The largest man-made nuclear disaster in history took place exactly 35 years ago.
The construction of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant began in the 1970s. The first reactor was put into operation in 1977 and by 1983, four of the six planned reactors were commissioned.
An experiment was carried out in the renovated power unit No. 4, the purpose of which was to show how long (after a possible failure) the power plant would be able to produce energy for its own operation. The duration of the experiment was planned only for a minute.
Tests started at 01:23. Almost a minute later, the pressure of steam led to the first explosion - the anti-radiation dome was blown up, and the building of block four was demolished. The second explosion took place at 01:24. Only a crater remains from what once was the fourth reactor.
The fire brigade arrived shortly after the fire broke out. The firefighters were convinced they were dealing with an ordinary situation, a fire on the roof of the power plant. Units from Chernobyl and Pripyat arrive there and the fight with fire lasted several hours, until the very morning. They were extinguished by dozens of units, well over a hundred firefighters in total.
The entire local population was evacuated - first within a radius of 10 km from the crash site, then it was extended to 30 km in the following days. Approximately 350,000 people were evacuated, including those from Pripyat, which is today known as a “ghost town”.
For many years the Chernobyl disaster has been the subject of many publications - historical and scientific articles, reports, analysis. Over time, the history of Chernobyl and the place itself began to be used in other media - movies, TV series, video games.
The Farm51 adventure with Chernobyl began a few years ago. Every year we visited Exclusion Zone, where we collected a lot of materials for our projects: the widely commented Chernobyl VR, and our latest production, Chernobylite. The data collected by us consist of thousands of photos, hundreds of hours of recorded videos and countless many with local people. Yes, we make games to be entertaining to players, but we treat everything with due respect. Our Chernobyl adventure continues.
“To Those Who Saved the World”
Chernobylite Team,
The Farm 51