CHERNOBYL Episode 2
BYELORUSSIAN INSTITUTE FOR NUCLEAR ENERGY, MINSK
8:30 AM, APRIL 26, SEVEN HOURS AFTER THE EXPLOSION
You work too hard.
Where is everyone?
Oh they refused to come in.
- Why? - It's Saturday.
- Why did you come in? - I work too hard.
It's boiling in here.
Eight milliroentgen.
- Leak? - No.
It would have gone off before. It's coming from outside.
The Americans?
Iodine one three one.
It's not military. It's uranium decay, U-235.
Reactor fuel.
Ignalina. Maybe two hundred and forty kilometres away.
Yes, this is Ulana Khomyuk with the Institute of Nuclear En...
Looking for...
All right, stay calm.
Don't tell me to stay calm, I want to evacuate,
Moscow tells us we can't, and now you call? Who are you-
They're at four. It's not them. Who's the next closest?
It's Chernobyl. But that's not possible,
they're four hundred kilometres away.
That s too far for eight milliroentgen. They'd have to be split open.
Maybe they know something.
- Iodine. - Could it be a waste dump?
We'd be seeing other isotopes.
Nuclear test? A new kind of bomb?
We would have heard. That's what half our people work on here.
Something with the space program? Like a satellite or-?
No one's answering the phone.
- Get everyone started on an IV. - We don't have enough.
- All the children then. - We don't have enough.
As many as you can! Where's the old man?
He's set up a burn ward in sixteen.
What are you doing? What is that?
Milk. It's milk. Much better than water.
- No, no stop. Stop! - What are you doing?
These are radiation burns. Their clothes are contaminated.
Help me!
Get it all off. We're taking it down to the basement.
He was a firefighter from Chernobyl. Can you stop pushing please?!
Just get him...
Why are you keeping us out here?
Professor Legasov?
Oh no, not yet.
They're finishing up some other business. It'll be a few more minutes.
- Can I get you some tea? - No, I'm fine. Thank you.
Would you care to read
Deputy Chairman Shcherbina's report while you wait?
Certainly. Thank you.
Alright, Professor. They're ready.
Professor Legasov?
Thank you all for your duty to this Commission.
We will begin with Deputy Chairman Shcherbina's briefing,
and then we will discuss next steps, if necessary.
Thank you, Comrade General Secretary.
I'm pleased to report that the situation in Chernobyl is stable.
Military and civilian patrols have secured the region,
and Colonel-General Pikalov,
who commands troops specializing in chemical hazards,
has been dispatched to the plant.
In terms of radiation,
plant Director Bryukhanov reports no more than 3.6 roentgen.
I'm told that's the equivalent of a chest x-ray.
So if you're overdue for a checkup.
- And foreign press? - Totally unaware.
KGB First Deputy Chairman Charkov assures me
that we have successfully protected our security interests.
Good. Very good.
Well, it seems like it's well in hand. So.
If there is nothing else? Meeting adjourned.
No!
Pardon me?
We can't adjourn.
This is Professor Legasov of the Kurchatov Institute.
Professor, if you have any concerns,
feel free to address them with me. Later.
I can't.
I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.
Page three the section on casualties,
"A fireman was severely burnt on his hand
by a chunk of smooth, black mineral on the ground
outside the reactor building."
"Smooth black mineral!"
Graphite. There, there's graphite on the ground.
Well there, there was a tank explosion. There's debris.
Of what importance that could be?
There's only one place in the entire facility where you will find graphite.
Inside the core. If there's graphite on the ground, outside,
it means it wasn't a control system tank that exploded.
It was the reactor core. It's open.
- Comrade Shcherbina? - Comrade General Secretary...
I can assure you that Professor Legasov is mistaken.
Bryukhanov reports that the reactor core is intact.
- And as for the radiation- - Yes.
"3.6 roentgen", which by the way is not the equivalent of one chest x-ray,
but rather four hundred chest x-rays.
