Debunking Common Myths About the Chernobyl Disaster

Hey, this is Josh and these are the Chernobyl myths everyone still believes… even you. 50. People gathered on the "Bridge of Death" to watch Reactor 4 explode… The "Bridge of Death" is real. It's 1.2 to 1.9 miles (2-3 km) from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. A beam of radioactive light shot into the sky. But the crowd watching the explosion? That never happened. People didn't leave their apartments. They were asleep. Radiation didn't kill any of the 50,000 residents who weren't called to the plant. At least, not from immediate acute radiation poisoning.

The bridge didn't draw a crowd… but the night had real consequences for some. 49. Everyone near Chernobyl died immediately from radiation… The author, Svetlana Alexievich, who wrote the book, Voices from Chernobyl, interviewed many of the town's residents. They didn't die, but some complained of headaches and a metallic taste in their mouth. That was it. You had to be a lot closer to any of the serious effects. But for the firefighters… it was even worse than most people think. Lyudmilla Ignatenko, the wife of firefighter Vasily Ignatenko, said before her husband died from radiation sickness, she picked

up his arm and it was barely anything but bone. Lyudmilla said, "Pieces of his lungs, of his liver, were coming out of his mouth. He was choking on his internal organs." Not everyone was affected the same way, and the disaster's scope went deeper than most realized. 48. The disaster was unpredictable… The disaster didn't come out of the blue. People tend to think it did, but the Soviets knew they were taking some very big risks. Reactor operators were stressed all the time. There had already been multiple near-misses. So in 1980, the Soviets ran a secret study on the reactor. They found there'd been, quote,

"9 major design failings and thermohydraulic instabilities which undermine the safety". Investigators concluded it wasn't a question of if something would go catastrophically wrong… but when. There was no effort to fix the design flaws. The operators weren't even warned that those flaws could turn them into a zombified mess if disaster struck. Workers didn't know the risks. The risks were known, but information was tightly controlled. 47. The Soviets used the Three Mile Island accident for propaganda…. In 1979, the U.S. faced its own nuclear scare

at Three Mile Island. You might think the Soviets would jump on the story for propaganda. They didn't. The news was heavily censored. Officials didn't want anyone thinking the atom was anything other than peaceful and perfectly under control. Authorities in the U.S. were doing something similar, not full-on censorship. Still, the Soviets didn't let the moment go completely to waste. At the very least, they said, the Three Mile Island accident proved capitalism couldn't run a nuclear power plant.

Even as the Soviets stayed quiet, stories about the disaster were spreading beyond their borders. 46. Western media portrayed Chernobyl accurately… In 2014, the 60 Minutes released a program called "Chernobyl: The Catastrophe That Never Ended." An expert writing for the Atomic Insights website said the show was not just a propaganda piece or antinuclear but also anti-Russian. There are many examples of fake or distorted news about Chernobyl from the West. The Soviets did not help themselves by suppressing information. The Russians promised their own version. It was called "patriotic," so it might have been distorted.

Reports and rumors painted a confusing picture of the human toll. 45. Thousands died immediately. Right after the disaster, the United Press International reported there'd been 2,000 deaths. The Pentagon was saying there'd been a second meltdown. Both were untrue. Only 2 people died when the reactor exploded. Another 28 died within 3 months from acute radiation syndrome. In the 10 years that followed, another 11 died. Reports state that cancer rates went up in the contaminated areas. Estimates say maybe 4,000 people would eventually die from it. Others put the number anywhere from 16,000 to 93,000. In other words, no one really agrees on the long-term health effects Fear rippled far beyond the immediate area,

shaping decisions in unexpected ways. 44. Radiation caused massive abortions across Europe… It's true that some people began terminating pregnancies. But it was driven by fear. In Denmark, even though radiation levels posed no significant risk to unborn children, there was still an increase in fetal losses. The rate of abortions increased elsewhere. Sweden, Norway, West Germany, even the United Kingdom, and some regions of France saw a rise in fetal terminations. It's estimated there might have been between 100,000 and 200,000 excess abortions all over Europe. Worries about pregnancies were widespread, even if the science didn't support it. 43.

