Chernobyl Disaster: Rare Footage from Inside the Exclusion Zone (1990)

[@TS84NO]

Thanks for a great video! It's also nice with the clip from a helicopter at the end, as it isn't often you get a chance to see an overwiev of the city like that, with all of the 7 16 story apartment buildings in one shot :)

[@douBBle0306]

50,000 people used to live here. Now it’s a ghost town.

[@lit8]

The fact that this was before the collapse of the ussr is wild, I would have assumed that there would be no footage of Chernobyl from that era

[@horvathmartin6648]

There are hungarian documentaries about Chernobyl from 1987 and 1989. Even though Hungary was still a communist vassal state of the Soviet Union at the time, objective documentaries were still made in the Zone.

[@yosefthomas804]

Its weird to see the wheel and all the buildings not being surrounded by trees like we see today, totally diferent ambience.

[@emilyandabigail]

The guys working on the control desk, it must of been hard for them to be still working as they probably knew the guys who died from the plant

[@RobertCraft-re5sf]

Maybe even some of the firefighters.

[@deathhawk81]

Or to think Valery Khodemchuk is still entombed under Reactor #4 as they work down the hallway.

[@riquelmeone]

must of? what is that? mustletoff? doesn't make sense. Maybe you wanted to say "must have"?

[@Ameisenigelytk]

@@riquelmeone what are you raging at

[@dsbm87]

​@@riquelmeoneLiterally means the same thing. Sorry the language and teachings in your country didn't elaborate on that for your global understanding...

[@borntoclimb7116]

Impressive old footage, 11:23 this ferris wheel looks so clean and today it is almost destroyed by the rust

[@mbradfield53]

It was mew, never used, just slowly rusted as its not looked after

[@adosgamesk]

1990 was 4 years after the disaster now on 2025 it will 39 years since the disaster almost 40 years ago

[@borntoclimb7116]

@adosgamesk true

[@jimmymiller77]

One of the Best videos I have seen on You Tube. Thanks for posting. All my best from the US, Jim

[@vivaindian]

True, I found the same control panel with empty, broken and looked trash in other videos. 1st time I find a video where both pre and post mix so well.

[@RASKATFAETON]

@jimmymiller77 Radiation has had a very strong effect on the consciousness of Ukrainians. The Second World Civil War is blazing and heading for Moscow. Thanks to the CIA and the Pentagon.

[@borntoclimb7116]

Same

[@Nofear25]

Hell yeah brother 🇺🇸 what part of America you from do you no Bruce Wilson and Cleetus McFarland god dam I love America 🇺🇸

[@Jan07191]

The toys, clothes and pictures left behind by the children make me incredibly sad. They were exposed to extreme radioactivity for days and were only taken out of the city much too late. They were the most innocent victims of this catastrophe. The children playing from minute 17:12 onwards, was that still in the zone? Incredible.

[@Gibbonik71]

No need for narration or commentary over this. The sounds and footage are enough make you think about how tragic and scary this is.

[@peterdefrankrijker]

I would have liked subtitles in the control room scenes though.

[@Aviate68]

Incredible

[@apl175]

.....It was Dyatlov....

[@greyskiesrainfallandpeace3006]

but it wasn't really :p

[@SkrixFox]

This was not Dyatlov's fault. It was extremely poor engineering and the authorities at the time hiding crucial information from the reactor engineers. If they had known about this, it is possible that this never would have happened. Dyatlov was a convenient scape goat to cover the governments own ass to make them look better, that's it.

[@IbishuCovet]

...?

[@viktordubowskii695]

?

[@viktordubowskii695]

?

[@electromecanica_automatismos]

"Komrade Dyatlov Broke every rule we have...." 😢😢😢😢😢😢

[@dustinallen9035]

You know everytime one of those alarms sound in the control some butts draw up

[@dennyfrontier]

10s of thousands of people used to live there. Now the town is deserted

[@dublin4liammccarthy]

11:38 there was still some kind of PA system operating in 1990?

[@DianaDeLuna]

Scary enough, all 3 of the other reactors were still working then, so it was still an active power plant.

[@eduardocarvalho1547]

Although the city was evacuated, in 1990 some parts were in use both by liquidators and other official entities. The swimming pool "Azure" was open until 1998 and even today some buildings are being used. The city is supplied by a 110kv powerline from the NPP, so they have electricity and water in some parts of the city.

