April 26 marks the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. This day in 1986 entered the history of mankind forever, when at 01:23 local time the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. Later, this accident was recognized as the world's first man-made disaster with the highest (seventh) level of danger according to the international scale of nuclear incidents. Until now, not everyone knows that on that day 400 times more radioactive substances were released into the atmosphere than during the bombing of Hiroshima. Yuri Korotkov says.
The Chernobyl disaster is called a tragedy that has no statute of limitations. Let me remind you that before the commissioning of the 4th power unit in 1984, just two years before the disaster, mandatory tests of the reactor and turbines were not carried out. The authorities were in a hurry to report to the party and the government about the successes. As a result, after a year and a half, it became necessary to carry out scheduled repairs.

But a command came from Kyiv: “Do not stop the block - there is not enough electricity!” And the station operators began to increase power, as a result of which all automation failed. The process became uncontrollable, which led to a thermal explosion and the destruction of the reactor.
Perhaps there is no need to talk in detail about the steps that were taken then to eliminate the consequences of the accident. Many media outlets have been talking about this. Let me just say that the heroic efforts of firefighters, military personnel, specialists of various professions managed to partially cope with unbridled energy.
Among those who, as they say, were on the front line, there were doctors. One of them is a neuropsychiatrist, psychologist, professor of medicine Naum Khait, who has been living in California for thirteen years. During the Chernobyl disaster, he worked as the head of the psycho-neurological department of the Obninsk city hospital in the Kaluga region, was the head of the clinical psychology course at the Obninsk Institute of Atomic Energy. By the way, the world's first nuclear power plant is located in Obninsk.

- Naum Zemovich, I just can't believe it - 30 years have passed since the Chernobyl disaster! Do you remember how it was?
– Yes, this event will remain in my memory forever. It will never be possible to forget him. This catastrophe is closely intertwined with my fate. I remember how in December 1986 the government of the Soviet Union and the Ministry of Emergency Situations turned to the leading specialists of the country - neuropathologists and psychologists - with a request to take part in providing medical assistance to the operators of the Chernobyl plant, who worked with the greatest stress in difficult conditions for 12-14 hours per day without days off. They were so tired that they simply could not work further, and they had to be restored in the truest sense of the word.
Restoring their energy balance with conventional drugs was not possible, because all drugs of the sedative series, in addition to calming the nervous system, cause drowsiness and reduce attention. And their work required increased attention and concentration. Therefore, it was decided to help them with non-traditional methods of treatment, i.e. with the help of massage, acupuncture, psychological techniques such as neurolinguistic programming, transactional analysis, autogenic training, etc.
It was to help the operators of the undamaged units of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant that leading experts in the field of neurology and psychology, including myself, were sent. Moreover, I want to note that there was no coercion and pressure on us. It was our completely voluntary decision. Secondly, we were not promised any benefits, benefits, privileges and rewards for this work. It was just a request to which we responded.
– Can you tell us about the conditions under which you worked at the station? What was the mode of operation?
– We worked at the station throughout January and five days of February 1987. We lived 30 kilometers from the station itself in the town of Zeleny Mys. We were provided with very nice comfortable Finnish houses. Every day we were woken up at 6 o'clock in the morning, and after a rather plentiful breakfast, we left on "clean buses" towards the station. We were dressed in a soldier's uniform: underwear, jerseys, felt boots, earflaps - everything was military, as in a war.

