{"id":630971,"date":"2026-04-26T00:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T00:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/630971\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T00:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T00:23:11","slug":"today-in-history-april-26-three-volunteers-stepped-up-for-task-they-were-told-would-kill-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/630971\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in History &#8211; April 26: Three volunteers stepped up for task they were told would kill them"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For days after the explosion, radioactive smoke and steam poured out from the reactor, spreading radiation all over Europe, especially neighbouring <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/belarus\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Belarus\">Belarus<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Thousands of deaths have been attributed to cancer caused by the leaking radiation.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/02df89ad-116b-4ced-ae58-1b8bfe88e75a.jpeg\"   alt=\"\"\/>Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is still off limits. (Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>But the Soviet Union did not publicise the meltdown until days later.<\/p>\n<p>The Chernobyl accident was announced on the Soviet news with a 20-second announcement on April 28.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There has been an accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. One of the nuclear reactors was damaged. The effects of the accident are being remedied,&#8221; the newsreader said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Assistance has been provided for any affected people. An investigative commission has been set up.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The announcement only came after radiation alarms were set off in Sweden, more than 1000km away.<\/p>\n<p>Three men were credited with a particular act of courage on May 4.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/ed737317-86f2-4082-b7cc-0a2f6006ae0a.jpeg\"   alt=\"\"\/>Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bezpalov, and Boris Baranov were told they would likely die. (Supplied)<\/p>\n<p>Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bezpalov, and Boris Baranov walked through knee-deep radioactive water under the reactor to drain the flooded water, averting a much worse meltdown.<\/p>\n<p>The three were told there was a good chance they would die in the process.<\/p>\n<p>It was widely reported that Ananenko, Bezpalov and Baranov died soon after their successful mission.<\/p>\n<p>But Baranov lived until 2005, and the other two are still alive.<\/p>\n<p>A 2600 square kilometre exclusion zone remains in place around Chernobyl, where radiation is still so dangerous that staying there could prove fatal.<\/p>\n<p>Since then the area has been reclaimed by nature.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/a5264f89-a37a-4dfd-9148-9deebf682a7d.jpeg\"   alt=\"\"\/>The people of the USSR were kept in the dark. (Supplied)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For days after the explosion, radioactive smoke and steam poured out from the reactor, spreading radiation all over&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-630971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}