#valery khodemchuk

[cidnangarlond]

tricked myself now I'm thinking about valery khodemchuk again

[ground-zer0s]

Well, the time has passed. It's the anniversary of the Chernobyl Disaster which took place 37 years ago. With one immediate death and another hours later, we remember those lost on this day and those who suffered slow and painful deaths in the months following. May they rest in peace.

Vladimir Shashenok, 4/21/1951 - 4/26/1986

Valery Khodemchuk, 3/24/1951 - 4/26/1986

[teeth--thief]

I'm very sorry but I have to do this: some things are not really correct in your post. I'll get into a few of these things here, minus the physics of the explosion because I Don't Wanna. And the liquidation that wasn't immediate is not really an area of particular interest for me, so.

The test was fine. It was pretty much unnecessary but it was fine. They switched off some warning systems because they were running a test. They knew that some things were low, some were high, no need to get alarms going off every 10 seconds because of this.

They turned off the reactor's shutdown feature and lowered the power to the reactor.

This is not the gotcha moment everyone seems to think it is. They were quite literally shutting down the reactor that night, that was the planned outcome of the test. And, besides, that feature wouldn't even work in time to prevent the disaster. The lower power wasn't a problem, either. It just meant that the reactor was harder to control.

When the backup generators took too long to turn on, panic set in, and the reactor began to overheat. Then, somehow hit the AZ-5 button, which lowers all control rods into the reactor at once.

I am genuinely curious: where did you get this information from? This is very much not what happened at all. Nobody was panicking, all was going acording to plan. The power was slowly (SLOWLY) rising, about 1 MW a second, the AZ-5 is pressed. The test was complete, the mood in the control room was calm. Hell, there was actually a slight delay in the AZ-5 button being pressed, it was meant to be pressed some 20 seconds before that fateful 01:23:39 but the SIUR was waiting for the direct command from the NSB to do that. That wouldn't change absolutely nothing, for anyone wondering. Nothing in a place such as a reactor control room is pressed by accident.

The undertrained staff of the night shift were not aware of this.

This was absolutely not a staff issue. Nobody but the higher ups at the Kurchatov Institute, the designers and people alike knew. The operators simply weren't told. So yeah, they weren't aware. But you specifying untrained leads me to believe you think the case was different and they didn't know because they didn't have enough experience which is simply not true.

Two plant workers were killed instantly by either the force of the blast or from being hit by debris.

Valery Khodemchuk was never found. We don't actually know if he died instantly. But we can certainly hope he did. I'm assuming the second person that was killed instantly is Vladimir Shashenok. In this case, if 5pm is instantly then... sure.

Firefighters were called in, but they were not told the dangers of the radiation. Most died within a few months.

First of all: depends on who you'd ask. Some said they had no idea - I'm guessing these were the firefighters from the region as a whole, not necessarily the local ones. The NPP's firefighters knew, though. They were trained for this. They even had training the very day before the accident on the 5th or 6th unfinished block. Second of all: over 128 firefighters responded. Around 186 if we count the ones that arrived after 6am from Kiev. Only 6 of these 128 (/186) died in the following weeks. Less that 5% from the smaller numer is hardly most. Sure, some had long terms health issues that eventually led to their deaths but that's very much not the same as most died within a few months.

In Pripyat, the Amusement Park that had been scheduled to open the next day was hurriedly opened a day early to distract residents from the fact that the reactor was on fire.

The Amusement Park was meant to be opened on May Day - The Labour Day. Nobody needed to be distracted from anything. Pripyat's citizens were under the impression that nothing serious was going on. If they cared enough to know that something was going on, they could have observed that everyone was seemingly working to fix the situation. I'm sorry but the Ferris Wheel was not the carousel set up by the Nazis next to the Warsaw ghetto. The carousel that people were having fun on on the 25th of April in 1943 while a fire broke out during an uprising in there, as is described in Campo di Fiori. I don't know, maybe someone got too much inspiration from that but there are literally no solid sources when it comes to if it was working at all on that day, nobody was able to indefinitely recall or prove that it was.

It took 36 hours for Soviet Officials to finally begin to evacuate Pripyat, only after residents had begun to report nausea, dizziness, fatigue, vomiting, and headaches, all symptoms of radiation poisoning.

