
00:06:05The Chernobyl nuclear reactor was of the type that the Soviets called RBMK.
00:06:11There was a good reason for it to be classified.
00:06:15The RBMK reactors could also manufacture the components for an atomic bomb.
00:06:28Its design was highly secret,
00:06:31because it was a dual-purpose reactor used to produce electricity,
00:06:37but it could also be used to produce plutonium or uranium suitable for military use.
00:06:43That is why everything was done in secret.
00:06:47The governmental body that developed the first RBMK reactor
00:06:52was the ministry responsible for the Soviet nuclear bombs.
00:06:58So Chernobyl, from that point of view, is a sad irony.
00:07:03It was almost designed to explode.
00:07:16Chernobyl is located 100 km northwest of Kiev
00:07:20and 725 km southwest of Moscow.
00:07:25The vast Soviet empire extends mainly to the east.
00:07:34In 1970, the Soviets chose a remote area
00:07:38dedicated exclusively to cultivation grounds as a location for the nuclear power plant.
00:07:45But the vast workforce of Chernobyl workers also needed a place to live.
00:07:54The city of Pripyat, built especially to provide support to the nuclear power plant,
00:08:00had 50,000 inhabitants at the time of the disaster.
00:08:05Its bustling city made it a group of elites in Soviet society.
00:08:15One of them was Marina Sivets.
00:08:19And this road, which today crosses a wooded area,
00:08:23was once one of the busiest streets in Pripyat.
00:08:28Marina's husband was a metallurgical worker in Chernobyl.
00:08:32Pripyat was a young and vibrant city, as white as snow.
00:08:38A city full of roses, of young people looking to the future, a paradisiacal place.
00:08:43There was a rosal for every inhabitant of Pripyat.
00:08:46There were flowers in every street.
00:08:50It was a spacious, cheerful and modern city.
00:08:54Well, modern for the time.
00:08:57Everyone had the opportunity to work, to have fun.
00:09:01Everything was wonderful.
00:09:03Pripyat grew in parallel to the nuclear power plant.
00:09:06First, the reactor 1, then the 2, the 3 and the 4.
00:09:10But now, the evidence shows that something was hidden from the workers of Chernobyl.
00:09:16A design flaw in the reactor,
00:09:19which was to be used for the construction of the nuclear power plant,
00:09:24was found in the reactor.
00:09:27The inauguration of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1977
00:09:31was acclaimed as a triumph of Soviet science and technology.
00:09:36But it was not the end of the story.
00:09:39In 1977, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was inaugurated.
00:09:43It was the first nuclear power plant in the world.
00:09:47It was the first nuclear power plant in the world.
00:09:51It was the first nuclear power plant in the world.
00:09:55It is a great achievement for the Soviet Union.
00:10:01But from the beginning, there were concerns among the workers.
00:10:07According to the high-secret files of the KGB,
00:10:11their agents were desperately concerned about the safety of the nuclear power plant.
00:10:18At the beginning of the 1980s
00:10:21there were 17 agents paid by the KGB and 50 informers working at the Chernobyl nuclear
00:10:28plant. That is, the informers did not receive any money for their reports, but were concerned
00:10:37about what was happening there and only wanted to help the KGB.
00:10:46The famous acronyms KGB simply mean Committee for State Security. It was a secret police
00:10:55and espionage agency based in the infamous Lubyanka building in Moscow. The department
00:11:06of Chernobyl was tasked with detecting possible foreign agents or saboteurs. But they also
00:11:12caught any gossip that could be disturbing as the construction continued.
00:11:32Another document questioned that the Chernobyl refrigeration pumps could face an emergency
00:11:38and made a simple but chilling observation. The design of the reactor does not have a
00:11:45safety containment system either. Dr. Clare Corgill is a British scientist who studied
00:11:58the Chernobyl disaster. She agrees with the concerns of the KGB. The RBMK reactors were
00:12:06very popular because they could be built quite cheaply, and they could operate practically
00:12:12without stopping. That is why they were built throughout the Soviet Union. One feature
00:12:17of these reactor units is that there is no real containment building. You can only see
00:12:22a thin outer cover. Most Western reactors have some kind of very thick concrete containment
00:12:29building. A secret KGB report from 1983 listed three Soviet nuclear power plants built
00:12:40without a concrete safety shield. The Chernobyl and Kursk nuclear power plants are currently
00:12:47the most dangerous in terms of their operation, which can have serious consequences. The same
00:12:55report pointed out the lack of an emergency refrigeration system in Chernobyl. If something
00:13:01went wrong, the effects would be catastrophic. In the epicenter of the accident, the radioactivity
00:13:09will be 60 times higher than it was during the explosion of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima
00:13:15and Nagasaki. The risks could not be higher, but would someone react to what the KGB
00:13:26reported?
00:13:27The KGB was alarmed by what was happening in Chernobyl. The KGB reported the number of
00:13:37accidents that took place between 1979 and 1982. There were 27 accidents and several dozen
00:13:51blackouts in the nuclear power plant. Radioactive particles have been discovered 5 km from the
00:14:00plant. They pose the greatest danger, as if they penetrate the human body, they can cause
00:14:06serious diseases. Now we know that this report was sent to Moscow, but they did not respond.
00:14:19The KGB's network of spies, which secretly listened to the 5,000 workers of the nuclear
00:14:24power plant, indicates that nothing was escaping them. A plan to make money using the reactor
00:14:32refrigeration water, hot, although often radioactive, to raise fish and sell them on the market also
00:14:38violated safety standards. The KGB made the alarm go off, saying that, due to the fact
00:14:50that the water in the refrigeration tank was contaminated with radioactive waste, that
00:14:59fish was harmful to the human body, and that money should not be made by doing business
00:15:06in that way. The KGB's highly secret memorandums continued to arrive in Moscow, but there no one
00:15:15listened to the growing alarm. We tell the truth. What happens is that the KGB was not
00:15:21omnipotent. Do you understand? There was no desire in the high spheres to stop the work
00:15:30or to review the procedures, because the bosses had production quotas to meet. The
00:15:38general management culture in the Soviet Union comes from the 1930s, under Stalin, where,
00:15:45if you do not meet the objectives, you can be accused of sabotage and go to jail. The
00:15:54KGB had clearly explained the problems. Chernobyl was poorly designed, poorly built and poorly
00:16:02managed. But what happened to trigger the catastrophe? The science of nuclear energy
00:16:15is complex. The principle that sustains it is very simple. The Chernobyl RBMK reactor
00:16:25was no different from any other in its basic design. A continuous and controlled nuclear
00:16:33reaction within the tubes of the reactor core generates a huge amount of heat, which heats
00:16:40the water in another set of tubes. The water becomes steam, which drives the turbines
00:16:49to produce electricity. There is no difference between an electric coal power plant and a
00:16:55nuclear power plant, except for the origin of the energy. When you divide a uranium atom,
00:17:02you get a billion times more energy than if you burn the carbon-carbon-carbon link. After
00:17:08that step, the heating of the water, which produces the released energy, and the rotation
00:17:13of the turbines to create electricity, is the same in an electric coal power plant as
00:17:18in a nuclear one. But the use of the most powerful force in nature requires
00:17:25constant control and management. Inside the reactor are the so-called control bars,
00:17:31which are very important. They are like the brakes of the nuclear reactor. They slow down
00:17:36the nuclear reaction so that we can control the amount of energy that is released. The
00:17:43control bars, inserted from the top of the reactor, reduce the heat emitted by the uranium.