Radiation caused widespread birth defects… There was widespread fear that children could develop not just early cancer but also birth defects. People imagined effects similar to the small or big heads and malformed eyes seen in Japan after the atomic bombings, or near some of Russia's and the US's nuclear test sites. In a recent paper published in the US National Institutes of Health, scientists wrote that they found, quote, "no evidence that radiation exposure from the Chernobyl accident caused genetic changes that were passed on to children."

The fallout caused some bizarre stories… including ones about mutants. 42. Mutant animals and humans exist… The stories of mutant monsters and feral dogs with canine superpowers aren't exactly true. There is evidence that animals living in the contaminated areas suffered higher rates of tumors and birth defects. But the exclusion zone has become a haven for wildlife. There are said to be seven times more wolves. There's also been an increase in the numbers of Lynx, bison, elk, deer, boar, and bears. Despite the rumors, some areas remained surprisingly resilient. 41.

The exclusion zone is completely uninhabitable… After the disaster, the Soviets created a 19-mile (30 km) exclusion zone around the Power Plant. It used to be home to 2 large towns and around 100 villages or farms. Some of the people living there weren't too keen on being told to leave. Like Hanna Zavorotnya. She hid, but a soldier found her and told her to pack up and leave. She looked him square in the face and said, "Shoot us and dig the grave, otherwise we're staying." After listening to the soldier explain the dangers, she replied,

"Radiation doesn't scare me. Starvation does." She was probably right. Life in the danger zone wasn't as scary as we might think. And life in the zone didn't stop entirely, people still went to work. 40. All zone workers are in extreme danger…. There are about 2,400 to 3,000 workers in what's called the Zone of Alienation. They work in shifts, tending to the decommissioned reactors and making sure everything stays in order. Most are scientists and technicians. But some are cooks, medics, and a few from the national guard. They usually go to work by train and return in the evening. But when the Ukraine war started, some had to stay. Honestly, it doesn't look like much fun.

Even the animals left behind were part of the story, in ways few expected. 39. Stray dogs are radioactive monsters… After the disaster, the Soviets sent in men to kill the pets that had been left behind. Residents had been told they'd be allowed to go back after a few days and collect their dogs. That promise was broken. Some survived by eating garbage and used baby diapers. According to the Dogs of Chernobyl website, there are about 500 strays there today, many of them fed by the workers. They don't have glowing eyes. But some have been exposed to rabies from all the new wild animals.

Curiosity attracted outsiders in, even with warnings in place. 38. Tourists and explorers are in mortal danger… There used to be a booming tourism industry. You might have thought running around the Exclusion Zone would be dangerous. It's not… not really. You could even stay overnight in a hotel located in the town of Chernobyl itself. Or you could go wandering around the contaminated, radioactive forests of Belarus. One adventurous explorer found abandoned houses and an old man named Kolya who appeared to live on vodka and breadcrumbs. Want to uncover the shocking truths behind

Chernobyl and other catastrophic disasters? Like, share, and subscribe… we've got the astonishing stories of how they really went down. Local culture adapted in creative, sometimes surprising ways. 37. Chernobyl vodka is radioactive…. Yep, Chernobyl has its own vodka brand. It was an experimental bottle created by British and Ukrainian scientists using grain grown in the contaminated areas. Called "atomik" it was tested for radiation and was absolutely fine. It was decided that making vodka could become a good way to aid economic recovery for the people whose lives had been upturned. There are "hot spots" of radiation, but the majority of areas are fine. The disaster also tested leaders at the very top.

