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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.

8 milliroentgen. A leak?

No. It would've gone off before.

- It's coming from outside. - The Americans?

Iodine 131.

It's not military, it's uranium decay U-235.

Reactor fuel?

Ignalina, maybe 240 kilometres away.

Yes, this is Ulana Khomyuk with the Institute of Nuclear And...

Looking for...

All right. Stay calm.

They're at 4. It's not them.

- Who's the next closest? - It's Chernobyl.

That's not possible. They're 400 kilometres away.

That's too far for 8 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? Er... New kind of bomb?

We'd have heard. That's what half our people work on here.

Something with a space programme,

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 set up a burn ward in 16.

What are you doing? What is that?

Milk. It's milk.

- Much better than water. - 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?

Hey! Get him!

Just get...

Why are you keeping us out here?

Professor Legasov.

Oh, no, not yet. They're finishing up other business.

It'll be a few more minutes. Can I get you some tea?

- No. I'm fine, thank you. - Care to read

Deputy Chairman Shcherbina's report while you wait?

Certainly, thank you.

All right, 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 specialising 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 it's the equivalent of a chest X-ray,

so if you're overdue for a check-up...

- And foreign press? - Totally unaware.

KGB First Deputy Chairman Charkov assures me

we have successfully protected our security interests.

Good. Very good.

Well, it seems like it's well in hand,

so... if there's nothing else,

meeting adjourned.

No!

- Pardon me? - Er... 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.

Er..."A fireman was severely burned

on his hand by a chunk of smooth black mineral on the ground,

outside the reactor building."

Smooth black mineral. Graphite.

There's graphite on the ground.

Well, there was a tank explosion. There's debris.

And what importance that...

There's only one place 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.

- Um... Comrade Shcherbina. - Comrade General Secretary,

I can assure you 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 400 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.

Legasov, there's no place for alarmist hysteria...

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.

Um... er... I apologise.

I didn't mean... er...

Please, may I express my concern

as calmly and as respectfully...

- Professor Legasov... - Boris.

I will allow it.

An RBMK reactor uses uranium 235 as fuel.

Every atom of U-235 is like a bullet,

travelling 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... in the air we breathe,

the water we drink, the food we eat.

Most of these bullets will not stop firing for 100 years.

Some of them not for 50,000 years.

Yes, and this concern...

..stems entirely from the description of a rock?

Yes.

Hm...

Comrade Shcherbina...

I want you to go to Chernobyl.

You take a look at the reactor, you personally,

and you report directly back to me.

Wise decision, Comrade General Secretary.

And take Professor Legasov with you.

Oh.

Forgive me, Comrade General Secretary, but I don't...

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 one of these soldiers will throw you out of the helicopter.

A nuclear reactor makes electricity with steam.

The steam turns a turbine, which generates electricity.

Where a typical power plant makes steam by burning coal,

a nuclear plant...

In a nuclear plant we use something called fission.

You 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 actually travel so fast we call this flux.

It's relatively unlikely

that the 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. Do you want to get sick? Go.

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. Six Paramilitary Fire and Rescue unit.

I need to find him, please.

Ignatenko...

He's being transported by helicopter to Moscow.

- Hospital number six. - Why? Is he all right?

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.

- 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.

That's graphite on the roof.

The whole building's been blown open.

The core's exposed.

I can't see how you can tell that from here.

For God's sakes, look at that glow.

That's radiation ionising the air.

Well, if we can't see it, we don't know.

Get us over the building.

- Boris... - Don't use my name!

If we fly over an open reactor, we'll be dead within a week!

Sir?

Get us over that building. Or I'll have you shot.

If you fly over that core,

I promise you by tomorrow morning

you'll be begging for that bullet.

Perhaps if you came back another day.

Just wonderful.

Deputy Secretary, Garanin.

Ulana Khomyuk of the Byelorussian Institute

- for Nuclear Energy. - What a pleasure.

- Let me introduce... - 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 spreading fear.

- I know about Chernobyl. - Oh?

I know that the core is either partially or completely exposed.

Whatever that means.

And if you don't immediately

issue iodine tablets and then evacuate the 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. Bryukhanov showing off to make us look bad.

It doesn't matter how it looks.

Shcherbina is a pure bureaucrat,

stupid as he is pig-headed.

We'll tell him the truth in the simplest terms. We'll be fine.

Bryukhanov!

Comrade Shcherbina. Chief Engineer Fomin,

Colonel General Bryukhanov and I are honoured at your arrival.

Deeply, deeply honoured.

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 enquiry 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's 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?

Oh, that can't be.

Comrade Shcherbina, my apologies, but graphite...

that's not possible.

Perhaps you saw burnt concrete.

Now, there you've made a mistake.

Cos 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 should 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 you can.

