Winged Heroes of Chernobyl: Helicopter Pilots and Emergency Response Personnel

This video is dedicated to the memory of the heroic helicopter pilots and emergency response personnel who sacrificed their lives during fire containment and reactor core blanketing operations following the accident inside the reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The fire was extinguished and the damaged radioactive core was isolated by a combined effort of helicopters dropping over 5,000 metric tons of materials like sand, lead, clay, and boron onto the burning reactor and injection of liquid nitrogen. Due to the extreme radiation levels at the epicenter of the catastrophe many pilots and winged emergency response personnel died from high levels of radiation exposure related medical complications within weeks and months following the accident. This very tragedy still serves as the best lesson for planning the response and coordination effort following nuclear disasters especially now that Japan is dealing with the critical situation at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Fukushima
• Фукусима
• АЭС
• 福島第一原子力発電所
• heroic
• helicopter
• pilots
• emergency
• response
• personnel
• Chernobyl
• Nuclear
• Power
• Plant
• Disaster
• Чернобыльская
• Чорнобильська
• АЕС
• Чернобыль
• Чорнобиль