Heroes of Chernobyl
QUESTION
How many lives were saved by the suicide squad of Chernobyl? On April 26, 1986, no. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine blew up after a botched safety experiment. The subsequent explosions released a cloud of toxic material that spread over Europe, releasing 400 times as much radioactive fallout as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
There were 28 deaths as a result of the explosion, with 19 more deaths linked directly to the accident. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, the number of additional cancer deaths worldwide is 27,000, while a Greenpeace report puts it at more than 100,000.
It could have been much worse. Ten days after the first explosions, it was discovered that the plant’s cooling system had malfunctioned, leaving a pool of water below the reactor.
Scientists realised that if the reactor collapsed into the pool, it would trigger a series of radioactive steam explosions.
In 2009, the School of Russian and Asian Studies stated if the melting core reached the water, the resulting explosion ‘would have made Europe, Ukraine and parts of Russia uninhabitable for 500,000 years’. In other words, it could have turned a catastrophe ‘suicide scenario squad’: was averted into nuclear Doomsday. by scientist the so- Alexei called This Ananenko, fellow engineer Valeri Bezpalov and general worker Boris Baranov.
In scuba gear, they waded through the flooded chambers of the basement to the gate valve, opening it to allow the gallons of radioactive water to drain out faced It is certain widely believed death from the the three mission men had due to the high radiation levels. But Andrew Leatherbarrow, author of the 2016 book Chernobyl 01:23:40, tracked down two of the men in 2015, one of whom still works in the nuclear industry while the other had died of heart failure in 2005. Arthur Batty, Harrogate, N. Yorks.
QUESTION Why is Reggie Miller Street in
Malta so-called? REGGIE MILLER was born in Sliema in 1898. He founded the General Workers’ Union (GWU), on October 5, 1943, when Malta was a British colony.
For its strategic position in the Mediterranean, Malta served a useful military base for the British naval and air force. World War II brought a relatively high level of employment particularly in the ship repair sector. But a group of Maltese workers realised that while they would prosper in times of war, they could be taken advantage of in times of peace. Miller, a civilian clerk in the dry docks, organised a group of fellow workers into the GWU. As predicted, once the war was over the British government withdrew subsidies and dock workers were threatened with redundancy. A successful General Strike was launched. Miller went on to help found trade unions in Turkey in 1953, Libya in 1954 and Italy in 1954-55. Reggie Miller Street was named in his honour.
J. J. Grech, London E11.