00:17:50If they are removed, the heat increases again. In November 1975, a critical design defect
00:18:03was revealed in the RBMK reactor. I'm walking right over a RBMK reactor. It is the unit
00:18:16of the Chernobyl reactor number three, which is identical to the one next to it, the reactor
00:18:21four, which exploded. I'm on top of the biological shield. It's a very thick steel plate. And
00:18:27under each of these small squares, there is a set of fuels, where the fuel is
00:18:32stored , the control bars, or the pressure tubes that contain the water and the steam
00:18:38that are used to generate electricity. The crisis occurred not in Chernobyl, but a thousand
00:18:45kilometers away, in a city still known then as Leningrad. There, unit one of the RBMK
00:18:55was on the brink of disaster. The control bars were completely removed from the reactor,
00:19:02and when they were put back in, there was a reactivity peak. And this was because the
00:19:06tip of the bars was made of a material called graphite. They were made like this to try
00:19:12to increase lubrication. The problem with having the graphite tip is that it is a mineral
00:19:18that increases reactivity. So, when the tip of the bar enters the reactor, it can increase
00:19:24the reactivity and cause a peak. The engineers of Leningrad managed to remove their reactor
00:19:33from the abyss. But that critical design failure, common to all the RBMK, was too delicate
00:19:41to make public. The information was top secret, and it was never transmitted to the people
00:19:51who were in the civil sector of nuclear energy. They did not have the required authorization.
00:19:59The government officials did not consider that they had to know too much about the reactors
00:20:04they were running. But that fateful failure would soon become manifest in a catastrophe
00:20:13that shocked the whole world.
00:20:19At present, Chernobyl is still populated by hundreds of engineers who work in the
00:20:24long-term cleaning program. The time they spend inside the plant is strictly controlled
00:20:32by the high levels of radiation that go back to the explosion that took place more than
00:20:37three decades ago. It was April 26, 1986, when the design failure inside the reactor
00:20:45would cause terrible damage. Nikola Gorbachev came into service shortly before the explosion
00:20:52to control the levels of radiation in the reactor building. Now he has returned to tell
00:20:59his experience.
00:21:03I started my shift on April 25 at 12-10 at night. My colleague was sitting there. I was
00:21:16there, near the wall. And then the explosion occurred. After a few seconds, there was another
00:21:24explosion. The lights went out. Black dust came out of that vent hatch. That door opened
00:21:33suddenly towards the corridor.
00:21:37A few moments earlier, the staff of control room 4 had been carrying out a programmed
00:21:42test of the reactor shutdown. The explosion occurred when they began the shutdown procedure.
00:21:51This deployed all the control bars. The insertion of those control bars with the tip of graphite
00:21:57caused a huge increase in reactivity, which finally unleashed the nuclear reaction.
00:22:12Still affected by the commotion, Nikola Gorbachev went out to discover what had happened.
00:22:18After a few moments, he knew that a catastrophe had occurred. I saw that the reactor was destroyed.
00:22:25There was steam and I could see the stars. Nikola went to control room 4. And it is
00:22:33what he does again now. It is the first time he has returned to the place since the night
00:22:40of the catastrophe.
00:23:00Nikola was sent to assess the damage. We went up to level 27. Getting there was complicated.
00:23:10The darkness was total. It was horrible. Everything was dark. There was steam and dust.
00:23:18The noise of the explosion resounded miles away. The flames of the reactor building
00:23:24now illuminated the night sky. Then firetrucks began to arrive. Firetrucks
00:23:33with their sirens. Everything was smoking. The ruins, the rubble. There was smoke everywhere.
00:23:45Petro Gemel was head of the fire station number 2. We quickly went up to level 12. I saw
00:23:54fire and big flames everywhere. I ordered the fire to be put out. Reactor 3 was right
00:24:05next to it. We had to prevent the fire from spreading. At 5 in the morning it began to
00:24:20dawn. When I looked at the roof of the turbine room, I felt a shudder. I don't know how
00:24:28we avoid falling through the holes. At the time of the explosion, Marina Sivets was 25 years old.
00:24:44She worked in Pripyat as a resident for 500 employees of the nuclear plant. At 5 in the
00:24:52morning, the receptionist went up to my room. He woke me up and told me that there had been
00:25:00an accident at the plant. I got up and I found everyone gathered downstairs.
00:25:09Nothing concrete was known, only that there had been an accident. No one mentioned a nuclear explosion.
00:25:25That morning in Kiev, the phones began to ring. At 6 in the morning, I received a phone call
00:25:34from the Ukrainian headquarters of the KGB informing me that an accident had occurred. When I asked
00:25:42what kind of accident, they told me, we are not sure, but we believe that it is not nuclear.
00:25:51Mikhail Sakharas served first in the army as a surgeon. In 1986, after joining the KGB,
00:26:00he was appointed head of medical affairs for all of Ukraine. At the first hour of the morning,
00:26:06among the high positions of the Soviet KGB, a more precise image of the catastrophe circulated.
00:26:12One of them was 20,000 kilometers away.
00:26:18Thirty minutes later, my colleague from Dagestan called me and told me, Mikhail, there has been
00:26:25a nuclear explosion in Chernobyl. It could have serious consequences. We must protect
00:26:32the population immediately, especially the children. We are willing to welcome thousands
00:26:38of your children, because we understand that this is a global catastrophe.
00:26:52A document from the internal dossier of the KGB, made a few hours after the explosion,
00:26:57reveals how the district of Chernobyl was instantly isolated from the rest of the world.
00:27:04In order to avoid information leaks and the spread of alarming news and false rumors,
00:27:09the outgoing mail and long-distance telephone lines are now under control.
00:27:15The people were in the reactor from 6 in the morning on the 26th, trying to determine
00:27:22if it was a catastrophe caused by a terrorist attack. Not a single officer refused to go,
00:27:31fearing for any other reason. No, they got on the vehicles and went to the area.
00:27:41In Pripyat, three kilometers from the power plant, the citizens had received very little
00:27:46information about the magnitude of the catastrophe. The children played in the open air. A wedding
00:27:54was even held as planned. It looked like a normal Saturday. But Sunday would be different.
00:28:03Attention, attention, a situation of unfavorable radiation is developing.
00:28:13On the 27th, just before lunchtime, the local radio suddenly turned on and a speaker
00:28:21began to transmit over and over again that an accident had occurred at the power plant
00:28:29and that the citizens had to evacuate the city for a period of three days.
00:28:36Army units are taking charge of the situation. I prepared some sandwiches and left. I thought,
00:28:45well, it's only three days, we'll stay somewhere and then we'll come back.
