When citizens of the city of Pripyat woke on the morning of April 27, 1986, it wasn't to the pleasant sounds of the birds chirping their morning tunes. Nor was it to their alarm clocks blaring out against the calm, tranquil sunrise. But rather, it was the unnerving bellow of the city siren. Their worst fears had been relaxed as shivers ran down the spines of thousands of people.
Chernobyl had fallen. Radiation was seeping into the air. Life within a 30 kilometer radius of the plant was going to die. Evacuations commenced immediately.
Whatever wasn't essential was left behind. Within a month, over 100,000 people had been forced to relocate, with more leaving within the coming years as the radiation slowly spread. For many, their perspective was that the world was coming to an end. A disaster to end all disasters.
The exclusion zone, the area surrounding the reactors will not be habitable for another 20,000 years. But even this is an optimistic estimate. The story of Chernobyl's disaster is one that many people have grown incredibly familiar with. It affected hundreds of thousands of lives across the globe relatively recently.
Dark tourists looking for a morbid destination to explore would be able to find tour companies offering guided tours past the border of the exclusion zone, venturing ever closer to the thrill of danger. But nowadays, Chernobyl has made headlines once more due to the war. Again, the area is under incredible threat as invading Russian forces attempt to spread fear and chaos within Ukraine. For anyone interested in the site, the story surrounding this long decaying nuclear power plant follow an obvious theme only darkness and despair seem to see from the concrete bones of this once bustling setting.
The operation working here should have taken the warnings they were given more seriously. Perhaps they could have prevented this blackened stain in the history book if they had only heeded the prophecy of the blackbird of Chernobyl. I'm your host, Jordan Hawkins, and welcome back to Moonlight Lore. The last thing anyone at Chernobyl would have ever wanted was a total shutdown.
A total shutdown of the reactors meant an exponential amount of heat would be produced, which in turn may lead to an explosion that would allow a massive leak of radiation to break free from containment and infect the area with an invisible cloud of death. This was the prime fear for the nuclear scientists working at Chernobyl, which, thankfully, every reactor at the plant was equipped with three backup diesel generators that would burst to life if power to the plant was suddenly lost. The only issue was when the generators burst to life, it could take 60 seconds for them to run at full capacity. Because of this, a lot of blind faith was put into the turbines that they would hopefully still generate enough electricity when they slowed during the short gap between the loss of power and the generators kicking on to keep the pumps of the reactor running.
Now, when I call it blind faith, I'm not really exaggerating. They had no idea this theory would work. So in 1982, the scientists conducted an evaluation to see if this theory would hold up. It failed.
They tried again in 1984, and that also didn't produce the results they were hoping for. Once more, in 1985, they desperately tried again, and lo and behold, it wasn't a success. Those seated at the head of the Soviet government grew frustrated at the constant failings of the tests. And with an attitude of if the Americans can do it, so can we.
They ordered that another test be done after new voltage regulators had been installed. A test that would later occur on April 26, 1986. To fully understand how the disaster at Chernobyl unfolded, we first need to go back a day prior to the meltdown and learn exactly how the nuclear reactors worked. The nuclear reactors worked as a self sustaining chain reaction where atoms of uranium were split into smaller, lighter atoms and by doing so, released energy.
This particular process is called fission. When doing so, the uranium atoms also then spit out high energy neutrons which bounce around the inside of the core and some of them end up slamming into other uranium atoms, which in turn creates more neutrons. And this process continues on and on. Now, since each fission produces two to three high energy neutrons, and you only want one neutron per reaction, you must then find a way to rid the reactor of all these excess neutrons somehow.
There are a few ways one could slow the excess neutrons, but the way they had done it in Chernobyl was by lowering or raising 211 movable control rods into the core. They were graphite tipped cylinders of boron carbide that would absorb excess neutrons and keep them constant, essentially controlling the rate of fission. Basically, they would be lowered into the moderator, the function of which is used to slow down a neutron's release during fission, so that a continuous fission chain reaction can be maintained. Now, the Chernobyl IV reactor type was an rbmk, which is an acronym for Reactor Bolshoi Moshchanosti Canali.
I think I said that right, which roughly translates to high power channel type reactor. This means it also used water to both cool the core and generate steam for its reactions. Pumps would circulate water through pressure tubes to remove most of the heat from the fission. By doing so, the water would then turn to steam and the steam would journey into a steam separator where it's fed into the turbine, which would produce electricity and generators.
And yes, when I first was researching this topic, it took a bit of time for me to grasp the whole idea of how it worked. But in reality it's quite simple once you read up about it. But the reason why I'm sharing how it works is because it's crucial to fully understand how the disaster occurred. Due to the previous three failed tests to determine how long the spinning generator would continue to generate energy after the reactor was turned off in case of a loss to external power, the Chernobyl operators were tasked with beginning yet another test.
