Engineer Yakub spoke about the first days of work to eliminate the Chernobyl accident

Anatoly Yakub, a military engineer who participated in the liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident, shared his memories of the first days of work at the accident site in an interview with Izvestia.

"First of all, it was necessary to provide the station itself with water, electricity, and heat supply. Help to accommodate soldiers, officers, and specialists. A large number of people were needed, and the cities of Pripyat and Chernobyl were dangerous to live in, so we built dormitory barracks for these people behind a 30—kilometer zone," Yakub said.

According to him, despite the severity of the situation, it was even pleasant to work — the country's leadership, including members of the Politburo, provided the liquidators with everything they needed: equipment, materials, people and financing. This made it possible to perform tasks quickly and with full efficiency.

"I remember meeting with Vladimir Vasilyevich Shcherbitsky, the first secretary of the Central Committee of Ukraine, and he is also a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU. A smart guy. <...> He even helped me in some ways, directly in the performance of certain tasks. And so he said quite sincerely then: "If we had all always worked like we do now, we would have lived under communism a long time ago. It was a pretty vivid impression," Yakub said.

Also, according to the liquidator, looters appeared almost immediately in the radioactive zones of Chernobyl and Pripyat.

"They dragged everything. Starting with televisions, ending with passenger cars, tractors. Some cars were found in the Urals. And what is a car? Roughly speaking, this is iron, which is contaminated with radioactive substances as a result of the explosion and carries them worse than the wind. Naturally, the car, even the Volga or Moskvich or something else that was found in Tyumen, sounds the same as at the station. It was very dangerous," Yakub said, recalling the incidents of looting.

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred on the night of April 26, 1986. An explosion occurred at the RBMK-1000 nuclear reactor of power unit No. 4, as a result of which many radioactive substances were released into the environment. According to the information provided by the specialists, the cause of the incident was a gross violation of the rules of operation of the nuclear power plant committed by the personnel of unit No. 4.

In January, it was reported that one of the main liquidators of the Chernobyl accident, Evgeny Kozorezov, died at the age of 79 in Moscow. After the accident, he headed the mobile radiation reconnaissance unit of the IPG and the USSR State Committee for Hydrometeorology, and was awarded the USSR Order of the Badge of Honor for his civic valor in eliminating the accident.