Annotated Script of Episode Five, ‘Vichnaya Pamyat’ — Part 4 of 4
JUDGE KADNIKOV
Court is now adjourned. We will resume tomorrow with —
Shcherbina rises. That wonderful, terrible look in his eyes. The last stand of the stubborn, impossible Ukrainian.
SHCHERBINA
The trial continues.
Judge Kadnikov begins to sweat. This is different. He looks at Stepashin, who falters.
JUDGE KADNIKOV
Comrade Shcherbina —
SHCHERBINA
Let him finish.
Stepashin is outranked. He glances at the CAMERAS. The dead faces of the “press.” The audience. KGB scattered among them, no doubt. The show must go on. He gestures to Legasov. Very well. It’s your funeral.
Shcherbina nods to Legasov. He knows what Legasov has decided to do. If we go down, we go down together. Legasov nods back. Gratitude.
Now he looks out into the audience. There are the SIX SCIENTISTS. Listening intently. Almost as if they, too, know the choice he is about to make.
LEGASOV
Dyatlov broke every rule we have, and pushed a reactor to the brink of destruction. He did these things believing there was a fail-safe. AZ-5. A simple button to shut it all down.
Sredmash: In 1987 Dyatlov was found guilty of breaking well over a dozen rules, but the long list of spurious allegations was eventually pared down to just three. Chief among them was the violation of ORM, which may or may not have been inadvertent. The other two did not play a direct role in the accident.[1]
(beat)
But in the circumstance he created — there wasn’t. The shut-down system had a fatal flaw.
Dyatlov listens in stunned horror. What did they not tell him? What did he not know?
LEGASOV
At 1:23 and 40 seconds, Akimov engages AZ-5.
Sredmash: Toptunov pressed the button at Akimov’s direction.[2]
2 seconds later the first warning signals are heard, as the power surge begins. 1 second after that, power reaches 530 MW.[3] 3 seconds after that, the reactor explodes. The miniseries has inverted the sequence of the first two events, no doubt following the example of the (cinematically superb, but historically inaccurate) Zero Hour documentary.
INT. CONTROL ROOM — REACTOR #4–1:23:40
Akimov flips the cover off the AZ-5 switch and PRESSES IT.
Sredmash: In this situation, pressing the button is not enough. It should be held down for 18 seconds (this is why AZ-5 was later replaced with a switch). Otherwise, the controls rods move slightly, but then stop. It appears likely that Toptunov saw the power suddenly rising, shouted in alarm, then pressed the button a second time. An eyewitness named Lisyuk witnessed this, and his mistaken impression of events forms the evidentiary basis for the imaginary power surge that took place before 1:23:40.[4][5]
INT. TRIAL ROOM — NOW
LEGASOV
The fully-withdrawn control rods begin moving back into the reactor. These rods are made of boron, which reduces reactivity. But not their tips. The tips are made of graphite, which accelerates reactivity.
Sredmash: As stated earlier, the tips are several meters long, and do not move back into the reactor, but into its lower quadrant, where the water is boiling and xenon is less abundant. The boron absorbers decrease reactivity in the upper and central portions, but at the bottom of the core, reactivity skyrockets.
JUDGE KADNIKOV
(disbelief)
Why?
Sredmash: The purpose of the graphite is to displace the water that would otherwise fill the same space. Water absorbs neutrons instead of moderating them, so putting graphite in its place makes the control rods more powerful in increasing reactivity. If the graphite displacers had been long enough to reach the bottom of the core when withdrawn, there would have been no explosion. But this would have required making the already oversized core even bigger.
LEGASOV
Why? For the same reason our reactors do not have containment buildings around them like those in the West. The same reason we don’t use properly enriched fuel in our cores.
Sredmash: The design prioritized low enrichment level, which led to increased void coefficients.
The same reason we are the only nation that builds water-cooled graphite moderated reactors with a positive void coefficient.
Sredmash: Sredmash: The U.K. once operated a graphite-moderated, air-cooled plant (Windscale) to support its nuclear weapons program. It caught fire and the fallout contaminated pastureland in Cumberland.
(beat)
It’s cheaper.
Legasov turns back to the room. And to his jury.
LEGASOV
The first part of the rods that enter the core are the graphite tips.
