© 2009-2020, Saraswathi Sirigina/Bleacher Report.
For the first time on B/R, a sports novel.
Preface
April 26, 1986, 1:20:20 a.m. (UTC+3) Chernobyl plant, near Pripyat in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Alexander Archienklo wanted to get home as early as possible.
He enjoyed his job as a plant operator. He felt fulfilled, but today was different. He was feeling uneasy and disturbed. Also, his young wife was expecting their first child and was having a hard time sleeping all week.
He felt tired and wasted. His degree from the Odessa Polytechnic did not help him find a place in the sun. He hated communism. He couldn't escape the feeling that every rouble he made was a property of the state. He loved atomic physics, but he also hated it for the damage it could inflict.
Minutes were ticking by, 1:26:34 a.m. As a prerequisite to the test to determine how long turbines would spin and supply power following a loss of main electrical power supply, he had shut off the safety systems in order to prevent the test run of the reactor being interrupted.
The reactor had to be powered down to 25 percent of its capacity, and he started the process. It was just a few seconds.
He gasped as the power level fell to less than one percent.
He was starting to increase the power—whoop—he heard the sound and, before he could turn his head, realized in a fleeting second his life was to ebb away without even an opportunity to scream.
He could not feel the heat. Before he knew it, he was caught in a violent explosion as the power surged to high octane.
The 1,000-tonne sealing cap on the reactor building was blown off. At temperatures of over 2,000°C, the fuel rods melted. The graphite covering of the reactor then ignited. In the ensuing inferno, the radioactive fission products released during the core meltdown were sucked up into the atmosphere.
Alaxender Archienklo died without ever knowing that his son Yuri would one day come to pay homage to his dad on the football field.
[Next Part—Pangs of Birth]
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