Could UFOs be targeting our most powerful weapons? Across the United States mysterious objects hover above nuclear missile silos; in England airmen watch in terror as their nuclear base is targeted from the night sky. The Unexplained Files s2e7: Are Aliens Attacking Our Nuclear Arsenal? Science 2014
North Korea’s tested a nuclear bomb believed to be ten times more destructive than Hiroshima. Kim Jong Il vs Donald Trump is the most dangerous stand-off in decades. Panorama: North Korea’s Nuclear Trump Card, BBC 2017
The US still maintains 24,000 troops in South Korea. ibid.
It [North Korea] tested what it claimed to be a hydrogen bomb. ibid.
North Korea is now thought to have more than 30 nuclear warheads. ibid.
A network of extensive nuclear facilities. ibid.
On April 25th 1986 Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev has been in power for only one year … Chernobyl is a symbol of the Soviet Union’s industrial and technological muscle. Soviet nuclear scientists consider it to be the cream of the nation’s nuclear plants. Seconds from Disaster: Meltdown in Chernobyl, National Geographic 2021
Chernobyl has four reactors all running at the same time. ibid.
A safety drill – but from the start problems develop, and now something seems to be going very wrong. The young men who work the night shift struggle to prevent a major nuclear accident. ibid.
Chernobyl’s number four reactor explodes. The force of the explosion blows the reactor’s 2,000-ton steel roof sideways. 8 tons of highly reactive fuel blast into the night sky. ibid.
Chernobyl ***** 2019 starring Jared Harris & Stellan Skarsgaard & Emily Watson & Paul Ritter & Jessie Buckley & Adam Nagaitis & Con O’Neill & Adrian Rawlins & Sam Troughton & Robert Emms & David Dencik & Mark Lewis Jones & Alan Williams et al
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.
They’re dropping sand and boron on the fire. ibid. nuclear physics lady
The whole world knows. The wind has been blowing toward Germany. ibid. Shcherbina
The meltdown has begun. Chernobyl III: Open Wide, O Earth, Legasov
He’s somebody else now, do you understand? He’s dangerous to you. ibid. nurse to wife of patient
Gorbachev: How many deaths?
Legasov: Thousands. Perhaps tens of thousands. ibid.
Do you know how old I am? I’m 82. I’ve lived here my whole life, right here in that house, this place. What do I care about safe? Chernobyl IV: The Happiness of All Mankind, old woman
Under no circumstances can men go up there [roof]. ibid. Legasov
As much vodka as you want. Plus a thousand roubles. ibid. animal control squad soldier
Someone has to start telling the truth. Chernobyl V: Vichnaya Pamyat, Ulana
I understand my duty to the state. But you gave us assurances. Reactors would be made safe. It’s been months. No changes have been made; no changes discussed. ibid. Legasov to Charkov
Legasov: I went willingly to an open reactor. So I’ve already given my life. Isn’t that enough?
No, I’m sorry but it is not. ibid.
We are already on dangerous ground now because of our secrets and our lies. They are practically what define us. ibid.
Valery Legasov took his own life at the age of 51 on April 26 1988 exactly two years after the explosion at Chernobyl. The audio tapes of Legasov’s memoirs were circulated among the Soviet scientific community. His suicide made it impossible for them to be ignored. ibid. captions
We lived in a myth that we kept strengthening. And we found that life rather comfortable. We did not fully comprehend what kind of society we were living in. And that created amonster. The Real Chernobyl, scientist, Sky News 2019
On April 26 1986 there was an explosion in Reactor #4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. ibid.
I couldn’t comprehend such high levels of radiation. ibid. scientist
The colour of their faces was brown or blue. ibid. firefighter, re first responders
In Chernobyl a huge clean-up operation was underway. ibid.
We were the liquidators; we were the cannon fodder. ibid. soldier
We understood this as a one-way trip … so no-one thought of the danger. ibid.
Chernobyl, Ukraine: this abandoned wasteland is one of the most dangerous places on Earth with nuclear radiation at every turn. It’s the site of a nuclear accident that became one of the worst engineering disasters in modern history. But what caused this deadly nuclear explosion? Chernobyl’s Deadly Secrets: Mysteries of the Abandoned, Discovery 2019
There’s no entry without a permit and it’s sometimes a challenge even if you have one. ibid.
There’s still a heaviness is the air that you can actually feel. ibid.
‘Because of that defect in the design [graphite tips to the rods] steam pressure built up and there was a huge blast.’ ibid. engineer
A serious design flaw. ibid.
A haunting walk through a dead world. ibid.
The first responders who ran in to fight the Chernobyl fire likely had no idea the dangers they were facing and many died of radiation poisoning in the first few weeks. ibid.
When the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in 1986 it changed everything. Now, 35 year after the disaster I am travelling to the most radioactive place on Earth. I’ve been granted special permission to explore some of Chernobyl’s secrets, going inside the very control room where thee fatal mistake was made. And seeing up close the tomb of the doomed reactor. Inside Chernobyl with Ben Fogle, Channel 5 2021
The Zone was established in the aftermath of the worst nuclear disaster in history. On April 26th 1986 Chernobyl’s reactor #4 exploded. The resulting fire lasted ten days, releasing 400 times as much radioactive contamination as the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima. ibid.
Pripyat: This is an entire city with five secondary schools, two sports stadiums and its own palace of culture. ibid.
Illegal thrill-seekers driven largely by social media continue to be a problem here. ibid.
The Zone is becoming an unlikely wildlife sanctuary. ibid.
Between 1970 and 1989 at the heart of the Cold War the USSR manufactured and deployed over 2,500 Radioisotope Thermal Generators across the Soviet Union. When the USSR collapsed in 1991 all these highly radioactive and dangerous devices were simply abandoned in situ! The Soviet Union’s Deadly Abandoned Nuclear Generators, Andy McLoone reporting, Youtube short 31.12, 2023
It was once the deadliest lake on Earth … a storage place for radioactive waste material … Karachay had spent decades accumulating a level of toxicity unparalleled in history. Lake Karachay: The USSR’s Deadly Nuclear Lake, Youtube short 19.32, 2020
Just one of a litany of disasters produced by the Mayak facility in the mad dash for the Soviet Union to get the bomb. ibid.
29th September 1957: the [Mayak] tank exploded with the force of 70 tons of TNT … The blast was enough to hurl a vast cloud of Cesium 137 and Strontium 90 high into the air: the Kyshtym Disaster … This was during the peak of Soviet secrecy. ibid.
Karachay was just one of dozens of sites across the former USSR in need of immediate cleanup. ibid.
The residents of City 40 are still there. ibid.
The physicists who participated in forging the most formidible and dangerous weapon of all time are harrassed by an equal feeling of responsibility not to say guilt. Einstein and the Bomb, Netflix 2024
Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in producing an atomic bomb, I would not have taken part in opening that Pandora’s Box. ibid.
The present state of affairs in Germany is a state of psychic distemper in the masses. ibid.
I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. ibid.
The most beautiful thing you can experience is the mysterious. ibid.
After his speech Einstein sails to the United States. He will never see Europe again. ibid. caption
The Allies enter the race to create the first atomic bomb with the top secret Manhattan Project. ibid.
The war is won. The peace is not. ibid. Einstein
How long shall we tolerate politicians hungry for power trying to gain political advantage in such a way. ibid.