2558, ark. Shcherbak, , Chernobyl', 400.Google Scholar, 57. Smirnova, , Trevozhnye dni, 6;Google Scholar Chernobyl Accident - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics Lina Kushnir, Valentina Shevchenko: Provesty demonstratsiiu 1 travnia 1986-ho nakazali z Moskvy, Istorichna pravda, April 25,2011, at www.istpravda. Bomb Shelters in the USSR, 1945-1962, Journal of Cold War Studies On 2526 April 1986 Chernobyls Unit 4 reactor was scheduled for a routine shut down. The extent of Chernobyl's geopolitical fallout is less well known. This concern swelled into a major political controversy in the 1970s, when critics of detente such as Harvard historian Richard Pipes and Sovietologist Leon Gour charged that Soviet civil defense proved that the Kremlin was a dangerous, expansionist power fully willing to resort to nuclear aggression if it appeared advantageous. 26 kvitnia 1986r., DA SBU, f. 64 op. Nuclear Disaster: A Spreading Cloud and an Aid Appeal; U.P.I. 23. Pipes, Richard, Why the Soviet Union Thinks It Could Fight and Win a Nuclear War, Commentary 32, spr. The costs to public health are extensively discussed, but the wider political consequences are also still felt. 31. 27. Render date: 2023-03-04T05:38:26.289Z Political Fallout is the story of one of the first human-driven, truly global environmental crisesradioactive fallout from nuclear weapons testing during the Cold Warand the international response. political fallout the failure of emergency management at chernobyl It's significant to wait for the representative and beneficial books to read. 2957,11. Gessen, Keith (Champaign, 2005).Google Scholar, 7. The Failure of Emergency Management at Chernobyl 109 Party authorities, meanwhile, believed that keeping accidents secret would protect their legitimacy while posing little attendant political risk be cause they had successfully utilized this strategy in the aftermath of several nuclear disasters. Voprosy i otvety, Opyt likvidatsii Chernobylskoi katastrofy, Iz segodniav zavtra: Mysli vslukh Chernobyl i bezopasnost, Chornobil's'ka trahediia iak argument perebudovi, Perebudova: Zadum i rezul'taty v Ukrainy do10-richchia protoloshennia kursu na reformy, At Moscow News Session: Brief and Not to Point, TheSocial Impact of the Chernobyl Disaster. Informatsiine povidomlennia KDB URSR do TsK KPU pro vybukh 4-ho enerhobloka Chornobyl's'koyi AES. While some renewables proponents argue that baseload power is no longer necessary, it is notable that in the UK, which is committed to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050, nuclear energy is expected to supply 31% of electricity demand then. 41. UC San Francisco's Lydia Zablotska, MD, PhD, grew up in Ukraine, trained as physician . Medvedev, The Legacy of Chernobyl, 54. Chernobyl Has Become a Comforting Fable - Foreign Policy Vozniak, Ignatenko, Kovalenko, and Troitskii, Chernobyl', 121. CHERNOBYL: LESSONS FOR EMERGENCY PLAN - The New York Times The RBMKs designers were well aware of this potential safety issue and prepared detailed instructions for reactor operators on how to avoid such an accident. D'iachenko, , Chernobylskaia katastrofa, 28.Google Scholar, 11. 2-3 (KGB report on conditions around ChNPP, April 26,1986); Povidomlennia KDB URSR do KDB SRSR pro vybukh 4-ho enerhobloka Chornobyl's'koi AES. Medvedev, , The Legacy of Chernobyl, 49.Google Scholar, 55. Baranovs'ka, Nataliia, Stan rozrobky chornobyl's'koi problemy istorichnoiu naukoiu Ukrainy, Istorichnyi zhurnal Chernobyl and the fall of the Soviet Union: Gorbachev's glasnost See, for example, Furthermore, they state that the maximum radiation in Pripiat was 14 microroentgens an hour on the morning of the 26thwhen in fact there were places in the city where radiation levels were hundreds of times higher. This graphite/water combination presented an inherent safety problem, that under certain operating conditions the RBMK could be very unstable, resulting in a risk of overheating. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. The United States Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies are constantly preparing for disastrous events, including event involving nuclear and radiological materials. According to Gnatiuk, the civil defense staff of the RSFSR carried out exercises at all nuclear power stations in Russia prior to the Chernobyl disaster. Karpan, N. V., Chernobyl: Mest mirnogo atoma (Kiev, 2005);Google Scholar and Total loading time: 0 63. Drawing on declassified archival documents from Ukrainian archives and memoir literature, I explore the political and institutional logic that prevented the USSR from acting appropriately to protect citizens from the consequences of the nuclear accident. Within the Soviet leadership, the secrecy over dangerous operating procedures had a major impact on General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachevs thinking. Shcherbak, , Chernobyl', 400.Google Scholar, 52. Reports prepared for the party attest to many Soviet citizens belief in accounts of the disaster like that circulated by UPI. After the explosion of unit 4, the Soviet government rushed to lay blame for the catastrophe on a handful of mistakes made by expendable, easily scapegoated individuals and to defuse charges that the Soviet state could be held responsible. 3 (Moscow, 2008), 180280.Google Scholar For an argument that the Chernobyl disaster hastened Gorbachev's reforms, see 3. 2. doubly occupied lands in Eastern Europe. As we seek to transition away from fossil fuels our national security, as well as public and industry expectations, depend on energy security. Canadian expert Dr. David Marples's work The Soviet Impact of the Cher- nobyl Disaster 12 provides an excellent description of the explosion and its social consequences. Engineering Failures: Chernobyl Disaster - Engineering Institute of 208-12 (Ukrainian KGB report on inadequacies of civil defense in areas around nuclear power plants, mid-1986). (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. The rem measurement is the product of the exposed dose in roentgens and a weighting factor accounting for the effectiveness of the type of radiation to cause biological damage. What caused the disaster | The Chernobyl Gallery How The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster Shaped Russia And Ukraine - Forbes Acknowledgements - Introduction - A Chernobyl Diary, 28th April-14 May 1986 - Soviet Energy in the 1980s - Nuclear Energy Development in Eastern Europe - Ukraine in the Soviet Nuclear Energy. But . For instance, Paul Josephson states in his history of the Soviet nuclear power program that Soviet planners never anticipated an accident of such a scale, and apparently they never accumulated the medicines and equipment needed for nuclear civil defense purposes, except perhaps for the elite in capital cities. Paul R. Josephson, RedAtom: Russia's Nuclear Power Program from Stalin to Today (Pittsburgh, 2005), 260. for this article. Firstly, the accident prompted nuclear energy policy to arise as a significant public issue. 25, spr. 2-4 (KGB report on conditions around ChNPP, April 26,1986). 65. Burns, John F., Russians, Too, Joke Sadly on Atom-War Survival, New York Times, June 11,1982, A2.Google Scholar, 18. 9842741222, 9942641222, 9842724434 [email protected]. 6 (1991): 1039.CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 4. 2995,11.12-13 (report to Ukrainian CP Central Committee on Chernobyl liquidation effort, June 12,1986). 2 (March/April 2011): 1929.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed. Medvedev, , The Legacy of Chernobyl, 59.Google Scholar, 69. 26 kvitnia 1986r., DA SBU, f. 64, op. 2 (excerpts from NRB-76). 28. The Interpreter features in-depth analysis & expert commentary on the latest international events, published daily by the Lowy Institute, Copyright 2023 7 (July 1977): 134;Google Scholar and Leon Gour, War Survival in Soviet Strategy: Soviet CivilDefense (Coral Gables, 1976). Stikhi, ocherki, rasskazy, otryvki iz romanov ipovestei, interv'iu, Reportazh iz Chernobylia: Zapiski ochevidtsev.Kommentarii. 2995, arkushi (ark.) In April 1986, the V.I. 2337, ark. 49. 7 (July 1977): 134;Google Scholar and Leon Gour, War Survival in Soviet Strategy: Soviet CivilDefense (Coral Gables, 1976). 67. Chernobyl's role in fall of the USSR | History Blog 55, no. P-11-231 1 "Chernobyl" Lessons Learned for Post-Emergency Response VF.Demin1) and B.I.Yatsalo2) 1)RRC "Kurchatov Institute", Moscow 2) Obninsk Institute of Nuclear Power Engineering, Obninsk, Kaluga reg., Russia [email protected]; [email protected] INTRODUCTION The scale of the Chernobyl accident, non-total readiness in regulation and extraordinary unstable political 1 (January 1988): 32.Google Scholar. 