10 days after the Chernobyl disaster, an even greater disaster awaited, potentially hundreds of times worse than the initial Chernobyl explosion - The basement below the melting reactor core was flooded with thousands of gallons of water, and if the tonnes of molten reactor core broke through the cement floor and hit that pool of water, it would have created a thermal explosion so large, and sending radioactive material so far, that 3 square kilometers would be flattened, millions would have been killed, and half of Europe would have been rendered uninhabitable.

Alexie Ananenko, Valeri Bezpalov, and Boris Baranov volunteered to dive into the extremely radioactive water, knowing full well that it was far, far more radioactivity than what was known to be the lethal limit. They were able to find the manual release valve, and drain the basement of water. They died of radiation poisoning 2 weeks later. The corium did eventually melt through the concrete and reach the basement, as feared, but now dry. These 3 men saved millions of lives, and half a continent from being exposed to radiation.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T2hqpQCAGsc/TK.../pict8.jpg

https://kindnessblogdotcom1.files.wordpr...w93xdx.jpg


News report from later that week:

http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1986/Soviet...4141e8a332

Corium (nuclear reactor) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corium_(...r_reactor)

Hats off to them for what they did. Fukushima is way out of control, the press is silent while the world slowly dies.

I guess Chernobyl could have been way worse. I read an interview some years back with a woman who worked at the reactor, but not the day of the explosion. She lives close to here now, married to a Finn. Her then husband who also worked at the powerplant at the time died. She said it was common knowledge the military was doing experiments at the facility.