On the border with the station, where the absolutely dirty zone began, we changed clothes again and already in respirators went to the station itself. At the entrance to the nuclear power plant, they once again changed into special clothes - shoe covers, medical gowns, head caps, respirators or face filters.
We worked 12-14 hours a day at the medical center of the operating block No. 1, where we received operators working at this station. They, feeling tired or other undesirable symptoms associated with overwork, turned to us for help. Remarkable specialists worked in my team - Larisa Churzina and Vladimir Shablin. Their magical hands and excellent knowledge of medicine helped not only the operators of the nuclear power plant, but also us, the doctors who worked alongside them and also sometimes needed help.
What patient conditions do you most often deal with?
- I remind you that people at the station worked in an incredibly tense atmosphere. All these conditions are constantly accumulating. So-called radiophobia appears, or radiophobic neurosis, i.e. fear of radiation. After all, radiation is a special enemy. You don't see it, you don't feel it. And only with the help of a dosimeter you can determine what is around you, so to speak, phonite, i.e. a colossal excess of the maximum permissible level of radiation. And it has a terrible effect on the human psyche. And if he has an anxious and suspicious character, then he just starts to slowly go crazy.
- Have you had such cases?
– Yes, definitely. We had such a case even among my colleagues. One doctor, a psychiatrist from Moscow, after a few days of work at the station became anxious, began to walk around with a dosimeter in all corners of our workplace, measuring the radiation background, stopped sleeping, he developed a high degree of anxiety. As a result, the administration of the nuclear power plant was forced to send him by plane to Moscow. And there were a lot of such cases among nuclear power plant workers. Moreover, against the background of such anxiety, a person has suicidal thoughts.
- But in order to help such people, you yourself need to have willpower, not to panic. How did you yourself feel in this situation? After all, you had a dosimeter and you probably kept a record of the level of exposure to which you were exposed at the station.
- We all had a dosimeter. But he was in a special closed box, so we could not see what dose of radiation we received. When we finished work at the station, we handed over these dosimeters and do not know anything about the results. I still have no idea what dose of radiation I got in 35 days of continuous work at the station.
- It is known that many specialists who worked at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant at that time died prematurely. Do you have any numbers?
“Unfortunately, I don’t have any general figures on such consequences. Different sources give different numbers. I will only talk about those who worked with me during that period. According to preliminary data, approximately 60 percent of my colleagues - doctors and medical workers - died prematurely with various oncological diseases, i.e. with those diseases that with a high degree of probability can be attributed to the influence of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

- It turns out that 40 percent of your colleagues who worked with you in the same conditions did not die prematurely. What do you think is the decisive factor here?
- I am convinced that two factors worked here. The first is optimism and the second is strict adherence to the rules of personal hygiene. Do not be afraid of the conditions in which you find yourself, but perceive them critically. It follows from this that it is necessary to take care of yourself, change clothes, wash shoes with water and soap every day after work, visit the bathhouse more often, sleep in a clean bed, do not smoke ... And this, it turns out, was quite enough to protect yourself from terrible danger.

It should be noted that the head of the Obninsk city hospital department, Professor Naum Khait, was awarded the medal "For saving the dead" for the courage and selflessness shown during the liquidation of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Decree N 1076 on the award was signed by the President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin July 20, 1996.

Despite the past time, Ukraine still feels the consequences of the man-made disaster: the lists of victims include hundreds of thousands of people, abandoned villages, half-empty but still alive Chernobyl and overgrown, like a jungle, completely dead Pripyat. And, of course, the station itself "in all its glory" - with a sarcophagus over the fourth power unit and a new hangar-shelter being built right next to it.

According to the agreements of the Ukrainian government with the G7 and the Commission of the European Union, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after 2000 finally stopped its power units. Today, the station is at the final stage of its life cycle - decommissioning, which will last until 2065.

Thinking out loud

First person

P I offer my readers a selection of materials dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl tragedy. Since you can’t tell about it in a nutshell, I divided my publication conditionally into three parts:

Part 1 is dedicated to brief information about the accident and the people who liquidated it at the cost of their lives.

Part 2 is an interview given to Novaya Gazeta by Konstantin Chicherin, a Russian nuclear physicist, a specialist in the field of nuclear fuel and radiation materials, a senior researcher at the Laboratory of Radiation Materials Science of the National Research Center Kurchatov Institute, a participant in the liquidation of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, who gave more than 20 years of the study of the accident and its causes.

Part 3 -this, so to speak, is a photo session dedicated to people, participants in the events of those now distant and terrible days, and a photo essay by Victoria Ivleva, who visited the Chernobyl reactor 4 in 1990, most of the photographs from which are little or almost unknown to us.

26 April 1986. Time: 1 hour 24 minutes. 30 years ago. On this day, the largest man-made disaster in the history of mankind took place - the catastrophe at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which affected the fate of millions of people.

The total release of radioactive substances amounted to 77 kg (during the bomb explosion in Hiroshima - 740 g.). The "Chernobyl bell" struck, it was heard by the inhabitants of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, people of the whole planet.

Experts have calculated that the total damage inflicted by the Chernobyl disaster on the world community for thirty years is estimated at about one trillion US dollars, 550 billion of which falls on Belarus, Ukraine and the Russian Federation.

