A massive explosion launching radioactive material all over the place leaves a pretty big mess. The military personnel and other construction workers that were ordered to start cleaning up this Soviet extravaganza were the people we call the “liquidators”. This term refers to people who liquidate assets of a business and distribute the proceeds to the creditors. These people did not do that, but rather took the assets (radioactive debris) and and delivered it to the creditors (underground radioactive waste areas).
As Wikipedia puts it, “The liquidators are widely credited with limiting both the immediate and long-term damage from the disaster.”, which I totally agree with. If it weren’t for the hundreds of thousands of cleanup crew at the plant, the damage caused by the disaster would have been even more disastrous.
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