Every year on December 14, Ukraine honors the feat of the liquidators of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. The chairman of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine Nikolay Chechotkin noted about it in the address to liquidators of accident.
The liquidator Oleksandr Kucherenko told about how he worked as a driver and took out the radioactive remains of the reactor.
He was one of the first to arrive in Pripyat after the accident. In 1986, Oleksandr Hryhorovych was 30 years old, he worked in Dnipro at the first motor depot as a driver. He recalls that one working day the leadership asked to take turns in the military unit. Motor depots were then tied to military registration and enlistment offices, so it did not arouse any suspicion.
“They gave me a car, came to the military registration and enlistment office, and the duty officer told me, ‘You go home, get something to eat and warm clothes, there for 2-3 days and everything, home,'” says the man.
2-3 days lasted for 10, from the military registration and enlistment office Alexander took a company of future liquidators to Pripyat. There, he says, they were accommodated in a hotel. The next day, May 3, a week after the accident, they set to work: blocking the polluted bed of the Pripyat, picking up the remains of the reactor, loading them into containers and taking them all to the unfinished sixth reactor.
“I drove people to work. Everyone talks and shows in the movies how people run on the roof of the station, throw everything off the roof. But no one shows those who picked up all this at the bottom and took it out, “says Oleksandr Hryhorovych.
The man recalls that at that time a person was allowed to take a maximum of 25 X-rays, then people were changed. This was said, but in fact there were dosimeters of the 60s, and for 3-4 days of stay began to give iodine tablets.
It was a lot of scary. The liquidator of the Chernobyl accident especially remembered how doctors took away barely alive civilians after heavy radiation, how they shot animals because they carried radiation. But, he says, they were young, so there was no fear, they even found time for fun. For example, riding on rides in the park.
We had one case, we took my grandmother out three times. Here we will take her out, two or three days and she came back. She said “Kids, don’t take me anywhere, I’ll come here anyway.” the ashes were falling, everyone was flying, they were running away quickly. The robots weren’t afraid, they knew where we were going, they knew what it was connected with, nobody was afraid, nobody ran away, “says the man.
After returning from Pripyat, Alexander Grigorovich was treated. Now he is 64, he owns a house and a dacha. He survived a microstroke, but is convinced that he still has enough strength. However, there is no proper rehabilitation, and payments are reduced. As there was a 409 hryvnia payment for food since 2011, so it remained.
As for Chechotkin, he described the day in these words: “It was on this day in 1986 that the construction of the protective sarcophagus over the destroyed fourth power unit of the Chernobyl NPP was completed. An example of courage and heroism were the actions of liquidators who worked in the area of radiation pollution. We remember the Heroes who gave their lives in the fight against the radiation disaster. Their memory is bright and eternal.”
He also thanked the liquidators who continue to work in the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.
“The best human and professional qualities you have discovered, many years of impeccable service and work are an example of devotion to the chosen cause for new generations of rescuers. I wish all participants in the liquidation of the Chernobyl accident good health, family well-being, happiness, peaceful skies and well-being, “said the head of the SES of Ukraine.