00:28:53The authorities evacuated 49,000 people in a fleet of more than 1,000 buses. Thirty-six
00:29:01hours after the explosion, Pripyat was deserted.
00:29:12When I remember my first trip, on the 28th, the memory is tremendously painful. I did not
00:29:19see a single living being. I remember that there was clothes hung up, that people had
00:29:25left abandoned. Not a single living being, no birds, no dogs, no cats. Nothing, can you
00:29:35imagine?
00:29:44If the population of Pripyat was little informed, the rest of the world was not told anything
00:29:48at all. But it was a secret that could not remain hidden for long. As the KGB warned,
00:29:58the lack of a weapon to test explosions was disastrous when the explosion occurred.
00:30:05The explosion raised this steel plate, which was fired through the roof of the reactor.
00:30:11Obviously, the caused hole and the subsequent fire allowed the release of radioactive particles
00:30:17and their release into the atmosphere, and then spread throughout Europe.
00:30:27The winds of the southern component pushed the radioactive cloud beyond the border of
00:30:31Ukraine to Sweden.
00:30:37The first news did not come from Moscow, they came from Stockholm.
00:30:43On April 28, a Swedish scientist analyzed the meteorological and wind data to determine
00:30:49the origin of the radioactive cloud.
00:30:55We had an operational meteorological system that placed us in a privileged situation to
00:30:59immediately know what it was about. We found a clue about the origin of the radioactivity.
00:31:07We just had to look at the computer and check the data. At first we thought that the cloud
00:31:15came from Lithuania, but the trail led further, towards Chernobyl.
00:31:27The Soviet authorities, including the leader of the Communist Party, Mikhail Gorbachev,
00:31:33could not hide what had happened for a long time.
00:31:37The BBC's 9 o'clock news.
00:31:46Good afternoon. The Soviet Union admitted this afternoon that an accident occurred
00:31:51with victims in one of its nuclear power plants. It is the first time that Moscow recognizes
00:31:55an incident of this type, and the way in which the news has been communicated suggests
00:31:59that it is something serious.
00:32:02In the United States, Soviet assertions were taken with skepticism.
00:32:13His attitude has been reprehensible for not informing the world, as well as his own people,
00:32:18of the dimensions of this catastrophe.
00:32:2324 hours later, a secret CIA memorandum predicted the possible political consequences for the
00:32:29rulers of the Soviet Union.
00:32:34If the accident translates into death, disease and widespread disorder, it will be a hard
00:32:39psychological blow to Gorbachev's regime and his gospel of optimism.
00:32:47The report was very sharp. They were talking about the impact on the Soviet economy in general
00:32:55and on the Soviet position in the world.
00:33:00The fact that they kept silent for three days was another proof for people like me,
00:33:05who lived in Ukraine at the time, that they were lying.
00:33:14The Chernobyl disaster now seized the headlines of the world press.
00:33:19But the Soviet information blackout meant that the Ukrainians could only exchange rumours
00:33:25about what was really happening.
00:33:32The KGB agents, who were destined to Kiev, Ukraine, received a new order of priorities.
00:33:39They had to find out what the citizens knew about the disaster, 100 km to the north.
00:33:46Who said what? And to whom?
00:33:53Objective Jester, in a conversation with his wife, says that the martial law has been established
00:33:58in the region and that the looters are being shot.
00:34:05The rumours of that kind were completely unfounded.
00:34:09But in the absence of credible official information, they spread like wildfire.
00:34:15Everyone felt affected. Everyone wanted to know the truth about what happened
00:34:21and whether the situation was safe or not. And the government didn't give that information.
00:34:27Objective Golda, in a conversation with his daughter, said,
00:34:31we have hundreds, thousands of dead, and human life has no value.
00:34:37The authorities didn't just hide the information,
00:34:41they tried to suppress the truth.
00:34:50Ala Shapiro, specialised in child hematology, worked as a doctor in Kiev.
00:34:58She found out about the disaster through a foreign source.
00:35:03Every night, my dad would listen to the Voice of America or BBC,
00:35:08the enemy broadcasters, as the Soviets called them,
00:35:13because he didn't trust the news of the regime.
00:35:20He called me at two in the morning because he heard in the Voice of America
00:35:26that an explosion had occurred in Chernobyl.
00:35:32The doctor and her colleagues sensed that they would soon receive
00:35:36a great influx of patients who would suffer the effects of radiation.
00:35:40But they didn't receive any official information.
00:35:44In fact, the information that the doctors needed had quickly been hidden.
00:35:50We were absolutely desperate to get any information.
00:35:55The professor of the clinic where I worked asked me to go
00:35:59through the National Medical Library
00:36:02and gather all the basic information about radiation.
00:36:12The librarian told me openly that they had received an order from above
00:36:18to remove all the books that contained the word radiation.
00:36:24So there was nothing on the shelves.
00:36:31These orders came from government officials.
00:36:36The less knowledge, the less panic.
00:36:41This was, by default, the idea of the Soviet government
00:36:45for any catastrophic event.
00:36:48And they applied it to this as well.
00:36:52They just didn't want the panic to spread.
00:36:59But the KGB files reveal how the lack of information
00:37:03turned out to be the best fuel for spreading panic.
00:37:09There were thousands of foreigners in Kiev,
00:37:12many of them staying in authorized hotels.
00:37:15And the KGB had them under surveillance.
00:37:19In this document it says that the foreigners already know
00:37:24that Kiev is in the area contaminated by radiation.
00:37:34Many foreign tourists now just want to leave Kiev.
00:37:40The security services are doing everything possible
00:37:46to prevent the spread of panic.
00:37:54One of the tourists under KGB surveillance was Hank Birbaum,
00:37:59a 27-year-old American from Idaho,
00:38:02leader of a group of American and British students.
00:38:07He was staying at the Mir Hotel,
00:38:10where the KGB listened to the students' information sessions.
00:38:18At 6 p.m. that same day,
00:38:20he met up with the group for dinner
00:38:22and shared the information he had received
00:38:25during a conversation with the bureau's president,
00:38:28Comrade N.I. Kushner.
00:38:32Hank Birbaum is now 62 years old and lives in California.
00:38:38He didn't know that the KGB had a file on him.
00:38:43He hid from participants of the courses the fact that there was no danger.
00:38:48This represented the information he had received
00:38:51during his conversation with the bureau's president,
00:38:54Comrade N.I. Kushner.
00:38:57As a result of the heated debate,
00:39:0050 people voted in favor of abandoning the Soviet Union.
00:39:05Those were kind of poignant charges.
00:39:08I think I made an effort to represent the different perspectives, but...
00:39:18Hank and his group of students left Ukraine
00:39:21and made a first stop in London.
00:39:24British and American students arrived in Heathrow
00:39:27from the disaster zone.
00:39:29Their families welcomed them warmly.
00:39:32This is how they described the conditions in Kiev before leaving.
00:39:36Many people in Ukraine don't know the seriousness of the situation.