During the day shed of April 25, 1986, reactor four was already scheduled to be shut down for routine maintenance. So it was decided to take advantage of the shutdown to test the slowing turbine electrical output. In the early afternoon, as the experiment was about to begin, a fateful phone call came through the line with some discouraging news. Apparently a nearby utility company needed the reactor to produce enough power that would prohibit the test from being conducted.
A nearby coal plant had unexpectedly shut down and requested Reactor four continued to run to feed electricity into the grid. However, the test had already begun and the emergency core cooling system was switched off. While the reactor continued to operate at half power, it wasn't until 11 o' clock with the grid tensioner agree to a further reduction in power. The sudden delay that postponed the task until later may not have been an issue if the operators who came in for the night shift were properly brief of the situation.
With only a short window to prepare for the test, the night crew rapidly lowered power to the reactor, hoping it would stabilize around 1,000 megawatts thermal. But unfortunately, due to operational error, the power fell down to about 30 megawatts thermal at 28 minutes after midnight. Urgently efforts to increase power commenced. But unbeknownst to the night shift operators, there was a heavy buildup of xenon in the reactor.
Normally, when the reactor is running at full power, it burns the xenon away, but due to the reactor running at half power for most of the day, the buildup of xenon resulted in what's called xenon poisoning. Xenon is a reaction inhibiting neutron absorber, which meant that the chain reaction in the reactor was incredibly challenging to sustain. This was what resulted in the immense power drop, and so the plant operators needed a way to raise the reactor's power level. The operators decided to raise the majority of the boron control rods that would allow an increase in fission.
By doing so, they should gain more power. But it was also incredibly dangerous and really should never have been done in the first place. Eventually, the operators finally stabilized the reactor at 200 megawatts thermal. At 1:03 in the morning of April 26th.
And despite the low levels, it was decided the tests would continue. In total, they had about eight control rods still slotted into the modulator, even though safety standards stipulated that a minimum of 15 to 30 rods be used at all times. The test commenced 20 minutes later at 1:23am and it only took 40 seconds for all hell to break loose the power excursion rate. The emergency protection system signals lit up and power exceeded 530 megawatts thermal and continued to rise.
This sudden increase in power was a serious event. So serious that one of the operators hit the SRAM button at Chernobyl. It was the AZ5 button, which when it comes down to it, is an emergency off switch. It forced all control rods down and into the modulator to try and stop the fission reaction.
This is where we truly become aware of the few design flaws Chernobyl had. The boron in the rods reduced reactivity to easily sustain fission. But the tips of the rods had graphite points, which actually increases the reaction rate. Normally this would be beneficial to the chain reaction, but by lowering every single control rod at the same time, the first few inches of graphite introduced into the reactor created a burst of power.
This then led to more boiling water, which led to more steam to be produced, which then also led to a higher positive of void coefficient reactivity. Now, just to quickly explain what void coefficient reactivity is, reactors cooled by boiling water, like the ones at Chernobyl, will contain a certain amount of steam in the core. Because water is both a more efficient coolant and a more efficient neutron absorber than steam, A change in the proportion of steam bubbles or voids in the coolant will result in a change in core reactivity. The ratio of these changes is known as the void coefficient of reactivity.
When the void coefficient is negative, an increase in steam will lead to a decrease in reactivity. But now, due to the sudden insert of graphite, the void coefficient became so positive that it overwhelmed the other components of the power coefficient. And the power coefficient itself became positive. When the power began to increase, more steam was produced, which in turn led to an influx in power.
The additional heat resulting from the increase in power raised the temperatures in the cooling circuit and more steam was produced. More steam means less cooling and less neutron absorption, resulting in a rapid increase in more power. Now, due to the lack of water for cooling and an exorbitant amount of steam being produced, things began to heat up real fast. The uranium fuel elements began to rupture.
The destruction of the fuel channels then halted the lowering of the control rods, essentially trapping the boron cylinder outside the modulator and only introducing the graphite tips, which continued to increase the reactive rate. With the steam pressure in the reactor soaring sky high, it immediately caused a 1000 ton heavy steel lid at the reactor to fly off and go straight through the roof. Seconds later, another explosion occurs inside the reactor, theorized to have been caused by a buildup of hydrogen from zirconium steam reactions, which caused a number of roaring fires to burst in all corners of reactor four. Or should I say what was left of reactor four.
The core was now effectively exposed to the atmosphere. A plume of radiated smoke was billowing into the heavens. Workers at Chernobyl scrambled to figure out what had happened. Radioactive debris was flung a kilometer into the sky and was now rained back down on everything and everyone.
