On April 26, 1986 scientists lost control of the four reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant - leading to an explosion that shot masses of radiation into the atmosphere
Never before seen images from the weeks after the Chernobyl disaster show the horrific effects of radiation on the human body.
Infants born with birth defects and young children afflicted with ultra-rare cancers were just some of the horrors recorded among the people living in the towns and villages surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine.
James Jones' new HBO documentary " Chernobyl : The Lost Tapes" uses never-before-seen interviews and footage to detail the fallout after the explosion in Pripyat on April 26, 1986.
The film explains how some mothers delivered babies with legs fused like a mermaid's tail or covered with green mould-like spots covering their bodies.
After the blast, locals were admitted to hospital in their droves as doctors recorded hideous illnesses including birth defects, radiation poisoning, and rare cancers.
Soviet officials knew of the severe sicknesses among the population, but carried out a robust cover-up, banning any mention of nuclear-related illness.
In the documentary, one scientist says: "The accident at the Chernobyl power plant had no impact on the health of the population."
But in reality,"there are no healthy people after the accident," a man explains.
The Soviet leadership refused to take decisive action to lessen the horrors or save its citizens, not even the children.
One woman said : "Nobody was warned by anybody. Schools and kindergartens were open."
As locals writhed in excruciating pain in the region's hospital wards, young servicemen dubbed "liquidators" were drafted in to clean up the radioactive spillage.
One of the 5,000 men was Nikolai Kaplin, who called the decision "suicidal".
He tells the documentary: “The order had been given - it was suicidal.
“Nobody knew anything and they were literally going into hell.
“We didn’t have proper protection. The contact time is a few seconds but these molecules and atoms accumulate in the body.
“Sooner or later all our bodies showed signs. We all went through it - vomiting, coughing, extreme exhaustion. On the fifth day I started vomiting and choking.
“We were just cannon fodder.”
The 5,000 young men were paid 800 rubles (equivalent of £14,000) each and lauded as heroes in the Soviet Union.
But like lambs to the slaughter, their brief trip into the exclusion zone had fatal consequences and almost 80 per cent died over the next few years.
The documentary shows one serviceman bowing his head to show the bald patch on his head after his fair fell out - symptom of radiation poisoning.
When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, officials admitted the blast had been caused by a design error..
Though estimates say around 200,000 people died, the Soviet death toll remains seven.
There has been a 200% increase in birth defects and a 250% increase in congenital birth deformities in children born in the Chernobyl fallout area since 1986.
Valery Khodemchuk was the first person to die in the Chernobyl disaster; it is thought he was killed instantly when the number 4 reactor exploded. Memorial to Khodemchuk in the reactor 4 building. His body was never found, and it is presumed that he is entombed under the remnants of the circulation pumps.
Studies regarding the reproductive health of women in the contaminated regions immediately after the Chernobyl accident showed a decrease in birth rates, an increase in anemia during pregnancy, and an increase in perinatal mortality.
Bridge of Death (Pripyat) in Ukraine, a road bridge over a railway line, between the town of Prypiat and the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, where there were unsubstantiated claims of deaths from radiation during the Chernobyl disaster.
Lyudmila Ignatenko was pregnant with her first child when her husband Vasily hurried to the scene of the 1986 nuclear disaster. She stayed with him in hospital where he gave her carnations from under his pillow, but died painfully of radiation poisoning two weeks after the accident.
Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bespalov and Boris Baranov are the three men who made up Chernobyl's so-called 'Suicide Squad'. They bravely entered the basem*nt of the nuclear reactor to try and save the lives of millions of people.
Three plant engineers bravely went where no man had gone before: the ruptured reactor. Dubbed Chernobyl's “suicide squad,” Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bespalov, and Boris Baranov wore wetsuits to enter the underground area to open release valves and drain coolant dangerously approaching the power plant.
There are two reasons that truly differentiate between Chernobyl and Hiroshima. The first was that the explosion at Chernobyl happened on the ground, whereas the explosion at Hiroshima happened high in the air above the city, which greatly reduced the radioactive levels.
Pravyk and the firefighters who were just meters from ground zero of the worst man-made disaster in human history were so irradiated, they had to be buried in coffins made of lead and welded shut to prevent their corpses from contaminating the area for the next 26,000 years.
It showed that the longer children remain in the contaminated area in Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of the Russian Federation, the sicker they became, and the higher their risk of developing goitre, thyroid cancer, gastrointestinal and lymph disorders, and autoimmune diseases.
But who was to blame? Viktor Bryukhanov was officially held responsible for what happened at Chernobyl. He had helped to build and run the plant, and played a pivotal role in how the disaster was managed in the aftermath of the reactor explosion. Here's more about Viktor Bryukhanov.
The majority of cases came from Gomel, Belarus, the region most heavily exposed, suggesting that iodine-131 (I-131), the chief component of accident fallout (15) and an isotope rapidly absorbed by the thyroid gland, was the likely cause of post-Chernobyl thyroid cancer in children.
Of 600 workers present on the site during the early morning of 26 April 1986, 134 received high doses (0.8-16 Gy) and suffered from radiation sickness. Of these, 28 died in the first three months and another 19 died in 1987-2004 of various causes not necessarily associated with radiation exposure.
“First, as discussed, none of the victims were radioactive; their exposures were almost exclusively external, not internal,” writes Gale. “More importantly, risk to a fetus from an exposure like this is infinitesimally small.” Even high levels of radiation result in few birth defects, Gale notes.
Introduction: My name is Lidia Grady, I am a thankful, fine, glamorous, lucky, lively, pleasant, shiny person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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