00:39:40Although the students received a good health certificate,
00:39:43their clothes showed high levels of radioactivity,
00:39:46so they were sent to the laboratories
00:39:48of the National Radiological Protection Board of Oxford
00:39:51to undergo an exam that reveals more information
00:39:54about the radioactive material
00:39:56that is still being released in the Chernobyl plant.
00:40:03The declassified secret documents of the KGB
00:40:06show how the espionage agency
00:40:08tried to cover up the effects of the radioactive rain.
00:40:15The KGB officials went to see the heads
00:40:18of the regional hospital in Kiev
00:40:20to make sure that the doctors
00:40:22didn't give too much information.
00:40:26Hundreds of people started coming to our hospital.
00:40:30We stayed there for three days and three nights
00:40:33without going home.
00:40:39We were told that we shouldn't tell people
00:40:43that the air was filled with radioactive particles.
00:40:49The Western press reported a huge number of victims,
00:40:55while the Soviets claimed
00:40:57that the number of deaths didn't go up to 2,000,
00:41:00but only to two workers at the plant.
00:41:03Who was telling the truth about the catastrophe?
00:41:09On May 2, six days after the explosion,
00:41:12a secret telegram arrived at the table
00:41:14of the US Secretary of State, George Shultz.
00:41:19The entire intelligence community
00:41:21believes that the number of two victims is absurd.
00:41:27Reagan's team confirmed the concern
00:41:29that exists all over the world
00:41:31about the Kremlin's refusal to acknowledge what happened.
00:41:34The number of victims is higher
00:41:36than that announced so far by the Soviet Union.
00:41:39We don't think that they have provided
00:41:41as complete and direct information as they should.
00:41:44Reagan's attempts to discuss the situation with Gorbachev in person
00:41:48have been ignored by the Kremlin for four days.
00:41:51Would you prefer to listen to Mr. Gorbachev personally?
00:41:54Yes, I think it would be useful.
00:41:56In London, the Soviet ambassador
00:41:58was interrogated by the press
00:42:00after informing the Prime Minister.
00:42:02Is it likely that only two people died in this huge catastrophe?
00:42:06It's the truth. It's an official report.
00:42:11Surprisingly, this time the Soviets had told the truth.
00:42:17The Soviets were absolutely right
00:42:19in saying that only two people had died
00:42:22as a result of the accident itself.
00:42:26The explosion killed only one person,
00:42:30and a second person died days later.
00:42:35The number of 2,000 victims
00:42:37came from a Western reporter
00:42:39who had met with a woman from Kiev,
00:42:42and that's what she told him.
00:42:47The KGB agents were ordered
00:42:49to keep the local population away from the journalists.
00:42:56A declassified secret report says...
00:42:59There are 16 foreign correspondents in Kiev.
00:43:04The attempts of the correspondents
00:43:06from England, France and Sweden
00:43:08to collect information from the train station in Kiev
00:43:11were frustrated by the intervention
00:43:13of a special squadron of the KGB from the unknown.
00:43:19But seven days after the explosion,
00:43:22it seemed that a totally new crisis
00:43:24was about to erupt.
00:43:30Although the fire had been extinguished,
00:43:33a week after the explosion,
00:43:35Chernobyl had entered a dangerous phase.
00:43:39It was feared that the tons of molten material
00:43:42that remained at high temperatures
00:43:44under the twisted remains of the plant
00:43:46could cause another huge explosion.
00:43:50The very high temperature of the nuclear fuel
00:43:53melted together with the coating
00:43:55and other fragments of the reactor building
00:43:58caused this incandescent radioactive material
00:44:01like the lava of a volcano, to rise downwards.
00:44:07Dr. Corgill's team has reproduced the Chernobyl lava
00:44:11to understand what happened inside the damaged reactor.
00:44:17It is a substance known as corium,
00:44:20a source of deadly radioactivity.
00:44:23What we've done is melt uranium,
00:44:25concrete and other materials
00:44:27like the ones inside the reactor.
00:44:30We've heated it to a temperature
00:44:32of about 1600 degrees Celsius,
00:44:34which is quite close to what happened
00:44:36in the Chernobyl accident.
00:44:39What we're going to do now is pour the lava
00:44:42to recreate what happened when the nuclear fuel
00:44:45melted inside the reactor core
00:44:47and leaked into the basement.
00:44:56As you can see, there are some bubbles.
00:45:05This is what happened in the post-accident phase.
00:45:17Some scientists feared that if the nuclear fuel
00:45:20hit the concrete floor and reached the water pools
00:45:23below, a nuclear explosion would occur.
00:45:28According to some estimates,
00:45:30the explosion could be equivalent
00:45:32to 5 million tons of TNT,
00:45:34a power 400 times higher
00:45:36than Hiroshima's atomic bomb.
00:45:41To avoid it, someone had to enter
00:45:43completely dark into the chamber
00:45:45and open the water valves.
00:45:49To venture so close to the exposed reactor,
00:45:52bathing in the radioactive water,
00:45:54was almost a suicide mission.
00:46:01Oleksii Ananenko was a mechanical engineer
00:46:04who knew the layout of the valves
00:46:06and the pipes involved.
00:46:09Together with two colleagues,
00:46:11he agreed to enter the chamber.
00:46:14I understood that they would come to me
00:46:17because I was familiar with that area of the plant.
00:46:20When we went down to the chamber,
00:46:22it was completely flooded.
00:46:25I knew that the water was radioactive,
00:46:30although we were well protected.
00:46:35We did what we had to do quickly.
00:46:38We found the valves,
00:46:40we turned them and drained the water,
00:46:43and then we hurried back.
00:46:48The risk of an explosion had been avoided.
00:46:53The story of Ananenko
00:46:55gave rise to one of the great myths
00:46:57about Chernobyl,
00:46:59that the three men died shortly after
00:47:01and were immediately buried
00:47:03in lead coffins.
00:47:06In reality, the three survived.
00:47:10Their heroism was recognized
00:47:12with the title of Heroes of Ukraine.
00:47:17So, is Oleksii Ananenko a hero?
00:47:21It's a good question.
00:47:25I had a job to do.
00:47:29I just went and did it.
00:47:36Ananenko knew the risks he was exposed to
00:47:39when he lent himself to avoid an explosion.
00:47:44But thousands of Soviet citizens
00:47:46completely ignored that their leaders
00:47:48had put their health at risk
00:47:50in a deliberate way.
00:47:54It happened during a top-secret mission
00:47:56to protect the Soviet capital, Moscow,
00:47:59and the plan seems to have come from
00:48:01a sci-fi movie.
00:48:06Moscow is located 725 kilometres
00:48:08northeast of Chernobyl.
00:48:12The story of how the city was protected
00:48:14from the radioactive rain
00:48:16from the nuclear power plant
00:48:18has been hidden for years.
00:48:22Until one day, a British scientist
00:48:24detected something very strange
00:48:26in relation to the place
00:48:28where the radioactive rain had fallen.
00:48:31Dr. Alan Flowers is an expert
00:48:33in the effects of radiation
00:48:35on the environment.