The firefighters of the city of Pripyat took the worst blow. They put out the fire in the zone of the strongest radiation - above the reactor. And two weeks later, on Victory Day, many of them were gone: they were dying in a Moscow clinic from acute radiation sickness. They felt death, calmly, without tears, said goodbye to each other and died quietly. In subsequent years, the Chernobyl tragedy claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people.

The radioactive cloud passed over the European part of the USSR, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Great Britain and the eastern part of the USA. Approximately 60% of radioactive fallout fell on the territory of Belarus. About 200,000 people were evacuated from contaminated areas.
The radiation was carried by the wind far from Chernobyl.

According to observations, on April 29, 1986, a high radiation background was registered in Poland, Germany, Austria, Romania, on April 30 - in Switzerland and Northern Italy, on May 1-2 - in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Northern Greece, on May 3 in Israel, Kuwait, Turkey. Now there is a dead zone for hundreds of kilometers in a radius from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

The consequences of Chernobyl would have been much greater if it were not for the courage and dedication of people who, at the call of the Motherland, stepped into radioactive hell, despite the mortal danger, risking their health and life itself. Hundreds of thousands of specialists from all the republics of the USSR took part in the liquidation of the consequences of the disaster. Their heroic efforts managed to curb the elements in a short time. Among the liquidators was my friend, an employee of the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant. At that time, many of them were sent to Chernobyl on business trips to eliminate the consequences of the accident. And who knows, maybe this business trip of his became the cause of the ailments that he still suffers from.

The most dangerous and time-consuming part of the work to eliminate the consequences, to decontaminate the station and the adjacent territory, to build the sarcophagus was entrusted to the Armed Forces - servicemen and conscripts, whose heroic and selfless work in the period from 1986 to 1990 made it possible to significantly weaken the global development of the catastrophe . As rightly noted in one of his speeches, the Minister of Defense of the USSR Marshal of the Soviet Union D.T. Yazov: "The army closed Chernobyl with its breast."

The hardest and most dangerous work fell to the share of those who in the first days, weeks, months struggled with the raging reactor and carried out emergency recovery work in a 30-kilometer zone.

1. H The Chernobyl disaster was rated 7 out of 7 possible by the International Nuclear Event School (INES), making it the largest man-made disaster of its time. It should be noted that 7 points were also assigned to the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant in Japan in 2011, where a disaster also occurred as a result of an earthquake.

2. As a result of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 100 times more radiation was released than was the effect of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

3. The nuclear rain went so far that it even reached Ireland.

4. 800 thousand men risked their health to prevent the consequences of the accident and stabilize the situation. They worked in a high-risk area, exposing themselves to radiation. 25 thousand of them died, and more than 70 thousand became disabled. 20% of these deaths were suicides.

5. Greenpeace claims that the Chernobyl accident caused about 90,000 deaths from cancer worldwide.

6. Some people have returned with their families to the affected area to take advantage of government compensation.

7. There are plans to use the areas surrounding the reactor, such as the processing and disposal of radioactive waste, as well as the creation of nature reserves.

8. More than 5 million people live in areas considered "contaminated" with radioactive materials after the accident.

9. The area listed as "polluted" has become one of the world's most unique nature reserves, with a thriving population of wolves, deer, beavers, eagles and other animals.

10. On each restored house in Chernobyl, today there is an inscription that indicates the name of the owner of this property.

Ukrainian scientists oppose the reduction of the "exclusion zone" around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP) now employs 2,500 people. They support the destroyed fourth and three stopped power units in a safe condition. Thirty years after the Chernobyl tragedy, the attention of politicians, environmentalists and scientists is riveted to the construction of a new confinement - a shelter that should solve the problem of radiation safety around the destroyed reactor for a hundred years.

The construction of the new confinement began in the spring of 2012, and since then its commissioning has been delayed at least three times due to funding problems. The structure in the form of a huge arch is already almost assembled, and in November of this year, according to plans, it should be pushed over the old reinforced concrete sarcophagus, erected shortly after the accident in 1986.