[@TS84NO]

Yes, they used the PA system to play music (and talking too), so that the town wouldn't seem too "silent and eerie" while the liquidators and other people were working there.

[@tolgaguven3025]

❤❤❤❤❤

[@bong283]

what is PA

[@aquila0857]

I love that they left it without comment. It makes the footage even scarier

[@Fast93Civic]

Great video. Brought my memories back of living in Ukraine as a child back in the 90s.

[@Corleone007]

4:45 Messi's first job

[@AlisonBryen]

😂

[@mattt198654321]

It would be great if you could turn on captions. I'd love to know what they are saying.

[@simoninkin9090]

It’s really not that interesting. They are just discussing how to operate the station. It’s technical and is only related to station operation, so we wouldn’t even know what they are saying. Many things are numbers. Like “we have an 804 in 4th” (or something like that, I don’t remember the exact phrase) whatever that could mean. The footage is awesome, on the other hand.

[@simoninkin9090]

The most funny part is the Lenin KPSS poster 😂 it says “We say Lenin, we presume - the [communist] Party. We say Party - we presume Lenin.” 😂😂😂

[@ALFvMelmak]

5:48 er betet 🙏😆

[@jardennotario676]

I was expecting MacMillan and Price will appear in those empty buildings..

[@cristianhugomunozcampos3450]

5:47 The truth: They were struggling with unreliable low quality Soviet technology. The USSR was already North Korea by 1990.

[@diamondcreepah]

The RMBK reactors at chernobyl were according to some sources actually already outdated before reactor 1 was even put to use. The situation at chernobyl was even worse than many people think

[@cloroxbathroomspray9669]

Wtf does this comment even mean?

[@noway9880]

IT WAS DYATLOV! 2:38 The young guy stalls it and the laughs are so human. It's encouraging. Life goes on

[@TimHuntoon]

came to the comments hoping there was something about the guy stalling

[@DeclanLee-v4q]

​@@TimHuntoonDeffo was about to leave one myself, it's kinda cool, at first I thought maybe they were playing with the other guy who hasn't gotten in yet, either way it's weird but also humbling. This is a horrible mess, but life goes on, people have fun, even though they are by now aware of their own risk to life given the still relatively high radiation levels.

[@billcosby816]

“Not great, not terrible”

[@NoName-ef3jq]

man... stalkers really trashed this place.... and then the russians came back and trashed it even more.

[@Piengu]

Omg he said stalker!! Its a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. reference!!

[@callamastia]

the geiger counter got nice ambience

[@commanderstraker6732]

If the town was still radioactive, I can't understand why people would want to risk the health of the children seen in this clip.

[@lars916]

The radiation dose you experience there is similar to that you experience when flying.

[@MrToonfish]

@@lars916 Today, yes... Not really back in the days in 1990 ;-)

[@jls169]

Because Russia is stupid when it comes to radition , and don't take the dangers of it seriously, they always just try and cover up nuclear accidents and pretend like nothing happend , meanwhile 1000's of people get exposed and start dying .

[@callumcc8897]

Are you kidding me? Jesus kid seriously level up your iq because you need to get some actual real information into you! The children were evacuated in 1986 and everything was left behind including animals! It was a ghost town 24 hours later!

[@Koipoe]

@@lars916is that true? Wow

[@254lele]

0:33 big brother is watching you

[@fazum]

"Dyatlov, how you dare?" Thunberg, G.

[@bookemdanno5596]

And to think, none of those poor cows are alive anymore in 2024. Nice going, Dyatlov!

[@jules5394]

Does anyone know when this programme was first aired on ITV channel?

[@joshuarisker5525]

If you look closely you can see the same tires the Russian military used to invade Ukraine in 22

[@kushpaladin]

everything still looks new.. crazy now every piece of metal is rusted and every inch overgrown with trees

[@okezlexip]

11:38 What are they talking? Why there are public radio in Pripjat?

[@blindfoldedmissile]

This is absolutely stunning stuff.

[@plummetplum]

When the disaster happened, did they shutdown the other reactors? Curious to know how they managed them at the time? Were the workers still at radiation risk four years later ?

[@brandonfleming7118]

This footage is insane. The place almost looks like it did in 1986.