00:48:38In 1992, he travelled to the former Soviet Union
00:48:41to investigate why an area far from Chernobyl
00:48:44had been particularly affected
00:48:46by the radioactive rain.
00:48:49When they showed me the maps,
00:48:51I thought, why is there so much radioactive rain there?
00:48:54Almost 200 kilometres away,
00:48:56there were very high levels of radiation
00:48:58in the area.
00:49:00Ah, don't you understand?
00:49:02The Soviet Union caused that rain.
00:49:11He consulted with the local researchers
00:49:13and a surprising story came to light.
00:49:21Shortly after the explosion,
00:49:23the winds that had transported
00:49:25the cloud of radioactive rain
00:49:27to the north-west,
00:49:29suddenly deviated to the north-east.
00:49:32This put Moscow,
00:49:34which housed almost 10 million people,
00:49:36and the Soviet leaders in danger
00:49:38because of the clouds
00:49:40that released radioactive rain.
00:49:44But Moscow could be saved
00:49:46if the clouds could release their rain
00:49:48before reaching the city.
00:49:51That was the answer the Soviets gave.
00:49:54This film from the 1960s
00:49:56shows one of the first demonstrations
00:49:58of cloud planting.
00:50:01The dissemination of carbon dioxide
00:50:03or dry ice from an airplane
00:50:05to turn white and fluffy clouds
00:50:07into real rain clouds.
00:50:21Cloud seeding
00:50:23is a cooling process.
00:50:26Then you get condensation.
00:50:29You get droplets, heavy droplets
00:50:31that fall from the cloud.
00:50:33And, thank God, it has happened.
00:50:39For the high Soviet leaders,
00:50:41the plan had to work.
00:50:45Chernobyl exploded on April 26.
00:50:48Only five days later,
00:50:50the 1st of May,
00:50:52the Soviet national holiday,
00:50:54would gather hundreds of thousands
00:50:56in the streets of Moscow
00:50:58for the annual parade in Red Square.
00:51:02All the usual preparations
00:51:04had already been made.
00:51:06Canceling the gigantic parade
00:51:08would be like admitting to the world
00:51:10that Russia was defeated.
00:51:12The Soviets had decided
00:51:14to sacrifice uninhabited areas
00:51:16to the south of Moscow,
00:51:18since the clouds,
00:51:20with the atomic rain of Chernobyl,
00:51:22were heading towards the capital.
00:51:28There are no photographs
00:51:30of the secret operation.
00:51:35But it is likely
00:51:37that the Soviets used bombers
00:51:39like this one
00:51:41to spray the clouds
00:51:43with huge amounts of dry ice.
00:51:48Witnesses observe
00:51:50the work of the planes.
00:51:54You can't fly with planes
00:51:56and plant clouds
00:51:58without people seeing it.
00:52:00But they didn't understand
00:52:02what they were seeing at that moment.
00:52:04Planes flying,
00:52:06and streams of water coming out of them.
00:52:08And, of course,
00:52:10it rained for days.
00:52:12And a curtain of black water
00:52:14was approaching,
00:52:16which was described as black rain.
00:52:18But you don't feel the radioactivity,
00:52:20you don't smell it, you don't see it.
00:52:22No human sense detects it.
00:52:26The parade of the first of May
00:52:28in Moscow took place
00:52:30under a clear sky,
00:52:32while areas of the southwest
00:52:34were hit by torrential
00:52:36and poisonous rains.
00:52:38Now we know where the radioactive rain
00:52:40came from, because I've been there
00:52:42and I've measured it.
00:52:44And there are areas still out of use
00:52:46that remain evacuated.
00:52:50It's not an easy decision to make.
00:52:52Do you induce
00:52:54artificial rain
00:52:56in areas of low population?
00:53:00Or do you let nature
00:53:02follow its course
00:53:04and you risk the effects
00:53:06on your capital?
00:53:08A difficult decision.
00:53:10However, another decision was made,
00:53:12which was to keep it secret.
00:53:14People were not told.
00:53:22The parade of the first of May
00:53:24took place safely
00:53:26for the population of Moscow.
00:53:30In Kiev, the capital of Ukraine,
00:53:32things were very different.
00:53:36Dr. Ala Shapiro
00:53:38had already seen
00:53:40dozens of patients
00:53:42with respiratory problems.
00:53:46She herself suffered the problem.
00:53:50On the street,
00:53:52while walking,
00:53:54I first had a burning sensation
00:53:56in my mouth
00:53:58and in my ears.
00:54:00And then I noticed
00:54:02a very unpleasant
00:54:04taste.
00:54:10But the KGB reports
00:54:12show how the leaders
00:54:14of the Communist Party
00:54:16ordered the parade in Kiev
00:54:18to be carried out
00:54:20as a demonstration to the world
00:54:22that everything was fine
00:54:24despite the Chernobyl accident.
00:54:26The KGB reassured its leaders.
00:54:28Preparations for the celebration
00:54:30of the first of May
00:54:32will be carried out
00:54:34in an exceptionally healthy political environment.
00:54:38The Soviet government
00:54:40tried to project the image
00:54:42that everything was under control
00:54:44on television in front of the cameras.
00:54:46People and health
00:54:48were totally ignored.
00:54:56The official in charge
00:54:58of the medical affairs
00:55:00states that he warned
00:55:02of the risks involved in the parade.
00:55:04But he was disqualified.
00:55:06I, as an official,
00:55:10due to my official obligations,
00:55:12had to be there.
00:55:16And yes, I knew
00:55:18that it was a real disaster.
00:55:22I witnessed that parade
00:55:24because we lived in the center of the city
00:55:26and passed in front of the building
00:55:28where my family lived.
00:55:34They followed direct instructions
00:55:36from the government
00:55:38as if nothing happened.
00:55:44Everything is fine.
00:55:46Stay on the street.
00:55:48And that's what people did.
00:55:52We didn't know
00:55:54what was going on
00:55:56in the Central Committee.
00:55:58But I know that the KGB
00:56:00transmitted all the information
00:56:02about the real state of things.
00:56:04We explained
00:56:06that it was a nuclear disaster
00:56:10and asked to suspend the parade.
00:56:12That's what happened.
00:56:14I know it was like that.
00:56:20The KGB files
00:56:22reveal the dangers
00:56:24to the most vulnerable.
00:56:28This report says
00:56:30that the children
00:56:32paraded in special suits
00:56:36that were later stored
00:56:38in one of the schools.
00:56:42But the KGB discovered
00:56:44that they emitted radioactivity
00:56:46to such an extent
00:56:48that they said
00:56:50that the suits
00:56:52were either damaged
00:56:54or destroyed.
00:56:58Soon the doctors
00:57:00had to take care
00:57:02of more sick children.
00:57:04They all coughed
00:57:06because they inhaled
00:57:08radioactive particles.
00:57:10So we took blankets
00:57:12and created the artificial tent.
00:57:18We put the children
00:57:20and we brought oxygen.
00:57:22Of course,
00:57:24it was a somewhat
00:57:26outdated invention,
00:57:28but it worked.
00:57:30But some of the effects
00:57:32would not appear until years later.