“In fact, we are now in the final phase of the creation of a safe confinement, or “Arch”, in which two very complex projects are being implemented simultaneously. We are constructing end walls inside the Shelter object, which will come out of the object and ensure the sealing of the “Arch”, which will be pushed over it. We are also completing work in the Arka itself on the installation of infrastructure and facilities of the technological building for managing life support systems. According to our plans, in November 2016 we must push the Arka onto the fourth power unit. After that, we will complete the second stage of the transformation of the Shelter into an environmentally safe system, ”said Igor Gramotkin, General Director of the Chernobyl NPP, in an interview with Zerkalo Nedeli.

In addition, before the end of the year, work on the construction of a new shelter and dry storage facility for spent nuclear fuel (SHOYAT-2) should be completed. After carrying out all the necessary tests, both of these facilities are planned to be put into operation in 2017. The cost of the new confinement, developed over ten years by the French concern Novarka, initially amounted to 980 million euros, now it is almost 1.5 billion euros.

The money is allocated by international donors, mainly Western countries. This project has one significant drawback: it does not involve the dismantling of unstable structures inside the facility, the extraction of radioactive fuel-containing masses and their safe disposal. Such work, according to experts, should begin no earlier than 2020. This will require a new project and, obviously, astronomical sums for its financing.

“I am deeply convinced that at this stage the same platform for international cooperation should be created as during the construction of the Arch. This is a super-difficult task that no country in the world can cope with on its own. Here, scientific knowledge, industrial potential, and robotics will be needed, and the potential of the entire global nuclear industry will be needed,” notes Igor Gramotkin.

Inside the old reinforced concrete sarcophagus there can be at least 180 tons of radioactive fuel in various states and about 30 tons of dust, which contains transuranium elements.

The decommissioning of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is a lengthy and very costly process. Its total cost is estimated at $4 billion. One of the key challenges remains the construction of secure temporary and permanent storage facilities for nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. Fuel from all Chernobyl reactors is now stored in a highly unreliable, Soviet-era “wet” spent nuclear fuel storage facility. The process of decommissioning the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, according to the schedule, should be completed in 2064. Until then, the reactors will remain mothballed until their radioactivity decreases.

The Chernobyl 30-kilometer exclusion zone was included in the top ten most environmentally unfavorable places on the planet, compiled by the Swiss branch of the Green Cross organization and the American Blacksmith Institute. Monitoring studies carried out by Ukrainian environmental organizations, in particular, Ecocenter, showed that in most of this territory, the danger associated with an increase in the concentration of toxic, highly mobile americium, which occurs during the decay of plutonium, is increasing. The content of americium in the environment, its entry into the lungs of people and animals can occur within almost the entire zone.

The results of these studies do not affect the plans of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine. Its new leader Ostap Semerak, speaking recently at a government meeting, proposed moving away from the perception of this zone as a “territory of a catastrophe” and more treating it as a “territory of change, innovation and possible development of the Ukrainian economy and science.” The authorities propose to reduce the Chernobyl zone and make it as open as possible.

Director of the Center for Radiological Research, Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, former Chairman of the National Commission for the Elimination of the Consequences of the Chernobyl Accident Vyacheslav Shestopalov, in an interview with Radio Liberty, explains why Ukrainian scientists doubt the reliability of the new Chernobyl shelter, oppose the authorities' plans to reduce the territory of the exclusion zone, and also expressed his assumptions about the causes of the explosion that occurred on April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant:

- Thirty years after the world's largest man-made disaster, different versions of the causes of the explosion at the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant are still heard. What do you think caused this accident?

— The analysis of geophysical and other materials during the accident and around its territory lead to the thought of many experts, including me, that the accident itself is not purely man-made and is associated with natural phenomena. The fact is that in the 80s and 90s the territory, which is conditionally located between Minsk, Moscow and Kyiv, was subjected to fairly strong seismic activity. This seismic activity manifested itself in different places - both in the Minsk region and in Moscow, where many such manifestations were recorded, including the destruction of individual buildings. Earthquakes were recorded during this period in Kyiv, and they were also in Chernobyl, moreover, in 1986, from April 8 to May 8, and the greatest activity was manifested at the end of April 25 and the beginning of April 26. Ten seconds before the accident, seismic stations recorded a major shock. And it was proved that this is precisely a seismic, and not any other push that could be associated with some kind of explosions.

