In the early morning of April 24, 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded during a routine maintenance check. This not only affects the surrounding environment, but the radioactive cloud spread to the whole European region. But I digress. The Chernobyl nuclear disaster was made worse when Soviet authorities initially denied the event and then acted slowly to contain it. Soon after, however, an exclusion zone is set up around Chernobyl that prevents their return. The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel. But we should remember that it is a drama, not a documentary. On April 26, 1986, the number four reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine exploded. Landing was no… Units 1 and 2 had been shut down in 1996 and 1991, respectively. April 29, 1986: Spy satellite photos provide U.S. officials with their first glimpse of the devastation wrought by the Chernobyl disaster. Soviet officials admit that there’s been an accident, but they falsely state the situation is under control. In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine became the site of the biggest nuclear accident in history when one of its four reactors exploded. Sign up today! Residents are informed it will be temporary and that they should pack only vital documents and belongings, plus some food. Posted on June 30, 2019 by beyondnuclearinternational. It included reviews of studies carried out on cancers, noncancer diseases, immune and genetic effects, and reproductive and children’s health, as well as evidence-based recommendations for national health authorities and for further research. Historic disaster. Patrick Landmann/Getty Images Especially now. As the cooling pumps require electricity to cool the reactor, in the event of a power failure, Chernobyl’s reactors had three backup diesel generators; these would start up in 15 seconds, but took 60–75 seconds to attain full speed and reach the 5.5‑megawatt output required to run the main pump. April 1, 1996 By Rod Adams On April 26th, 1986, at 1:23 am, Alexander Akimov did what he and thousands of … Yes, Chernobyl has blown up twice — first the reactor and now the eponymous 5-part HBO/Sky miniseries — and the nuclear industry and its pundits are absolutely freaking out. It`s surely that many people know about the MI-8 helicopter crashed in the sky over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, these shots circled the whole world at one time. December 15, 2000: Unit 3, the last working reactor at Chernobyl, is shut down. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR. Reactor unit 4 was the one that blew up on April 26, 1986. And in such great numbers. Source Larry Speakes, "Statement by Principal Deputy Press Secretary Speakes on the Soviet Nuclear Reactor Accident at Chernobyl," Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Public Papers , Reagan Library (accessed 18 April 2007). The Chernobyl disaster, the worst nuclear disaster in history, forced change upon the Soviet government as it was not possible to disguise the damage. May 14, 1986: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev speaks publicly about the incident for the first time, saying on state TV that “the worst is behind us.”. This documentary shows Vassili Nesterenko, a nuclear physicist that worked in Chernobyl aftermatch saying that: "Our experts studied the possibility and concluded that the explosion would have had a force of 3-5 megatonnes. Back to Chernobyl. In the early morning of April 24, 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded during a routine maintenance check. Initially, the Soviet Union's toll of deaths directly caused by the Chernobyl disaster included only the two Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant workers killed in the immediate aftermath of the explosion of the plant's reactor. The results fit well, he says – as did other previously sidelined evidence, such as seismic activity recorded 100km away. Ironically, this safety test brings about the reactor’s destruction. We flew from Bagram first to Ashgabat, thinking that on vacation, and then urgently to Kiev. It is not peer reviewed nor does it rely on peer review science as the Chernobyl Forum report did. It was safe to operate them. The Fukushima Daiichi reactors that exploded and melted down in Japan in 2011 were not old Soviet designs, they were American — the GE Mark I Boiling Water Reactor (BWR), a reactor so dangerous that even GE’s own engineers said it should never be built. I know why I tuned in. The explosion released 400 times more radiation into the air than was released after the atomic bomb of Hiroshima in August 1945. Today, over 1.6 million people live and seem to be thriving in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, yet the Chernobyl exclusion zone, a 30 square kilometer area surrounding the plant, remains relatively uninhabited. April 26, 1986, 1 a.m.: The power