Surprisingly, only one man was killed by the immediate explosion, and another succumbed to his injuries later on at a nearby hospital. But the fire that was spreading needed to be contained before it swallowed up the other reactors. Nearing two in the morning, firefighters arrived on the scene ready to combat the flames. However, they had no idea of the gravity of the situation they were walking into.
Without any protective clothing to shield themselves from the radiation, they began putting out fires as fast as they could. While the conventional fires the site posed no problem to contain the graphite modulator fire was a very unique problem. Trying to put up the graphite fires may disperse much of the radioactive fuel fragrance into the open air. To put it lightly, it was an impossible situation.
As unprotected firefighters began slowly dropping like flies due to radiation sickness, the full extent of the situation fully revealed itself. With over 200 firefighters on scene attempting to put out the fire. 30 of them would die in agony within the coming days. Others would pass away slowly over the course of a month.
It was soon realized that graphite fires could not be put out with conventional methods. Citizens of Pripyat, who happened to still be awake at the hour of Chernobyl's destruction, were memorized by the fireballs flying into the sky. From their perspective, yes, a disaster had ensued. But nobody truly knew the ramifications of it just yet.
Children were still attending school in the morning. Folks Were gathering in parks. Weddings were still happening in full swing, all while radioactive presentation was spreading to try and limit the amount of radiation exposure to other parts of Ukraine and the rest of Europe by wind currents. Helicopters were then deployed in the early hours of April 27th to try and douse the reactifiers by dropping sand and boron.
Even though this was the last ditch effort, it was a perilous job that required the pilots to fly incredibly close to the hole where the reactor was, which then turned to acute radiation sickness for hundreds of the pilots. That morning, as helicopters swarmed the sky, flying straight towards certain doom, the city of Pripyat was finally informed of the danger at their doorstep. Citizens were already reporting sharp headaches and a never ending nauseous feeling in their stomachs. Only when the evacuation was announced over the town speakers did everyone finally realize the extent of what happened.
Death was descending onto the town, and people only had a short time before it was too late. A week would pass and the fires would still be burning, spewing radioactive particles everywhere. The military was now on full alert, sending a literal army of men who would be later known as liquidators to help the cleanup, Many of whom would later suffer endless health effects due to their work. News sources all across the globe began reporting on the incident.
Despite the Soviets attempt to suppress the news from getting out, it was impossible to deny the event when scientists in Scandinavian countries and parts of Europe began picking up traces of radioactivity being blown in by the wind coming from Chernobyl. By the end, thousands of people suffered an immeasurable number of health effects, Mostly cancer. But as people do, they began to slowly move on as best they could, as both Chernobyl and the city of Pripyat were left abandoned to the decaying hand of time. As the years passed on, firsthand accounts were shared of what it was like the day of the accident.
The horrific oversight of the plant, acts of tremendous and selfless bravery, Stories of panic that followed the days after as radiation fell from the sky. And what might be most intriguing of all, with the peculiar rumors being spread of something ominous being seen in the sky over Chernobyl the days preceding the explosion. In the days leading up to the Chernobyl disaster, everything seemed as normal to the plant workers arriving for their shifts. Nothing was out of the ordinary, and the only perceived threat the operators felt was the one of their superiors breathing down their necks for a successful power test.
Everyone felt the pressure of another failure. They just had no idea how catastrophic that failure would end up being. However, there was allegedly A strong clue that something was amiss at Chernobyl long before the explosion. Among the many legends and superstitions that surround the now decaying sector of the explosion zone, people have come forth with stories of something soaring through the sky in the area.
Something ominous and quite possibly frozen. Those working in the control room, who took frequent breaks from their stations to gaze out the window at their industrial landscape, began to see something black flying through the distant sky on several occasions. It wasn't only one or two sightings either. Several of the men working at the plant took notice of this mysterious creature, who seemed to have the anatomy of a man, yet had wings like a bird.
Those who managed to gain a closer inspection of the creature claimed it had fiery red eyes and a mutated body, but more or less seemed disinterested in the workers on the ground who watched it. Nobody knew what it was, and nobody really had the opportunity to explore this suddenly strange development. But what people did start to realize was that after seeing the creature, their already crowded brains were occupied with disturbing thoughts. During the day, their minds were covered with a blanket of unfounded worry and visions of the flying beast.
At night, they were plagued by horrific nightmares. Some of the workers received phone calls from unidentified people who threatened their lives if they spoke of what they had seen. But of course, we now know this intimidation tactic didn't work, or else we wouldn't be talking about this topic today. But even on the day of the explosion itself, it was said that creature stopped the skies around reactor four, almost as if it was trying to draw attention to that particular area of the plant.