5, 35-36 (reports to Ukraine CP on rumors about Chernobyl', May 1986). Potter, William and Kerner, Lucy, The Soviet Military's Performance at Chernobyl, Soviet Studies In fact, the Three Mile Island accident demonstrated that a properly designed containment building can protect public health and safety from even the most serious accident. Boris Ivanov, Chernobyl', Voennye znaniia 40, no. The exact sequence of events that unfolded in the days following the disaster and the forces that shaped it have, however, remained obscure. 1, spr. 33, ark. 34, ark. Shcherbak, Iurii Nikolaevich, Chernobyl (Moscow, 1991), 395401. The negative sentiment towards nuclear energy, and a political unwillingness to even discuss the subject, is particularly problematic today when there is increasing pressure to move to low carbon forms of energy. Cambridge Journals publishes over 250 peer-reviewed academic journals across a wide range of subject areas, in print and online. Gnatiuk, Iu., Neobkhodimost MPVO-GO: Podtverdilo vremia, Grazhdanskaiazashchita On the construction of the sarcophagus, see Baranovs'ka, Chornobyl's'ka trahediia, 207-39, and on state measures to provide housing and employment to evacuees, see ibid., 182-85. Rossiter, Evelyn (New York, 1991), 1819.Google Scholar, 10. Vypiska iz Norm radiatsionnoi bezopasnosti NRB-76,' TsDAHO, f. 1, op. 79. ESA - Mapping Chernobyl fires from space - European Space Agency Facing increasing river flood risk in Europe: adaptation measures can save lives and billions of euro. 2, TsDAHO, f. 1, op. 68. Povidomlennia UKDB URSR po m. Kyievu ta Kyivs'kii oblasti do KDB SRSR ta KDB SRSR pro vybukh 4-ho enerhobloka Chornobyl's'koyi AES. The recent mini-series on the Chernobyl nuclear accident is a reminder that after 33 years the consequences of the accident are still very much with us. 11A (1988), spr. 22. 25, spr. I visited this shelter in June 2010 along with the shelter at ChNPP. Large amounts of radioactive material were released into the atmosphere, where it was carried great distances by air currents. See, for example, Shcherbak, , Chernobyl', 397.Google Scholar, 38. Lina Kushnir, Valentina Shevchenko: Provesty demonstratsiiu 1 travnia 1986-ho nakazali z Moskvy, Istorichna pravda, April 25,2011, at www.istpravda. The RBMK reactor design was poor from the point of view of safety and unforgiving for the operators, both of which provoked a dangerous operating state. The designers of the RBMK made design compromises that sacrificed safety in order to achieve this lower fuel cost. The exact sequence of events that unfolded in the days following the disaster and the forces that shaped it have, however, remained obscure. While many transnational histories of the nuclear arms race have been written, Kate Brown provides the first definitive account of the great plutonium disasters of the United States and the Soviet, Interestingly, voices from chernobyl the oral history of a nuclear disaster that you really wait for now is coming. 43, no. 52-56 (Ukrainian KGB report to CPSU Central Committee, April 28,1986). 2995, listy (11.) 1 February 2023. For an overview of Soviet media accounts of the disaster in 1986-87, see 4 led to a nuclear meltdown, followed by a raging fire and steam explosions. Medvedev, , The Legacy of Chernobyl, 59.Google Scholar, 69. Known as aptechki individualnye AI-2, these first-aid kits came in bright orange plastic cases and included seven different drugs, including potassium iodide, two antibiotics (tetracycline and sulfanamide), cystamine, nausea-prevention tablets, a single-use syringe of morphine, and tablets of taren, a form of the Soviet drug aprofen included to counteract organophosphate chemical weapons. In 1987, the USSR tried and convicted several individuals for the accident using this argument. Watch: East Palestine Officials Hold Meeting With Frustrated Residents D'iachenko, A. Medvedev, , The Truth about Chernobyl, 2528.Google Scholar, 25. Vypiska iz protokola no. In contrast, the RBMK uses graphite (a form of carbon) as the moderator and water as the coolant. 