[@ENNEN420]

Pretty cool to see footage of the unimportant and typical area that has nothing wrong with it but you still shouldn't enter where that one thing certainly didn't happen. Pretty rad footage.

[@3mate1]

I like how new the first sarcophagus looks with all the fresh concrete on the roads around it and on the rooftops. It's almost as if the the Soviets weren't incompetent corner cutters who almost killed all of Eastern Europe.

[@Baer9471]

What format does the footage came from, Betacam SP?

[@paulneuwirth5259]

quite sure it's film. quality suggests 16mm or even more likely even 35mm. hmm. after closer looking and listening it might not. or analog scan of film.

[@Baer9471]

@@paulneuwirth5259 somebody else with Betacam SP equipment suggests that the head drum sound in the quieter scenes sound familiar. Also the quality would be too low for 16/35mm as this is SD.

[@daphunkyzzindahouse]

what's with double or triple identical sequences lol

[@hktommyhuman]

Is your hand still find?

[@Corleone007]

NOT GREAT, NOT TERRIBLE

[@rosco4659]

When he stalled and they laughed. Still got a sense of humour despite the situation

[@MrBlonde294]

i wonder if they also went to the wish granter

[@dday7902]

10:32 the guy holding Geiger counter could have become spiderman

[@fishibish]

3:40 Does anyone know what this Machine does?

[@paulanderson7796]

It's a dosimeter to screen plant workers when leaving the complex. All part of the great nuclear scare scam.

[@thomasasannes]

It scans the person for radiation contamination.

[@fishibish]

@@thomasasannes such a fast process, those people were In the machine, and out of the machine in 1 second... I'm surprised the test doesn't take longer to read

[@brandonmartin9298]

​@fishibish in Sweden I think it was, during the event they kept detecting radiation on there boots in these machines which is what prompted a investigation spilling the secret of what was happening

[@mahealanihawaii9830]

A trillion invisible bullets, zero accountability.

[@free_spirit1]

What are the people in the control room talking about?

[@Produkt_R]

"Do not blow up this one"

[@by_tndy]

переводчиком воспользуйся, узнаешь

[@simoninkin9090]

It’s not interesting. They are saying station-related things. Many statements are numbers. Like “we have an 804 in 4th”, which we wouldn’t know what it could even mean. You haven’t missed anything.

[@simoninkin9090]

@@by_tndyютуб удаляет мои комментарии. Но я все равно хочу выразить свою неприязнь к твоему комментарию публично. Ютуб заставляет меня сделать это в мягкой форме, но в реале я бы тебя послал на 3 буквы.

[@Mr_Eyeholes]

They are nuclear fry cooks wondering why the steamed hams aren’t ready yet.

[@tolgaguven3025]

I❤Pripyat

[@Catsrock-u7y]

Who gave these people their work uniforms, I mean they look like they should be making bread 🥖 😂

[@Marauder1981]

they had to get what was available.

[@norbert.kiszka]

@@Marauder1981 nope. This is a good enough protection against alpha and beta radiations. For protection against gamma, You need to heavy lead clothes. Literally heavy. I've seen such in one place, but nobody was using it (there was radioactive isotopes in this facility).

[@drunklorry3406]

You mean the white ones? Looking more like medics rather than bakers

[@philliphall5198]

They needed to be in a bakery not a plant 😢😢😢

[@cornolio1]

what cammera could have produced this quality ?

[@hrishikeshrathod2871]

Probably a sony ? Was the best at that time too

[@oliviarigby4144]

I'm curious what units the dosimeter is measuring in

[@MrRedeyedJedi]

Counts per second.

[@oliviarigby4144]

@@MrRedeyedJedi of what? Gray, Sievert? Is there a way to tell?

[@MrRedeyedJedi]

@oliviarigby4144 rentgan or how ever it's spelled is the one they used at the time

[@drunklorry3406]

​@@MrRedeyedJedino, the Geiger count measures radiation in ionised particles. It counts particles/cm² per minute

[@MrRedeyedJedi]

@drunklorry3406 yes but it was under different names and measurement forms during the 80s and 90s

[@RASKATFAETON]

ШО ЦЕ ТАКОЕ РАДИАЦИЯ? - ПРЕИСПОДНЯ //////////////////////////////////////////

[@DJDannyN2009]

It’s not 3 röntgen, it’s 3.6

[@CIA0]

No , it's 15000😢

[@DeclanLee-v4q]

​@@CIA0Well that's not great but it's not horrifying

[@JohnSmith-ef8nr]

Not great, not terrible.

