ICM CHERNOBYL #1 Radiation Monitoring Station

The ZiŁ-131 is a Soviet / Russian off-road truck, the first prototypes of which appeared in the early 1960s. Serial production lasted from 1966 to 2002 and was concentrated at the Ził plant in Moscow.

The ZiŁ-131 was developed and put into production as a supplement and successor to the ZiŁ-157 car. Compared to its predecessor, it received primarily an engine generating much greater maximum power (150 HP compared to 109 HP), which translated into significantly better performance and a load capacity, which increased from 4500 kg to 5000 kg. In addition, a fully loaded Model 131 can also tow a 5-tonne trailer. The ZiŁ-131 has an all-wheel drive (6x6) and is characterized by good off-road ability. However, it is not very economical, because on the road it consumes up to 65 liters of fuel per 100 km, and off-road fuel consumption increases to at least 150 liters per 100 kilometers! Many specialized versions were created on the ZiŁ-a-131 chassis, such as: a garbage truck, a tanker or a truck tractor. The BM-21 Grad unguided missile launcher is also mounted on this car.

On the night of April 26, 1986, one of the largest, and probably the loudest, catastrophes in the history of nuclear energy occurred. On that day, there was a failure at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Pripyat in the then Soviet Union (now Ukraine). This failure occurred as a result of overheating of the core of the RBMK-1000 nuclear reactor in the power unit No. 4 of the above-mentioned power plant, which led to a hydrogen explosion, fire, and the release of significant amounts of radioactive substances into the atmosphere. It is assumed that as a result of the disaster, an area of approximately 130,000 km2 was contaminated, and probably more than 350,000 people were displaced. It is also worth adding that 31 people died directly as a result of the catastrophe and in the course of extinguishing the fire, but the number of victims who died as a result of radiation sickness is very difficult to estimate and ranges from several to several hundred thousand people. The Chernobyl disaster of 1986 put a heavy burden on the then Soviet authorities in terms of propaganda and image, both at the local and central level, which often showed complete indolence in the course of crisis management.