The buses begin taking people at 2pm on the 27th of April after an announcement was made at 1:10pm. It took that long because of internal conflicts between the Party commission. And random, everyday Pripyat residents didn't get sick. There was a handful of cases of people who were close to the NPP at the time of the explosion and that was it. This kind of reaction means an extremely hight dose, likely lethal, and people weren't, in fact, dying left and right.

A few weeks earlier, citizens were trained with gas masks in case there ever was an incident. Officials said that they didn't need them, as they didn't want to cause a panic.

Radiation doesn't care about gas masks. Unless you want to protect yourself specifically from inhaling radioactive particles - that is, from said particles getting into your airways and causing all kinds of damage, as was the case with quite a few of the people that suffered the worst cases of ARS - they would quite literally be completely useless. Apparently they're all lying around because, much later, they were looted for precious metals.

Another rather infamous object is "The Elephant's Foot" (...). Upon discovery, the sheer amount of radiation it gave off was enough to give you a fatal dose within about 90 seconds. Today, that's increased to about five minutes.

It was emitting 8,000 roentgen per hour, 2 roentgen a second. That means you'd get the fatal dose within 5 minutes then, not now. Now, it's mostly likely crumbled into dust and is emitting roentgen in the single digits. You're perhaps confusing the time typically referred to as the maximum allowable time for the liquidators working on the roof - 90 seconds - with the corium monstrosity.

The USSR finally admitted there had been a "very small” incident at Chernobyl, and was very reluctant to give the world information

At no point did anyone of any importance refer to it as a very small incident.

ask for infodump about Chernobyl as someone who has never even heard of it

INHALES

Chernobyl is considered to be the worst nuclear disaster in history, rated at a 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), the only other disaster ranking at a 7 being in Fukushima back in 2011. The disaster occurred on April 26, 1986. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant was located in Ukraine, which was under the control of the Soviet Union at the time. It was only about 16 miles from the Belarus-Ukraine border, which was also under Soviet control. There were two main towns nearby, Chernobyl itself, which was older, had only about 15,000 residents, and was actually farther from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant than Pripyat, which had about 50,000 residents, and was only about 2 miles from the plant. Pripyat was newer, and residents had an average age of about 26. The town itself was filled with young, well educated people starting new lives. A large number of public buildings were located in Pripyat, including a school and a sports complex, which contains the famous Azure Swimming Pool. The plant supplied Pripyat with energy, and the place was considered a sort of "dream city." The plant was an RBMK-1000 type reactor, a generation I nuclear reactor, which are the earliest, and generally most hazardous, nuclear reactors. RBMKs were used to produce Plutonium, a radioactive material primarily used in nuclear weapons. However, they could also be used to produce civilian energy, so a few were constructed to supply parts of the USSR with power. At the time of the incident, there were four reactors in operation, with reactors 5 and 6 under construction. A test was scheduled to be conducted to see if the backup generators could successfully turn on in time to keep the cooling systems running at safe levels. However, the test was delayed until the less experienced night shift was in. They turned off the reactor's shutdown feature and lowered the power to the reactor. Reactors need energy to function, as they have to be cooled. For these reactors, large amounts of water were used to cool them. Without the shutdown function, the reactor was in danger of overheating if it wasn't cooled. Regardless, they ran the test. When the backup generators took too long to turn on, panic set in, and the reactor began to overheat. Then, somehow hit the AZ-5 button, which lowers all control rods into the reactor at once. Control rods are used to absorb excess amounts of shed neutrons from the nuclear reactions. However, they momentarily increase reactions when first introduced into the reactor chambers. The undertrained staff of the night shift were not aware of this. With the increased reactivity, the reactor was now dangerously hot, and the casinging around the fuel rods began to rupture, causing white-hot radioactive fuel to come into direct contact with steam. At 1:23 A.M., April 26, 1986, Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor #4 exploded. The contact between the fuel and the steam caused a steam explosion, blowing the 1000 tonne reactor roof into the air and spewing radioactive debris and particles into the air.