That number's been bothering me for a different reason, though.
It's also the maximum reading on low-limit dosimeters.
They gave us the number they had,
I think the true number is much, much higher.
If I'm right, this fireman was holding
the equivalent of four million chest x-rays in his hand!
Professor Legasov. There's no place for alarmist hysteria in this room-
It's not alarmist, if it's a fact!
Well I don't hear any facts at all.
All I hear is a man I don't know,
engaging in conjecture in direct contradiction
to what has been reported by Party officials.
I apologize.
I didn't mean,
please may I express my concern
as calmly and as respectfully as...
- Professor Legasov. - Boris.
I will allow it.
An RBMK reactor uses uranium-235 as fuel.
Every atom of U-235 is like a bullet
traveling at nearly the speed of light,
penetrating everything in its path, woods, metal, concrete, flesh.
Every gram of U-235 holds over a billion trillion of these bullets.
That's in one gram.
Now Chernobyl holds over three million grams.
And right now, it is on fire.
Winds will carry radioactive particles across the entire continent,
rain will bring them down on us.
That's three million, billion, trillion bullets
in the air we breathe,
the water we drink, the food we eat.
Most of these bullets will not stop firing for one hundred years.
Some of them not for fifty thousand years.
Yes and this concern
stems entirely from the description of a rock?
Yes.
Comrade Shcherbina, I want you to go to Chernobyl.
You take a look at the reactor. You personally.
And you ll report directly back to me.
A wise decision, Comrade General Secretary.
And take professor Legasov with you.
Forgive me, Comrade General Secretary, but I...
Do you know how a nuclear reactor works?
- No. - No...
Well then how will you know what you're looking at?
Meeting adjourned.
- How does a nuclear reactor work? - What?
It's a simple question.
- It's hardly a simple answer. - Of course.
You presume I'm too stupid to understand.
So I'll restate. Tell me how a nuclear reactor works,
or I'll have one of these soldiers throw you out of the helicopter.
A nuclear reactor makes electricity with steam.
Steam turns a turbine, which generates the electricity.
Where a typical power plant makes steam by burning coal,
a nuclear plant...
At a nuclear plant we use something called fission.
We take an unstable element like uranium-235,
which has too many neutrons.
- A neutron is a- - The bullet.
Yes. The bullet.
So, bullets are flying off of the uranium.
Now, if we put enough uranium atoms close together,
the bullets from one atom will eventually strike another atom.
The force of this impact splits that atom apart,
releasing a tremendous amount of energy. Fission.
- And the graphite? - Ah yes.
The neutrons are actually traveling so fast we call this "flux".
It's relatively unlikely that uranium atoms will ever hit one another.
In RBMK reactors, we surround the fuel rods with graphite
to moderate - slow down- the neutron flux.
Good. I know how a nuclear reactor works.
Now I don't need you.
Can you help me, I need to find my husband?
Not now!
- Mikhail. - Lyudmilla.
Take her. Take her away from here. Please.
- Get away from them! - Oh my god.
Do you want to get sick? Go!
Please take her! Please take her! Please take her! Please! Please!
Please!
Please take her!
Excuse me. I am Vasily Ignatenko's wife.
He's a fireman.
Ignatenko.
Ignatenko. Sixth Paramilitary Fire and Rescue unit.
I need to find him. Please.
Ignatenko.
He is being transported by helicopter to Moscow.
- Hospital number six. - Why? Is he alright?
- Can I see him? - You wanna see him? Go to Moscow.
But they're not letting us leave here.
Tell them Major Burov allows it.
- Oh, oh when are they taking him? - Now.
We're approaching the power plant.
What have they done?
Can you see inside?
I don't have to.
Look, there is graphite on the roof.
The whole building's been blown open.
The core is exposed.
I can't see how you can tell that from here.
For god's sakes.
Look at that glow. That's radiation ionizing the air!
