The USSR witnesses a Nuclear Nightmare

Jivan Johal
Apr 26, 2017
3 min read

For a long time, since the end of the 1940's, both the USSR and the US prepared for a nuclear war, and had built up safety nets spanning across both countries to reduce the loss of life in a nuclear attack. But for the longest time, there was none, because both sides were afraid of witnessing their countries destroyed. Up until 1986, neither country witnessed a nuclear incident in their country, but on April 26th, all of that would change.

The town in question was Pripyat, an entire city created around the nuclear plant; Chernobyl. The town was meant to be a close home for the workers in the plant, and was also meant to be a a way for the workers to be able to tend to the plant 24/7. For a while, the plant had been running fine, using a type of reactor called an RBMK reactor, where rods made of radioactive material were placed in a chamber, and pipes filled with water ran along the chambers the individual rods were placed in. The water would enter in cold, and heated up by the

decaying radioactive material, would exit the chamber as steam, and power turbines that would create electricity. It was an almost perfect plan.

Although the plan was perceived to be "perfect", the accident that occurred would forever cripple the region. On April 26th, a routine test was being conducted to see the limits of the reactor chamber when the cooling turbines were turned off, and multiple turbines were turned off. The temperature in the chamber increased, and when the turbines were about to be restarted, a power failure occurred, causing the temperature to continue to rise. The point of no return had been passed. After a few minutes, the temperature in the core of the reactor reached its critical levels and the reactor exploded, releasing tremendous quantities of radioactive steam into the air, setting fire to the graphite roof, and melting the entire reactor plant.

The Soviets, upon learning of the disaster, began a massive cleanup, hiding all evidence of any disaster from the outside world. They sent men in (who would eventually die from radiation sickness) to investigate the water lines and the plant itself. The Soviets discovered that the accident was much worse than initially thought, and were questioned by the international community when Western European seismographs, used to measure earthquakes, picked up the explosion from Ukraine.

The cleanup was followed by a large concrete shield built over the reactor plant, but the damage was done. A 2600 square km region was roped off from the world, being deemed too radioactive for life itself. The plant and the surrounding region was sealed off from the rest of the world

The natural inhabitants of the area were affected too. Any animals near the plant were killed, and millions of animals died from ingesting poisoned food or water. Both animals and humans were reported in large numbers with cancers and tumors, and there are mutated species of unnatural animals that swim and wander the exclusion zone. Mutations also occurred in humans, devastating them, and causing millions of children to become disfigured.

Everything living near Chernobyl was horribly killed of affected, and to this day, Chernobyl and the town of Pripyat remain cut off from the world, having been deemed uninhabitable for 10,000 years. The Ukrainian Government has kept any information quiet, but considering that the Soviets controlled the region at the time, it is unlikely that the full knowledge of what happened, and complete files will be found. The Chernobyl disaster was a reminder to the world of the extremely dangerous risks that came with unlimited nuclear power.