1 (unmarked document, apparently from April 26,1986, outlining radiation protection norms). Overall, this detrimental accident proved that a process must be understood before it can be controlled. This concern swelled into a major political controversy in the 1970s, when critics of detente such as Harvard historian Richard Pipes and Sovietologist Leon Gour charged that Soviet civil defense proved that the Kremlin was a dangerous, expansionist power fully willing to resort to nuclear aggression if it appeared advantageous. Chernobyl disaster - Wikipedia 34, ark. 48. 25, sp. Workers were conducting a test at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine when their operations spun out of control. Essay On Emergency Preparedness - 1012 Words - Internet Public Library Medvedev, Grigori, The Truth about Chernobyl, trans. la., Ignatenko, E. I., Kovalenko, A. P., and Troitskii, S. N., Chernobyl': Sobytiia i uroki. The local mayor originally had announced that a Q&A town hall meeting . This was Dovidka 3-ho Upravlinnia KDB URSR pro nedoliki u roboti shtabiv tsivil noi oborony obiektiv atomnoi energetiki respubliki, Derzhavnyi arkhiv sluzhby bezpeky Ukrainy (DA SBU), f. 65, spr. 50. 10 (October 2005): 1819.Google Scholar, 15. Reflecting growing popular disillusionment with the Soviet project, glasnost-era Soviet writers often faulted the Soviet system for endangering its citizens with an intrinsically dangerous technology. The abuse potential of the latter two substances (aprofen can induce a hallucinogenic delirium) may have discouraged the Soviet government from issuing the complete kits to citizens following the Chernobyl' accident, and extant accounts suggest that civil defense distributed only the potassium iodide tablets. 0 moral no-psikhologicheskoi obstanovke v respublike v sviazi s avarii na Chernobyl'skoi AES, Tsentral'nyi derzhavnyi arkhiv hromads'kykh obiednan Ukrainy (TsDAHO), fond (f.) 1, opis (op.) This reactor design, known in Russian as reaktor bol'shoi moshchnosti kanal'nyi (high-power channel-type reactor, RBMK), descended from Soviet plutonium-production reactor designs and consists of stainless steel tubes containing uranium fuel elements in which the light-water coolant boils, surrounded by graphite blocks that serve as a neutron moderator. 34-38 (circular on Chernobyl accident for party propagandists, May 8,1986). These sources however have the disadvantage of being intermittent, they cannot be relied upon to produce power at all times required. June 4, 2019. 2 (February 1988): 23.Google Scholar, 56. The Chernobyl necklace: the psychosocial experiences of female Schmid, Sonja, When Safe Enough Is Not Good Enough: Organizing Safety at Chernobyl, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 10 interesting facts about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster February 28 Supreme Court conservatives take skeptical view of Biden student debt forgiveness The $430 billion plan would give relief to more than 40 million U.S. borrowers. 2-3 (KGB report on conditions around ChNPP, April 26,1986); Povidomlennia KDB URSR do KDB SRSR pro vybukh 4-ho enerhobloka Chornobyl's'koi AES. Nuclear Disaster: A Spreading Cloud and an Aid Appeal; U.P.I. Attempts to control the situation encountered various obstacles: (1) insufficient preparedness; (2) rapidly evolving social conflicts and public demands; (3) complex, interwoven structures of competence, and (4) geographically fluctuating problem loads. Ivanov, Chernobyl', Voennyeznaniia, no. la., Ignatenko, E. I., Kovalenko, A. P., and Troitskii, S. N., Chernobyl': Sobytiia i uroki. Radiation: The Chernobyl accident - WHO | World Health Organization Chernobyl contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and continues to impact on confidence in nuclear energy around the world. In early 1983, the ministry noted the problems of reliability and safety at nuclear power plants but evaluated the attendant costs entirely in terms of the economic losses resulting from repair shutdowns, not possible accident hazards. 10 (October 2007): 16.Google Scholar, 16. As the interest in nuclear power increases, serious, The story of the explosion and contamination was and still is suppressed in the Soviet Union and, the author contends, by the CIA and other Western intelligence organizations fearful of public, During the Cold War, the nature, intent, and scale of Soviet civil defense were the subject of heated debate in the West. Baranovs'ka, Nataliia, Chornobyl's'ka trahediia: Narisi z istorii (Kiev, 2011).Google Scholar For an overview of Ukrainian historiography on Chernobyl until 2006, see Under the auspices of the UN Chernobyl Forum, WHO carried out its own independent health assessment of the accident. 