Original subtitles

You know, probably the homeland is not the city

house where I lived on holidays, but these villages that were

passed on by grandfathers with simple crosses of their Russian graves.

According to Russian customs, only by throwing a fire on Russian soil behind,

In our eyes, comrades were dying.

In Russian, the shirt was torn on the chest.

We, the bullet, were still with you.

But three times, believing that life was over, I was proud of the most

beautiful, bitter land, where I was born.

You worked too hard.

Where is everyone?

Oh, they refused to come in.

Why?

It's Saturday.

Why did you come in?

I worked too hard.

It's boiling in here.

8 Miller, Rumkin.

Leak? No.

It would have gone off before. It's coming from outside.

The American?

Iodine -131.

It's not military, it's uranium decay.

U -235.

Reactor fuel.

Ignalina, maybe 240 kilometers away.

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

All right, stay calm.

They're at four.

It's not them.

Who's the next closest?

It's Chernobyl, but that's not possible. They're 400 kilometers away.

Well, that's too far for eight mini -ronkin. They'd have to be split open.

Maybe they know something.

Iodine. Could it be a waste dump?

We'd be seeing other isotopes.

Nucleotide? A new kind of bomb? We'd have heard that's what half our people

on here.

Something with a 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.

What did the old man? He said if a girl rolled in 16.

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.

I'm taking it down to the basement.

You were the firefighter. Can you stop pushing, please?

Professor Legatov.

Oh no, not yet.

They're finishing up some other business. It'll be a few more minutes.

you some tea?

No, I'm fine, thank you. Would you care to read Deputy Chairman Shabina'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 Sherpina's briefing, and then we will discuss next steps, if

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

Pikalo, who commands troops specializing in chemical hazards, has been

dispatched to the plant.

In terms of radiation... Plant Director Brekhanov reports no more than 3 .6

Sronkin. I'm told it's the equivalent of a test x -ray, so if you're overdue for

a check -up... And foreign press?

Totally unaware.

KGB First Deputy Chairman Cherkov assures me that we have successfully

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?

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 burned on his hand by a chunk of smooth black mineral

the ground outside the reactor building. Smooth...

Black mineral. Graphite. There's graphite on the ground.

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.

Oh.

Comrade Shervina.

General Secretary, I can assure you that Professor Legasov is mistaken.

Buchanan reports that the reactor core is intact.

And as for the radiation... Yes, 3 .6 Rontgen, which, by the way, is not the

equivalent of one chest X -ray, but rather 400 chest X -rays. That number's

bothering me for a different reason, though.

It's also the maximum reading on low -limit decimeters. They gave us the

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.

There's no place for alarmist hysteria. 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

to what has been reported by party officials.

I'm, uh, I apologize.

I didn't mean, uh...

Please may I express my concern as calmly and as respectfully

as... Professor Legato. Boris.

I will allow it.

Um... 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, wood, metal, concrete, flesh.

Every gram of U -235 holds over a billion trillion of these bullets.

one... Now, Chernobyl holds over 3 million grams, and right now it is on

Wind will carry radioactive particles across the entire continent.

Rain will bring them down on us. That's 3 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 100 years.

Some of them not for 50 ,000 years.

Yes, and this concern stems entirely from the description of

a rock.

Yes.

Comrade Shabina, I want you to go to Chernobyl.

You take a look at the reactor, you personally, and you report directly back

me. Wise decision, Comrade General Secretary.

And take Professor Legato with you.

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? Simple question.

Hardly a simple answer.

Of course.

Presume I'm too stupid to understand.

I'll restate.

Tell me how a nuclear reactor works or I'll have one of these soldiers throw

out of the helicopter.

A nuclear reactor makes electricity with steam.

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.

We take an unstable element like uranium -235.

which has too many neutrons. A neutron is... 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

of energy. Efficient.

And the graphite?

Ah, yes.

The neutrons are actually traveling 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.

I don't need you.

Can you help me? I need to find my husband. Not now.

Take away from him, please.

Get away from them.

Oh, my God. You want to get back? Go. Please, Senka. Please, Senka. Please,

Senka. Please.

Please. Please.

Please, Senka.

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's being transported by helicopter to Moscow.

Hospital number six.

Why, is he all right? Can I see him?

You want to see him? Go to Moscow.

But they're not letting us leave here.

Tell them Major Borov allows it.

When are they taking him?

Now.

Approaching a power plant.

What have they done?

Hey, let's 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 see how you can tell that from here.

Oh, for God's sake.

Look at that glow.

That's radiation ionizing the air.

Why, if we can't see, we don't know.

Get us directly over the building. Sorry. Don't use my name. If we fly

over it, I'll just react and 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

begging for that bullet.

I think you'll pay him back another day.

Just wonderful.

Deputy Secretary Garanin.

Ulana Khomyuk of the Belarusian Institute for Nuclear Energy.

What a pleasure.

Now 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 everywhere, spreading fear.

I know about Chernobyl.

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

that means.

And that 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

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.

Big Carl up showing off to make us look bad. Doesn't matter how it looks.

Sabina is a pure bureaucrat.

Stupid as he is, pig -headed.

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

How much have you been?

Chief Engineer Amin, Colonel Delacroix and I are honoured at your arrival.

Deeply, deeply honoured.

Naturally, we regret the circumstances of your visit, but as you can see, we

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 seeing 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, there's no answer.

It's great.

Really.

It spreads 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?