Well if we can't see it, we don't know. Get us directly over the building.
- Boris- - Don't use my name!
- If we fly over an open reactor... - I didn't ask your advice!
...we'll be dead within a week. Dead!
Sir?
Get us over that building. Or I'll have you shot.
If you fly directly over that core,
I promise you by tomorrow morning, you'll be begging for that bullet.
BYELORUSSIAN COMMUNIST PARTY HEADQUARTERS, MINSK
Perhaps if you came back another day?
Just wonderful.
Deputy Secretary Garanin.
Ulana Khomyuk of the Byelorussian Institute for Nuclear Energy.
What a pleasure. Ah let me introduce you to Ilya-
I'm here about Chernobyl.
Such a lovely time. Visit again soon.
I will. Thank you.
I must tell you, this is why no one likes scientists.
When we have a disease to cure, where are they?
In a lab. Noses in their books. And so, grandma dies.
But when there isn't a problem they're everywhere. Spreading fear.
- I know about Chernobyl. - Oh?
I know that the core is either partially or completely exposed.
Whatever that means.
And that if you don't immediately issue iodine tablets
and then evacuate this city,
hundreds of thousands of people are going to get cancer,
and god knows how many more will die.
Yes, very good,
there has been an accident at Chernobyl,
but I've been assured there is no problem.
I'm telling you that there is.
I prefer my opinion to yours.
I'm a nuclear physicist.
Before you were Deputy Secretary, you worked in a shoe factory.
Yes. I worked in a shoe factory.
And now I'm in charge.
"To the workers of the world."
Stable iodine will keep your thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine.
Take one a day for as long as they last.
And go east,
get as far from Minsk as you can.
It's overkill.
Pikalov's showing off to make us look bad.
It doesn't matter how it looks.
Shcherbina is a pure bureaucrat, as stupid as he is, pig headed.
We'll tell him the truth in the simplest terms possible. We'll be fine.
Bryukhanov!
Comrade Shcherbina, Chief Engineer Fomin,
Colonel General Pikalov and I are honored at your arrival.
Deeply, deeply honored.
Naturally, we regret the circumstances of your visit, but as you can see,
we are making excellent progress in containing the damage.
We have begun our own inquiry into the cause of the accident,
and I have a list of individuals who we believe are accountable.
Professor Legasov. I understand you've been saying dangerous things.
Very dangerous things. Apparently, our reactor core exploded.
Please. Tell me how an RBMK reactor core "explodes".
I'm not prepared to explain it at this time.
As I presumed. He has no answer.
It s disgraceful, really.
To spread disinformation at a time like this.
Why did I see graphite on the roof?
Graphite is only found in the core,
where it's used as a neutron flux moderator. Correct?
Fomin, why did the Deputy Chairman see graphite on the roof?
No, there, there can't be.
Comrade Shcherbina, my apologies, but graphite?
That's not possible. Perhaps you saw burnt concrete?
Now there you made a mistake,
because I may not know much about nuclear reactors,
but I know a lot about concrete.
- Comrade, I assure you- - I understand.
You think Legasov is wrong. How shall we prove it?
Our high-range dosimeter just arrived.
We could cover one of our trucks with lead shielding,
mount the dosimeter on the front.
Have one of your men get as close to the fire as he can,
give him every bit of protection you have.
But understand that even with lead shielding it may not be enough.
Then I'll do it myself.
Good.
He's back.
It's not three roentgen.
It's fifteen thousand.
Comrade Shcherbina.
What does that number mean?
It means the core is open.
It means the fire we're watching with our own eyes is giving off
nearly twice the radiation released by the bomb in Hiroshima.
And that's every single hour. Hour after hour.
Twenty hours since the explosion.
So forty bombs' worth by now. Forty-eight more tomorrow.
And it will not stop. Not in a week. Not in a month.
It will burn and spread its poison until the entire continent is dead.