Sredmash: Here the miniseries paraphrases Medvedev’s shaky understanding of RBMK architecture.
And when they do, the reaction in the core, which had been rising — now skyrockets. Every last molecule of liquid water instantly converts to steam, which expands and ruptures a series of fuel rod channels.
(beat)
The control rods in those channels can move no further. The tips are fixed in position, endlessly accelerating the reaction.
He lets it sink in.
LEGASOV
Chernobyl reactor 4 is now a nuclear bomb.
Sredmash: The miniseries caught some flak for this rhetorical flourish, but Dyatlov himself said the same thing.[6]
(beat)
1:23 and 42 seconds.
Sredmash: The very beginning of the power surge, historically speaking.
INT. REACTOR HALL — 1:23:42
Perevozchenko is in the observation room, making notes on a clipboard. He hears a terrible CLUNKING and HISSING.
He looks out through the window, and his jaw drops.
LEGASOV (V.O.)
Perevozchenko looks down on the enormous steel lid of the reactor, and sees the impossible.
THE LID — DOZENS of individual STEEL SQUARES are JOSTLING UP AND DOWN like popcorn… now more of them. And MORE.
Sredmash: Much as I hate to rain on thrilling cinematic parades, this scene is the foremost of Medvedev’s Chernobyl-related fables. If Perevozchenko had been standing here at 1:23:42, he would have been scalded by steam or killed in the explosion that took place just 4 seconds later. Sasha Yuvchenko wrote a letter explaining the impossibility of Perevozchenko’s presence, and confirmed that he never told this story to anyone in the hospital. Other eyewitnesses mirror his statements, confirming Perevozchenko’s presence in the control room around this time.[7]
LEGASOV (V.O.)
The fuel channel caps, which each weigh 350 kilograms, are jumping up and down.
Sredmash: The actual weight is around 50 kilograms. That sound you hear is Dyatlov scoffing over a paperback in his prison barracks.
Perevozchenko DROPS his clipboard in horror, and RUNS out of the room onto the catwalk… racing for the stairs…
LEGASOV (V.O.)
The pressure required to do this is unimaginable. He runs to warn the control room.
Sredmash: Pressure that is not created by a mere 530 MW of thermal power.
Perevozchenko half runs, half falls down the catwalks stairs, scrambles back to his feet, and keeps running.
LEGASOV (V.O.)
But there’s nothing he can do to stop what is coming. 1:23:44.
INT. PUMP ROOM — 1:23:44
KHODEMCHUK backs away from the pumps. They are ROCKING in place… valves begin to POP OFF like BULLETS…
Sredmash: No one knows what Khodemchuk saw, but pressure in the deaerators began to skyrocket.
INT. CONTROL ROOM — REACTOR #4–1:23:44
Akimov’s hand is still on the AZ-5 button. But the LED DISPLAY is climbing. 700… 1000… 1800…
ON THE PANEL — hundreds of indicators and meters LIGHT UP at once.
Sredmash: Tregub described “…some kind of bad noise… as if a Volga at top speed hit the brakes and skidded out. A sound like: du-du-du-du… Turning into a roar. The building began to vibrate. The control room was trembling. But not like an earthquake. If you count up to ten seconds — there came a rumble, the frequency of the oscillations fell. But their strength increased…“[9]
LEGASOV (V.O.)
The steam blows more fuel channels apart. We do not know how high the power went. We only know the final reading. Reactor #4, designed to operate at 3200 megawatts —
Akimov and Toptunov look up at THE LED DISPLAY as it jumps… from 1800 to — 4800 … 9280… 12700… 24720…
552 INT. TRIAL ROOM — NOW 552
LEGASOV
— went beyond 33,000.
(beat)
The pressure inside Reactor #4 can no longer be held back.
Sredmash: Tregub: “Then came the first impact. Kirschenbaum shouted: “Water hammer in the deaerators!” The blow was nothing much. Compared to what came after.” [10]
At long last — we have arrived. 1:23:45. Explosion.
INT. REACTOR HALL — 1:23:45
EXPLOSION — a thunderous BLAST of SUPERHEATED VAPOR erupts from the core. The massive STEEL REACTOR LID is BLOWN UP and TO THE SIDE… like the open lid of a tin can.
