Original subtitles

What is the cost of lies?

It's not that we'll mistake them for the truth.

The real danger is that if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognize

truth at all.

What can we do then?

What else is left but to abandon even the hope of truth and content ourselves

instead with stories?

In these stories, it doesn't matter who the heroes are.

All we want to know is who is to blame.

In this story, it was Anatoly Dyatlov. He was the best choice.

An arrogant, unpleasant man. He ran the room that night. He gave the orders.

And no friends.

Or at least, not important ones.

And now, Dyatlov will spend the next ten years in a prison labour camp.

Of course, that sentence is doubly unfair.

There were far greater criminals than him at work.

And as for what Dyatlov did do,

the man doesn't deserve prison.

He deserves death.

But instead, ten years.

For criminal mismanagement.

What does that mean?

No one knows.

It doesn't matter.

What does matter is that to them, justice was done.

Because, you see, to them, a just world is a sane world.

There was nothing sane about Chernobyl.

What happened there, what happened after, even the good we did.

All of it.

All of it.

Madness.

Well, I've given you everything I know.

Don't deny it, of course.

They always do.

What has happened?

I don't know.

There's a fire in the turbine hall.

The turbine hall?

The control system tank hydrogen.

You and chopped it off you moron flew the tank. No, that's not this is an

emergency everyone stay calm our first priority exploded We know I came off.

We're cooling the reactor. We shut it down, but the control rods are still hot

They're not all the way in I didn't get to connect the servos from the standby

console you to get the backup pumps running We need water moving through the

core. That is all that matters. There is no core It exploded the core exploded

He's in shock. Get him out of here.

The lid is off.

The sack is burning. I saw it.

You're confused.

RBMK reactor cores don't explode.

Akimov. Don't worry. We did everything right. Something... Something strange is

happening.

Akimov!

Comrade Fedorovitchenko, what you're saying is physically impossible. The

can't explode.

It has to be the tank.

We're wasting time.

Let's go. Get the hydrogen out of the generators and pump water into the core.

What about the fire?

Call the fire brigade.

You're not in cold tonight.

They're bringing everybody in. Military and civil.

Pripyat, Poleskoye, Kiev.

This is a big one.

But it doesn't look right.

The colour.

The chronic says he thinks they're shining floodlights or something.

What if they're chemicals?

They're not chemicals.

The problem is the roof.

It's covered in tar, so it's going to burn all night and it'll think like

But there.

Let's go back to bed.

Is it war?

Where's the decimeter?

Here.

Here.

Are they bombing?

What the fuck is this?

It's 3 .61.

That's as high as it goes.

Look at one's locked in a safe. I don't have a key.

A mirror.

Your pay.

I'm going to find Hodimchuk in the pump room. You, here.

Get Shashinuk.

He's in 604.

Go. We need to get everyone out!

Hey! He needs to get to the reactor hall.

The lift's destroyed.

There are two plates.

And a cross.

Why are you going there?

Have you seen her?

Where's Vic? Still in the pump room.

Stay here. I'll come back.

I'm gonna get you out of here.

Can you stand?

I dropped the control rod from the other panel. It's still up.

What? It's still only a third of the way in. I don't know why.

I already sent the trainees down to the reactor hall to lower them by hand. What

about the pumps? I can't get through to Hodem Chook. The lines are down.

Fuck the phones and fuck Hodem Chook. Are the pumps on or not? It's not the

other two. My control panel's not working. I tried calling for the

I don't give a shit about the panel. I need water in my reactor core.

Get down there and make sure those pumps are on.

Now.

What does the decimeter say?

3 .6 Roentgen, but that's as high as the meter. 3 .6.

Not great, not terrible.

I did everything right.

McSilly?

McSilly? What's this?

I don't know, Misha.

Don't fuck around with it.

Put these up.

Go on.

What did you say? It's Memphis?

Yeah, what is that?

I don't know.

The valve, Misha. The valve. Let's go.

The valve. Come on.

What do you need?

We need to get into the reactor hall to lower the control rods before the doors

jam.

I don't think there are control rods.

I don't think there's a core.

No, you're mistaken.

Akimov said...

Get out of these holes!

No,

no, no!

Let's go!

Let's go!

Come where?

Going to the railroad bridge to get a better look.

Not like anyone can sleep with all the sirens.

I don't think you should go. It could be dangerous.

What do you mean, dangerous?

It's a fire. It's over there. We're over here. Mikhail.

What?

Oh.

Sorry. Oh.

Is this the silly?

Yeah.

But did he say it was bad?

No. No, he said it was just the roof.

I've never gotten hurt before. None of the boys have.

He'll be fine.

Get some rest.

The tank, it's big enough.

This kind of explosion, the control tank on 71, it's 100 cubic meters.

110.

110. Could do this, definitely.

Scott!

I looked right into it.

I looked into the core.

Did you lower the control rods or not?

Take him to the infirmary.

Doctor Knopf, take him!