stabilizes, albeit at a lower than preferred level, and plant supervisors order the test to proceed. April 2006 IPPNW report Edit According to an April 2006 report by the German affiliate of the International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear Warfare (IPPNW), entitled "Health Effects of Chernobyl", more than 10,000 people are today affected by thyroid cancer and 50,000 cases are expected. April 26, 1986, 1:23:58 a.m.: The first explosion, to be quickly followed by at least one more, blows the 1,000-ton roof right off the reactor and shoots a fireball high into the night sky. The state and party leadership had knowingly played down the extent of the contamination and offered a sanitized version to the outside world. The control panel of reactor unit 4 inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone and nuclear power plant in 2006. He read Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich and Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe, by Serhii Plokhy. Here are 15 things you may not know about the disaster: 30 years ago, reactor 4 exploded in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, located in Ukraine. September 26, 1977: The Chernobyl nuclear power station, located about 65 miles north of Kiev, Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union), begins supplying power to the grid. 5 and No. April 2006: Gorbachev writes that the Chernobyl disaster, “even more than my launch of perestroika, was perhaps the real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union.”. Police officers assisting with the roadblock likewise have no knowledge of the radiation and wear no protective clothing. Safety measures were ignored, the uranium fuel in the reactor overheated and melted through the April 27, 1986: 2 p.m.: After telling residents nothing about the disaster for some 36 hours, Soviet officials finally begin evacuating roughly 115,000 people from Pripyat, as well as nearby towns and villages. Yes, Chernobyl has blown up twice — first the reactor and now the eponymous 5-part HBO/Sky miniseries — and the nuclear industry and its pundits are absolutely freaking out. Up to 30 percent of Chernobyl’s 190 metric tons of uranium was now in the atmosphere, and the Soviet Union eventually evacuated 335,000 people, establishing a 19-mile-wide “exclusion zone” around the reactor.. At least 28 people initially died as a result of the accident, while more than 100 were injured. In just a second or two, this first explosion sent the reactor’s power soaring from close to zero to between 50 and 100 times the plant’s maximum normal capacity. 13 May 2019 Please Remain Calm. On April 26, 1986, at 1:23 a.m., an explosion and fire occurred in Reactor Number 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in what is now Ukraine. The wind was blowing out to sea that day. So, as a rookie, Mazin never found out that a captured nuclear regulator, a nuclear industry that routinely takes safety shortcuts to save money, and a government whose officials bang the drum for nuclear power without knowing the slightest thing about its risks, all exist right here, right now in the USA. All Rights Reserved. A blackout roils the plant as the air fills with dust and graphite chunks, and radiation begins spewing out. The effect is much in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Both films might have taken a little liberty with their subjects’ lives — rock stars Freddy Mercury and Elton John respectively— but these stories are not “fiction.” Chernobyl created a composite character out of many for Emily Watson to play, to streamline the action and lend clarity to the story. Then prime minister, Naoto Kan, didn’t let Tepco pull its workforce from the disaster site — which would have led to major meltdowns there, forcing abandonment of the site, leading to radioactive contamination of the nearby Fukushima Daiini reactor site, which in turn would have had to have been abandoned, leading to those reactors melting down…..and so on. The control panel of reactor unit 4 inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone and nuclear power plant in 2006. I have been trying to find out when these reactors were restarted after the Reactor #4 accident and how much electricity they generated before they were shut down. May 6, 1986: Radioactive emissions drop sharply, possibly because the fire in the core has burned itself out. At around the same time, the test and shutdown are temporarily delayed to accommodate the region’s power needs. I vividly remember a private screening by HBO of Rory Kennedy’s documentary about Indian Point, at which I came upon Wald sitting cozily side-by-side with then NRC Commissioner, Edward McGaffigan. It was dark and depressing. In 2006, WHO published its report summarizing the data from two decades of research on the health consequences of the Chernobyl accident. But we should remember that it is a drama, not a documentary. Initially, the Soviet Union's toll of deaths directly caused by the Chernobyl disaster included only the two Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant workers killed in the immediate aftermath of the explosion of the plant's reactor. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. 6 was halted three years later. They have gone into Mega Propaganda Overdrive because the drama was so popular they are terrified that millions of people will now realize that nuclear power is Actually Dangerous. Soon, the world realised that it was witnessing a historic event. April 26, 1986, 5 a.m.: Officials shut down reactor No. The Elephants Foot of the Chernobyl disaster in the immediate aftermath of the meltdown. At 1:23 a.m. on April 26, 1986, Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, following a disastrously ill-judged systems test by undertrained technicians. He became extremely well-versed in what transpired during and immediately after the accident, and the heroic actions of those who saved the world from an even worse outcome. The Chernobyl conference will discuss lessons learned and future projects at Chernobyl, including construction of the new sarcophagus. The Accident at Chernobyl: What Caused the Explosion? April 26, 1986, 2:15 a.m.: Local Soviet officials convene an emergency meeting at which they decide to block cars from exiting or entering Pripyat, a nearby city that was built to house Chernobyl’s workers. It’s not his issue, and by now he’s probably moved on to other things, even though the panicked nuclear lobby have almost certainly pleaded with him to speak out publicly and reassure us that nuclear power is safe. Their containments are so tiny that in the event of a serious accident you have to vent their radioactive inventory into the atmosphere to save them. Fukushima wasn’t as serious as Chernobyl, but a lot of that was luck. 9.6 ... Valery creates a detailed plan to decontaminate Chernobyl; Lyudmilla ignores warnings about her firefighter husband's contamination. Units 1 and 2 were constructed between 1970 and 1977, while units 3 and 4 of the same design were completed in 1983. Even the show’s creative force and writer, Craig Mazin, he of two Hangovers, felt obliged to insist publicly that the show was not meant to be anti-nuclear and nor is he. In 1990, journalist Alla Yaroshinskaya came across secret documents about the Chernobyl catastrophe that revealed a massive cover-up operation and a calculated policy of disinformation. How could he possibly arrive at such a conclusion? And in one telling eyewitness account, a local fisherman glimpsed a blue flash above the reactor. But Chernobyl wasn’t fiction, either. It included reviews of studies carried out on cancers, noncancer diseases, immune and genetic effects, and reproductive and children’s health, as well as evidence-based recommendations for national health authorities and for further research. April 26, 1986, 12:28 a.m.: Power plummets to far below the level at which the reactor is considered stable. McGaffigan, who after the screening inexplicably called the HBO women hosting the event, “bitches,” cast a verbal slur in my direction as well, at which the two of them contentedly smirked. It’s amusing, therefore, to see Matt Wald telling a reporter for a story about the Chernobyl series in which I was also quoted, that a Chernobyl could never happen in the US. So cпасибо and очень хорош to Craig Mazin for doing such a masterful job, whatever he thinks about nuclear power. How far-reaching was the Chernobyl catastrophe, and how far did the radiation travel across Europe? At the time of the explosion, a massive release … Now the 28 remaining GE Mark I and II BWRs still going in the US are old and consequently at an even more dangerous phase. READ MORE: Chernobyl: 7 People Who Played a Crucial Role in the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster. They are re-opened months later. By now, the less-experienced night shift is on the job, which purportedly never received proper instructions on how to perform the test.   The isotopes Strontium-90 and Caesium-137 still linger. It was a dramatization of real events. S1, Ep4. S1, Ep2. There are 187 communities that remain abandoned. To this day, the area around the plant remains so contaminated that it’s officially closed off to human habitation. May 8, 1986: Workers finish draining about 20,000 tons of radioactive water from the basement under the core. April 26, 1986, 1:23:04 a.m.: The test officially begins, and an unexpected power surge occurs. Meanwhile, Soviet officials finally close schools in Kiev and advise residents to stay inside and to not eat leafy vegetables. In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine became the site of the biggest nuclear accident in history when one of its four reactors exploded. August 25-29, 1986: The International Atomic Energy Agency hosts a conference at which scientists blame the accident not just on human error and a subpar safety culture, but also on Soviet reactor design flaws. 