Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Paying The Ultimate Price...!

Once in a great while, some ordinary folks become true heroes by doing what needs to be done, despite of the personal cost!

It takes a rare amount of courage to knowingly take on a job that will certainly cause your death. These 3 men knew what would happen if someone didn't volunteer, so they paid the ultimate price. Like I said, it takes a special person to do something like this!

When Three Divers Swam Into The Jaws Of Chernobyl
By Will on Sunday, April 13, 2014

During the well-documented Chernobyl nuclear disaster, a pool of water used for emergencies in case of a break in the cooling pumps or steam pipes became flooded with a highly radioactive liquid that was in danger of blowing up. The size and specific conditions meant it could have caused virtually the whole of Europe to be enveloped in radiation. Three divers equipped with wetsuits and a faulty lamp dove in to allow the water to drain, with full knowledge they’d die as a result.

Ten days after the initial explosions and resulting disaster, another potential disaster in the making was uncovered among the smouldering debris of the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Water that was used to try and fight the flames unsuccessfully had become contaminated and then pooled beneath the reactor core. The reactor had had substances such as clay, sand, and boron dropped onto it by helicopters in an attempt to smother the flames. The resulting mixture was like lava and was slowly burning through the floor. Had it reached the water, the resulting fallout would have turned most of Europe into a nuclear wasteland caused by a mass steam explosion.

The only way to drain this water was by opening the gates. And the only way to do this was if someone dived down into the highly radioactive and contaminated water. Whoever did that would almost certainly die.

Three men volunteered: Valeri Bezpalov and Alexie Ananenko who were engineers from the plant, and Boris Baranov was another plant worker. With full knowledge of the danger and with basic scuba gear and a dodgy lamp, they dived down to find the valve. Despite Boris’ lamp failing while diving down, the trio found the valve to open the gates and swam back up. Twenty-thousand tons of water was drained out, and a report stated that had the dive not taken place to open the gates, a thermonuclear explosion would have occurred as a result.

Valeri and Alexie died two weeks later in a Moscow hospital with Boris succumbing to death not long after. Due to the high radioactivity levels on their bodies, they were buried in lead coffins that were soldered shut.

Their brave actions no doubt saved hundreds of thousands of lives throughout Europe.

Not much else you can say about the action of these men and their actions. Better men than I'll ever be, I think!

Coffee in the kitchen again this morning. Too wet and windy to be outside!

7 comments:

Mamahen said...

Pray God Blessed there souls! Raining here with possible SNOW yuck...

Chickenmom said...

True heroes, Mr. Hermit. Thanks for posting their remarkable story. It's raining here, too. I'll bring the chocolate honey dipped donuts.

linda m said...

Those 3 men certainly were heroes. People like that are few and far between. Snowed here yesterday - today just plain old cold. Coffee inside for sure.

JO said...

Now how is it I never heard this before. But thank you for posting the story. what Great men they were to do this.

I sure wish we could get some of that rain here. But it will be nice to sit in the kitchen.

Dizzy-Dick said...

Some run away from danger whereas some run toward it. Yes, they were brave and knew the consequences.

HermitJim said...

Hey Mamahen...
I'm sure that these men are indeed blessed!

Thanks for coming over today!



Hey Phyllis...
There are probably many more stories like this one out there, but we never seem to hear about them, ya know?

Thanks for coming by today!



Hey Linda M...
Not many around, that's for sure!

Many thanks for coming over!



Hey Jo...
I didn't hear of them until just the other day!

Thanks, sweetie, for dropping by today!



Hey Dizzy...
At least they knew what would happen!

Thanks for coming over,DD!

chinasyndrome said...

Brave men (people)seem to always think of others instead of themselves.In fact I don't believe they think much on it at all they just do it.God bless heroes everywhere!
China
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