Guided VR-tour inside Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant | Eyemmersive | Ukraine | Nuclear Disaster
Welcome to Chernobyl exclusion zone. Some people believe that the barbed wire fence of Chernobyl zone protects them from the dead and deserted radioactive land. In fact this is the place where you can see unique technological sites next to the wild nature and folk culture Actually the zone is a huge laboratory where lots of things have been done for the first time in the history of mankind the zone covers a territory of more than 2 600 square kilometres where 96 evacuated villages towns and cities are situated. In terms of radiation safety they distinguish three zones external or buffer 30 kilometre area, internal more polluted 10 kilometre area and a liveable area where the Chernobyl personnel lives. Despite of the stereotype the zone is not a circle, but it is of irregular shape basically due to changes of wind direction which was spreading the radioactive fallout in 1986 and which is pretty much expanded westward the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was the first one in Ukraine in 1967 after scrutinizing 16 different options they made a decision to place the plant on the banks of the Pripyat river 12 kilometres away from the Chernobyl town.
It was this ancient town that gave its name to the nuclear power plant. Each block of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was based on the uranium graphite reactor rbkm1000 this is a single contour reactor which means that the water circulating in the active reactors zone evaporates and turns the turbo generator's rotors. In 1986 four blocks were in operation and by that time they have already generated in total over 150 billion kilowatt power another two blocks were still under construction Accident of 1986. on April 26 1986 the biggest accident in the mankind's history had happened at block 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It happened during an experiment which was intended to test a possible cooling method in an emergency situation a heat explosion which destroyed the reactor and most part of the power module had resulted in huge fire and significant emission of radioactive particles into atmosphere. After enormous efforts were spent on decontamination
and repair, the power plant resumed its operation. the first block was recommissioned in October 1986 the second in November the same year and the third block only in December 1987 after it was disconnected from the systems connected to reactor number four this block was in operation until 2000 and it was the last decommissioned block In this video we will see the tour inside the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. After all security check-ups had finished the tour starts from going into underground bunker.
A government representative from Chernobyl nuclear power plant will act as a tour guide inside the plant. External tour agency guides are not allowed inside the plant. This is the generator room with two full tanks of fuel, one is on the top right corner of the room and the other is in the underground. In case of any emergencies breakout or fire this bunker will be used which has all necessary equipment and facilities for up to 750 people to survive for two days These are additional special doors to protect the people from radiation People when they come, they have to check themselves using this radiation monitoring equipment. During our visit you will see and you will be monitored also with this monitoring equipment, if something if there are some contamination is detected, people should go to the restroom wash their hands or take even showers but washing /showering with cold water. just with cold water. Yes, because hot water will open your pores, and radiation can get inside. yes. this is
for better particles for skin for clothes you could see uh the threshold so the limit maximum length 100 contamination okay also we have measuring devices for alpha additional for alpha particles here you can see the current radiation rules here zero point two zero this is the first aid room for any medical emergencies this is the room for technical people and engineers this is the ventilation chamber which uses carbon filters to provide clean air inside the bunker for two to three days in case of air outside is contaminated. there are two emergency exit doors in the further end of this room which leads to a staircase to go outside the tiles on the floor are laid during the initial construction they are still intact these beds are provided for 750 people to sit down during the time in here even though it seems like there are lots of beds here there will not be enough place for 750 people to lie down and sleep on the beds this room is for storing technical water which will be used only for toilet or cleaning but not for drinking purposes drinkable water is stored in separate containers in another room we are now entering into the boardroom where the top management and officials meet and take decisions during crucial time there is a room here with technical facilities which connects directly to Moscow city and Kiev city here you are seeing different kinds of dosimeters which were used during 1986 to measure the level of radiation now it's time for tourists to get their specialist clothing and personal protective equipment provided by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant tourists will be given separate lockers to leave their own bags clods and shoes