4’s emergency core cooling system is disabled to keep it from interfering with the test. Safety measures were ignored, the uranium fuel in the reactor overheated and melted through the THE CHERNOBYL accident is one of the most devastating modern disasters and enduring cautionary tales for nuclear power. The damaged reactor was sealed off and 200 cubic meters (260 cu yd) of concrete was placed between the disaster site and the operational buildings. April 25, 1986, 2 p.m.: Reactor No. READ MORE: 8 Things You May Not Know About Chernobyl. When Unit 4 exploded, ... Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. That seems incredible as well as wonderful. The results fit well, he says – as did other previously sidelined evidence, such as seismic activity recorded 100km away. Historic disaster. And of course an autocratic, unpredictable and secretive government isn’t exactly a Soviet exclusive either. All work on the unfinished reactors No. Two more RBMK reactors were under construction at the site at the time of the accident. The series is the highest rated TV show of all time on IMDb’s ranking. April 26, 1986, 1:28 a.m.: The first firefighters arrive at the scene.   The isotopes Strontium-90 and Caesium-137 still linger. As the cooling pumps require electricity to cool the reactor, in the event of a power failure, Chernobyl’s reactors had three backup diesel generators; these would start up in 15 seconds, but took 60–75 seconds to attain full speed and reach the 5.5‑megawatt output required to run the main pump. There were many former Afghans among the helicopter pilots. He didn’t need to look. April 25, 1986, 11:10 p.m.: Operators receive permission to continue with the test and shutdown. With no water to cool the reactor, it got even hotter – the "meltdown" you've heard of. The “Elephant’s Foot” is a solid mass made of melted nuclear fuel mixed with lots and lots of concrete, sand, and core sealing material that the fuel had melted through. February 1986: A Soviet official is quoted saying that the odds of a nuclear meltdown are “one in 10,000 years.” By this time, the Chernobyl site contains four 1,000-megawatt reactors, plus two additional reactors that are under construction. The Chernobyl disaster happened on 26th April in 1986 at 1:23 a.m. It is not peer reviewed nor does it rely on peer review science as the Chernobyl Forum report did. At the time, investigation and analysis concluded that a steam explosion was the cause, and that's been the accepted explanation ever since. Up to 30 percent of Chernobyl’s 190 metric tons of uranium was now in the atmosphere, and the Soviet Union eventually evacuated 335,000 people, establishing a 19-mile-wide “exclusion zone” around the reactor.. At least 28 people initially died as a result of the accident, while more than 100 were injured. At the time of the explosion, a massive release … Some crews were called upon to liquidate the consequences of the Chernobyl accident directly from military bases in Afghanistan. On April 26, 1986, the Number Four RBMK reactor at the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl, Ukraine, went out of control during a test at low-power, leading to an explosion and fire that demolished the reactor building and released large amounts of radiation into the atmosphere. The pro-nukers have even resorted to saying that the Chernobyl series is “fiction.” No one is calling two other recent dramas — Bohemian Rhapsody or Rocketman — fiction. April 27, 1986, 10 a.m.: Helicopters begin dumping sand, clay, boron, lead and dolomite into the burning core in an attempt to slow radioactive emissions. The remains of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after the explosion. Over a hurried construction period of 206 days, crews erected a steel and cement sarcophagus to entomb the damaged reactor. And in Japan. READ MORE: The Chernobyl Coverup: How Officials Botched Evacuating an Irradiated City. Photograph: AP Kim Willsher reported on the world’s worst nuclear disaster from the Soviet Union. Instantly, two men were killed in the blast and before long, dozens of firefighters were on the scene attempting to put out the billowing flames. The Chernobyl disaster contaminated 150,000 square miles in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. But unlike those of us in the anti-nuclear movement — and those aforementioned years of slog — Mazin is not an expert in nuclear power outside of what he knows about Chernobyl and the old Soviet Union. Thirty workers died either from the explosion at … The automatic emergency shutdown system and other safety features are subsequently turned off. At the time, investigation and analysis concluded that a steam explosion was the cause, and that's been the accepted explanation ever since. How far-reaching was the Chernobyl