36. Gorbachev knew everything and failed… When the disaster happened, Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, was supposed to be the man who would bring the country closer to the West. So he was furious about there being a cover-up. He apparently shouted at some of the heads of the Soviet nuclear weapons program - "You told us everything was perfectly safe! You assumed we'd look up to you as Gods!" In another angry vent, he said, "The entire system consisted of cajolery, boasting, deception, nepotism and the persecution of dissidents." Even the most powerful man in the Soviet Union was kept in the dark. Decisions made under pressure revealed

the true nature of those involved. 35. Valery Legasov was purely a selfless hero… Valery Legasov was one of the men assigned to contain the Chernobyl disaster. In the media, he's seen recording a testament about what had gone wrong and after he was done, he grabbed a rope. It's true the stress got to him. It's also true that he was already sick from radiation. His hair was falling out and his skin had changed to a hue of bronze. It's known as a "radiation tan". But he wasn't a selfless hero. He was self-serving as he tried to climb the ranks of the Soviet Union's scientific elites. He 'routinely hosted soirees' at his nice house to network with politicians.

That said, he was brave enough to write,".the Chernobyl disaster is an apotheosis, the pinnacle of all the mismanagement that has been carried out for decades in our country." The people working on the cleanup weren't always who you might assume. 34. Only men worked on cleanup and in hospitals… It's often assumed that the people tackling the disaster were male. It's wrong. It's not certain exactly what they did, but the data says out of 237 patients admitted to Hospital Number Six with acute radiation, 2 were women. And their health and wellbeing were affected in different ways. 33.

Liquidators survived without health issues… There were about 600,000 liquidators brought in to reduce the radioactive fallout. Many of them were new military recruits. On average, they received 120 times the yearly dosage of radiation considered safe. What you don't hear is that they suffered from higher rates of leukemia, thyroid cancer, cataracts, and cardiovascular issues. It's believed 13% reported nervous system problems because of all the stress. Studies have shown that many of them didn't recover due to lifelong stress disorders and the heavy use of vodka. Residents experienced the event differently depending on how close they were. 32.

All nearby residents got radiation sickness… Pripyat resident Pasha Kondratiev said that on the night of the disaster, he, his wife, and their young daughters went to the bridge to see what was happening at the plant. His daughter Tatiana developed asthma, which killed her 7 years later. Was radiation partly to blame? It's hard to say. That's the thing with Chernobyl. No one can agree. Some stories that circulated at the time were more extreme than the truth. 31. The Soviet government executed dissenters… One of the biggest myths surrounds the Soviet government executing people for speaking out. These weren't the days of Joseph Stalin.

No one was getting shot or thrown out of helicopters for not following orders. The days of summary executions had ended decades earlier. Not every accident was caused by radiation. 30. A helicopter crashed due to radiation… In the Chernobyl series, a helicopter flies over the reactor, and we are made to think the radiation somehow makes it fall from the sky. Radiation doesn't do that. Not then. Not ever. In real life, a helicopter crashed because its blade struck a chain hanging from a crane. Life outside the reactor carried on, at least for a while. 29.

Pripyat descended into chaos immediately… Pripyat wasn't a war zone. There were no alarms. No panic. The evacuation didn't come until 36 hours after the reactor exploded. Most people went about their day, fishing, playing soccer, washing underwear, and watching Soviet soap operas on TV. Rumors about the dangers spread quickly, sometimes in strange ways. 28. Radiation sickness is contagious… Again, because of the TV show and the internet, a lot of people think you can catch radiation sickness from people who've already been hospitalized.

That's not true. Materials can be contaminated, but people are not. You could safely hug a dying fireman - even while his flesh was peeling off - without getting radiation sickness yourself. The effects of radiation played out over time, and not everyone reacted the same way. 27. Radiation sickness is quick and simple… It's not. It's brutal, agonizing and pretty much like a horror movie. One man's face nearly fell off from radiation. He almost became a naked skull. His skin also slid from his arms and legs. The physical toll could be severe, far beyond what most imagined. 26.

Radiation burns work like fire… When skin and flesh start peeling away, doctors call it severe moist desquamation. In extreme cases, radiation causes tissue necrosis. It damages DNA inside cells, triggering cell death. The body can't repair itself any more. Blood vessels collapse, skin breaks down, and the damage spreads deeper into muscles. In other words, it's worse than you imagine. Returning home might have seemed like a dream. 25. Residents could never return home… They were allowed to return home a few months later.

