Each village has become a true jungle ... Does Nature not care about radiation? ibid.
The famous Chernobyl cloud was born – and it didn’t care about borders drawn by men. ibid.
3% of the radiation to which we are exposed to daily comes from the Chernobyl cloud. ibid.
Thousands of pines near the power plant reddened over a few weeks and died. The scientists then named this sinister forest the red forest – the stigmata of this battle are still visible. The red forest was soon to become one of the most astonishing laboratories on the planet in which there would be a series of mysteries and paradoxes. ibid.
Life in this city that has such a strange atmosphere where you sometimes come across a few people in military fatigues, and it is forbidden for children and pregnant women is very strange. It is a privilege to be employed in the exclusion zone: because employees get double wages for just fifteen days working a month. ibid.
It is very tempting to attribute everything that doesn’t appear normal to radiation. ibid.
We arrived there at ten or fifteen minutes to two in the morning ... We saw graphite scattered about. Misha asked: ‘Is that graphite?’ I kicked it away. But one of the fighters on the other truck picked it up. ‘It’s hot,’ he said. The pieces of graphite were of different sizes, some big, some small, enough to pick them up ...
We didn’t know much about radiation. Even those who worked there had no idea. There was no water left in the trucks. Misha filled a cistern and we aimed the water at the top. Then those boys who died went up to the roof – Vashchik, Kolya and others, and Volodya Pravik ... They went up the ladder ... and I never saw them again. Grigorii Khmel, driver fire-engine
Chernobyl went off and suddenly in Scotland a pint of milk was a larva lamp. Mark Thomas Comedy Product s5e5, Channel 4 2001
The Soviet Union absolutely wants revenge. The Russian Woodpecker, uprising, 2015
Five months earlier all was quiet in Ukraine. But an artist in Kiev sensed danger on the horizon. ibid. caption
Ukraine is full of ghosts … And there is a ghost at Chernobyl whose scream was heard around the world. ibid. artist
When the explosion happened, no-one thought anything of it … Many went sunbathing at the river. Trucks came to wash the streets. We thought it was a for a holiday. ibid. Chernobyl worker
Kiev residents celebrated May Day under a radioactive drizzle, unaware of the danger. ibid. caption
He has often been described as a pro-Moscow politician. ibid. news report on new president
Radiation levels remain ten times normal. ibid.
Home to one of the largest nuclear rectors in Europe. ibid.
Radio transmission: ‘The noise is called The Woodpecker … It’s been going on since 1976. So what are the Russians up to?’ ibid. BBC 1982
Mysterious Signal Upsets Airwaves. ibid. Washington Star article
The antenna cost twice as much as the Chernobyl nuclear plant. ibid. radar professor
Because the antenna could not fulfil its mission it was bound to fail an upcoming military inspection. ibid. hero
Ukraine has been a battleground between East and West for centuries. From 1932-1933, Soviet policies in Ukraine resulted in the starvation of millions. ibid. caption
The theory that Chernobyl was exploded on purpose to hide the non-functioning Duga: it’s a theory. ibid. hero
Fedor investigated all the builders of the Duga and found one person who had the motive and the power to cause the catastrophe … Shamshin. ibid.
Weeks of anti-government protest exploded again today with a violent crackdown by the government. ibid. US news
Protesters in central Kiev dug in for the winter. ibid. caption
The Chernobyl catastrophe was no accident. ibid. hero
Soon after, more than 100 protesters were shot dead. President Yanukovych fled the country. ibid.
And after 23 years of silence, the Woodpecker signal recently returned to the airwaves. It’s been traced to the heart of Russia. ibid.
Mysterious reports of ghost-like human figures, some resembling those who died in the accident, have begun to surface with increasing frequency. Destination Truth s3e4, Skyfy 2009
The world’s worst nuclear accident happened on April 26 1986. An explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine sent 190 tons of radioactive uranium and graphite into the air. 600,000 liquidators were conscripted for the clean-up and were exposed to massive doses of radiation. Since the accident over 13,000 liquidators have died. The people of Chernobyl were exposed to radiation 90 times greater than that from the explosion of the atom bomb at Hiroshima. Over 400,000 people were evacuated. More than 2,000 villages in the area were demolished. Chernobyl Heart, 2003
For thyroid cancer treatment Belarussians come to Minsk. ibid.
At 1.23 a.m. on the morning of April 26 1986 the world was seconds away from its worst ever nuclear accident. Reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in the Soviet Union exploded. Zero Hour s1e1: Disaster at Chernobyl, Discovery 2004
Many see it as the first step in break up of the communist regime. ibid.
On this night Chernobyl is harbouring two deadly secrets: the first is a potentially fatal flaw in the reactor’s design which the engineers are not aware of. The flaw that makes it highly unstable when run at low power; the second secret concerns the man in charge Anatoli Dyatlov’s own history is scarred by the very technology he is seeking to dominate. ibid.
The water shortage continues to set off alarms. But none of these engineers believes a serious accident is possible. ibid.
They are the victims of years of cover-ups and negligence. ibid.
Safety came second. Accidents were common and hushed-up. ibid.
The few boron control rods still in the reactor are only partially inserted at the top. So power is building into a hotspot at the bottom of the core, where the sensors don’t always detect it. ibid.
Today in Ukraine an international team of engineers is racing to assemble one of the most complex super-structures ever built, an extraordinary 36,000-ton £1.2 billion mega-dome: its job – to entomb the crumbling remains of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. Inside Chernobyl’s Mega-Tomb, BBC 2017
The explosion sent 50 tons of nuclear fuel high into the atmosphere: the wind blew it across Europe. ibid.
The sarcophagus is a toxic timebomb. ibid.
The first stage of the operation is to construct the arch in two halves. ibid.
‘We remember the place as clean, beautiful and bright.’ ibid. former Chernobyl resident
Engineers must fit out the arch with trailblazing equipment designed to clear up the destroyed reactor. ibid.
Some animals are thriving in the exclusion zone. ibid.
The largest structure ever moved across land. ibid.
The arch is finally in position over the reactor. ibid.
It’s teeming with wildlife. Against all odds nature appears to be making a comeback. Life After: Chernobyl, Discovery 2017
A herd of Przewalski’s horses incredibly endangered … numbers have been dropping rapidly … the contamination in their bodies is extremely high. ibid.
One of Chernobyl’s iconic animals: a strange change in the growing wolf population: ‘an attack on humans … wolf attacks on humans are extremely rare … fear radiation is changing wolves’ behaviour.’ ibid.
Over 150 people are now living in this toxic wasteland. ibid.
The trees are not decomposing … If this sets on fire, all that radioactive material goes up in the air. ibid.
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There is no core. It exploded. Chernobyl I: 1.23.45, plant worker in control room, Sky Atlantic 2019
Explosion in the main building between the third and forth blocks. ibid. emergency call
Call in the day shift. We have to keep water flowing into the core. We need electricians, mechanics, bodies. ibid. Dyatlov in control room
Of course no-one can blame me for this. How can I be responsible? I was sleeping. ibid. Bryukhanov
Yes, comrades. We will all be rewarded for what we do here tonight. ibid. old dude
These are radiation burns. Their clothes are contaminated. Help me. Get it all off. Chernobyl II: Please Remain Calm, doctor local hospital
An RBMK reactor used Uranium 235 as fuel. Every atom of U235 is like a bullet travelling at nearly the speed of light penetrating everything in its path … Winds will carry radioactive particles across the entire continent … Most of these bullets will not stop firing for 100 years. ibid. Legasov, nuclear specialist to Soviet Central Committee
You are dealing with something that has never occurred on this planet before. ibid.