Farmeen, why did the deputy chairman see graphite on the roof?

Father, there can't be.

Comrade Shevina, 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.

I know a lot about concrete.

Comrade, I assure you that... I'm done.

This leads to the death of his walk.

How shall we prove it?

Our high -ranked decimeter just arrived.

We could cover one of our trucks with lead shielding.

Mount the decimeter on the front.

Have one of your men get as close to the fire as you can.

Given every bit of protection you have, but understand that even with lead

shielding it may not be enough.

Then I'll do it myself.

Feedback.

Not too long, Kent.

15 ,000.

Comrade Wiener.

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.

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.

Cruz and Scorch, Comrade Pekhanov, will come in to the local party headquarters.

Thank you for your service.

No problem. Your excuse.

The atlas was in charge.

It was the atlas!

Tell me how to put it out.

We'll use helicopters.

We'll drop water on it like a fire.

That isn't a fire.

This is a fissioning reactor called burning at over 2 ,000 degrees. The heat

will instantly vaporize the water. How do we put it out?

You are dealing with something that has never occurred on this planet before.

Boron.

Boron and that.

That'll create problems of its own, but I don't see any other way.

Of course, it's going to take thousands of drops because you can't fly the

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

sir, number?

I'll take roughly.

5 ,000 tons.

Obviously, we're going to need to evacuate an enormous area. Never mind

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 this or is it not your decision? I'm in charge.

This will go much easier if you talk to me about the things you do understand

and not about the things you do not understand.

Where are you going?

I'm going to get you 5 ,000 tons of sand and borer.

We just did it.

Moscow?

Are you here because of the fire?

Anything we should be worried about?

No.

Remind them about the perimeter.

They cannot fly directly over the fire. A minimum of a 10 -meter perimeter.

10 -meter perimeter.

Lead one per pre -flight. Maintain minimum 10 -meter perimeter.

Copy that. 40 meters.

35.

30.

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

We can't get over the fire. The wind will have to carry it.

Tell them.

They cannot go over the core.

Lead 1 is too close.

I repeat, we are too close.

Copy.

Lead 1, you are inside the perimeter.

I did not copy this.

The signal is breaking up.

What?

No.

What? You copy?

Sir, what do I tell the others?

Is there any other way, Nagazo?

Send the next one in.

Tell them to approach from the west.

It's out of Institute Laboratory 4.

Marina Gosenskaya?

It's Alana Chomiuk 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.

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...

Oh, which nephews?

Simca, who's 14, and little Boris, who's 5.

Well, that's wonderful.

Though children can make you even hotter when they're crawling all over you.

Maybe I should visit them. No, they don't want visitors.

I'm sorry, um, I have to get back to work. It's very busy right now. Goodbye.

They're dropping sand and boron on the fire.

That's what I would do.

Yes, I'm sure I do.

Where you going?

Chernobyl.

It's been smooth.

20 drops.

What?

There are 50 ,000 people in the city.

Professor Illion, who's also on the commission, says the radiation isn't

enough to evacuate.

Illion 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...

A nuclear plant in Sweden that detected radiation and identified it as a

byproduct of our fuel.

The Americans took satellite photos.

The reactor building, the smoke, the fire.

The whole world knows.

The wind has been blowing toward Germany.

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 in the city

Kiev was damaged, and there is speculation in Moscow that people were

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.

On the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the city of Pripyat, an

unfavorable radiation situation is taking

place.

Starting at 2 .00 p

.m., buses will be delivered

with police officers and...

will be guarded by police officers. Comrades,

temporarily leaving their homes, do not forget...

I said turn around.

This is a restricted zone.

I'm from the Belarusian 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, the cement is in hand.

Comrade, the guards erected 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'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.

Olana Yurevnyuk, chief physicist, Belarusian Institute for Nuclear Energy.

you're Valery Alexeevich Legatov.

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. 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

ECM. 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

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.

Thanks a lot.

Thanks a lot.

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 Legato will deliver our briefing.

There is some good news.

The airdrops 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

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 believe 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 Belarusian 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 vaporize.

Approximately 7 ,000 cubic meters of water causing a significant thermal

explosion. How significant?

We estimate between 2 and 4 megatons.

Everything within a 30 -kilometer radius will be completely destroyed, including

the three remaining reactors at Chernobyl. The entirety of the

material in all of the cores will be ejected at force.

and dispersed by a massive shockwave, which will extend approximately

200 kilometers and likely be fatal to the entire population of Kiev, as well

a portion of Minsk.

The release of radiation will be severe and will impact all of Soviet Ukraine,

Latvia, Lithuania, Belarusia, as well as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary,

Romania. And most of it's 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 Belarusia and Ukraine, impact means completely uninhabitable for a minimum

of 100 years.

more than 50 million people living in Belarusia and Ukraine.

50, yeah.

And how long before this happens?

Approximately 48 to 72 hours.

But we may have a solution.

We can pump the water from the tank.

Unfortunately... The tank was 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

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 tank.

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.

Open the sluice gate valve here.

The valve will be difficult to operate, so we'll need three men.

We'll need to know the basement layout.

And of course, any volunteers will be rewarded.

A yearly stipend of 400 rubles.

And 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 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 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 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.

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 caused the price I have to pay.

I'm making my peace with it.

Now you make yours.

Go into that water.

But it must be done.

On an ankle.

There's Parlov.

Hmm.

Oh.

Thank you.