The rules were they couldn't reclaim anything big that might gather dust, such as tables or chairs. They couldn't take children's toys, either. Even TVs were prohibited. Even in familiar places, things had changed in unexpected ways. 24. Pripyat became an instant wasteland… The returning residents found… a lot of sour milk. The electricity had, of course, been off for a long time. Natalie Yuvchenko took photographs. Some people took valuables like jewelry or antiques. Others took tableware or their favorite sheepskin jackets. They only had 4 hours to grab their

things. Then it was back to the bus. If they had too much, they were told they couldn't take it. Daily life and routines were suddenly under new rules and controls. 23. The Soviets strictly controlled everything after evacuation… The book Midnight in Chernobyl said people did try to pay bribes to get forbidden items out of the town. We're not sure if they did, but some secondhand stores suddenly had a lot more inventory. Money was tight, but the evacuees weren't completely abandoned. The Soviet government paid heads of households about 4,000 rubles in compensation, plus extra for each family member. A decent Lada cost around 7,000 to 8,000 rubles at the time.

Altogether, donations from across the country were estimated at around 500 million rubles. The lives of the evacuees changed dramatically. 22. Evacuees were completely abandoned… A common belief is that the people of Pripyat were ignored. It's not true. Sort of. The government started building houses for many of them. 150 were built about 62 miles (100 km) from Chernobyl. A total of 11,500 single-family homes were built overall and another 13,000 apartments across Kiev and other cities. Outside observers took note of both the efforts and the challenges. 21.

The West only criticized the USSR… Not everything in the West was anti-Soviet. The West applauded the people who built the Sarcophagus, the massive shield around the reactor. The builders visited the US and the UK as heroes. 90,000 of them constructed it in 206 days. It wasn't just a feat of engineering, but was a great risk to their lives. So, even as the Cold War raged on, they got respect from the West. And the financial and political costs of the disaster quickly added up. 20. Chernobyl alone bankrupted the Soviet Union… Estimates differ, but the disaster might have cost $128 billion at a time when money was tight.

There'd be rumors that the CIA caused the accident, and if it had, it certainly helped bring down the Soviet Union 5 years later. But no, the CIA had nothing to do with it. And the most dangerous places became the focus of some of the biggest myths 19. The "Elephant's Foot" kills instantly in seconds… It was said that the most radioactive place on Earth was Chernobyl's Elephant's Foot. The Foot was a mixture of molten nuclear fuel, concrete, sand, and steel that melted together during the explosion. The rumor was that if you stood next to it for 30 seconds, you'd suffer a guaranteed agonizing death. In 1986, the radiation was so intense that

a few minutes could have been lethal. 30 seconds? It wouldn't have been safe, but you would survive. As late as 2016, spending several hours near it could still deliver a fatal dose. And stereotypes were often exaggerated as well. 18. Soviet officials drank vodka constantly… It's a common misconception that Soviets in the 80s were constantly downing vodka… including Chernobyl top brass. It's even depicted in the Chernobyl tv show when Ulyana Khomyuk stands up to a government official. And of course, he has a glass of vodka in his hand. Except… drinking vodka openly like that wouldn't have happened. The government was running its Anti-Alcohol Campaign.

It worked, too, massively reducing death rates and increasing life expectancy. It's highly unlikely an official would have been openly drinking on the job. In short, getting drunk while at work was a Western stereotype. Even medicine had its limits in confronting what happened. 17. Medical treatments saved most victims… The patients were already too far gone. Of the 13 people who received bone marrow transplants, only 2 lived to tell the tale. A nuclear explosion would mean you'd want other countries to know the dangers, right? Information moved slowly, leaving gaps in understanding. 16.