Please escort Comrades Bryukhanov and Fomin
to the local Party headquarters. Thank you for your service.
- Comrade- - You're excused.
Dyatlov was in charge.
It was Dyatlov!
- Tell me how to put it out. - We'll use helicopters.
- Drop water on it, like a forest fire. - No, no. You don't understand.
This isn't a "fire".
This is a fissioning reactor core burning at over two thousand degrees.
The heat will instantly vaporize the water or worse-
How do we put it out?
You are dealing with something
that has never occurred on this planet before.
Boron.
Boron and sand.
But it will create problems of its own. But I, I don t see any other way.
Of course going to take thousands of drops
because you can't fly the helicopters directly over the core,
so most of it is going to miss.
- How much sand and boron? - I can't be acc-
For god's sake roughly?!
Five thousand tons?
And obviously we re going to need to evacuate an enormous area.
Never mind that. Focus on the fire.
I am focusing on the fire.
The wind is carrying all that smoke,
all that radiation...
At least evacuate Pripyat! It's three kilometers away!
- That's my decision to make. - Then make it.
- I've been told not to. - Is it or is it not your decision?!
I'm in charge here!
This will go much easier if you talk to me about the things you do understand,
and not about things you do not understand.
Where are you going?
I'm going to get you five thousand tons of sand and boron!
There's a hotel.
I'd prefer one of those.
Superstitious?
Moscow?
Are you here because of the fire?
Anything we should be worried about?
No.
MORNING, APRIL 27 30 HOURS AFTER THE EXPLOSION
We're in position. Approaching drop.
It's clear to proceed.
Copy. We'll go one by one in rotation.
Remind them about the perimeter.
They cannot fly directly over the fire and minimum of a ten-meter perimeter.
Ten-meter perimeter, copy.
Lead one, preflight maintain minimum ten-meter perimeter.
Copy that. Forty meters.
Thirty-five. Thirty.
No, no, no! They're too close!
They can't get over the fire, how are they supposed to-
The wind will have to carry it.
Tell them! They cannot go over the core.
Lead One is too close. I repeat, we are too close.
Copy. Lead One, you are inside the perimeter.
Lead One. Copy.
Lead One? Lead One, do you copy?
Lead One, do you copy?
Lead One, come in!
Lead One!
Sir? What do I tell the others?
Is there any other way, Legasov?
Send the next one in.
Tell them to approach from the West.
Lead Two, approach from the West.
KURCHATOV INSTITUTE MOSCOW
Kurchatov Institute, Laboratory 4.
Marina Gruzinskaya,
it's Ulana Khomyuk from Minsk.
Oh, yes, how nice of you to phone.
- It's been too long. - It has.
I was actually calling about our friend.
You know, the one in the country?
- Ah yes, of course. - I wanted to see how he's doing.
- It's so hot there right now. - Yes, it's extremely hot.
But his nephews are flying down. And they always bring cool weather.
Which nephews?
Simka, who's fourteen, and little Boris, who's five.
Well, that's wonderful.
Though children can make you even hotter
when they're crawling all over you.
- Maybe I should visit. - No! They don't want visitors.
I'm sorry, I have to get back to work.
It's very busy right now. Goodbye.
They're dropping sand and boron on the fire.
It's what I would do.
Yes, I'm sure it is.
Where are you going?
Chernobyl.
It's been smooth. Twenty drops.
What?
There are fifty thousand people in this city.
Professor Ilyin who's also on the commission
says the radiation isn't high enough to evacuate.
Ilyin isn't a physicist.
Well he's a medical doctor. If he says it's safe, it's safe.
- Not if they stay here. - We're staying here.
Yes, we are. And we'll be dead in five years.
I'm sorry, I...
I'm sorry.
Shcherbina.
Thank you.
A nuclear plant in Sweden has detected radiation.
And identified it as a by-product of our fuel.
The Americans took satellite photos.