[@joechiodi5529]

Those kids are the same age as me.

[@blackmedea1181]

I dislike why gasmasks where added on the town. They where never there or used.

[@spannaspinna]

Who said they were added ?

[@retinaquester]

@@spannaspinna Well you see them on the video in the school. There were never gas-masks used in the school the city was evacuated. So someone added the gas-masks to the school to create a more sinister photo/video

[@spannaspinna]

@@retinaquester maybe some grammer In 1987 looking for some clout

[@ВоваВист-э4ъ]

​@@spannaspinna Мародёры.

[@yavkatabg6254]

I've been to abandoned school where there are rooms with crates full of gasmasks, it was common in this era

[@joeconti2396]

15:02 GET OUT OF HERE STALKER.

[@JSB-2Z-2K]

how did that tower right next to the blast not collapse and still looks great without any rust, after 4 years? when the helicopter that flew next to it disassembled and broke on the spot

[@zolfkimbly103]

той вертоліт зачепив кабелі. Вибух так то не був дуже сильним, та й сам реактор удар стримав.

[@allancopland1768]

10:16. Fairly spicy.

[@comchadelalora]

Good document. For the feces of the guys at the central...pne can imagine they did not have much idea of the risks and proceedures.

[@leah.jainie]

I cant stand the sound of it clicking

[@damiendye6623]

Clicks less now unless it's where the troops have just been

[@NiklasAdv]

Why do they have those silly hats?

[@tkraft1442]

They all look like the just sold hotdogs in those white uniforms lol... 😂

[@dsbm87]

The white outfits protect from radiation in case you were wondering 😂

[@DanielConstantinoS]

Is this a promotional video to stalker 2? 😂😂

[@lorraineharper3315]

talk about staged shots,this takes the crown.

[@Mechanical_Turk]

GeigerWave

[@madwax4771]

Their steadycam rig wasn’t working, they should’ve considered using gyroflow 😂

[@matteoredvers3168]

Not great not terrible footage

[@Gdzież]

KINDER

[@lorituqo2865]

это новое я такого не видел

[@IR0Xpl]

half life ahh.

[@harrynking777]

Socialism.

[@Liltrap-l4c]

what???

[@EEX97623]

*occupation under a failed communist project

[@YouTuberenderingnotswearingAsa]

Putin says that happened because they left the cccp

[@pwc_uk]

Who left the USSR in 1986?

[@MrToonfish]

Ha Ha ha... Funny... end of USSR was in december 1991 ;-)

[@YouTuberenderingnotswearingAsa]

@@MrToonfish the countries left 87 officially '91' till this day ONLY Russian is used

[@pwc_uk]

@@KZbinrenderingnotswearingAsa Not a single country left the USSR neither in 1987, nor in 1988, and nor in 1989.

[@MrToonfish]

@@KZbinrenderingnotswearingAsa Ukraine, Bélarus… pronounced their independance in 1991, not before

[@FeatheredDino]

Look like a bunch of homeless dudes in scrubs given control of nuclear reactors 😂

[@cforcharades]

Nuclear, clean energy remember that😅 but now it is safe they say. Apparently people not just in Russia, were smart enough to dump radioactive waste material into the ocean. They did put the waste into metal barrels, so all was done safe and effective;). Nothing to worry about, just keep on shopping. Now that is something that proves once and for all how bright people are and most of it how wise people are😅 The new Nuclear power plants are much safer, so the sales man say. I am looking forward to new safe disasters. Because scientists, they do not solve thins no no. That's for the simple minde people. What they do is to create bigger problems one after another. They will always come up with excuses why some disaster happened. And continue to push this technolog. The consequences of working with any radioactive matarial are too great to justify its use. Many people died because of exposure to it radioactive material is super dangerous this is not just some oil 🛢 spill. People are people and they will make stupid decisions, like in Rocky Flats. We should learn from nature and adjust to it instead of constantly fighting with it. 😊😊😊

[@ultimateearrapechannel31]

are you okay? weird way of commenting. this accident happened because of multiple reasons, workers ignoring many safety features, and the bad design of the powerplant. both things that would never happen again especially in 2024 or later. the people in the control room turned off safety functions which 1: is strictly forbidden in basically every factory now, and 2: most likely wouldnt even be possible nowadays if the reactor is already in a unknown unstable state. we are much more aware of safety at work in 2024, and add to that the fact that they were using 1980s tech, which were huge machines with a total memory of 8 kilobytes. an average pc nowadays has 16 GIGABYTES of ram, which is alooooooot more, so things can be made much much better, easier, and safer.