77. political fallout the failure of emergency management at chernobyl cbeebies actors that died . See Obstanovka i meropriiatia po likvidatsii posledstvii avarii na Chernobyl skoi AES po sostoianiiu na 12 iiunia 1986 goda, TsDAHO, f. 1, op. Many accounts of the Chernobyl disaster erroneously state that Shcherbina made the final decision to evacuate on the evening of April 26, which is reflective of the extraordinary confusion that reigned at the time. Altunin, A. T., Formirovaniia grazhdanskoi oborony v bor'be s stikhiinymi bedstviiami (Moscow, 1976).Google Scholar, 17. See, for example, Feature Flags: { 3. Some western analysts concluded that the shortcomings of the USSR's disaster response at Chernobyl proved that the USSR's much-discussed civil defense investment was either useless or illusory. It has Expand 1 When safe enough is not good enough: Organizing safety at Chernobyl Sonja D. Schmid Art 2011 That could set up a political fraught situation for President Joe Biden. During the night of 26 April 1986, Unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, located 130 km to the north-east of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine,(Up until 1991, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine . The accident added to the publics distrust of government authorities. 4-6, 3436. Povidomlennia UKDB URSR po m. Kyievu ta Kyivs'kii oblasti do KDB SRSR ta KDB SRSR pro vybukh 4-ho enerhobloka Chornobyl's'koyi AES. 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Published online by Cambridge University Press: For one such scholarly account, see 32, spr. 78. Vozniak, V. For one such scholarly account, see Vozniak, V. At the time of the Chernobyl accident, on 26 April 1986, the Soviet Nuclear Power Programme was based mainly upon two types of reactors, the WWER, a pressurised light-water reactor, and the RBMK, a graphite moderated light-water reactor. Google ScholarPubMed. The rem measurement is the product of the exposed dose in roentgens and a weighting factor accounting for the effectiveness of the type of radiation to cause biological damage. The accident at Chernobyl was the product of a lack of safety culture. Medvedev, , The Legacy of Chernobyl, 4952.Google Scholar. We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. 23, no. 10 (October 2007): 16.Google Scholar, 16. 2 (Spring 2012): 328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 14. The experiment was devised in such a way that if it had gone as planned, the disruption and danger to the plant would be very minimal. The Chernobyl Accident was a nuclear reactor accident that occurred on Apr 26, 1986 in Ukraine. [1-4] A total of about 30 people, including operators and firemen, died as a result of direct exposure to radiation. Chernobyl Accident and Its Consequences - Nuclear Energy Institute Reflecting growing popular disillusionment with the Soviet project, glasnost-era Soviet writers often faulted the Soviet system for endangering its citizens with an intrinsically dangerous technology. In December 1986, Pikalov received the USSR's highest military award, the Hero of the Soviet Union, for his service at Chernobyl'. Ivanov, Chernobyl', Voennyeznaniia, no. Voprosy i otvety, Opyt likvidatsii Chernobylskoi katastrofy, Iz segodniav zavtra: Mysli vslukh Chernobyl i bezopasnost, Chornobil's'ka trahediia iak argument perebudovi, Perebudova: Zadum i rezul'taty v Ukrainy do10-richchia protoloshennia kursu na reformy, At Moscow News Session: Brief and Not to Point, TheSocial Impact of the Chernobyl Disaster. I visited this shelter in June 2010 along with the shelter at ChNPP. On April 26th, around 01:23 AM, a critical failure of Chernobyl's reactor No. com.ua/articles/2011/04/25/36971/ (last accessed November 10, 2014). 1. Medvedev, The Truth about Chernobyl, 18587. Shkoda, V. G., Chernobyl: Dni ispytanii.Kniga svidetelstv. 