we are now going on the golden corridor which is the beginning of our route to the nuclear plant staff currently working now in the planter using this corridor to get to their working places on the left side of the corridor are control rooms of the units and turbine hall on the right side of the corridor there are reactors the walls of this corridors were contaminated very much after the accident so the old layers were taken down and replaced with new concrete and cladding and on top of it the golden aluminium sheets were fitted to stop spreading the contamination and to reducing the exposure to ionizing radiation we are now walking nine meters above the ground level closing the three units of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant not damaged in the 1986 accident and still operating afterwards was an urgent priority for the international community in the 1990s once the decision to close the units had been taken their decommissioning became an important element of the international support efforts for Ukraine as with most nuclear plants in the former soviet union there were serious shortcomings in the technical and financial provisions for the decommissioning process and an urgent need for investment in the site's infrastructure assistance initially focused on urgent safety and security upgrades of unit 3 which was the last operating reactor and shut down only in 2000 later the main task became the safe decommissioning of all three reactor units at Chernobyl this is the control room of unit number one this unit's construction work started in 1971 and started its operation in 1977 it took six years to finish the construction of this unit here are no employees working in unit 1 now are there still some people working? No, we are not producing electricity anymore since 2000. we are now at the decommissioning process and the commission closes according to our national program will end 2064. and if some contamination will be wrapped up right will be on and of course some decontamination activities should be made for example to change clothes or to wash hands the limits here 700 better particles okay centimeter cubic centimeter per minute okay we have now reached central control room in here employees of electrical department and main operations are working on 12-hour shift 24 hours a day is working behind you you may notice designated smoking sign in this room only for operating personnel thank you bye oh please don't do this we were not allowed to take photos or videos in certain areas inside the plant foreign reactor number two was permanently shut down shortly after October 1991 when a fire broke out due to a faulty switch in a turbine on the 11th of October 1991 a fire broke out in the turbine hall of reactor number two the fire began in reactor number two's fourth turbine while the turbine was being idled for repairs a faulty switch caused a surge of current to the generator igniting insulating material on some electrical wiring this subsequently led to hydrogen used as a coolant in the synchronous generator being leaked into the turbine hall which apparently created the conditions for fire to start in the roof and for one of the trusses supporting the roof to collapse the adjacent reactor hall and reactor were unaffected but due to the political climate it was decided to shut down this reactor permanently after this incident a lot of money had to be spent yeah and as the lifetime of the unit number two was coming to an end government at the time decided not to spend a lot of money while some decommissioning infrastructure projects have been funded through bilateral aid two key Chernobyl facilities are being financed by the EBRD European bank for reconstruction and development managed nuclear safety account NSA the interim spent fuel storage facility 2 is f2 currently in the final phase of commissioning will process dry and cut more than 21 000 fuel assemblies from the Chernobyl units one to three which will then be placed in double walled canisters and stored in concrete modules on site the spent fuel will be stored safely and securely for a minimum period of 100 years once all fuel has been transferred to the new isf2 facility the existing fuel storage facilities can be decommissioned this will represent a major step forward in increasing nuclear safety at the site the liquid radioactive waste treatment plant lrtp retrieves highly active liquids from their current storage tanks processes them into a solid state and moves them into containers for long-term storage the plant is complete and fully operational to date the NSA has committed 280 million euros provided by 18 donors to decommissioning and safety projects in Chernobyl in addition the EBRD has provided 230 million euros to support the construction of the ISF-2 next we will see the unique soviet analog computer SCALA a unique electronic computing machine which appeared in 1973 at the Leningrad nuclear power plant and was named SCALA reactor monitoring system of Leningrad nuclear power plant this is this computer system SCALA in Russian scholar abbreviations we translate into English it means control system for leading grad nuclear power plant reactor subsequently it was also installed at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant it was the central information link which united most of the control systems of the power unit into a single automated monitoring system for technological process of nuclear power plant we are now at the control room of unit 