The heroes of Chernobyl. If it were not for these men in the photo, Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bezpalov, two nuclear engineers and Boris Baranov, there is no quantification of how many thousands of lives would have been lost during the Chernobyl catastrophe, in Pripyat, Ukraine in 1986. Ten days after the meltdown , the plant's water cooling system had stopped working, and a radioactive pool had formed directly beneath the highly radioactive reactor. Without cooling, the lava-like substance could have easily forced its way through the remaining barriers, melting them and causing the reactor core to fall into the pool . If this had happened, it could have triggered further explosions with radioactive clouds that probably could have reached not only various parts of Europe and Asia, but also Africa. In the photo, engineer Alexei together with Valeri and Boris, volunteers for what was considered a suicide mission, wear protective gear to dive into the highly radioactive waters and dump the fluid near the reactor. The mission was successful and the three heroes prevented further catastrophic consequences. Surprisingly, all three survived the mission only to die, according to a theory circulating online, a few days later in hospital due to the radiation they absorbed, like many other people who put their lives at risk to limit the damage. In reality, Baranov died in 2005 due to a heart attack, and Ananenko and Bezpalov are still alive."