Give them every bit of protection you have,

but even with lead shielding, it may not be enough.

Then I'll do it myself.

Good.

He's back.

It's not 3 roentgen. It's 15,000.

Comrade Shcherbina...

- What does that number mean? - It means the core is open.

It means the fire we're watching is giving off nearly twice

the radiation released by the bomb in Hiroshima.

And that's every single hour, hour after hour.

20 hours since the explosion, so 40 bombs' worth by now.

48 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 and drop water on it like a fire.

No, no. You don't understand, this isn't a fire.

This is a fissioning reactor core

burning at over 2,000 degrees.

The heat will instantly vaporise the water.

How do we put it out?

You are dealing with something

that has never occurred on this planet before.

Boron.

Boron and sand.

Well, that'll create problems of its own

but I don't see any other way.

It's going to take thousands of drops

because you can't fly helicopters

directly over the course, so most of it is going to miss.

How much sand and boron?

For God's sake, roughly.

5,000 tonnes.

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.

But the wind is carrying all that smoke...

..all that radiation.

At least evacuate Pripyat. It's three kilometres away.

- That's my decision to make. - Then make it.

I've been told not to.

- Is it or is it not... - I'm in charge here!

This will go easier if you talk about the things you understand

and not about the things you do not understand.

Where are you going?

I'm going to get you 5,000 tonnes 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.

We're in position. Approaching drop.

Clear to proceed.

Copy. We'll go one by one in rotation.

Remind them about the perimeter.

They cannot fly directly over the fire.

- A minimum of a 10m perimeter. - 10m perimeter.

Lead 1 for pre-flight, maintain minimum 10m perimeter.

Copy that. 40 meters, 35...

30...

No, no, no. They're too close.

If they can't get over the fire, how...

The wind will have to carry it.

Tell them. They cannot go over the core.

Lead 1 is too close. I repeat, they are too close.

Copy. Lead 1, you are inside the perimeter.

They're not copying this. Signal's breaking up.

Lead 1? Lead 1, do you copy?

Lead 1, do you copy? Lead 1, come in.

Do you copy, Lead 1?

Lead 1!

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 2, approach from the west.

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.

- The one in the country. - Oh, 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.

Oh, which nephews?

Simka, who's 14, and little Boris, who's five.

Oh, 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. 20 drops.

What?

There are 50,000 people in this city.

Professor Ilyan, who's also on the commission,

says the radiation isn't high enough to evacuate.

- Ilyan isn't a physicist. - But 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.

Do you want a smoke?

There has been a nuclear accident in the Soviet Union

and the Soviets have admitted 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 because evidence

in the form of mild nuclear radiation

had already reached beyond the Soviet borders to Scandinavia.

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 your reactor core is exposed.

I know the graphite's 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 Alekeyevich Legasov.

Smothering the core will put the fire out

but the temperature will eventually increase...

Believe me, I'm perfectly aware. But I estimate at least a month

before it melts through the lower concrete pad,

- which gives us time. - 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.

Then there are those fire engines

that I saw on the way in.

The fire hoses are still connected.

They've been gushing water into the structure this whole time.

The tanks are full.

The tanks are full.

I have ten minutes...

...then I'm back on the phone, apologising to our friends,

apologising 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've made lava?

I anticipated this.

I believed there was time

to reinforce this lower concrete pad

before the lava reached the earth

and contaminated ground water,

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. Why is that a problem, Professor?

When the lava enters these tanks,

it will instantly superheat and vaporise

approximately 7,000 cubic meters of water,

causing a significant thermal explosion.

How significant?

We estimate between two and four megatons.

Everything within a 30km radius will be completely destroyed,

including the three remaining reactors at Chernobyl.

The entirety of the radioactive material in all of the cores

will be ejected, at force...

and dispersed by a massive shock wave...

..which will extend approximately 200 kilometres

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,

Byelorussia, 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,

steep increase in the rates of cancer and birth defects.

I don't know how many deaths there will be, but many.

For Byelorussia and the Ukraine,

impact means completely uninhabitable

for a minimum of 100 years.

There are more than 50 million people

living in Byelorussia and Ukraine.

60, yes.

And how long before this happens?

Approximately 48 to 72 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 duct ways...

..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.

And open the sluice gate valve here.

The valve will be difficult to operate

so we'll need three men...

who'll need to know the basement layout.

And, of course, any volunteers will be rewarded.

A yearly stipend of 400 roubles.

And er... for those of you

working in reactors 1 and 2, promotions.

Why are reactors 1 and 2 still operating at all?

My friend was a security guard that night

and er... 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, 400 roubles?

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.

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.

I'm making my peace with it. Now you make yours.

And go into that water...

..because it must be done.

Ananenko.

Bezpalov.

Baranov.