00:57:36Children are very sensitive
00:57:38to radioactive iodine.
00:57:40Six years
00:57:42after the exposure,
00:57:44the rate of thyroid cancer
00:57:46increased drastically.
00:57:50In 1986,
00:57:52the first of May
00:57:54was recorded
00:57:56in the memory
00:57:58of a particular person.
00:58:00Marina Sibetz
00:58:02was 25 years old
00:58:04the day of the accident
00:58:06and was in her fifth month
00:58:08of her first pregnancy.
00:58:10Her husband
00:58:12was a metalworker
00:58:14who worked
00:58:16in a steel mill
00:58:18in the nuclear plant.
00:58:24Marina lived in Pripyat,
00:58:26the city that was built
00:58:28especially for the 5,000
00:58:30workers of Chernobyl
00:58:32and their families.
00:58:34A community
00:58:36of 50,000 citizens in total.
00:58:4236 hours after the explosion,
00:58:44Pripyat was evacuated
00:58:46and remained abandoned
00:58:48since then.
00:58:56Marina went to live
00:58:58with her in-laws
00:59:00400 kilometers south.
00:59:02She went to a local hospital
00:59:04for a check-up,
00:59:06and the doctor's response
00:59:08was chilling.
00:59:12The doctor told me
00:59:14to prepare the operating room.
00:59:16We will induce an artificial birth.
00:59:20I was terrified.
00:59:22What does it mean?
00:59:24What does an artificial birth mean?
00:59:26And he said,
00:59:28well, our radiation monitor
00:59:30has exceeded the maximum
00:59:32in the scale.
00:59:34You have a lot of radiation
00:59:36inside you.
00:59:38You can't keep the baby.
00:59:40It could be seriously affected.
00:59:44It was a 5-month fetus
00:59:46already formed.
00:59:48Will they take it apart
00:59:50and cut it up?
00:59:52Will they do tests
00:59:54and experiments with it?
01:00:00I loved that baby with all my heart.
01:00:02I had waited years
01:00:04to get pregnant,
01:00:06and suddenly,
01:00:08without further ado,
01:00:10I was going to lose it.
01:00:12I couldn't allow it.
01:00:20When the doctor left,
01:00:22he locked the door
01:00:24from the outside.
01:00:26Luckily,
01:00:28the check-up was on the ground floor.
01:00:32My husband came to the window
01:00:34with my clothes in a bag.
01:00:38I opened the window and said,
01:00:40let's run before the doctor comes back.
01:00:44We ran to the bus station
01:00:46and went
01:00:48to his parents' house.
01:00:58The next day,
01:01:00May 1,
01:01:02it was a beautiful day
01:01:04and we were celebrating the holiday.
01:01:06Then,
01:01:08a police car
01:01:10came to the house
01:01:12with a flashing light.
01:01:14The police chief
01:01:16had sent a message
01:01:18saying that a woman
01:01:20had escaped from the hospital
01:01:22and that she had to be found and arrested.
01:01:24On that same day,
01:01:26in another part of Ukraine,
01:01:28the citizens were exposed
01:01:30to the dangerous radioactive rain
01:01:32after the Chernobyl explosion
01:01:34five days earlier.
01:01:36Western media reported
01:01:38that thousands of people
01:01:40had already died.
01:01:42But what was the truth?
01:01:46The truth was
01:01:48that the Chernobyl explosion
01:01:50was not an accident.
01:01:52The workers
01:01:54and the first rescuers
01:01:56absorbed huge amounts
01:01:58of radiation
01:02:00from the uranium fuel
01:02:02and the graphite blocks
01:02:04that had been inserted
01:02:06into the reactor core.
01:02:08Radiation affects
01:02:10the human body in different ways.
01:02:12The problem with Chernobyl
01:02:14was that all those types
01:02:16of radiation occurred
01:02:18at the same time.
01:02:20Alpha particles,
01:02:22which are quite big and heavy
01:02:24and can cause damage
01:02:26to the tissue.
01:02:28Beta particles,
01:02:30which are high-energy electrons
01:02:32and are capable of tearing
01:02:34our DNA.
01:02:36Gamma radiation,
01:02:38which is extremely penetrating
01:02:40and penetrates all organic matter.
01:02:42And this really alters the DNA
01:02:44and begins to break it down.
01:02:50The Chernobyl worker,
01:02:52Nikola Gorbachenko,
01:02:54was on duty the night of the explosion.
01:02:56While the catastrophe was taking place,
01:02:58he looked for the victims
01:03:00and put them safe.
01:03:04Shortly after,
01:03:06Nikola himself began to feel
01:03:08the effects of exposure
01:03:10to radiation.
01:03:12I undressed
01:03:14and went to the shower
01:03:16to clean myself.
01:03:18But I felt bad.
01:03:22And I noticed that I was fainting.
01:03:24A colleague took me
01:03:26and took me to a bench.
01:03:30Outside,
01:03:32the firefighter Petro Gemel
01:03:34struggled to control the flames
01:03:36on the roof of the reactor building.
01:03:38On the roof,
01:03:40a man, a firefighter,
01:03:42said, I feel bad, I have nausea.
01:03:44I told him to go down
01:03:46and wait next to the truck.
01:03:50Then another one came
01:03:52and said to me,
01:03:54I also feel bad,
01:03:56I feel very weak.
01:03:58And they went down.
01:04:00So I stayed there alone.
01:04:02I started to feel weak.
01:04:06My legs were about to give in.
01:04:12Many firefighters said
01:04:14that they smelled like metal.
01:04:16It was highly radioactive graphite
01:04:18that they had ingested
01:04:20and that was inside their bodies.
01:04:24I woke up in the hospital.
01:04:26I looked around me
01:04:28and thought, where am I?
01:04:34The worker from Chernobyl,
01:04:36Nikola Gorbachenko,
01:04:38and the firefighter Petro Gemel
01:04:40were transferred by plane to Moscow,
01:04:42the capital of the city.
01:04:44Other visitors soon arrived.
01:04:48In Moscow,
01:04:50the KGB
01:04:52asked us a lot of questions.
01:04:54According to a theory,
01:04:56it was a sabotage.
01:04:58They wanted to know
01:05:00what I had seen,
01:05:02who was there, everything.
01:05:04I told people
01:05:06everything I knew
01:05:08and he wrote it down.
01:05:12This is where
01:05:14one of the most intriguing
01:05:16episodes of the last years
01:05:18of the Cold War happened.
01:05:20It all started
01:05:22when a Californian doctor
01:05:24showed up at Moscow's Hospital No. 6
01:05:26and his visit triggered
01:05:28a cat-and-mouse game with the KGB.
01:05:30I've heard it said
01:05:32that I was the biggest spy
01:05:34that had come to the Soviet Union
01:05:38in recent years.
01:05:42Chernobyl
01:05:44was a great shame
01:05:46not only for the Soviets
01:05:48but also for the US CIA.
01:05:52A huge nuclear explosion
01:05:54had occurred in Europe
01:05:56just two hours away from Berlin
01:05:58and no one knew anything
01:06:00about it for almost three days.