Two plant workers were killed instantly by either the force of the blast or from being hit by debris. Although plant workers realized what had happened rather quickly, superiors were slow to act. Firefighters were called in, but they were not told the dangers of the radiation. Most died within a few months. But that was only the tip of the iceberg. In Pripyat, the Amusement Park that had been scheduled to open the next day was hurriedly opened a day early to distract residents from the fact that the reactor was on fire.

It took 36 hours for Soviet Officials to finally begin to evacuate Pripyat, only after residents had begun to report nausea, dizziness, fatigue, vomiting, and headaches, all symptoms of radiation poisoning. A few weeks earlier, citizens were trained with gas masks in case there ever was an incident. Officials said that they didn���t need them, as they didn’t want to cause a panic.

Residents were also told they would be returning soon, and to leave everything behind. They did not come back. This left Pripyat as an eerie ghost down where everything seemed to have simply been dropped and left. Today, it is still abandoned, and is being slowly reclaimed by nature.

During the cleanup of the incident, “Liquidators” were called in. Some knew the dangers, others didn’t. The fire of the reactor was too hot to be put out by water, so tons and tons or boron, sand, and lead were dumped onto the burning reactor by helicopters that flew over. It didn’t help much, and the reactor finally stopped burning after about 2-3 weeks. A structure dubbed “The sarcophagus” was built over the reactor to contain the radiation, though it was rushed and leaked radiation. A large area of woodlands was contaminated by the radiation, and it turned red and died, earning the nickname “The Red Forest.” Most of these trees were cleared and buried. Highly contaminated houses were knocked down, animals were shot, and crops destroyed. Absolutely everything that was highly contaminated was at least attempted to be destroyed and buried. Still, not everything could be destroyed and buried, there was simply too much. One object, dubbed “The Claw of Death” was, according to conflicting accounts, either used to assist in the overall cleanup or was used specifically in the cleanup of the plant roof. It is radioactive enough to give a lethal dose if sat in for about 11 hours.

Another rather infamous object is “The Elephant’s Foot” which is a mass of sand, concrete, and melted reactor fuel that had melted its way through the floor and down into the basement. Upon discovery, the sheer amount of radiation it gave off was enough to give you a fatal dose within about 90 seconds. Today, that’s increased to about five minutes. The foot was unyielding to sampling tools, so, they shot it with a Kalashnikov Rifle (AK-47) to get a sample.

After a very short period of time, the remaining three reactors were up and running again, as the USSR simply needed power desperately. By December of 1987, all three reactors were up and running again. They were operated for years, until the last reactor was finally shut down for good in 2000. Being so close to the border, and with the wind conditions of the time, mass amount of radioactive particles were blown north to Belarus. The Soviet Union had planes fly over and seed the clouds with chemicals, forcing them to rain on rural land instead of heavily populated areas, but this still had a major effect, as about 1/3 of Belarusian farmland was contaminated. However, the winds began to shift, blowing radiation towards Europe. Sweden was the first to sound the alarm, asking if something had happened after detecting dangerous amounts of airborne radiation and determining it was not from any of their own reactors. The USSR finally admitted there had been a “very small” incident at Chernobyl, and was very reluctant to give the world information. Careful monitoring protocols were put on resources everywhere in Europe, from grain to milk to wood, all were carefully measured for radiation. Years later, after the Sarcophagus was determined to be unsafe, the New Safe Confinement unit was constructed, which is a semicircular dome over the existing Sarcophagus. The New Safe Confinement was finished in 2018. 

DONE!

(For now)

@not-wizard-council-aristocrat @anarcho-neptunism @siley-the-wizard @villainessbian

[lunaprincipessa]

ENTRY 107

Comfort Shows:

Many different people enjoy many different kinds of shows, but there is one thing all comfort shows have in common, and that is the ability to take viewers away from reality.

They (comfort shows) are said to ease the symptoms of stress utilizing plots and characters that appeal to viewers. Of course, the people creating these shows don't always have the element of comfort in mind, but that's certainly how many of their viewers respond.

Psychologists weighed in and said there is absolutely nothing wrong with a person having a comfort show, as long as it's a positive distraction that offers a nice break, and not a negative distraction which may keep us from our responsibilities for any elongated period of time. In other words, watch all ya want but get your shit done.