Many earthquakes in different parts of the world, including during the Soviet period in the Armenian city of Spitak and the capital of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, were all accompanied by active electromagnetic manifestations - glows, the formation of ball lightning. And, besides, as studies have shown, in the central part of Russia there are periodic emissions of deep hydrogen gas. During the period of earthquake activation, such degassing - the release of hydrogen - was recorded in very many places, both during the Spitak and Tashkent earthquakes.

Such activation, the release of hydrogen to the surface and, accordingly, its explosion, apparently, also occurred during the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Literally seconds before the accident, when the fourth power unit was already being destroyed, they first observed a torch 70 meters high, which in five seconds grew to 500 meters. And it was a bluish-violet flame. It is this kind of flame that always occurs at the beginning of volcanic eruptions, when a huge amount of deep hydrogen comes out of the vent of the volcano and lights up.

In addition, the vacuum explosion apparently took place inside the fourth Chernobyl block. This may be indicated by some fragments of broken fuel elements (fuel elements - the basis of a nuclear reactor. - RS), namely, a vacuum explosion occurs during an explosion of hydrogen. Why? Because hydrogen combines with oxygen in the air, turns into fine water, and the pressure drops sharply. Such a decrease in pressure leads to the rupture of various objects that are closed.

- Thus, the human factor, errors in the design of the reactor and the experiments that were carried out at the nuclear power plant are not the key causes of the Chernobyl disaster?

- I believe that all the technical shortcomings that were recorded there had an impact. However, the accident itself is more complex, and its natural aspects, which were previously ignored, must be taken into account. Why? Because, yes, they built a new confinement. They even call it "new, safe confinement". But how safe is it? Activation of seismicity can occur in the future at any time. If the confinement is designed for a hundred years, then during this period there may be more than one such event that can lead to an explosion inside the shelter and the release of radioactivity to the surface.

- It is planned that a new confinement in the form of a huge arch will be pulled over the old sarcophagus by the end of this year. Will the old concrete shelter collapse before this time?

- Those works that were carried out to strengthen it, they seem to

sufficient to complete the construction process. But the danger is not only in this. Suppose that all work on the construction of a new sarcophagus is completed. A huge internal area, and, as you know, the activity there is already in a finely dispersed fraction. If earlier they were solid masses, now they are mainly finely dispersed fractions.

Any uncontrolled, unplanned impacts of some kind can lead to the fact that this radioactive dust will rise, and thus the inside of this sarcophagus can also turn into radioactive material, which will be irradiated from the inside. And the implementation of the second phase of the liquidation of the consequences of the accident - the extraction of radioactive fuel-containing masses - in fact, is postponed to an indefinite future. Without international financial assistance, this problem will not be solved.

- You do not rule out that hydrogen could be released directly under the sarcophagus and this could lead to a serious explosion?

- There will be an explosion not radioactive, but an ordinary explosion of hydrogen in oxygen-containing air. But as a result of this explosion, activity will rise, which is now inside the old sarcophagus. If you take up this matter in time, study the situation and establish that such degassing really occurs, then, in principle, you can create a program to protect the confinement. We believe that now, first of all, it is necessary to conduct research around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

There are structures on the surface that are candidates for the release of hydrogen. During preliminary work to assess the prospects of radioactive waste disposal in a deep formation, we, together with geologists and geophysicists, reinterpreted all materials on the exclusion zone. We found out that the station itself is located in the zone of a powerful fault that stretches from Turkmenistan through the Caspian Sea and the North Caucasus, through the Donbass, all of Ukraine and further through the territory of Belarus.

"Arch"

This is an active tectonic zone. The choice of sites for the construction of nuclear power plants in Soviet times was very unsuccessful. I looked at topographic maps to see how the surface of the earth changed during the construction of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. There are such forms on the surface, they are called depressions - small saucer-shaped depressions. It was believed that these are purely exogenous, that is, external processes, and no special attention was paid to them.

I saw that there were such depressions in this territory. Before the construction of the station, the site was leveled, and 16 years later, in 1986, during the accident, a second topographic survey was made. And it shows that some of the depressions have recovered. These depressions are not simple, they have some roots in depth, which testify to their activity. And they are also associated with various deep tectonic manifestations. We, with our own methods, the Russians with our own, also conducted a study of such depressions, and came to unequivocal conclusions: they have deep roots. They are related to the fact that degassing of various gases, primarily hydrogen, takes place in the subwestern space. In fact, depressions are some kind of hydrogen outlets from great depths to the surface.