catastrophe, and how far did the radiation travel across Europe? Dropped by the Enola Gay on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, Little Boy was a uranium- fueled bomb about 10 feet long and just over two feet across, that held 140 pounds of uranium and weighed nearly 10,000 pounds. Since Hiroshima was on a plain, Little Boy caused immense damage. May 1, 1986: Soviet officials refuse to cancel the May Day festivities in Kiev, even as radiation continues to be released unabated. When he exploded as planned nearly 2000 feet above Hiroshima, about two pounds of uranium underwent nuclear fission as it released nearly 16 kilotons of explosive force. April 26, 1986, 1:23:40 a.m.: An operator presses the emergency shutdown button, but the control rods jam as they enter the core. When a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded and burned 33 years ago, it generated a radioactive cloud that contaminated parts of the Soviet Union and Europe before dissipating. He did not spend years studying the US nuclear cabal, or Japan’s. As we contemplate somewhat ruefully how someone heretofore best known for scripting The Hangover (parts 2 and 3) has managed to loft the truth about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster into the stratosphere, whilst we have slogged for decades to get the issue attention, there is some comfort to be had. We will send you a very brief synopsis of the new stories on our site, with links to read them and learn more. Despite all evidence to the contrary, the nuclear engineer in charge of the test insists that reactor No. The test is supposed to determine whether, in the event of a power failure, the plant’s still-spinning turbines can produce enough electricity to keep coolant pumps running during the brief gap before the emergency generators kick in. The Chernobyl Power Complex, lying about 130 km north of Kiev, Ukraine, and about 20 km south of the border with Belarus, consisted of four nuclear reactors of the RBMK-1000 design (see information page on RBMK Reactors). Yes, Mazin studied the Chernobyl story in depth. When was the chernobyl disaster? But apparently more popular. It was brilliantly cast with great actors, although not household names, even though they should be and might be now. How did the Chernobyl reactor explode and what caused the Chernobyl explosion? The prophecy did not connect to the real world and modern times until the Chernobyl disaster capitalized the meaning of the word Wormwood. Chernobyl the series is amazing to watch, and the reconstruction of events before and during the accident was remarkable. The Chernobyl disaster contaminated 150,000 square miles in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. 4 in preparation for a safety test, which they have timed to coincide with a routine shutdown for maintenance. The radioactivity drifted over the town of Pripyat, large parts of Western Soviet Union and parts of Europe. Walls and equipment collapse, and dozens of fires start up, including one on top of the neighboring reactor. Thirty workers died either from the explosion at … Still the nuclear lobby bang on about how such a thing could never happen again — ignoring the fact that it did, in 2011 in Japan. In 2006, WHO published its report summarizing the data from two decades of research on the health consequences of the Chernobyl accident. April 26, 1986, 6:35 a.m.: By now, all fires have been extinguished except for a blaze in the reactor core, which will burn for days. They have no knowledge of the radiation and wear no protective clothing. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Operators respond by removing most of the control rods in violation of the plant’s safety guidelines, yet they still have trouble raising the power, in part due to xenon buildup in the core. They had three good reactors and a need for power. They have gone into Mega Propaganda Overdrive because the drama was so popular they are terrified that millions of people will now realize that nuclear power is Actually Dangerous. This documentary shows Vassili Nesterenko, a nuclear physicist that worked in Chernobyl aftermatch saying that: "Our experts studied the possibility and concluded that the explosion would have had a force of 3-5 megatonnes. Chernobyl the series is amazing to watch, and the reconstruction of events before and during the accident was remarkable. A cloud of radioactive material settled over Ukraine and Belarus after a critical failure blew apart a Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station reactor in 1986. $\begingroup$ I'd like to point out that maybe, maybe, we could be missing something and it was really in megatons range. Though this doesn’t cause the accident, it worsens the impact. There are 187 communities that remain abandoned. Experts believe it likewise caused thousands of premature cancer deaths, though the exact number is disputed. How did the Chernobyl