[@ALFvMelmak]

Aber den Strom nutzen 😅

[@drunklorry3406]

​@@ultimateearrapechannel31the disaster hapoened because they decided to conduct some tests in lower power levels than there was written in the procedure (200 mWt instead of 700 mWt) As the result, the power level dropped to minimum and reactor has practically stopped as the flaw of RBMK-1000 reactor was it was unstable on lower power levels. Then, Dyatlov ordered to launch it again by pulling all control rods out. Control rods of RBMK-1000 reactors are pulled upwards. When they are pulled down into the reactor, they slower the reaction, when they are pilled upwards, the reaction gets going. When all the rods are pulled up of the reactor, you reach the maximum power. Restarting reactor by pulling all control rods out was also prohibited by instructions, but nevertheless Dyatlov ordered it to be done. As they did so, the power started to grow, but at a certain point it reached more than Dyatlov needed and got out of control growing more than ever before. As they saw that, they turned the AZ-5 switch. AZ-5 is an emergency switch to shut down the reactor. What it does is it pulls all control tods back down into reactor, thus stoppingthe reaction. But here is the thing: at first, when the lover ends of that rod enters the reactor, it does not lower the power level, it creates a very short burst of power as it vaporises more water (it is called th end effect in Russia) in the active area of reactor before cooling and stopping the reaction. That was a cherry on top that set up a massive steam explosion. Btw, fun fact, the very same reactors are used on at least 4 atomic powerplants, 3 of them are in Russia, including the Kursk atomic station

[@cforcharades]

@@ALFvMelmak my power runs on diesel and I am totally against nuclear. People are too recles for such knowledge.

[@simoninkin9090]

Does anybody else question the reason why they speak Russian in Ukraine all the time? 😂😂😂

[@EEX97623]

No, as it’s obvious - generations oppressed by occupation of russian empire, soviet union, russification.

[@Luiszoom21593]

Russia had a policy of Russification. Maybe that’s why. They take over places and subjugate people to their rule and would pretty much destroy their cultural identity and heritage.

[@rahulsolorider9440]

Its not orginal video this desaster comes 2023

[@IronFist.]

Has Ukraine *ever* not looked like a total garbage dump?

[@philipmorrow2437]

Anything g from the Soviet era. Yes.

[@rickmartin8262]

I once had Ukrainian clients. Much of it was a beautiful place with beautiful people. I'm not pro-Ukrainian or pro-Russian, just stating my opinion.

[@dmitriyb1751]

That happened with Ukrainian cities only after putin's "russian peace"

[@LaTopokki]

#comunismonuncamas 🚩😬

[@amsteel8223]

lo que ud diga señor cartel

[@Asdrubale01]

what a bad language...

[@javiergonzalez5739]

The only thing this film needs is some translation.

[@AntonioLopez8888]

That's why this dissaster happened - ukraninans were at the lab.. omg.. the soviet union did it worst with placing right people at right places. i can bear it, they speak with their best ukrnian accent and even now the camera were able to catch their swearing at russian: 5:44. the world is shitty

[@allmerwraff6851]

you need to change your nickname to antoniolopez1488 buddy

[@FoxOnFilm2209]

I had a stroke reading that comment.

[@allmerwraff6851]

The world is shitty because of "peoples" like you

[@pwc_uk]

You don't know what you are talking about. Viktor Bryukhanov, the manager of construction of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the director of the plant, Nikolai Fomin, the chief engineer of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Anatoly Dyatlov, deputy chief-engineer of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Aleksandr Akimov, Unit Shift Supervisor who was in charge of the Unit 4 night shift, Leonid Toptunov, who was the Senior Reactor Control Engineer - were all ethnic Russians. So keep your biases to yourself.

[@mitchellelliott1650]

@@pwc_uk He's not real, just a Russian bot programmed to fight the Russian information war.