Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine SSR exploded on 26 April 1986 at 1:23 a.m, resulting in a release of large amounts of radiation across a large area. When the fire was put out, officials began worrying about the
corium, a radioactive lava-like material, melting into the bubbler pools below and creating a
steam explosion that would eject more radioactive material into the area. However, this fear was unfounded since corium had already began dripping into the bubbler pools, turning into a ceramic pumice that floated on the water's surface. Government officials were unaware of this, and thus decided to drain the bubbler pools by opening its
sluice gates. The sluice gates were controlled by valves located in a flooded subterranean annex adjacent to the Reactor 4 building. The path to them had been made passable, with water up at knee-level in some parts, by the efforts of firefighters who had used specialized water hoses. The team responsible for carrying this out was composed of
Oleksiy Ananenko and
Valeri Bezpalov (engineers who had knowledge of where the valves were), and Boris Baranov. Unofficially called the 'suicide squad', all three men were volunteers. of water was then pumped out using fire brigade pumps until it was gone by May 8. == In media ==