As for the Golden Corridor: it didn’t just run between the power units. Behind some of the doors lay the plant’s true nerve centres — Unit Control Room (UCR).The Unit Control Room. Each power unit had its own separate one. From there, the operators controlled the reactor, turbines, pumps and the electrical system. Before them were entire walls of light bulbs, pointers, diagrams and recorders. Hundreds of different signals. The plant had already demonstrated on one occasion that not every button does what is expected of it...That night, tests were being carried out on one of these panels; the operators were monitoring the parameters, and then they pressed the emergency protection system that was supposed to shut down the reactor. But the operators could not see nearly everything that was happening inside it. After the explosion, people remained at their consoles for some time, trying to work out whether they could keep anything under control at all.Some of the UCRs were subsequently cleaned up and returned to service, and the station was operated from them for many years to come. Others remained part of the accident site: chairs, control panels, buttons, telephones. Everything is still in place — just covered in dust and radiation.After the Second Incident, rumours circulated that the lights on the dead control panels would sometimes come on of their own accord. Most likely, this is a myth – who would have checked? But if you see anything like that, it’s best not to press anything at all.