Chernobyl: Worst Nuclear Disaster Quiz

Answer: an experiment gone wrong

Ironically, the experiment consisted in testing how the power plant would respond in the event of an accident. The operators at the plant wanted to bring down the power output of the reactor to 25%, but over-confidence, poor training and poor knowledge of how a reactor works caused them to overdo it, and they ended up bringing down the power output to 1%.

When they then tried to bring it up to 25%, the reactor overheated and exploded. It's been said that the experiment was supposed to be done a few days before April 26th, but a great demand of power in the area prevented from shutting down even one of the reactors.

It's also been said that they were under pressure to do the experiment, and that if had they been more calm about it there wouldn't have been such a terrible accident.

Answer: #4

Among the chemicals that were ejected into the air: 8 tonnes of plutonium, radioactive graphite blocks, caesium and iodine vapors and other radioactive materials - a lethal combination.

Answer: 31

31 persons was the official number of casualties. Most studies that have been done throughout the years disagree on this one. In the following months after the tragedy, 2,000 persons were supposedly killed by the radiation, but this was never confirmed by the Soviet government.

Answer: 2

Two days after the accident, when radioactivity was monitored at a Swedish station, the Soviet government admitted there had been a fatal accident at Chernobyl. Until then, no one had been evacuated from the nearby towns. Many people compare Chernobyl to the Kursk accident in the Barents Sea, when rescue crews were sent 3 days after the submarine sank.

Answer: Red

According to "Chernobyl, History of a Tragedy" by Sergei Plokhy (published in 2019), the pine forest immediately downwind from the shattered reactor received over 20 times the radioactive material that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined and died very quickly. During the cleanup the pines were bulldozed and buried under a thick layer of sand.

However, it is feared that their continued rotting may be introducing radioactive material into the water table in northern Ukraine and southern Belarus.

Answer: 90 seconds

The explosion had dumped over one hundred tons of fiercely radioactive core material onto the roof of the reactor hall, which had to be removed before any reactor covering could be put in place. The soldiers were permitted to spend a maximum of 90 seconds on the roof, dropping to 40 close to the reactor edge.

It should be remembered that they did this without any specialised equipment beyond crudely improvised lead aprons and respirators. Each man took an estimated 25 Rem each - 100 millirem is seen as the usual safe dose for a nuclear worker in the West, significantly less.

Answer: The Elephant's Foot

Composed of Corium or Fuel-Containing Material (FCM), the Elephant's Foot is a highly radioactive mass, merely the visible section of a much larger object thought to be directly underneath the reactor vessel. When it was discovered in December 1986, it was radioactive enough to deliver a fatal dose within five minutes but, by 1996, it had cooled enough for the nuclear scientist Artur Korneyev to approach it close enough to take photographs.

They make rather chilling viewing.

Answer: The Russian Woodpecker

The Russian Woodpecker, Soviet designation DUGA-1, NATO reporting name STEEL YARD, was a highly secret section of the Soviet over-the-horizon radar network, intended to give the maximum possible warning of any western nuclear strike. It was an irritant to ham radio operators during the 70s and early 80s as it sent out a pulse that was picked up as a constant and repeated tapping on radio signals in the high frequencies.

It was evacuated on the morning after the explosion at Reactor 4, as it too had radioactive material shed on it. Over the years it has cooled down enough to visit, and until 2020 tourists could visit the colossal structure, frozen in time at the moment of evacuation.

Answer: The Sarcophagus

The Sarcophagus was completed in November 1986, locking in 200 tons of Corium, 30 tons of radioactive dust and around 15 tons of uranium and plutonium. It was, however, never an ideal building - conditions were too radioactive to allow a complete seal to be put in place on the building and it was largely free-standing. By 1996, the Sarcophagus was starting to deteriorate and plans were put in place to replace it with a more secure covering, the New Safe Confinement, which was finally completed in 2019.

Answer: Dug fortifications in contaminated forests

Documentary proof shows Russian troops dug in in positions in the dangerously irradiated 'Red Forest', leading to incidents of Acute Radiation Syndrome (ACS) among them. This was reported in the 'New York Times' on the 8th April 2022, with reports that at least one soldier had been killed by radiation and several others hospitalised. Thirty-five years after the event, Chernobyl remains deadly.