- The Ukrainian authorities propose to significantly reduce the Chernobyl exclusion zone and create a biosphere reserve on its territories. And how do scientists feel about such plans?

- In the thirty years since the Chernobyl disaster, there has been

half-life of cesium and strontium. Part of the radioactive substances was washed out of the soil during this time. But plutonium is widespread almost throughout the exclusion zone, and as a result of its decay, americium is activated. This situation will remain here for a very long time, since plutonium migrates weakly, or rather, almost does not migrate, it is in the soil.

At the same time, americium, which is formed as a result of the decay of plutonium, is very toxic and is an actively migrating element. Studies carried out by specialists from the Center for Radiation Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and other institutions show that even slight radiation pollution and small but chronic doses of radiation within a territory with a specific Polissya landscape lead to a significant increase in morbidity, primarily in children, as well as adults.

Therefore, talk about the possibility of reducing the zone, isolating some of its parts without carrying out serious work related to radiological survey, a detailed study of the entire territory, is not serious at all. As for the biosphere reserve, its creation without taking into account the fact that this is a dangerous territory that requires constant radiological, fire, epidemiological control is also a frivolous approach.

This territory is primarily a danger zone, and control over it should be carried out by the appropriate authority. In this case, this is the state administration of the exclusion zone. The reserve is not biospheric, but I would call it radioecological, it can be created, although, in fact, it already exists, since this zone is closed. It can be created provided that scientific research is carried out there.

- The Chernobyl accident led to the emergence of a huge amount of radioactive waste, they are located in the same exclusion zone. How should this problem be solved?

— As a result of the Chernobyl accident, Ukraine has taken the fourth place in the world in terms of medium and high-level waste. They must be buried in the geological environment, in geological formations. Preliminary study of the territory showed that promising sites where it is possible to find places for burial of such high-level toxic wastes are located in the southern part of the exclusion zone. This is exactly the territory that the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine was going to give to the reserve. And without preliminary geological exploration, it is impossible to select a site, so it is necessary to first carry out such work. And after them, choose a place for waste disposal, which will be connected to the Chernobyl station and to all temporary storage facilities located on the surface near the station. And it should be a single system,” says Vyacheslav Shestopalov.

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the largest man-made disaster in the history of mankind - the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The tragedy occurred on April 26, 1986. At about 01:30 an explosion at the fourth power unit of the nuclear power plant completely destroyed the reactor. A fire broke out in the premises of the station and on the roof. The accident resulted in the release of several tons of radioactive substances into the environment. The city of Pripyat, located near Chernobyl, was evacuated only on April 27. Anna Parpura, correspondent of the MIR 24 TV channel, met with eyewitnesses of the events.

"Everything was amazing. It was even scary because it was too good,” recalls Vera Belyaeva, a resident of the city of Pripyat.

The cloudless life of Vera Belyaeva remained only in old photographs. Then Pripyat was called the city of the future: wide streets, bright high-rise buildings and high salaries. Everything changed on an April night when eight tons of radioactive fuel burst into the sky. It seemed to people that a fabulous rain fell over the city.

“Many residents went out into the street and caught falling stars with their hands. Subsequently, they received burns,” Vera Belyaeva said.

The magic had an explanation. Hot particles fell from the sky, irradiating people. Every minute, 48,000 people in Pripyat alone received a lethal dose of radiation. But they began to evacuate them only on the second day after the accident. It is forbidden to take things and pets with you. Only products and documents. They were promised that in a couple of days everyone would be able to return to their apartments.

“Here is the schedule of the daughter’s lessons, here is the horizontal bar on which the son pulled himself up,” says Valery Volkov, a resident of the city of Pripyat, the liquidator of the accident, showing a video filmed in his apartment.

Valery Volkov made this survey seven years after the accident. Then he saw his apartment for the last time. All that is left is a horizontal bar and an old chest of drawers. They tried to get rid of radiation as best they could: houses and streets were washed with water, contaminated furniture was buried in the ground.

“Radiation is not heard or seen. This is not the whistle of bullets and not bomb explosions,” Volkov says.

The fact that the flow of photons and atoms is worse than a bullet Valery knows better than anyone else. He was building the same fourth power unit, where the tragedy occurred. Before the accident, he was responsible for the air conditioning system at the station. After seven years he eliminated the consequences of the explosion.