Rez could react.

He fell.

I need a medic!

He's delusional.

He's faint.

Ruptured condenser lines. The feed water is mildly contaminated.

It'll be fine. I've seen worse.

Do we still have a phone line to the outside?

Akimov.

Call in a day shift.

But if... We have to keep water flowing into the core. We need electricians,

mechanics. We need bodies.

How many times do I have to say it?

I'm going to the administration building now to call Burakhanov. And for me,

they're going to want a full report.

I don't know if I can make things better for you.

But I can certainly make them worse.

Call in the Daesh of Comrade Akimov.

Yes, Comrade Yadav.

You're doing fine.

Raise your arm.

That one, maybe an hour. This one, not until morning.

How's it downstairs, Doctor?

Quiet.

Always is.

Nothing at this hour but babies.

You know, I once went two days without sleep.

Ten women went into labour at the same time.

Did I ever tell you that story?

Yes.

Well, I won't need you in here for a while. If you want, get some rest in the

break room.

They haven't brought anyone in from the fire.

What fire?

The power plant.

Oh. It mustn't be too bad.

Do we stock iodine?

Hmm? Iodine.

You mean disinfectant?

No, pills. Does the hospital stock iodine pills?

Iodine pills. Why would we have iodine pills?

Hello.

Hello.

Who else knows this?

Have you called Samin?

Of course I want you to call him. If I'm up, he's up.

Whatever the cause, the important thing is that neither you nor I

I take it the safety test was a failure?

We have the situation under control. Under control?

Doesn't look like it's under control. Shut up, Famine.

I have to tell the Central Committee about this. Do you realize that?

I have to get on the phone and tell Marion, or God forbid, Frolicer, that my

power plant is on fire.

No one can blame you for this, Director Prokhanov. Of course no one can blame me

for this. How can I be responsible?

I was sleeping.

Tell me what happened.

Quickly.

We ran the test exactly as Chief Engineer Fermin approved.

Unit Shift Chief Hakimov and Engineer Toklinov encountered technical

difficulties leading to an accumulation of hydrogen in the control system tank.

It regrettably ignited, damaging the plant, setting the roof on fire.

Tank is quite large.

It's the only logical explanation.

Of course, uh...

Deputy Chief Engineer Dyatlov was directly supervising the test, so he

know best.

Hydrogen tank, fire.

Reactor? We're taking measures to ensure a steady flow of water through the

core.

What about radiation?

Obviously down here it's nothing but in the reactor building, I've been told.

3 .6 Rungen per hour.

Well, that's not great, but it's not horrifying.

Not at all.

From the feed water, I assume.

Mm -hmm.

We'll have to limit shifts to six hours at a time, but otherwise.

The symmetries should be checking regularly.

Have them use a good meter from the safe.

Right.

I'll call Marion.

Have them wake up the local executive committee. There'll be orders coming

Here.

Sure?

What do you think makes the colour?

The fuel, for sure.

The fuel, for sure.

What do you know about it? You clean floors at a train station.

My friend Yuri works at the power plant.

He says it runs cold.

No gas, no fire, just atoms.

Yuri says the only thing is you can't walk right up to the fuel.

If you do, a glass of vodka an hour for four hours.

Isn't Yuri a plumber?

At the nuclear power plant.

It is beautiful.

Have a cigarette

Do

you

need

help

Son of a...

We don't know. We come from the perimeter.

We need to start making our way to the roof.

Let's tell it.

We've got to put it out.

I'm telling you, just pass straight up.

All the way up, all the way in.

Come on!

Yep, going in now.

What about the auxiliary?

Pumps are gone.

The electrical's gone.

The core?

I didn't go in there and I won't.

I think it's time we... No, we have to get water into the core, otherwise I'll

be on meltdown.

We have to open the valves.

What do you want, Boris?

If it's true, then we're dead. A million people are dead. Is that what you mean

to you?

We have to open the valves.

By hand.

By hand.

And the number of valves, the amount of time to turn them. You're talking about

hours in there. Len, help us. Help you do what?

Pump water into a ditch. There's nothing there.

Len, as I'm begging you.

Watch the panel while they're gone.

It's not working.

Just watch it.

I guess we know where they called us in early.

Is anyone saying what happened?

They're running the safety test on the turbines.

Through the control system tank.

It doesn't make sense to me either.

What about the sabotage?

A bomb.

Sitnikov.

Prokhanov wants us to use a good decimeter, but it's in a safe band.

We can't find the key.

It's in Building 2.

Hasn't... Follow me.

Gentlemen, welcome.

Please find a seat. There's plenty of room.

I apologise for the lateness of the hour.

Rest assured, we are all very safe down here.

We built this shelter to withstand the nuclear attack by the Americans, so I

think we'll be fine.

As you can see, we have experienced an accident. A large control tank

malfunctioned, damaging reactor building 4.

and starting a fire.