01:06:04A secret memorandum says
01:06:08We are especially worried
01:06:10that this would happen
01:06:12in the heart of the NATO
01:06:14war alert zone.
01:06:16We are talking about 1986,
01:06:18one of the most tense
01:06:20periods in the history
01:06:22of the Cold War.
01:06:24It was a major failure
01:06:26on the part of the CIA
01:06:28and other Western intelligence agencies.
01:06:32But the same CIA document
01:06:34detects a possible opportunity.
01:06:36It would be convenient
01:06:38to get intelligence
01:06:40from all Western organizations
01:06:42including those that contribute
01:06:44to the medical needs.
01:06:48Learning how the Soviets
01:06:50were dealing with the situation
01:06:52could provide information
01:06:54of inestimable value
01:06:56about their ability
01:06:58to survive a nuclear attack
01:07:00in wartime.
01:07:02The first challenge
01:07:04faced by Robert Gale,
01:07:06a specialist in oncology
01:07:08at the Medical Center
01:07:10of the University of California,
01:07:12was to obtain permission
01:07:14to enter the Soviet Union.
01:07:16He called a US oil magnate
01:07:18with contacts in the Kremlin
01:07:20for decades.
01:07:22The first thing I did
01:07:24was to call Dr. Armand Hammer.
01:07:26He had made numerous trips
01:07:28to the Soviet Union
01:07:30since Lenin's time.
01:07:32He met with the Soviet leader
01:07:34Mikhail Gorbachev.
01:07:38On May 2, Dr. Gale
01:07:40arrived in Moscow.
01:07:42We brought in equipment
01:07:44to analyze blood cells
01:07:46and experts in bone marrow
01:07:48transplants.
01:07:50We had done many interventions
01:07:52and we were able to
01:07:54bring some drugs.
01:07:56All of us that work
01:07:58in this field
01:08:00The mere arrival of this
01:08:02American doctor,
01:08:04who had been able to
01:08:06sort the steel curtain,
01:08:08was great news for the Soviet people.
01:08:10I can tell you,
01:08:12as a person who lived
01:08:14at that time in the Soviet Union,
01:08:16that this visit meant
01:08:18a great message of hope for me.
01:08:20It helped me live
01:08:22those very difficult weeks
01:08:24when I had to keep
01:08:26my children locked up at home
01:08:28because I didn't know
01:08:30what was going on.
01:08:32The real impact of Dr. Gale's
01:08:34presence in the Soviet Union
01:08:36was a sign that the Soviet Union
01:08:38was opening up.
01:08:40It was a sign of hope.
01:08:44But inevitably,
01:08:46the KGB kept the doctor
01:08:48under close surveillance.
01:08:50His conversations were
01:08:52overheard
01:08:54and were recorded
01:08:56Mr. Gale tried to find out
01:08:58the total number of people
01:09:00evacuated from the area of the accident,
01:09:02the number of patients,
01:09:04as well as the degree of damage
01:09:06caused by the radiation.
01:09:08In a reference
01:09:10to the telephone lines
01:09:12intervened, the KGB gives
01:09:14a good look at his objective.
01:09:16According to the operational data,
01:09:18the North American specialist
01:09:20did not show any discontent.
01:09:22Knowing that they were
01:09:24watching me,
01:09:26I'm not surprised to read this.
01:09:28I pity the poor people
01:09:30who had to listen
01:09:32to hours and hours
01:09:34of my conversations
01:09:36in the Sovetskaya Hotel.
01:09:38This might be worse than the gulag.
01:09:40Who knows?
01:09:44Dr. Gale's trip
01:09:46to the other side of the steel curtain
01:09:48now seems like a turning point.
01:09:50The old Soviet Union
01:09:52would soon crumble.
01:09:58A few weeks after the accident,
01:10:0028 workers from Chernobyl
01:10:02and other emergency personnel
01:10:04would die
01:10:06from exposure to radiation,
01:10:08including six comrade-in-arms
01:10:10of Petro Gemel.
01:10:12The doctor came
01:10:14and showed me
01:10:16the newspaper Izvestia.
01:10:18He said that six firefighters
01:10:20had died.
01:10:26I had not had
01:10:28any communication with them.
01:10:30I found out
01:10:32through the newspaper.
01:10:36Over time, Petro recovered
01:10:38and was rewarded
01:10:40for his valiant behavior
01:10:42in Chernobyl.
01:10:48Marina Sivets' short stay
01:10:50in the hospital
01:10:52was completely traumatic.
01:10:54After she was threatened
01:10:56with a forced abortion,
01:10:58even though she was already
01:11:00five months pregnant,
01:11:02she escaped and hid
01:11:04with the help
01:11:06of her husband's family.
01:11:08In the end,
01:11:10they called my husband's cousin,
01:11:12who was a police chief.
01:11:15They told him,
01:11:17tell them to turn themselves in.
01:11:19If they don't,
01:11:21we'll arrest them
01:11:23even in the middle of the night.
01:11:27So we finally decided
01:11:29to turn ourselves in.
01:11:31But only under my conditions.
01:11:38I was not willing
01:11:40to talk about artificial births
01:11:42or abortions.
01:11:46I signed a statement
01:11:48in which I assumed
01:11:50full responsibility.
01:11:54And then
01:11:57they let me go.
01:12:00September 7th
01:12:02Artem was born.
01:12:04He weighed 4.2 kg.
01:12:06He was a beautiful baby.
01:12:08With his arms,
01:12:10his legs,
01:12:12everything was perfectly normal.
01:12:14He was a little boy.
01:12:16He was a little boy.
01:12:18He was a little boy.
01:12:20He was a little boy.
01:12:22He was a little boy.
01:12:24He was a little boy.
01:12:26He was a little boy.
01:12:28I felt
01:12:30immense happiness
01:12:32and joy.
01:12:35Marina had beaten
01:12:37the police and doctors,
01:12:39and the Chernobyl disaster
01:12:41would change forever
01:12:43the country
01:12:45in which her son grew up.
01:12:47The historian who studied the voluminous KGB file on Chernobyl
01:12:52maintains that at the time the Soviet Union entered its terminal decline phase,
01:12:57there were signs that people everywhere were losing their fear
01:13:02to the now all-powerful agent of espionage.
01:13:07In an almost unprecedented event in the history of the Soviet Union,
01:13:12demonstrations began to emerge in the streets.
01:13:21The concentration that took place on the anniversary of the tragedy of Chernobyl,
01:13:27in April 1988, was dispersed by the Soviet intelligence services.
01:13:34But people had stopped being afraid of the authorities,
01:13:40they stopped being afraid of the KGB.
01:13:46The accident in Chernobyl happened just when the Soviet Union
01:13:50had promised to be more open and honest with the rest of the world.
01:13:54But fulfilling that promise was not easy at all.
01:13:58Mr. Gorbachev interpelled me in his office at a very unpleasant moment.
01:14:03He asked me, why do American and European newspapers
01:14:07say such terrible things?
01:14:09I replied, well, you know we have a free press, Mr. Gorbachev.
