9 Inspiring Heroes Who Sacrificed Their Lives To Save Others

The Chernobyl Three And Their Nuclear Sacrifice

Vitaliy Ankov/RIA NovostiThree plant workers actively irradiated themselves to prevent a second Chernobyl explosion.

When the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded on April 26, 1989, it marked the first time a nuclear plant disaster caused immediate fatalities. Two workers died within seconds, while 28 irradiated others perished in the aftermath. The radioactive fallout was 400 times larger than the atomic bombs the United States dropped on Japan during World War II.

Governments balked at the Soviet Union’s obfuscation surrounding this event. The nuclear fallout wafted across Europe to the terror of millions in neighboring and faraway nations. While the nuclear disaster made history and became infamous, it could have been a lot worse were it not for a few courageous locals.

Three plant engineers bravely went where no man had gone before: the ruptured reactor. Dubbed Chernobyl’s “suicide squad,” Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bespalov, and Boris Baranov wore wetsuits to enter the underground area to open release valves and drain coolant dangerously approaching the power plant.

“If that happened it would have triggered a secondary steam explosion that would have done unimaginable damages and destroyed the entire power station, including the three other reactors,” Andrew Leatherbarrow, author of 1:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, told Insider.

Somebody needed to find and shut the submerged release valves to prevent another explosion, so the engineers volunteered. After being promised that their families would be taken care of, they trudged through radioactive water with one lamp that eventually died and did their job to save untold lives.

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