Noble acted Ellsworth.

Nuclear Accident Serious Cornell The damaged reactor fire has destroyed most of the reactor's core world's worst nuclear disaster.

Casually, rates are higher than those that have been announced by the Soviet Union so far.

We know next to nothing, and I don't think that they're going to accept international aid.

I don't know exactly what's happened.

The situation is under control.

Meltdown contaminated over half of Europe Radioactive fallout While the authorities scrambles to understand what was occurring, workers, engineers, first responders and local residents were abandoned to their fate.

Over 400 times.

More radiation was omitted that the bombing of heroes on signaled the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union.

In the Soviet Union, the question off acquiring nuclear technology was a matter off a major national pride.

After World War two, Soviet Union experienced a long period of political tensions with US.

The Soviet Union waas huge country that inherited the territory from the Russian Empire.

There was belief that the Soviet technology, and particularly nuclear technology or anything doing, for example, with space was superior to American.

The first Sputnik, it proved a point of tremendous importance.

The Sputniks were followed by space rockets.

The Soviets were the first to put a man into the orbit.

There wasn't believed that in some areas, in particular areas doing this nuclear and space they had off the U.

S.

Acted in a three Mile island brought home need to assure that nuclear power in the safest possible reactors don't explode.

They don't go into meltdown in the Soviet Union.

That's something that can happen only in the capitalist world.

Nuclear power appeared from military applications.

United States develop nuclear bomb, Soviet Union, develop nuclear born hwe, need nuclear reactors for military applications.

And we start with small ones in making 54 built a small plant for basically propaganda reasons, saying, OK, we're not like the United States.

We're trying to use the power off nuclear for peaceful purposes, but really didn't put any thought into that.

In terms of the economic development, Ukraine traditionally had a wide significant industrial capability call that they were getting at that time became more and more difficult to extract, so they were looking for other sources off energy.

They will lobby in Moscow for three nuclear power plants.

Moscow found money to build just one.

They found a location where land was not very productive.

It's close the border with Bill Russia.

It's forest.

They're stripping river there and that's where they built the nuclear power plant.

Chernobyl power complex lies about 120 kilometers north of Kiev, Ukraine.

In 1983 Chernobyl reactor number four was commissioned.

One of the requirements of getting the commission was that there be an experiment.

If there was loss of electricity to the cooling of that reactor turbines they're going to continue to spend.

And could they use that electricity to keep the water pumps going to cool the reactor for 30 cents?

Diesel generators are gonna do it, but it just takes him 30 seconds to build up enough energy.

They hadn't done that experience in order to do it.

He was going to take more time than what they had.

There was a bonus to be available if they finished that reactor prior to the end of 1983 kind of sign that they had done it, got their bonuses.

And three years later, April 1986 I decided to do that experiment.

At that time, the test that they were running.

It was supposed to be done during daytime reactor at another nuclear power plant in Ukraine went offline.

Agreed Operator called the plant and Saturday.

Guys, you're not supposed to shut down.

Just keep going until 11 p.m. They already started to slow down the reactor in preparation for the test on.

It was sitting in that situation for almost half of a day.

They didn't shut down the reactor.

Still, they turned off some of the, uh, six that would have automatically shut it down If you bring a reactor down low, they thought that they can handle the power level manual and appear to be not.

It took them longer than what they thought it went over into the next shift.

The post of midnight shift, arguably not the most experienced A shift to do this, they brought it down to low became actually unstable that it didn't respond in a normal way to the actions that the operators were taken.

Director said No, no.

Bring the control rods up and bring the power up on the reactor a little bit Maur so that we can conduct this experiment and they bring control rods up a bit and nothing sent.

Power of the reactors starts to come up.

Order was bringing the control rods back into the reactor.

Reactor is getting hotter and hotter, and the control rods are starting to come back in the channel's start to heat up.

And the control rods were stuck when cooling water was added instead of cooling things down when it hit the superheated fuel rods, it rapidly turned to steam on.

That caused an explosion with the heat of the reactor blew, Uh, the top had no containment vessel built over the top to try to contain any explosion or a massive release of radiation.

They cannot fully control the radioactive court.

A great deal radio activity has been released.

Radiation mediation mediation 500 times above normal in divinity of acidity.

I think I have to be evacuated.

There will be no effective way of protecting the pictures.

Show us a second major heat source.

Just because you had an explosion doesn't mean that vision stops.

It is burning.

The graphite is releasing very small radioactive particles.

In an effort, Thio put out the fire and also reduce the radiation.