Moving on, the criteria for these shows to meet in order to be considered "comforting" is to have low-stake situations and fun characters that can bring the viewers a sense of familiarity and calm. Basically, something gentle on the nervous system.

Not my comfort show.

My comfort show is Chernobyl.

Chernobyl is an HBO miniseries and historical drama that was released in 2019. It gives an inside look at the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986. I was a 4-year-old girl growing up in the U.S. at the time. Those older than myself told me many people were concerned or scared that the radiation may have had the potential to reach us despite the distance.

It's like the Titanic, we all know the story. On April 26th, 1986, a sudden surge of power created by irresponsible employees during a reactor systems test caused an explosion. This explosion destroyed a Chernobyl nuclear power station unit (#4), releasing a massive amount of radiation into the environment directly affecting Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus. It is said that to this day, there are people still living with health defects caused by that disaster.

The show reveals what happened behind closed doors: how the nuclear employees responded (the majority of them dying in attempts to save each other), how the townspeople responded (the majority getting sick/being evacuated etc), how the doctors and scientists responded (the majority threatened with demotion or jail time for telling the truth), and how the government responded (willing to sacrifice human life to keep secrets).

Then there's the story of Lyudmilla Ignatenko, who lost her newborn baby due to radiation poisoning. She received the radiation poisoning from caring for her husband, a firefighter and first-responder at Chernobyl dying of radiation poisioning himself. Unfortunately, the baby absorbed it all, saving Lyudmilla's life but passing away just four hours after birth.

Allow me to explain why it's a comfort show. It is not the suffering that I find comforting. For what it's worth, my heart goes out to everyone involved, like Lyudmilla Ignatenko, who is alive and well, or Valery Khodemchuk, who is presumed to be permanently entombed under the remnants of the circulation pumps (his body was never found). The suffering is no comfort to me at all, I cannot emphasize on that point enough.

What comforts me is the reality of this show. There is no superhero that flies in and fixes everything. There is no prince or king that rides in and fixes everything. No, this is real life. You see unfiltered, raw tragedy and then you see people doing the best they can to make it through. That comforts me because it's real. Average people working together with the odds stacked against them. That comforts me because it's real.

True, this story lacks a happy ending, but so does many of our real life adventures. We just pick up the broken pieces and move on without any cheering or any fun music playing. We just do the best with what we've got, with what we've been given in this life.

I watch that show for comfort because even in the midst of battling a deadly and invisible enemy, in the midst of fighting to heal under an apathetic government, the people still did what they could to pull through. It's a reminder to keep going no matter what, no matter what the odds are or who is against you. That's the best way I can explain it. Words escape me tonight.

More thoughts later.

[natasharedfox]

It has just gone 01.23 Ukrainian time. Here's my fan art of the real people. Never forget the cost of lies

[kalula-illychina]

Valery Khodemchuk in his youth.

[kriegskrieger]

Reuploading my stuff.

[thotsimulator]

[live-long-and-time-warp]

EXCERPTS FROM GORBACHEV'S SPEECH ON CHERNOBYL ACCIDENT

Excerpts from Gorbachev’s first public speech on the disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant following 18 days of radio silence.

Following are excerpts from Mikhail S. Gorbachev's television address tonight on the Chernobyl nuclear accident, as distributed in translation by the Soviet press agency Tass:

Good evening, comrades.

As you all know, a misfortune has befallen us - the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It has painfully affected Soviet people and caused the anxiety of the international public. For the first time ever we encountered in reality such a sinister force as nuclear energy that has escaped control. So what did happen? As specialists report, the reactor's capacity suddenly increased during a scheduled shutdown of the fourth unit. The considerable emission of steam and subsequent reaction resulted in the formation of hydrogen, its explosion, damage to the reactor and the associated radioactive release.

It is yet early to pass final judgment on the causes of the accident. All aspects of the problem - design, projecting, operation and technical -are under the close scrutiny of the Government commission.

It goes without saying that when the investigation of the accident is completed, all the necessary conclusions will be drawn and measures will be taken ruling out a repetition of anything of this sort. 

'Seriousness of the Situation'

The seriousness of the situation was obvious. It was necessary to evaluate it urgently and competently. And as soon as we received reliable initial information it was made available to Soviet people and sent through diplomatic channels to the governments of foreign countries.