4, no. Rossii, MChS TsSI GZ, Grazhdanskaia oborona: Slozhnyi etap razvitiia, Grazhdanskaiazashchita Medvedev, , The Legacy of Chernobyl, 4952.Google Scholar. Ibid., 53. On Soviet citizens reactions to the address, see Informatsiia ob otklikakh trudiashikhsia Ukrainskoi SSR po vystupleniiu General nogo sekretaria TsK KPSS tovarishcha M. S. Gorbacheva po Tsentral'nomu televideniiu 14 maia 1986 goda, TsDAHO, f. 1, op. 67. Some western analysts concluded that the shortcomings of the USSR's disaster response at Chernobyl proved that the USSR's much-discussed civil defense investment was either useless or illusory. 11A (1988), spr. Valentina Shevchenko has made contradictory statements to this effect. 2 (Summer 1996): 297324. 1 (January 1988): 32.Google Scholar. The 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, then part of the former Soviet Union, is the only accident in the history of commercial nuclear power to cause fatalities from radiation. 50. Vozniak, Ignatenko, Kovalenko, and Troitskii, Chernobyl', 121. 2-3 (report to CP Ukraine Central Committee on events at ChNPP, April 1986). 29. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power station exploded at 1:23:58 a.m. on April 26, 1986, Yuri Alexeyev was fast asleep. In December 1986, Pikalov received the USSR's highest military award, the Hero of the Soviet Union, for his service at Chernobyl'. The accident and the fire that followed released massive amounts of radioactive material into the environment. Content may require purchase if you do not have access. M. Balonov, A. Bouville, in Encyclopedia of Environmental Health (Second Edition), 2013 Introduction The Accident. PDF A Failure in Safe Operations - EPRI 43. Untitled notice on levels of radiation in Chernobyl NPP and steps taken On the May 6 news conference, see While the USSR's civil defense organization urged prompt and decisive measures to inform the population of the accident and move people out of harm's way, other Soviet institutions, such as the Communist Party and the KGB, feared the accident's threat to their legitimacy more than its implications for public health. l, torn (t.) 24, ark. Ivanov, Boris, Chernobyl', Voennye znaniia See, for instance, Shcherbak, Chernobyl'. Furthermore, they state that the maximum radiation in Pripiat was 14 microroentgens an hour on the morning of the 26thwhen in fact there were places in the city where radiation levels were hundreds of times higher. 25, spr. The principal reactor type around the world, the light water reactor, uses water as both moderator (to slow down neutrons to enable an ongoing nuclear reaction) and coolant (to remove heat and produce steam for power generation). Chernobyl and Its Political Fallout: A Reassessment 14, no. 68. 33, ark. It maintains that the radiological conditions in Pripiat' did not objectively require evacuation on April 26, and it ignores the fact that GO officers protested the delay. hasContentIssue true, Copyright Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. D'iachenko, A. If the destruction of the state brought the physical destruction of Jews, what determined the rescue of certain ones during the Holocaust? An employee of Chernobylinterinform told me this during a June 2010 visit to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Ever since the accident that destroyed unit 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on April 26,1986, became public knowledge, the Soviet government's response to this catastrophe has been the, Borders have been a part of Viktors life for most of his adulthood. For an account of Soviet propaganda extolling nuclear power, see Vypiska iz protokola no. Chernobyl was the second of three major nuclear accidents: As a consequence of Chernobyl, a number of governments decided to phase out nuclear energy programs, and others decided against proceeding with new nuclear programs. 52-56 (Ukrainian KGB report to CPSU Central Committee, April 28,1986). Content may require purchase if you do not have access. This is an imperative step in making sure that everyone involved is . The designers of the RBMK made design compromises that sacrificed safety in order to achieve this lower fuel cost. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings. Political Fallout: The Failure of Emergency Management at Chernobyl The Fukushima reactors were early model. Political Fallout: The Failure of Emergency Management at Chernobyl