Once the fate of Chernobyl had been sealed and radioactive flames burned into the night sky. Some of the initial first responders on site also allegedly claimed to have been memorized by a flying dark humanoid creature drifting among the clouds of smoke, flapping its wings to clear the air around it while trying to contain the fires and ensure damage to reactors 1, 2, and 3 was minimal. The delirious survivors of the initial explosion and emergency response that followed it would suddenly wake screaming in their hospital beds of a ruby eyed demon with obsidian wings who endlessly tried to approach them. Pilots who continued to risk their lives over the following week attempting to douse the graphite fires continuing to burn in the core, sometimes would spot a fellow flyer hidden in the black smoke.
This creature didn't dare draw near the helicopter's dropping sand and boron, but would seem to pierce the souls of the pilots with its blood red eyes as it watched from a distance. Then, as if it was never really there. All sightings of the Blackbird stopped entirely. It disappeared among the chaos of the cleanup and evacuation.
Nobody would ever see the creature again, and any hope of discovering what it was was burned away with the rest of Chernobyl. Many who passionately pursue the world of cryptozoology may recognize this story as following a similar theme with an event that occurred 20 years prior in North America. In West Virginia, the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant collapsed into the Ohio river, killing a total of 46 people in 1967. Although I've yet to cover this specific topic on the podcast, many people will recognize the town of Point Pleasant as being the home of the infamous Mothman cryptid, who appeared a month before the collapse of the bridge.
A large number of suspicious sightings of a winged creature soaring the skies over West Virginia have sent people down several rabbit holes of possibilities of what the Mothman was, what its main motivation for appearing in Point Pleasant was, and if it had any involvement with the bridge collapsing. Some say this creature, resembling that of a giant man moth hybrid, may have been the direct cause of the disaster, while others argue in its defense that perhaps it appeared as a harbinger of death, warning of what was to come. Since the mystery of the Mothman of Point Pleasant has never truly been solved, we are then stuck with a variety of questions that may never be answered. The same can be said for the mysterious Blackbird of Chernobyl.
Anyone who could have claimed to have seen the creature flying in the sky is more than likely dead due to the incredible amount of radiation poisoning they would have suffered the day of the accident. But we also must remember the catastrophic meltdown of Chernobyl may seem like a distant memory to some, but it was only 37 years ago. the time of this episode. There may very well be those who, unknown to the public, may have spotted the Blackbird while living in Pripyat in 1986, but there's a pretty high chance of that information never being brought to light at the end of this mystery.
We just have no solid clue as to what the Blackbird of Chernobyl really was. Could it have been a relative to the Mothman, like some tend to speculate entities who deliver obscure warnings of death and destruction everywhere they go? Was what people saw flying in the sky with the nuclear plants something more explainable? Could the workers at Chernobyl have simply misidentified a large bird who they interpreted to have been humanoid in appearance?
Or could the whole legend of the Blackbird have been completely fabricated? A simple folktale burst from the radioactive flames of the burning reactor. Ever since the explosion, Chernobyl had been swarmed with unbelievable stories of the supernatural. Spirits of those heroic workers and first responders who perished as they tried to contain the fog are said to still roam the ground of the power plant to this very day, going about their work as if they had never actually died.
Animals who had moved in when the humans left are said to have grown as deformed mutants, said to roam the deepest, darkest corners of the exclusion zone, hunting anything that moves. Perhaps it's the veil of the unknown that has been draped over the area that bears the legend of the dreaded Blackbird, said to be drawn to disaster and death similar to that of the Mothman. The with no concrete evidence or nimble witnesses to rely on, do we trust these rumors of Cryptid having flown in the skies of a Chernobyl before and during the disaster? How far is our blind face supposed to stretch when faced with such an unbelievable tail?
Well, that question, as it always is, is left up to you to decide the answer to. There are many who believe the Mothman was a real entity who flew through the skies over Point Pleasant right before the deadly bridge collapse. Could you believe a similar entity had done the same in Ukraine 20 years later? Thank you all for listening to the Blackbird of Chernobyl episode here on the Moonlight Lore podcast.
I hope you enjoyed this morbid retelling of the worst nuclear disaster in history and also found a new cryptic to love. I'm fairly sure I got my information correct when explaining the sequence of events at Chernobyl and how Reactor four actually worked, but of course I'm not an expert on the topic, so there may be something I had said wrong and wasn't fully correct. If that's the case, I hope you all can forgive me. If you happen to enjoyed this episode or any others that I've done, I hope you would consider sharing the show with your friends or family.
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As always, I hope you enjoyed this episode, as it's a topic that's interested me for some time, and I'm very happy I've been able to write and create it for all of you. At the moment, I'm not quite sure what I'll have in store for you next time, but I'm sure whatever it is, it'll be interesting nonetheless. So until then, take care of yourselves, take care of those around you, and keep being amazing people. See you next time.