In the situation that had taken shape, we considered it our top priority duty, a duty of special importance to insure the safety of the population and provide effective assistance to those who had been affected by the accident.

The inhabitants of the settlement near the station were evacuated within a matter of hours and then, when it had become clear that there was a potential threat to the health of people in the adjoining zone, they also were moved to safe areas.

Nevertheless, the measures that were taken failed to protect many people. Two died at the time of the accident - Vladimir Nikolayevich Shashenok, an adjuster of automatic systems, and Valery Ivanovich Khodemchuk, an operator at the nuclear power plant.

As of today 299 people were in hospital diagnosed as having radiation disease of varying degree of gravity. Seven of them have died. Every possible treatment is being given to the rest. The best scientific and medical specialists of the country, specialized clinics in Mosow and other cities are taking part in treating them and have at their disposal the most modern means of medicine. 

On behalf of the Communist Party Central Committee and the Soviet Government, I express profound condolences to the families and relatives of the deceased, to the work collectives, to all who have suffered from this misfortune, who have suffered personal loss. The Soviet Government will take care of the families of those who died and who suffered.

A stern test has been passed and is being passed by all - firemen, transport and building workers, medics, special chemical protection units, helicopter crews and other detachments of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

I must say that people have acted and are continuing to act heroically, selflessly. I think we will yet have an opportunity to name these courageous people and assess their exploit worthily.

The most serious consequences have been averted. Of course, the end is not yet. It is not the time to rest. Extensive and long work still lies ahead. The level of radiation in the station's zone and on the territory in the immediate vicinity still remains dangerous for human health.

Thanks Foreign Scientists 

I cannot fail to mention one more aspect of that affair. I mean the reaction abroad to what happened at Chernobyl. In the world on the whole, and this should be emphasized, the misfortune that befell us and our actions in that complicated situation were treated with understanding. 

We are profoundly grateful to our friends in socialist countries who have shown solidarity with the Soviet people at a difficult moment. We are grateful to the political and public figures in other states for the sincere sympathy and support.

We express our kind feelings to foreign scientists and specialists who showed readiness to come up with assistance in overcoming the consequences of the accident. I would like to note the participation of American medics Robert Gale and Paul Terasaki in the treatment of affected persons and to express gratitude to the business circles of those countries which promptly reacted to our request for the purchase of certain types of equipment, materials and medicines.

We evaluate in a fitting manner the objective attitude to the events at the Chernobyl nuclear power station on the part of the International Atomic Energy Agency and its Director General, Hans Blix.

'Anti-Soviet Campaign' 

 In other words, we highly appreciate the sympathy of all those who treated our trouble and our problems with an open heart.

But it is impossible to leave without attention and political assessment the way the event at Chernobyl was met by the governments, political figures and the mass media in certain NATO countries, especially the U.S.A. 

They launched an unrestrained anti-Soviet campaign.

It is difficult to imagine what was said and written these days - ''thousands of casualties,'' ''mass graves of the dead,'' ''desolate Kiev,'' that ''the entire land of the Ukraine has been poisoned,'' and so on and so forth.

Generally speaking, we faced a veritable mountain of lies - most dishonest and malicious lies. It is unpleasant to recall all this, but it should be done. The international public should know what we had to face. This should be done to find the answer to the question: What, in actual fact, was behind that highly immoral campaign?

Its organizers, to be sure, were not interested in either true information about the accident or the fate of the people at Chernobyl, in the Ukraine, in Byelorussia, in any other place, in any other country.

The Tokyo Summit Talks 

 They needed a pretext by exploiting which they would try to defame the Soviet Union, its foreign policy, to lessen the impact of Soviet proposals on the termination of nuclear tests and on the elimination of nuclear weapons, and at the same time, to dampen the growing criticism of the U.S. conduct on the international scene and of its militaristic course.

Bluntly speaking, certain Western politicians were after very definite aims - to blast the possibilities for balancing international relations, to sow new seeds of mistrust and suspicion toward the socialist countries.

