HBO and Sky Atlantic miniseries Chernobyl has gripped audiences across the world with its powerful reconstruction of the nuclear power disaster in Ukraine in 1986. Episode two ended with a group of divers delving into the depths of the plant’s basement as they opened up the sluice gates manually to allow the collected water to flow out and stop a second explosion. The divers prevented the power plant from melting down by releasing the water which otherwise would have caused a huge explosion resulting in the continent of Europe being uninhabitable for 500,000 years and killing millions of people in the process.
What happened to the Chernobyl divers?
The Chernobyl divers consisted of senior engineer Valeri Bespalov, the mechanical engineer Alexei Ananenko and shift supervisor Boris Baranov who all volunteered to go into the plant and open the sluice gates.
“They weren’t really divers. They were engineers but they knew the subterranean area of the complex,” Chernobyl’s showrunner Craig Mazin said of the official HBO podcast accompanying the show.
They had to walk through radioactive water and they knew their mission could result in their deaths.
However, contrary to popular belief, the men all survived and lived into the 21st Century and unlike many others who were involved in the disaster.
Last year, President Petro Poroshenko gave state awards to employees of the power plant including Ananenko, Bespalov and Baranov, Ukrinform reported.
WHY WAS THERE SO MUCH DENIAL ABOUT CHERNOBYL?
Alexei Ananenko
Ananenko continued to work at the power plant for a further three years until 1989.
He was present in person at the ceremony last year to receive his award The Order for Courage, Third Degree.
Ananenko previously told Soviet media: “Everyone at the Chernobyl NPS (nuclear power station) was watching this operation.
“When the searchlight beam fell on a pipe, we were joyous: The pipe led to the valves.
“We heard the rush of water out of the tank. And in a few more minutes we were being embraced by the guys.”
WHEN WILL CHERNOBYL BESAFE TO LIVE IN?
Valeri Bezpalov
According to author Andrew Leatherbarrow, who has written the book 1:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, one of the men is still working within the nuclear industry but would not reveal which one.
Leatherbarrow lost track of the one of the men but believes he died in 2015 – which is most likely to be Bezpalov – but this has not been verified.
Boris Baranov
Baranov died in 2005 after suffering a heart attack and was posthumously awarded the honour.
Chernobyl continued to function as a nuclear power plant with the other three reactors still functioning.
Reactor 2 was only shut down in 1991 following a fire and political pressure led reactor 1 to be closed in 1996.
WHEN DID CHERNOBYL EXPLODE?
Finally, in 2000, reactor 3 was shut down and the power plant no longer produced electricity.
In 2015 it was announced that three remaining reactors had entered the decommissioning process which is expected to take 10 years, according to World Nuclear News.
The decommissioning process will be split into six stages and will take place between 2015 and 2028.
Chernobyl is available to watch on NOW TV now
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