The reactor building and the smoke. The fire.
The whole world knows.
The wind has been blowing toward Germany.
They're not letting children play outside
in Frankfurt.
There has been a nuclear accident in the Soviet Union,
and the Soviets have admitted that it happened.
The Soviet version is this...
One of the atomic reactors at the Chernobyl Atomic Power Plant,
near the city of Kiev, was damaged,
and there is speculation in Moscow
that people were injured and may have died.
The Soviets may have been fairly quick to acknowledge the accident...
2:00 PM, APRIL 27 36 HOURS AFTER THE EXPLOSION
...because evidence in the form of mild nuclear radiation
had already reached beyond the Soviet borders to Scandinavia.
Attention, attention! Attention, attention!
Dear comrades,
the City Counsel of people's deputies informs the following:
due to an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the city of Pripyat,
an adverse radiation condition is evolving.
By the Party and Soviet bodies, and by police units
necessary measures are being taken.
However, in order to provide complete safety for people,
especially for children,
it is necessary to temporarily evacuate city residents
to evacuation points in Kiev oblast.
In order to do this, for each apartment house,
today, April 27,
starting from 2:00 p.m.,
buses will be provided
escorted by militia officers
and representatives of the Party's executive committee.
It is recommended to take with you:
IDs, basic necessities,
and some food for the trip and the first couple of days.
The executives of enterprises and institutions
have provided lists of workers who are required to stay
to ensure normal functioning of the city.
All apartment houses during the evacuation
will be guarded by militia officers.
Comrades, while temporarily leaving your houses,
do not forget to close windows,
to turn off all electrical and gas equipment,
and to close mainstaps.
Please, remain calm, be organized
and maintain order during this temporary evacuation.
Attention, attention! Attention, attention!
Dear comrades,
the City Counsel of people's deputies informs the following:
due to an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
in the city of Pripyat,
an adverse radiation condition is evolving.
By the Party and Soviet bodies, and by police units...
I said turn around. This is a restricted zone.
I'm from the Byelorussian Institute for Nuclear energy.
Do you have permission?
Listen to me. I need to speak to someone urgently.
Turn around right now, or I ll arrest you.
If you arrest me, you should take me to the highest possible authority.
We have to start a radiological survey.
Sector by sector.
On foot dosimeters in hand.
Are you all right?
Of course.
Comrades.
The guards arrested this woman at the south checkpoint.
I'd have put her in a cell-
But he thought you should know that I know.
I know that your reactor core is exposed.
I know the graphite is on fire, the fuel is melting,
and you're dropping sand and boron on it.
Which you probably thought was smart. But you've made a mistake.
Ulana Yuriyvna Khomyuk, chief physicist,
Byelorussian Institute for Nuclear Energy.
And you're Valery Alexeyevich Legasov?
Smothering the core will put the fire out,
but the temperature will eventually increase.
- Believe me. I'm perfectly aware. - It will melt down.
But I estimate at least a month
before it melts through the lower concrete pad, which gives us time-
No, you don't have a month. You have approximately two days.
Yes, the fuel would take a month to reach the concrete pad here,
but first it's going to burn through the biological shield here by Tuesday.
And when it does, it's going to hit these tanks.
- Bubbler pools. Reservoirs- - Reservoirs for the ECS.
I understand your concern.
But I confirmed it with plant personnel the tanks are nearly empty.
No. They were nearly empty.
Each of these points, here, here and here
all drain to the bubbler pools.
I'm guessing that every pipe in the building ruptured.
And then there are those fire engines that I saw on the way in.
Fire hoses are still connected.
They've been gushing water into the structure this whole time.
The tanks are full.
From the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
An accident has occurred at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station.
One of the nuclear reactors has been damaged.
Measures are being taken to address the consequences of the accident.
Victims are receiving assistance.
A government commission has been formed.
I have ten minutes.
Then I'm back on the phone.
