THE RED ZONE.
“How's it going?”
“Seems to be running at full power, Reactor 1 thru 3 are displaying optimal signals. Greens lights all the way.”
“Good. Now, how about a warm coffee break? Temperature's way down below the radio forecast, and its gone beyond my comfort.”
“Pass...There was a telegram from the eastern borders, i need to go.” With that, the tall Ukraine born man trudge down the stairs and headed straight to his office in hurried steps, for he knew from his many years in working in a power plant, telegrams meant bad news.
Night was approaching, the sun had begun its descend into the endless horizon with the timber wolves' screeching howls marking the start of their reign in the blistering cold darkness. By chance, the loud hailer started to blast its relentless announcement signal breaking the deafening sounds of nature's fury.
The blast stopped, and hints of shuffling could be heard from the system. After a split moment of silence, someone finally spoke.
“Attention all night shift personnel, this us your chief engineer Anatoly Dyatlov speaking. We are going to start the reactors running now as there is a power shortage countrywide by 12%. Due to the cold weather, one of the coal power plants had gone off line.”
There was a short pause.
He then continued in his heavy Russian accent.
“And due to the sudden urgency of this matter, the turbine spin up test shall be skipped. All personnels are to return to their positions and let's start 1 and 2 running first. That is all.” With an abrupt cough, he deactivated the mic and, all was silence.
Everything seemed to be running well even though the safety tests were skipped. Following standard protocol, the heavily equipped engineers proceeded to increase reactor 4's output at a steady pace.
A young engineer dressed in red was observing the output meter intensively, small beads of sweat could be seen to form on his forehead. He was obviously nerve racked and very much uneasy about increasing the output beyond normality. Such procedures were rare, even to his senior engineers above him.
“5%...6%...7%...higher...8%... approaching caution area at... 9%.”
The young engineer look about his 50 panel control. Its was all too much for him, his previous job at a coal power plant station was 3 folds simpler than this.
A relatively small sized blinking meter had caught his sudden attention.
“I am seeing extreme temperatures at reacto...”
Before he could even finish his words, the SCRAM alarm had been activated, signaling the immediate evacuation of the building.
Alas it was too late.
The amazingly loud alert wail had suddenly been overwhelmed by yet another booming explosion coming from the cooling department block. Several more blasts continued the trend sending pulses of shock through earth beneath the wrecking plant. Grassed areas nearby cracked open reluctantly from the powerful resonance ejecting all loose soil from its gigantic womb.
Concurrently, a single huge roar of flames and steam combined to form a brilliant song of transition to the finale. Titanic sized yellow clouds suddenly occupied the empty spaces in the sky, painting it a beautiful sunset hue.
As if like a wizard's touch of magic, a blinding yet warm flash of white light beamed across the disaster struck zone...
By the amount of radioactive uranium there was, the catastrophe stricken place should already been leveled to ground zero, but whatever helped to reduced the amount of damage done ?
Years later, although the place had been totally evacuated and had been absolutely devoid of life, curious and daring explorers can still be seen searching through the wreckage, as the thought of finding the answer to the mystery of the blinding light had constantly fueled their enthusiasm.