3. Opening in 1981 and was shut down in December 2000 and it was broadcast broadcasted different international and broadcasting companies so the the process was just to switch on switch off the other five key previously it was button red button are there five after the accident it was replaced for you might try the third reactor was shut down after operating briefly since march 1999 following five months of repairs and the plant as a whole ceased producing electricity that room all equipment was removed all dirty and so on so you can just imagine that the the same identical rooms working place yeah another one third and they're both chief unit shift provider okay so during the experimentation number four there were 11 people because some extent there were experiments some contracting supervisors where and so on totally illegal but a nominal operation that's control the reactor yep we are now going to unit 4's control room the control room which was highly damaged from the explosion was where the reactor was operated from and where many of the decisions the day the reactor exploded were made it sits under the new containment arch but outside of the original sarcophagus that contained the radiation of the reactor itself we are not allowed to stay here more than five minutes due to the nature of radiation originally it was said to be 40 000 times higher radiation here than the normal levels but when we were there our dosimeters were reading around 25 micro Sieverts per hour which was a lot less than some places in Pripyat ghost town we visited earlier the accident occurred during a safety test on the steam turbine of an rbmk type nuclear reactor during a planned decrease of reactor power in preparation for the test the power output unexpectedly dropped to near zero the operators in this control room were unable to restore the power level specified by the test program which put the reactor in an unstable condition this risk was not made evident in the operating instructions so the operators proceeded with the test upon test completion the operators triggered a reactor shutdown but a combination of operator negligence and critical design flaws had made the reactor prime to explode instead of shutting down an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction began releasing enormous amounts of energy why is source the models you will take yes also the time how much load you will be near the source yes and the first barrier for example here we have additional there also some walls music confirming additional mirror winds or some atmospheric conditions could not penetrate inside already so we just protect ourselves and environment the original wall is here ah this original wall of course after the accident a part of unit 4 was reconstructed some corridors were made for example like this one it became corridor this is the monument for Valery Ilyich Khodemchuk who was the first person to die in this nuclear disaster as it is thought he was killed instantly when the number four reactor exploded his body was never found and it is presumed that he is entombed under the remains of the circulation pumps so this monument was built into the side of sarcophagus interior dividing wall to the east of the pump hall this is the unit threes main circulation pumps mcp used for water supplied to the reactor core electrical motor electrical motor yes water water was down okay so 16 meters height. we are now at the reactor hall of unit 3.
this is the kind of reactor hall which was exploded during the accident in unit 4. the Chernobyl plant was a high-powered channel type reactor RBMK that used water to both cool the core and generate steam for its reactions crucially most of Chernobyl's control rods were made of boron tipped with graphite the control rods slipped into the reactor to slow reactivity the boron slowed the reactions down but the graphite tips initially increased the rate of fission it is commonly believed that this was a design flaw was one of the main factors that caused the explosion at the press of the emergency button in the control room the graphite tipped control rods plunged into the coolant water though the boron in the rods was meant to slow the reaction down the graphite tips briefly increased fission in the core the initial reaction was so powerful that it cracked the control rods jamming them a third of the way into their journey burying the reactive graphite tips into the coolant water the reactor created more steam than it could vent the fission reactions turned on and the pressure from the steam exploded rupturing fuel lines and exploding out the roof of the reactor seconds later a second explosion spewed hunks of graphite into the surrounding area and began to spread radiation Chernobyl was on fire was prepared in time uh and but this fuel containing masses stopped themselves so this foundation was never in use it is still there but never used yeah this is main circulation pumps yeah we saw them today three per side yeah four four percent yeah four four three operations three operations drum separators which separated steam from water steam went to the turbine involved this is a refuelling machine a particular machine 400 460 tons just piece of this machine stuck in the wall and this one is a new wall no this is not wall this is director stack director stick directors such devices which remove bubbles from the water we have now reached the end of our tour at Chernobyl nuclear power plant.Thanks for watching
2022-01-18 04:31