The USSR immediately informed the world… The Soviet government kept the disaster under wraps. It was Sweden who raised the alarm to the rest of the world. The USSR was still silent when radiation detectors at Sweden's Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant began showing abnormal levels. Despite exposure, not everyone suffered the same consequences. 15. Everyone exposed died quickly… That wasn't the case. Some of the most exposed went on to live long lives. Boris Stolyarchuk, the senior control engineer on duty that night, survived. Others in that room didn't. Stolyarchuk got a severe

case of radiation syndrome but in 2018 he was still working in nuclear energy. Even those in charge lived on, though their lives were changed. 14. All officials died from radiation exposure… Boris Shcherbina was in charge of the commission to investigate the accident. He was never quite right after Chernobyl. He had several heart attacks in his life and after Chernobyl, he was a fallen man. He died in 1990, aged 70. But did he die because of radiation exposure? It's impossible to say. He died of cancer, which obviously can have many causes. But

if it was from radiation, no one would have known. The Soviet Ministry of Health signed a secret decree in 1988 that limited when radiation could be listed as a cause of death Many people endured, living longer than myths would suggest. 13. "Chernobyl Babushkas" died quickly from radiation… Older Russians had lived through famines, war and massacres. A little bit of radiation wasn't going to slow them down. The samosely, or "self-settlers," many of them women called the Chernobyl Babushkas, got along fine in the exclusion zone. To them, leaving would have been more dangerous because of all the stress it would bring. One of them said,

"If you leave you die. Those who left are worse off now. They are all dying of sadness…." In 1987, the self-settlers numbered around 1,200. In 2021, there were 110. No, not because of danger. They'd died of old age. The average age in 2021 was 70 to 80. What truly scared residents often wasn't what outsiders assumed. 12. Radiation was the biggest fear for residents… One settler was asked what scared her the most. What do you think she answered? Radiation? Thieves? Rogue soldiers? No, she said "snakes and wolves." Anxiety and fear had their own lasting impact. 11.

Radiation was the main long-term issue… People were so scared of radiation and mutant babies that their anxiety levels went through the roof. The fear was a kind of radiophobia and it made people stressed. Data showed that cigarette and alcohol consumption of evacuees increased by a massive 40%. That was in line with the rates of depression, PTSD, and anxiety increasing. The fallout affected regions far from the plant, though not always in the ways imagined. 10. Fallout made Western Europe dangerous….

Sheep in Wales grazed on land that had been rained on by radioactive clouds. Like everyone else, the Welsh didn't know after the disaster just how much they might be affected. Everyone was scared. In the end, it affected their pockets more than their bodies. Farmers couldn't sell their lamb or beef at the markets. 344 Welsh farms were put under restrictions. A £40 animal was suddenly going for £10 or £12 at the market. But the truth is, those sheep - or their meat - weren't dangerous to people. Reports of mutations were often exaggerated or misunderstood. 9. Mutant animals appeared across Europe… According to one farmer, more abnormal lambs were being born than usual. He might have been paranoid, though. No studies exist that say he was right.

People's reactions ranged from cautious to extreme. 8. People reacted rationally to the disaster… At the time, there was a massive surge of paranoia around the world. In many places, people stopped drinking milk. Parents poured it down the sink as if the cows had started glowing in the dark. Vegetables went unsold in markets in some countries. Children were told not to sit on the grass or play in sandboxes, because the rain might have sprinkled them with fallout. It was good old fear and misinformation carried not by social media but by tabloid news and rumors.

Some tasks at the plant were physically intense, but not in the ways rumors suggested. 7. Chernobyl miners worked naked… Miners had to dig a hole under the reactor pad to stop all the radiation-infused lava from reaching the water table and potentially killing half of Europe. They sweated a lot and lost a couple of items of clothing. But they never got naked. Anyway, the lava never made it that far, so their job wasn't even necessary. It wasn't just one person's actions that caused the disaster. 6. A few incompetent operators caused the disaster…. Except that's not true. People inside the Soviet nuclear system already knew there were dangers. Safety procedures were sometimes

ignored. But the deeper problem was the reactor itself and the way the entire system was run. The reactor design had serious flaws. Warnings had been overlooked. But the culture of secrecy meant problems weren't openly discussed. In other words, the disaster wasn't just the fault of a few men in a control room. It was the result of the entire system. Some stories focused on the most personal tragedies, but they weren't always accurate. 5. A baby "absorbed" radiation to save its mother… Firefighter Vasily Ignatenko died one of the worst kinds of deaths imaginable. But his wife,

