Prelude to Chernobyl On 10 August of this year, 23 years will have passed from the day of a tragedy that took place at the shipyards of the Pacific Fleet in the south of Primorsky Kray. By Grigory Pasko, journalist On 10 August of the year 1985, the shipyard workers and the crew of submarine K-431 were conducting the work of offloading the active zone of the reactor. On the eve it had been discovered that the reactor’s containment had been breached. Later it became clear that between the cover of the reactor and the base someone of the workers had forgotten an electrode rod. In prospect was a removal of the upper cover of the reactor and simultaneously the compensating grating. When the floating workshop crane started to pull on the cover with a cable, the floating workshop swayed – a torpedo recovery cutter unexpectedly passed through the cove. As a result of this the cover, and with it also the compensating grating of the reactor, was jerked “to a height above that calculated by the technology”. A spontaneous chain reaction started, resulting in an explosion. Ten people – submariners and shipyard workers – died instantly.