All this made itself clearly felt during the meeting of the leaders of ''the seven'' held in Tokyo not so long ago. What did they tell the world, what dangers did they warn mankind of? Of Libya groundlessly accused of terrorism, and also of the Soviet Union, which it turns out, failed to provide them with ''full'' information about the accident at Chernobyl. And not a word about the most important thing - how to stop the arms race, how to rid the world of the nuclear threat.

The accident at the Chernobyl station and the reaction to it have become a kind of a test of political morality. Once again two different approaches, two different lines of conduct were revealed for everyone to see.

The ruling circles of the U.S.A. and their most zealous allies - I would like to mention specially the F.R.G. among them - regarded the mishap only as another possiblity to put up additional obstacles holding back the development and deepening of the current East-West dialogue, progressing slowly as it is, and to justify the nuclear arms race.

Our attitude to this tragedy is absolutely different. We realize that it is another sound of the tocsin, another grim warning that the nuclear era necessitates a new political thinking and a new policy.

As to the ''lack'' of information, around which a special campaign has been launched, and of political content and nature at that, this matter in the given case is an invented one. The following facts confirm that this, indeed, is so.

Everybody remembers that it took the U.S. authorities 10 days to inform their own Congress and months to inform the world community about the tragedy that took place at Three Mile Island atomic power station in 1979. 

'Lesson of Chernobyl'

The indisputable lesson of Chernobyl to us is that in conditions of the further development of the scientific and technical revolution the questions of reliability and safety of equipment, the questions of discipline, order and organization assume priority importance. The most stringent demands everywhere and in everything are needed.

Further, we deem it necessary to declare for a serious deepening of cooperation in the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency. What steps could be considered in this connection?

First, creating an international regime of safe development of nuclear power on the basis of close cooperation of all nations dealing with nuclear power engineering. A system of prompt warning and supply of information in the event of accidents and faults at nuclear power stations, specificially when this is accompanied by the escape of radioactivity, should be established in the framework of this regime. Likewise it is necessary to adjust an international mechanism, both on a bilateral and multilateral basis, for the speediest rendering of mutual assistance when dangerous situations emerge.

Second, for the discussion of the entire range of matters it would be justifiable to convene a highly authoritative specialized international conference in Vienna under I.A.E.A. auspices.

Third, a view of the fact that I.A.E.A. was founded back in 1957 and that its resources and staff are not in keeping with the level of the development of present-day nuclear power engineering, it would be expedient to enhance the role and possibilities of that unique international organization. The Soviet Union is ready for this.

Fourth, it is our conviction that the United Nations organization and its specialized institutions, such as the World Health Organization and the United Nations Environmental Program should be involved more actively in the effort to insure safe development of peaceful nuclear activity.

'Abyss' of Nuclear War 

 The accident at Chernobyl showed again what an abyss will open if nuclear war befalls mankind. For inherent in the nuclear arsenals stockpiled are thousands upon thousands of disasters far more horrible than the Chernobyl one.

In conditions when the attention to nuclear matters increased, the Soviet Government, having considered all circumstances connected with the security of its people and entire humanity, has decided to extend its unilateral moratorium on nuclear tests until Aug. 6 of this year, that is until the date on which more than 40 years ago the first atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, as a result of which hundreds of thousands of people perished.

We urge the United States again to consider with utmost responsibility the measure of danger looming over mankind, to heed the opinion of the world community. Let those who are at the head of the United States show by deeds their concern for the life and health of people.

I confirm my proposal to President Reagan to meet without delay in the capital of any European state that will be prepared to accept us or, say, in Hiroshima and to agree on a ban on nuclear testing.

The nuclear age forcefully demands a new approach to international relations, the pooling of efforts of states with different social systems for the sake of putting an end to the disastrous arms race and of a radical improvement of the world political climate. Broad horizons will then be cleared for fruitful cooperation of all countries and peoples, and men on earth will gain from that.

