Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant was completely destroyed with the deadly explosion on April 26, 1986. But about 10 meters deep there are still the control and monitoring centers, which survived the disaster.
“It’s like a big labyrinth under the reactor,” Anatolii Doroshenko, 38, a researcher at the Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants (ISPNPP), tells the BBC.
His work includes walking that labyrinth at least once a month, a mission that according to the magazine Contemporary Scientist “It can be considered the most dangerous job in the world.”
In this network of underground rooms and corridors, everything is contaminated with radiation: the floor, the equipment, the walls and the air.
There, Doroshenko is in charge of checking equipment, collecting data, installing meters, taking samples and monitoring the status of the nuclear fuel.
In some rooms, the radiation is so high that you must complete these tasks in less than four minutes and leave immediately.
In others, the radiation levels are not suitable even to stop there.
Their work is key to ensuring that reactor conditions remain stable.
Doroshenko acknowledges that his work is scary, but he uses it as his ally.
“Fear helps you maintain control and follow instructions to ensure low doses of radiation,” he says.
“Here the biggest risk is getting used to the conditions of the place. If you get used to the fear, you begin to ignore that you are surrounded by radiation. Anything, a glove, a piece of steel, can be contaminated, even if you don’t notice it.”
under the ruins
The labyrinths that Doroshenko walks through are the facilities from which the Chernobyl plant was operated.
It’s a dark place. Some corridors have lighting, but Doroshenko and his colleagues always carry flashlights.
Some passages are so narrow that they must walk crouching.
All rooms and corridors are signposted, but you have to know your way well to avoid getting lost in the passageways.
They also have contamination maps that indicate which areas are most radioactive.
“Here, all scientists know where we can work and where we cannot,” says Doroshenko.
The place is full of tubes with radioactive water and dangerous formations of corium, a substance that was produced when, due to temperatures of thousands of degrees Celsius, the nuclear fuel mixed with the structure of the reactor core.
As if it were lava, that substance has seeped through the ruins, forming peculiar figures. One of the best known is known as “the elephant’s foot.”
Unreachable corners
About 200 tons of nuclear fuel remain in unit 4, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Recovery of this highly radioactive environment is expected to take about 40 years.
Everything is covered by a sarcophagus, and this, in turn, is surrounded by the New Safe Confinement, a steel dome taller than the Statue of Liberty, designed to hermetically seal reactor 4 for 100 years and protect the world from Chernobyl radiation.
Much of that nuclear fuel is in corners unreachable by Doroshenko and his colleagues.
After the 1986 explosion, unit 4 was covered with large amounts of concrete to stop radiation leakage.
“If we could take samples from the destroyed reactor, we could precisely determine its level of nuclear risk,” explains Doroshenko.
“But it is under a huge layer of concrete and human access is impossible. That is why we carry out measurements, to understand what processes occur in the nuclear fuel.”
“Almost euphoric”
To descend into the labyrinth, Doroshenko wears several layers of protective clothing, including sleeve covers, shoe covers and an FFP2 respirator with a valve. In some narrower areas where they must make their way through the rubble, they add a special polyethylene outfit.
Upon leaving, you must go through several checkpoints and a “dirty area” where you remove your clothing, which is then decontaminated or directly destroyed if the radiation cannot be removed.
Next comes a mandatory shower and a dosimetry station to confirm you don’t have radioactive particles in your body.
Doroshenko likes his job.
He says visiting Unit 4 brings him to an “almost euphoric” state, an emotion he believes can be compared to climbing Everest.
But even so, he insists that the key is to maintain control.
“The main thing is not to panic, panic leads you to make mistakes.”
“This place is full of myths and is often demonized, but it is not as scary as many try to present it.
“When you are there, you realize that it is a structure created by humans. You understand that this space requires constant surveillance and supervision.
“If people like us stop going down there, an uncontrolled process will begin, and that is dangerous,” he says.
Against oblivion
Once a year, Doroshenko undergoes mandatory medical examinations and on vacation he always tries to go to the sea.
“I will continue going down into the labyrinths of the reactor as long as I can,” he says.
“I haven’t set a limit for myself. If I saw a generation that could replace me, I would already be thinking about retiring. But for now, I’m not thinking about that.”
For him, the most important thing is that people keep in mind the challenges that Chernobyl faces: containing radiation from nuclear fuel waste and maintaining control of the facilities.
“It’s hard work,” he says.
“Chernobyl must not be forgotten.”
Image design: Caroline Souza, from the BBC Mundo Visible Journalism Team, with photos from Getty and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
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