Lyudmila, was pregnant at the time. Was she endangering her unborn child by being around her dissolving husband? Her baby died from congenital heart defects and liver cirrhosis a few hours after it was born. It was rumored she'd caught radiation poisoning from Vasily. That's not at all true. Vasily wasn't radioactive in the hospital. Lyudmila must have gotten close to radiation at some other point in time. And there's no way a fetus could save its mother in an act of undeliberate self-sacrifice. The firefighters faced unimaginable situations, testing both courage and rules. 4.

Firefighters had no idea of the danger… They weren't completely ignorant as you might have heard. One of them, Anatoli Zakharov, told his co-worker, "There must be an incredible amount of radiation here. We'll be lucky if we're all still alive in the morning." Still, they didn't know the reactor was on fire. They thought it was a regular fire. Some made the mistake of going to the roof to pour water from their hoses down on the reactor. They got hit by so much radiation that one man's eyes turned from brown to blue in the hospital. Another had radiation burns that formed blisters… on his heart. But unlike the common thread, they knew the danger. Zakharov said, "Of course, we knew!

If we'd followed regulations, we would never have gone near the reactor. But it was a moral obligation - our duty. We were like kamikaze." Some consequences were immediate, while others developed over time. 3. Radiation burns instantly on contact… Alexander Yuvchenko was the man who held the door for his three colleagues, who made the fatal mistake of entering the reactor hall. But Yuvchenko didn't suffer instant burns to his flesh. Radiation isn't like fire. After the initial vomiting, his hair fell out. His skin had ugly blisters. Everything hurt. Then he started turning black. He said he felt like a monster.

Luckily, his body accepted the skin graft. Blood transfusions and blood vessel transplants did the rest. As other men died, he lived… and he didn't know why. They'd go blind, then their blood became infected, things fell off and their bed was empty. That's the thing not generally understood. Everyone reacts differently and for some, their body can't take it more than others. Reactions to exposure varied widely, and the aftermath affected lives in unexpected ways. 2. Survivors remained radioactive threats… Because of the pandemic of paranoia, when Alexander Yuvchenko recovered enough to

live a normal life, people would see him in the street and cross to the other side. They thought he was radioactive. Like the A-bomb survivors in Japan, it was like the victims of Chernobyl had the plague. Alexander was awarded medals for bravery yet treated like a monster. He said the "radiophobia" made his life very difficult. Even the people at the front lines weren't always in the situation they were portrayed to be. 1. The "divers" sacrificed themselves and died immediately… Alexei Ananenko, Valery Bezpalov, and Boris Baranov. These were the men who had to go on a mission they knew they might not come back from. They had to wade through

water they thought was highly contaminated and turn on the valves to prevent another explosion. There are some lies, though. They didn't bravely volunteer to go. They were ordered to do their job. It was their shift. No drama. No arguments. And it turned out their mission wasn't as dangerous as they first thought. Millions of dead across Europe? No. Even if there had been another explosion, there might have been a few dozen more deaths in Ukraine and Belarus. But it would not have been world-changing. And they didn't all die right after. Boris Baranov died of a heart attack in 2005, but the others are still alive today. There's a rumor circulating on Reddit

that Ananenko's apartment complex was hit by a Russian Shahed drone during the war. We can't confirm this, but he definitely moved out of Kyiv because it was dangerous. They really were on a mission from hell, one that could have ended in disaster at any moment. Watch "Chernobyl Suicide Squad - 3 Men Who Prevented Even Worse Nuclear Disaster" and find out how they stopped an even greater catastrophe. Or click on this video instead.