“After the accident, I worked at the nuclear power plant for another seven years. There was no one to replace me and, in the end, I myself stopped paying attention to radiation, ”said Valery Volkov.

Valery is lucky. For 30 years, no signs of cancer. The wife died of cancer. Over the years, tens of thousands of people have died from the effects of radiation exposure. Hundreds of thousands had to start life from scratch, with nothing but a package of documents.

“We drank tea from mayonnaise jars. We had nothing else,” recalls Vera Belyaeva.

Apartments for the victims of the Chernobyl tragedy began to be allocated only a year after the accident. Before that, people lived as they should. The family of Vera Belyaeva huddled in one dorm room. Then even close relatives were afraid of the "Chernobyl" ones.

“Many even relatives were not allowed on the threshold, they closed the doors. When we took our children for a walk, the locals quickly left. Because there was no information. We were like lepers. And suddenly, who knew? We ourselves did not know,” says Vera Belyaeva.

A year later, more than a thousand people returned to their homes, never finding themselves on pure land. Thirty years after the tragedy, 200 people continue to live in the exclusion zone.

April 26 marks the 30th anniversary of the worst nuclear disaster in history at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Photographer Jadwiga Bronte traveled to Belarus to meet invisible people still feeling the effects of the disaster.

The disaster occurred about 30 years ago, but its consequences are felt to this day. When the reactor at Pripyat in northern Ukraine began to break down, it became the worst nuclear accident in history, both in terms of casualties and financial costs. But this was not the end.

Photographer Jadwiga Bronte was born in Poland, just a week before the terrible tragedy. The proximity of the place and time of her birth to Chernobyl still determines the importance of this event for her.

Her latest project, The Invisible People of Belarus, documentsthe lives of the crippled victims of Chernobyl living in Belarusian governmentinstitutions - "boarding schools" - which act as "shelters, shelters and almshouses all rolled into one." Although the disaster occurred in Ukraine, it was Belarus that took the brunt of the blow.

The living faces of the residents of boarding schools give us a rare opportunity to see how the survivors of Chernobyl live. Decades later, they were all too easily forgotten.

Why did you decide to shoot these people?

– I was one of more than 18 million Poles who were given"Lugol" - an iodine solution for protection against radioactive fallout after the Chernobyl accident. Unfortunately, not all affected countries did the same. Belarus is closest to Chernobyl and people here suffered more than others. The consequences of the accident affect public health to this day.

However, my project is not only about the victims of the Chernobyl accident. He is about all the disabled people who are not noticed by society. Unfortunately, the topic of disability is still taboo in Belarus. Perhaps this is due to the post-Soviet mentality, religion, or simply a lack of information and general knowledge about disability.

- It has been 30 years since the disaster - what is the life of those people you met like?

– When I say “victims of the Chernobyl disaster”, I do not mean people who were direct victims, such as workers at a power plant or liquidators of the accident. I mean people who were born after April 1986 physically or mentally handicapped. Some children of Chernobyl are now in their 30s, others were born recently, and many more will be born in the future. A mutated gene - a direct consequence of radiation - can be passed down through generations.

Most Chernobyl victims and disabled people live in Belarusian boarding schools. These are public institutions - a cross between orphanages, orphanages and hospices. To be honest, the people living in them are just eking out their existence - they are not provided with any education, and their activity is minimal. They simply support their existence: they cook food, clean up and work in the fields.Very often they make strong friendships among themselves and live for each other.

What difficulties did you face while filming?

“These were difficulties of a personal nature rather than technical ones. It's impossible to work in places like this without feeling strong emotions - not only while filming, but spending time with the residents of the orphanages, listening to their stories and trying to understand how the system they live in works.What you will see is depressing.

What do you hope to show or achieve with your photographs?

“I want these invisible people to become visible. I want people to know more about their lives and hear their stories that no one knows. I want the Belarusian people to take better care of them, because the future of these people is really in the hands of the Belarusian people.

There are places like these in many other countries throughout Europe and beyond. People should understand that it is wrong to separate those who are mentally or physically handicapped,from the rest of society.

I hope that parents will become stronger when they decide to take care of disabled children and see how beautiful they really are. Government offices are not the best place for them. I saw it with my own eyes.