Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bezpalov and Boris Baranov are the names of the brave and valliant volunteers who dove into the radioactive waters underneath the nuclear reactor to drain that water so they may prevent a thermonuclear explosion which would have led to the evacuation of all of western europe. These men utilized their right to life and their responsibilities as engineers of the power plant by volunteering their very lives for the lives of many. These men altered the course of history drastically, without their sacrifice the majority would be an uninhabitable wasteland doomed to a nuclear winter. These men deserve to be written down in the everlasting stone tablets of history and to be remembered for years to come and yet they are relatively unheard of, there is a scarcitty of information regarding them on the internet and they were never even given or posthumously awarded for their honorable sacrifice. Information regarding the length of time survived after their dive was limited though multiple sources stated that none of the divers lived any longer than a week after their act of valor.
Alexei Ananenko and Boris Baranov were engineers at the nuclear while Valeri Bezpalov was a soldier that was on standby there in case of any emergencies. These men were neither forced nor pursuaded to dive into those dark irradiated waters below melting irradiated graphite rods of nuclear mayhem, they volunteered because they understood that their right to life and their responsibilities as be it workers for the plant or a soldier for their country to help save the lives of millions of people across europe.
Though these brave men sacrificed themselves as honorably as they did they could not reverse the damage already done to the town of pripyat and the area around chernobyl. Pripyat is now a ghost town, abandoned by its former irradiated inhabitants, many of which died of thyroid as well as numerous other cancers due to over exposure to radiation. The Red Woods is now scaresly inhabited by animals with a plethora of mutations and birth defects as well as little to no plant life at all. The area around chernobyl will remain uninhabitable for centuries to come.
How did such a disaster happen you might ask? The head engineer and plant manager were asked by officials of the soviet union to meet specific energy production rates which they were undershooting at that time. In response to this the engineers were told to pull the graphite rods out of the core so more energy would be produced. This was as we know now a grave mistake. The graphite rods were reaching critical energy levels and exploded in reactor four causing tens of thousands of Roentgen, " radiation units" into the air and across central and western europe. The engineers were not informed of the reactors reaching critical thermal and energy levels and caused the explosion of reactor 4 unknowingly.
Alexei Ananenko and Boris Baranov were engineers at the nuclear while Valeri Bezpalov was a soldier that was on standby there in case of any emergencies. These men were neither forced nor pursuaded to dive into those dark irradiated waters below melting irradiated graphite rods of nuclear mayhem, they volunteered because they understood that their right to life and their responsibilities as be it workers for the plant or a soldier for their country to help save the lives of millions of people across europe.
Though these brave men sacrificed themselves as honorably as they did they could not reverse the damage already done to the town of pripyat and the area around chernobyl. Pripyat is now a ghost town, abandoned by its former irradiated inhabitants, many of which died of thyroid as well as numerous other cancers due to over exposure to radiation. The Red Woods is now scaresly inhabited by animals with a plethora of mutations and birth defects as well as little to no plant life at all. The area around chernobyl will remain uninhabitable for centuries to come.
How did such a disaster happen you might ask? The head engineer and plant manager were asked by officials of the soviet union to meet specific energy production rates which they were undershooting at that time. In response to this the engineers were told to pull the graphite rods out of the core so more energy would be produced. This was as we know now a grave mistake. The graphite rods were reaching critical energy levels and exploded in reactor four causing tens of thousands of Roentgen, " radiation units" into the air and across central and western europe. The engineers were not informed of the reactors reaching critical thermal and energy levels and caused the explosion of reactor 4 unknowingly.