Now, I have spoken directly to Deputy Secretary Marion. Marion spoke to Deputy

Chief Krolitshev, Krolitshev to Central Committee Member Dolgik, and Dolgik to

General Secretary Gorbachev.

Now, because the Central Committee has the greatest respect

for the work of the Pripyat Executive Committee, they've asked me to brief you

on matters as they stand.

First, the accident is well under control.

Second, because the efforts of the Soviet nuclear industry are considered

state secrets, it is important that we ensure that this incident has no adverse

consequences. Now, to prevent a panic, the Central Committee have ordered a

detachment of military police to Pripyat. How large of a detachment?

Between two and four thousand men.

What's really going on here?

How dangerous is this?

There's mild radiation, but it's limited to the plant itself.

No, it isn't.

Excuse me.

You saw men outside vomiting.

You saw men with burns.

There's more radiation than they're saying.

We have wives here. We have children.

I say... We evacuate the town.

Gentlemen, please,

please. My wife is here.

Do you think I would keep it in Pripyat if it wasn't safe?

Prytanov, the air is glowing.

The Cherenkov effect, completely normal phenomenon, can happen with minimal

radiation.

I wonder how many of you know the name of this place?

We will call it Chernobyl, of course.

What is its real name?

The Vladimir I. Lenin Nuclear Power Station.

Exactly.

Vladimir I.

Lenin.

how proud he would be of you all tonight.

Especially you, young man, and the passion you have for the people.

For is that not the sole purpose of the apparatus of the state?

Sometimes we forget.

Sometimes we fall prey to fear.

But our faith in Soviet socialism

will always be rewarded.

Now, the state tells us the situation here is not dangerous.

Have faith, comrades.

The state tells us it wants to prevent a panic. Listen well.

It's true, when the people see the police, they will be afraid.

But it is my experience.

that when the people ask questions that are not in their own best interest, they

should simply be told to keep their minds on their labour and leave matters

the state to the state.

We seal off the city.

No one leaves.

And cut the phone lines.

Contain the spread of misinformation.

That is how we keep the people from undermining the fruits of their own

Yes, comrades, we will all be rewarded for what we do here tonight.

This is our moment to shine.

I sent my dosimetrist into the reactor building.

The large dosimeter from the safe, the one with a thousand rumpkin capacity.

What was the number?

There was none.

The meter burned out the second it was turned on.

It's typical.

Here's what Moscow does.

Sends us shit equipment and wonders why things go wrong. We found another

dosimeter from the military fire department.

It only goes to 200 Ronkin, but it's better than the small ones.

And?

It maxed out.

200 Ronkin.

What game are you playing?

No, I... I asked him. He took multiple measurements. He's my best man.

Another faulty meter. You're wasting our time. I checked the meter against the

control. What's wrong with you?

How'd you get that number from feed water leaking from a blown tank?

You don't.

Then what the fuck are you talking about?

I... I walked around the area of Building 4.

I think there's graphite on the ground in the rubble.

You didn't see graphite.

I did. You didn't.

You didn't! Because it's not there!

What?

Are you suggesting the core... What?

Exploded?

Yes.

Zinnikov.

You're a nuclear engineer, so am I.

Now, please tell me how an RBMK reactor core explodes.

Not a meltdown.

An explosion.

I'd love to know.

I can't.

Are you stupid?

No. Then why can't you?

I think.

I don't see how it could explode.

But it did.

Enough. I'll go up to the vent block roof from there. You can look right

It's reactor building four.

I'll see you with my own eyes.

I apologise.

Guys! Guys!

Get him to the medical or the hospital, whatever he needs.

Seed water.

Been around it all night.

You go then.

What? Go to the van block roof and report back what you see. No.

No, I won't do that.

Of course you will.

I know.

Come on.

Let's begin.

Hang on there.

Hang on there.

All the way, okay?

All the way up.

I'm sorry.

There's nothing to be sorry for.

I told you.

We did nothing wrong.

But we did.

Hello? Valerie Legasso?

Yes. Yoda Legasso is the first deputy director of the Kurchatov Institute of

Atomic Energy.

I am. Who am I speaking? This is Boris Cherbina, deputy chairman of the Council

of Ministers and head of the Bureau for Fuel and Energy.

There's been an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

How bad is it?

No, no need to panic. There was a fire, as most you put out. The system control

tank exploded.

Control system tank?

And the core?

We've ordered them to continuously pump water.

Yes, I see. Any contamination?

This is mild.

The plant manager is reporting 3 .6 roentgen per hour. That's actually

significant. You should evacuate the surrounding... You're an expert on RBMK

reactors, correct?

Yes, I've studied... General Secretary Gorbachev has appointed a committee to

manage the accident.

You're on it.

We'll convene at two this afternoon.

That late?

Forgive me, but don't you think, given the amount of radiation, that it

Legasso, you're on this committee to answer direct questions about the

of an RBMK reactor, if they should happen to arise.

Nothing else.

Certainly not policy.

Do you understand?

Yes, of course.

I didn't mean...