reactor explode and what caused the Chernobyl explosion? © 2021 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Other aspects of the cleanup, which involves up to 800,000 workers, include bulldozing contaminated villages, shooting contaminated pets and livestock, and burying huge amounts of contaminated topsoil. It quickly spiraled out of control, however, as an unexpected power surge and steam buildup led to a series of explosions that blew apart the reactor. The resulting steam explosion and fires released at least 5% of the radioactive reactor core into the environment, with the deposition of radioactive materials in … Not exactly Game of Thrones. But now a team of researchers has concluded otherwise. This latter position — given all Mazin must have learned during his years of meticulous research — has surprised some. Best case: A few days after the first explosion incredibly hot nuclear fuel mix melts through the floor to the water tanks under the reactor causing a huge thermal explosion, releasing a lot of highly irradiated water, steam, and other material into the atmosphere. Twenty-eight of the workers at Chernobyl died in the first four months following the accident, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), including some heroic workers who knew they were exposing themselves to deadly levels of radiation in order to secure the facility from further radiation leaks.The prevailing winds at the time of the accident were from the south and east, so much of the radiation plume traveled northwest toward Belarus. The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear disaster which occurred on April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Pripyat, Ukraine.At that time, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union.. …And still worse. Yes, Chernobyl has blown up twice — first the reactor and now the eponymous 5-part HBO/Sky miniseries — and the nuclear industry and its pundits are absolutely freaking out. The 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine sparked a widespread environmental disaster. Plant workers and firefighters put their lives on the line to control a catastrophic April 1986 explosion at a Soviet nuclear power plant. Headline photo: Stellan Skarsgård, Emily Watson, Jared Harris, Craig Mazin, Jessie Buckley, and Johan Renck attend the April 26, 2019 screening of Chernobyl at Tribeca Film Festival. When Wald left the Times to become the Senior Communications Advisor for the Nuclear Energy Institute — the position he currently holds at the industry’s lobbying arm — none of us in the anti-nuclear movement was the least bit surprised. As I said, incredible. 1 and 2. In the early morning hours of April 26, 1986, a safety test at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine went awry when a sudden power surge occurred. When a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded and burned 33 years ago, it generated a radioactive cloud that contaminated parts of the Soviet Union and Europe before dissipating. April 2006 IPPNW report Edit According to an April 2006 report by the German affiliate of the International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear Warfare (IPPNW), entitled "Health Effects of Chernobyl", more than 10,000 people are today affected by thyroid cancer and 50,000 cases are expected. The Chernobyl conference will discuss lessons learned and future projects at Chernobyl, including construction of the new sarcophagus. At 1:23 a.m. on April 26, 1986, Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, following a disastrously ill-judged systems test by undertrained technicians. 4 is still intact. The work was managed by Grigoriy Mihaylovich Naginskiy, the deputy chief engineer of Installation and Cons… They have gone into Mega Propaganda Overdrive because the drama was so popular they are terrified that millions of people will now realize that nuclear power is Actually Dangerous. 4. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. $\begingroup$ I'd like to point out that maybe, maybe, we could be missing something and it was really in megatons range. If you’d like to be the first to read stories like these, sign up for our Monday email digest. The long-lived radionuclides released by the Chernobyl accident mean the disaster continues – 30 years later. Considered history’s worst nuclear accident, the Chernobyl disaster killed 31 people directly, including 28 workers and firefighters who died of acute radiation poisoning during the cleanup. However, the trouble at the Chernobyl plant did not end with the disaster in reactor No. But now a team of researchers has concluded otherwise. May 9, 1986: Workers begin pouring concrete under the reactor, which is later encased in an enormous concrete and metal structure known as the sarcophagus. If he does, then he will indeed be back in the realm of fiction. 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