Apologizing to our friends.
Apologizing to our enemies.
Our power comes from the perception of our power.
Do you understand the damage this has done?
Do you understand what's at stake?
Boris.
Professor Legasov will deliver our briefing.
There is some good news. The air drops are working to douse the fire.
There s been a reduction in radionuclide emissions,
but the fire will not be extinguished for at least another two weeks.
There is also an additional problem.
Nuclear fuel doesn't turn cold simply because it is not on fire.
In fact, the temperature will likely rise
as a result of the blanket of sand we dropped.
The uranium will melt the sand,
creating a kind of lava which will begin to melt down
through the shield below.
You have made lava.
I anticipated this.
I believed there was time to reinforce this lower concrete pad
before the lava reached the earth and contaminated the groundwater.
But as it turned out, I was worried about the wrong thing.
It was my understanding that these large water tanks under the reactor
were essentially empty.
This is Ulana Khomyuk of the Byelorussian Institute.
Thanks to her insight, we are now aware that the tanks are, in fact, full.
Of water, yeah. Why is that a problem? Professor?
When the lava enters these tanks,
it will instantly superheat and vaporize
approximately seven thousand cubic meters of water,
causing a significant thermal explosion.
How significant?
We estimate between two and four megatons.
Everything within a thirty kilometer radius will be completely destroyed,
including the three remaining reactors at Chernobyl.
The entirety of radioactive material in all of the cores
will be ejected at force
and dispersed by a massive shockwave.
Which will extend approximately two hundred kilometers
and likely be fatal to the entire population of Kiev
as well as a portion of Minsk.
The release of radiation will be severe
and will impact all of Soviet Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania,
Byelorusia, as well as Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, Romania and most of East Germany.
What do you mean, "impact"?
For much of the area,
a nearly permanent disruption of the food and water supply,
a steep increase in the rates of cancer and birth defects.
I don't know how many deaths there be, but many.
For Byelorusia and the Ukraine, impact means completely uninhabitable,
for a minimum of one hundred years.
There are
more than fifty million people living in Byelorusia and Ukraine.
Sixty. Yes.
And how long before this happens?
Approximately forty-eight to seventy two hours.
But we may have a solution.
We can pump the water from the tanks.
Unfortunately, the tanks are sealed shut by a sluice gate,
and the gate can only be opened manually
from within the duct system itself.
So we need to find three plant workers
who know the facility well enough to enter the basement here,
find their way through all these ductways,
get to the sluice gate valve here,
and give us the access we need to pump out the tanks.
Of course we will need your permission.
My permission for what?
The water in these ducts,
the level of radioactive contamination...
They'll likely be dead in a week.
We're asking for your permission to kill three men.
Comrade Legasov.
All victories inevitably come at a cost.
9:30 AM, APRIL 28 56 HOURS AFTER THE EXPLOSION
And open the sluice gate valve here.
The valve will be difficult to operate, so we'll need three men.
Who need to know th basement layout
and of course any volunteers will be rewarded.
A yearly stipend of four hundred rubles.
And for those of you working in reactors one and two, promotions-
Why are reactors one and two still operating at all?
My friend was a security guard that night. And she's now dying.
And we've all heard about the firemen.
And now you want us to swim underneath a burning reactor?
Do you even know how contaminated it is?
I... I don't have an exact number.
You don't need an exact number to know if it will kill us.
But you can't even tell us that.
Why should we do this? For what? Four hundred rubles?
You'll do it because it must be done.
You'll do it because nobody else can,
and if you don't, millions will die.
And if you tell me that's not enough, I won't believe you.
This is what has always set our people apart.
A thousand years of sacrifice in our veins.
And every generation must know its own suffering.
I spit on the people who did this.
And I curse the price I have to pay.
But I'm making my peace with it.
And now you make yours.
And go into that water.
Because it must be done.
Ananenko.
Bezpalov.
Baranov.
End of episode 2