In 1986, a sudden surge of power during a reactor systems test destroyed Unit 4 of Chernobyl’s nuclear power plant, spewing massive amounts of deadly radioactive material into the environment. The death toll was unknown and rumored to be anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand. While many perished, three clean-up volunteers – Alexi Ananenko, Valeri Bezpoalov and Boris Baronov – willingly met their fate.

In the jargon of the bureaucrats of the Soviet Union it was known as “counting lives”: coldly calculating how many men could expect to die to complete a specific task.

On the evening of 2 May, 1986, six days after a massive explosion devastated the Lenin nuclear power station at Chernobyl, the figure reached was three.

The arithmetic was as simple as the task was hard. The lives of three men weighed against those of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of men, women and children. For the crisis at the nuclear reactor had now reached a new height.

Over the previous few days Russian military helicopters had been flying over the exposed reactor, whose roof had been blown off so it resembled a half-shut eye, one whose pupil glowed blue and was emitting devastating doses of radiation.

Beneath them was the graphite “moderator”, 2,500 tons of radioactive carbon, which was ablaze and if unchecked would burn for the next three months, sending more radioactive material into the atmosphere with each passing hour. The damaged reactor was sinking and burning through its strengthened floor and was in danger of collapsing into rooms flooded with water. This would trigger a nuclear explosion that, so Soviet physicists calculated, would vaporize the fuel in the three other reactors, level 200 square kilometers, destroy Kiev, contaminate the water supply used by 30 million people and render northern Ukraine uninhabitable for more than a century.

A group of three men were required to suit up in scuba-gear and swim through the flooded chambers of the basement to the gate valve, twist it open and so allow the trapped water to drain out. It was a “suicide mission”. Radiation was at lethal levels.

Until the disaster, staff at the power plant were convinced of the safety of nuclear power, for as far as they knew there had never been an accident in the Soviet Union. In fact there had been 14, all of which had been suppressed so as not to damage the image of Communist construction.

It is now understood that the initial trigger for the disaster, which began in the early hours of 26 April, was the control rods, which were made of boron with tips of graphite and had triggered power surges in other plants – a fact also kept secret.

In the first few minutes after the initial explosion the Geiger counters in the central control room were stuck at 3.6, a safe reading. However they were designed only to go up to 3.6. The actual reading was 15,000.

On the first night there were futile acts of heroism. Alexander Akimov, the unit shift chief, and Leonid Toptunov, a technician, falsely believed the water flow to the reactor was blocked by a closed valve, and so they fought their way to where they believed they could pump water back into the reactor and spent hours, submerged to the waist in radioactive water. Both would die a torturous death from radiation poisoning. Later, in hospital, Akimov tried to stand and the skin fell off his leg like a sock.

The first firefighters on the scene were the power station’s brigade. While there were later reports that they were unaware of the dangers, one of the firemen said: “I remember joking to the others, ‘We’ll be lucky if we’re all still alive in the morning’.”

As they fought for five hours to douse the flames on the roof of the turbine hall, they did so amid clouds of radiation that they said felt like pins and needles on the face. One by one they succumbed to radiation poisoning with coughing, nausea, vomiting and fainting.

By the sixth day, when the Soviet authorities required three men to step forward, all were aware of the risk. According to Grigori Medvedev, author of The Truth About Chernobyl, a group of soldiers were briefed on the stakes if the valves were not turned, the water not drained. There was also a degree of bribery. While they were unlikely to survive, their families would be richly rewarded.

Three men volunteered: Alexei Ananenko, an engineer who knew the location of the valves, and two soldiers, Valeri Bezpalov and Boris Baranov. The trio suited up and entered the radioactive waters of the flooded chamber. All three returned to the surface suffering severe radiation poisoning, but were pleased to see their colleagues jump with joy at the news that the valves were now open. Over the next day 20,000 tons of radioactive water was pumped out, and a subsequent report revealed that had this not been done, a thermal explosion would have taken place.

Days after reaching the surface all three men succumbed to radiation poisoning and were buried in lead coffins. If not for the bravery of the “Chernobyl Suicide Squad” a thermal explosion would have taken place resulting in unfathomable disaster.

The men’s reward, like those others who died at Chernobyl, was to be buried in lead coffins, the lids soldered shut.

The count went up by three.

The Bottom Line

INFLUNSR defines courage as choosing love over fear. We cannot know what that thing is that your student(s) need to be brave regarding — only they know that — but we do know this…

If a teenager feels personal resistance, reluctance, or even anger about taking action – they need to lean into those emotions. Help your students consider what it may cost if those emotions keep them from taking action. Encourage them to ask themselves: Is it fear that I feel? What is driving my fear? What assumptions am I making about what might occur if I take action? Are they true? How might I overcome my fear? What’s the worst that could happen if I take action? What’s the best that could happen if I take action?

We know that your teenager is interested – if not working hard – to be a great leader. So the most important question he or she can ask themselves when fear keeps them from taking action is simply this: Is it the right thing to do?

Read James 4:17 and think about its ramifications…

If anyone, then, knows the good they ought
to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

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