[cidnangarlond]

listen the fact that valery khodemchuk was the most likely the first to die at chernobyl from the explosion and god willing died instantly and felt no pain, is still buried there, underneath the wreckage, not able to have his body recovered due to its proximity to reactor no. 4, and has been there since 1986 and has multiple memorials/plaques commemorating him gets to me regularly. but it's estimated that the area around chernobyl, due to the radioactivity, won't be habitable for about 20,000 years, meaning never in our lifetimes will valery khodemchuk's remains, what does remain, will never be recovered. that got to me more. then I realized that there are bones of people, of animals, of life, from 20,000 years ago that we recover today, have been recovering for years. bones buried in the earth for millions of years, preserved, we are able to unearth. so 20,000 years from now, whosoever comes after us, if it's human life as we know it or something else, if they know about chernobyl, if they remember it, if between now and then the area immediately around the reactor is safe to go near, valery khodemchuk's bones can finally be recovered. I do not know if the memorials will still be up then, or the plaques, or if his name is remembered or known, but perhaps his bones will be found, and those that find it may note how close they were to something radioactive and draw the conclusion he died there. and they may discover how long he has been there for, buried, and to them, he is a man long forgotten. perhaps a handful among them who read about the history of the area will talk about the disaster and how he probably died there. how he has not been able to be retrieved for tens of thousands of years. maybe his bones will be put on display somewhere, like many are now, or maybe he will finally be given a grave, a headstone, something many that who died as a result of the disaster - plant workers, firefighters - did not get, not individual plots. but valery khodemchuk may. whether he gets this or what remains of him is put on display, there will be a placard noting how old the bones are, where they were found, and maybe if someone does some research they will find his name. or maybe since enough time as passed the individual names have been lost to time, and he will simply be an unknown person to these people. many will note that such is the case throughout history, that names lost to history has happened for millennia now, and will continue to happen. but, it will be said, after tens of thousands of years his bones, if they remain, will have finally been removed and put somewhere proper. and it could be argued that his bones have been removed his grave, a place where he has rested for 20,000 years, and put elsewhere. was it proper? was it right, to do this to a nameless man, who once had a name? a family? a man who all they know about now is that he most likely worked at the plant? it is an old discussion. it is a discussion that will continue to happen and will happen to these people in another 20,000 years. but for now valery khodemchuk remains buried at chernobyl, ever radioactive, perpetually radioactive, memorials and plaques up at the site to commemorate him, a man buried under thousands of tons of metal, material, a sarcophagus, and ever out of reach.

cried about chernobyl again earlier btw 👍🏻

[siriuslymeg]

Chernobyl NPP Operators: HBO Series Character / Real Person (Part 2)

Kieran O'Brien / Valery Khodemchuk

Jay Simpson / Valery Perevozchenko

Ross Armstrong / Nikolai Gorbachenko

Con O'Neill / Viktor Bryukhanov

[we-the-dreamers]

"For God's sake... you were the one who mattered most."

Chernobyl (2019)

[elenatria]

@itspradawitch, a friend and a true hero who tends old returnees, just visited Chernobyl. As I wait for her account of the time she spent there I’m posting her photos with permission.

The control room of reactor 4. 

The firefighter’s clothes in the hospital’s basement.

The Chernobyl Sarcophagus in the background.

A monument to Valery Khodemchuk, the first person to die in the Chernobyl disaster whose body was never found and is permanently entombed under the reactor.

Anatoly Dyatlov’s name on number 39.

Ulana’s plushie at  the Palace of Culture Energetik.

[rodolfo-romantico]

Valery Khodemchuk

[godsfavoriteasian]

This photo made me cry, just saying

@tryingtobealwaystrying, @elenatria, @valerafan2, @fmasha-l, @kriegskrieg, @kriegsverlobte, @toptunovs,  @russian-senpai, @alyeen1, @art-is-a-malady, @rbmk-ana, @akimfu, @drunkardonjunkyard, @siriuslymeg, @johnlockismyreligion, @litttlesilkworm, @dank-hp--memes, @shit-in-silk-stocking, @borisboyfriend, @wolfgangamaderik, @attachedtofictionalpeople, @the--arch, @thegreenmeridian, @shark-from-the-park, @cocomoraine, @pottedmusic, @jedikatalina, @potter012, @gwinny3k, @gwaciechang, @liza801, @live-long-and-time-warp, @itisa-profoundbond-sarandom, @green-ann, @megaladyrocker

[nephritefan2002]

Chernobyl drinking game part 2

Take a shot whenever someone mentions Khodemchuk or whenever Khodemchuk appears on screen