01:14:14Our government does not control what the newspapers say.
01:14:22The habit of controlling the flow of information had serious consequences.
01:14:28I have a first-hand comment from Mikhail Gorbachev.
01:14:33I asked him, what was his biggest problem at the time of Chernobyl?
01:14:40And the answer he gave me in person was, get the information.
01:14:46Mikhail Gorbachev was being shielded from a lot of information.
01:14:50They told him everything was okay.
01:14:56But while Chernobyl was throwing radioactive material into the atmosphere,
01:15:00the whole world was worried about the possible consequences.
01:15:05And the long-term effects? Will there be more cases of cancer in Europe?
01:15:09Yes, we have to face the fact that there will undoubtedly be
01:15:12a greater incidence of leukemia and cancer.
01:15:15The fear of a medical catastrophe was very real.
01:15:19Now, three decades later, how have those fears materialized?
01:15:25After more than 30 years, there is a widespread disagreement
01:15:29about how many diseases caused the disaster in Chernobyl.
01:15:34According to Greenpeace calculations, it has caused more than 90,000 deadly cancers.
01:15:41For its part, the World Health Organization
01:15:44maintains that the figure would be around 4,000 cases,
01:15:47and in a period of 80 years.
01:15:49But according to a group of well-known scientists,
01:15:52the main danger, even for those who were more exposed
01:15:56to the radioactive remains, was psychological rather than physical.
01:16:01They argue that the concern for the accident in Chernobyl
01:16:04did much more damage than the radioactive rain itself.
01:16:10The Chernobyl tissue bank has been collecting data and samples
01:16:14for more than 20 years.
01:16:16The biggest consequence for health
01:16:18has been the mental problems caused by the fear
01:16:21of being exposed to radiation.
01:16:23The actual physical interaction did much less damage.
01:16:29Because, in part, the KGB repressed the dissemination of information,
01:16:33thousands of children absorbed radioactive iodine
01:16:36through the milk or simply through the air,
01:16:39and later, due to the radiation,
01:16:41they were exposed to the radiation.
01:16:43These patients in Kiev were children
01:16:45at the time of the catastrophe.
01:16:48The doctors say that it could be related.
01:16:52My city is in an area close to Chernobyl,
01:16:58and there are many cases like mine.
01:17:04Fortunately, thyroid cancer is a rare disease,
01:17:07and there is no cure for it.
01:17:10So the death rate for that reason is very low.
01:17:19Thyroid cancer has a survival rate of over 90%.
01:17:23It is not known if Chernobyl caused an increase
01:17:26in other forms of the disease,
01:17:28such as leukemia,
01:17:30or other forms known as solid cancers.
01:17:35We have very little evidence
01:17:38of an increase in the incidence of cancer
01:17:41in what is now the Russian Federation,
01:17:43Ukraine, Belarus, and other countries.
01:17:49The doctors at the Chernobyl tissue bank
01:17:51are even more assertive.
01:17:53The results suggest that there has been no increase
01:17:56in solid cancers at all.
01:18:00The controversy over the effects of Chernobyl on health
01:18:03began just a few days after the explosion
01:18:06and has never disappeared.
01:18:10The fear of the poisonous cloud was very real.
01:18:15We estimate that about a million abortions took place in Europe,
01:18:20because the doctors warned the women
01:18:23that there was a high risk of malformations.
01:18:27And that is completely absurd.
01:18:30But that ignorance had tragic consequences.
01:18:37There is also no consensus on the damage
01:18:39suffered by the environment.
01:18:431,600 square kilometres remain as an exclusion zone,
01:18:47considered too dangerous for human habitation.
01:18:54However, the absence of human beings
01:18:57has generated an extraordinary abundance of wildlife.
01:19:01Stanislav Khumenyuk is a researcher.
01:19:04He studies the return of different species
01:19:07that seem to thrive in the exclusion zone.
01:19:19There are many myths,
01:19:21especially among foreigners,
01:19:24about the emergence of zoological mutations,
01:19:27it is said that there are monsters with two heads,
01:19:30five legs, five tails,
01:19:32for anyone who understands science
01:19:34and the functioning of evolution,
01:19:36that is a solemn nonsense.
01:19:47Camera traps have collected images of the private life
01:19:50of some species,
01:19:52expelled from much of Europe.
01:19:58Including predators rarely seen,
01:20:01such as wolves and lynxes.
01:20:11No, radiation has not harmed the animals
01:20:14in the exclusion zone.
01:20:18I would even say that it has favoured them
01:20:21by safeguarding this extensive region of Europe.
01:20:28Nature follows its own rules,
01:20:31not ours.
01:20:41The animals now camp at their width,
01:20:44in the area where more than 300,000 people
01:20:47were evacuated for their own safety.
01:20:50But some people have decided to ignore the rules.
01:20:54Ana Zaborodnia, 88 years old,
01:20:57is one of the nearly 200 inhabitants
01:21:00who decided to stay.
01:21:03Her life is simple,
01:21:05and she eats what she grows.
01:21:08These are raspberries,
01:21:10and those over there are strawberries.
01:21:13There are more over there.
01:21:16I came back because it is my homeland.
01:21:19Here I was baptized.
01:21:21Here we have a saying,
01:21:23if you leave your land,
01:21:25you will be cursed.
01:21:27One must always return
01:21:29to the place where he was born.
01:21:31Do you understand?
01:21:37Throughout her life,
01:21:39Ana has seen the rise and fall of the KGB,
01:21:42the espionage agency,
01:21:44which at first expressed its alarm
01:21:46about the dangers that Chernobyl represented,
01:21:49and then followed the orders
01:21:51to try to keep the catastrophe a secret.
01:21:54It went down the same path
01:21:56as the Soviet Union.
01:22:00The KGB was dissolved in 1991.
01:22:04Its gigantic, top-secret archive
01:22:06on Chernobyl remained hidden
01:22:08for three decades.
01:22:15The remains of the building
01:22:17of reactor number 4 in Chernobyl
01:22:19are now locked up
01:22:21in a gigantic steel sarcophagus.
01:22:25The work continues
01:22:27inside the structure
01:22:29to dismantle and carefully remove
01:22:31the remains of the reactor,
01:22:33some of whose parts
01:22:35will remain deadly radioactive
01:22:37for thousands of years.
01:22:40The plant is known as Chernobyl
01:22:42only as a form of abbreviation.
01:22:44Its official name was
01:22:46Vladimir Lenin Nuclear Plant,
01:22:48in honor of the Soviet revolutionary hero.
01:22:53At the time of the catastrophe,
01:22:55Ukraine had more than 5,000 Lenin statues,
01:22:58but it destroyed almost all of them.
01:23:03The KGB is the only institution
01:23:05in the world
01:23:07that has preserved one.
01:23:11One is still preserved
01:23:13in the city of Chernobyl.
01:23:18Not as a tribute,
01:23:20but as a reminder
01:23:22of how the Soviet Union
01:23:24sadly made this region
01:23:26of the planet famous forever.
01:23:37Thank you for watching!