On April 26, 1986, the world was shocked by the largest disaster in the history of nuclear energy, the fruits of which we are still reaping - the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The official reason for the incident was the rupture of pipes in the cooling system.
After the reaction of water with zirconium, a large amount of hydrogen was released, which led to the disaster. But it turned out that after so many years in this terrible story, not everything is completely clear.
The SBU has declassified documents about the Chernobyl accident, which shed light on what actually happened 32 years ago. Andrei Kogut, director of the branch state archive of the SBU, said: “Our first document is dated 1973. This is a memo on the violation of norms during the construction of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The following documents also relate to violations and problems that arose here during construction."
As it turned out, fatal mistakes were made during the construction of the station, which could not but lead to an accident. Until 1986, many violations and malfunctions were recorded there, as evidenced by memoranda.
Andriy Kogut added: “What is reflected in these reports explains why in 1986 the overlap failed. First of all, we are talking about problems with the design itself. It was one of the first nuclear power plants to be built on a modular system, that is, the reactor frame was not completely made of concrete. The concrete was of inadequate quality, it was not poured as expected by the technical standards, there were cracks and gaps between the various blocks."
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It was the failure to comply with construction standards that led to the fact that during the accident the unreliable floor collapsed inward. The KGB reported this to the Central Committee of the Communist Party.
The second block of declassified documents concerns the accident itself. From them, it became known how the news of the explosion was transmitted, that a car with a large radioactive background was found near Kiev at that time, and about the costumes of children who took part in the May Day demonstration that radiated radiation.
It's sad to realize, but this catastrophe was the result of the sloppiness of all parts of the communist regime. And we paid too high a price for this disregard for human lives.