Over the 33 years that have passed since the Chernobyl disaster, many alternative versions and conspiracy theories have emerged that explain the causes of the accident in a completely different way.
On August 21, 1986, for the first time, the commission's conclusions were made public, according to which the main reason for the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was personnel negligence. These findings were later confirmed by the court. In the 90s, it was also officially recognized that the accident was also facilitated by the design flaws of the nuclear reactor.
However, not everyone accepted these explanations. Since the beginning of the 90s, several alternative versions of the accident, up to the most incredible ones, have been put forward. Whoever the authors of various hypotheses blamed, in some versions there are not only mysterious saboteurs, but even aliens.
Sabotage
During the period of ideological confrontation during the Cold War, the Soviet special services now and then expected sabotage and sabotage from the capitalist enemies. However, in the case of the Chernobyl accident, the version of sabotage was almost immediately discarded by the KGB and was never seriously considered. Pripyat is a closed city of nuclear scientists, where it was difficult to get even for an ordinary Soviet citizen. And the nuclear power plant is a special security facility. Nevertheless, already in the post-Soviet era, some conspiracy theorists put forward a version of sabotage. And not even one.
Duga (radar station).
According to one version, it was organized to undermine the power of the USSR, forcing it to spend colossal forces and funds to eliminate the consequences. According to another version, the main purpose of the sabotage was to disable the newest over-the-horizon radar station "Duga-1", which was located a few kilometers from the station. According to the third version, it was revenge for the disaster of the American space shuttle Challenger, allegedly organized by the Soviet special services in January 1986.
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Needless to say, the version of the USSR's involvement in the shuttle accident was not even considered by the Americans and, in principle, is absolutely incredible. With all the ideological and political confrontation, both countries respected each other's space programs. If you like, it was a kind of solidarity of space pioneers.
Earthquake
According to this version, the main cause of the accident was an earthquake, which prevented the correct operation of the reactor. On the night of the accident, seismic stations did indeed register tremors, but they are usually associated with the explosion of a nuclear reactor. But supporters of the seismic version believe that the tremors were not the result, but the cause of the explosion and did not occur after the accident, but a few seconds before it.
Saboteurs, UFOs and earthquakes. Alternative versions of the Chernobyl accident / Photo: V. Solovyov / TASS photo chronicle.
The authors of the hypothesis believe that it was categorically impossible to build the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on this site, since two deep faults intersect very close to the station: Yuzhno-Pripyatsky and Teterevsky. Both are characterized by increased tectonic activity.
In the 90s, in the Geophysical Journal, a group of specialists published an article "Seismic phenomena in the area of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant", in which the conclusion was drawn: taking into account the resonance effects led to the impossibility of inserting graphite rods-absorbers into the reactor and stopping the process of reactor acceleration."
Since the hypothesis was put forward not by amateurs, but by experts in their field, it caused a certain resonance. However, most experts believe that this version is based on incorrect data, since the authors of the hypothesis take the shocks resulting from the explosion as seismic.
Photo: Valeria Zufarova / TASS newsreel.
In addition, even supporters of the seismic version admit that the intensity of the shaking recorded by the stations did not exceed 2-2.5 points, while Soviet nuclear power plants were designed taking into account possible earthquakes and had a certain margin of safety. In particular, the Chernobyl station was built to withstand an earthquake of magnitude up to 6 points. Even if the proponents of the seismic version are correct and the accident was in fact preceded by tremors, they were too weak to really damage the operation of the station.
UFO
The version originated in the 90s. In the wake of the general craze for ufology, a hypothesis was put forward about the involvement of aliens in the Chernobyl disaster. In various thematic newspapers and magazines, sensational revelations of the residents of Pripyat, and even the station workers, were published, who allegedly saw strange flying balls of fire over the station on the night of the disaster.
Of all the testimonies, the most authoritative is the testimony of the senior dosimetrist Mikhail Varitsky. He claimed that on the night of the accident, he saw a large fireball of brass color, which hung over the power unit and sent two bright crimson rays there. A few minutes later, the object withdrew in the direction of Belarus.
This testimony is very common in various articles and books about UFOs and the supernatural. However, the identity of the witness raises some doubts. A person with such a first and last name is not present in any of the Chernobyl lists. Among the workers of the nuclear power plant or liquidators of the accident, Alexander and Vladimir Varitsky are known. But none of them was a dosimetrist. The first was an engineer, the second was an electrical fitter.
Evgeniy Antonyuk