Sredmash: ‘Elena’ weighed two thousand tons.
The shockwave PUNCHES THROUGH THE CEILING, sending concrete and glass into the night…
Sredmash: Some scientists have argued that this was a small nuclear ‘fizzle’rather than a steam explosion, due to the high altitudes where certain radionuclides were found.[8] Others have explained it as the result of a prompt criticality. In any event, the oft-used description ‘steam explosion’ is a bit of an understatement.
INT. JUST OUTSIDE THE REACTOR HALL — CONTINUOUS
Perevozchenko is THROWN to the ground. He turns back, and… horror.
Sredmash: Again, Perevozchenko was not there.
INT. CONTROL ROOM — REACTOR #4 — CONTINUOUS
A deep THUD echoes through the room. Everyone ducks a bit… looking around… what the fuck was that?
INT. TRIAL ROOM — NOW
CLOSE ON LEGASOV — retelling the story as if he lived through it. In his mind… he has.
LEGASOV
In the instant the lid is thrown off the reactor, oxygen rushes in. It combines with hydrogen and superheated graphite.
INT. REACTOR HALL — 1:23:47
A rush of air, and a terrible crackling as the gases inside the core ignite, and:
INT. TRIAL ROOM — NOW
LEGASOV
The chain of disaster — is complete.
Sredmash: Virtually all eyewitnesses reported two explosions or at least two rounds of explosions. Workers from outside the building reported seeing a ‘flash’ on the roof of the reactor hall, or hot fragments being ejected.[11]
EXT. REACTOR #4 BUILDING — CONTINUOUS
CATACLYSM
— as the true power of the atom is finally released. In an instant, the building becomes a VOLCANO. Nuclear forces explode up and out, and turn NIGHT INTO DAY.
A PLUME of DEBRIS is sent ROCKETING 1,000 METERS INTO THE AIR, as if shot from the center of the earth itself.
EXT. REACTOR BUILDING — C0NTINUOUS
A HAILSTORM of BURNING GRAPHITE comes raining down from the plume… and as the last bits of deadly debris clatter back to the surrounding roof and ground…
Sredmash: Dyatlov attributes the fires to burning lumps of fuel itself, as nuclear graphite is very difficult to burn. If any graphite was glowing, it was probably due to fuel plastered to the material.[12]
…a thin BLUE LIGHT materializes in the air, shining straight up and down between the open reactor and the sky, piercing through the choking black smoke.
Sredmash: This phenomenon is not described widely, meaning that it was probably visible up close, primarily to plant workers.
The BLUE LIGHT widens… a color we were never meant to know… a glowing column connecting the earth and heavens. A trillion atoms set free. Death, the destroyer of worlds.
INT. CONTROL ROOM — REACTOR #4–1:24 AM
No sound except distant hissing noises. All we see is SWIRLING WHITE DUST, illuminated by emergency BACKUP LIGHTS. And now we make out:
Sredmash: Even in adjacent Unit 3, dust and steam filled the building. In the Unit 4 control room, plaster rained down from the ceiling.
The operators. Cowering. All except for Dyatlov.
CLOSE ON DYATLOV — SLOW MOTION — the white dust swirls eerily around his face. He’s bewildered. Shell-shocked.
Sredmash: By all accounts everyone was shocked. But no one was cowering or waiting for orders. Akimov immediately shouted “Diesels!” and attempted to engage the backup cooling system.[13]
We hear a voice echoing as if from far away:
VOICE (O.S.)
Comrade Dyatlov? Comrade Dyatlov?
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. TRIAL ROOM — NOW
DYATLOV, NOW — thinner and terribly older… but the expression is the same. Shell-shocked.
LEGASOV
No one in the room that night knew the shut-down button could act as a detonator. They didn’t know it — because it was kept from them.
Sredmash: The details of the analogous accident in Leningrad 9 years earlier had been classified by the Medium Machinebuilding Industry. Chernobyl NPP was run by Minergo and not privy to the information. A brief letter was sent to the management of other power plants, and the woefully inadequate ORM limit of 15 equivalent control rods was instituted, without adequate explanation.
The six scientists listen in shock. A rare thing in the air, the sound of truth…
JUDGE KADNIKOV
Comrade Legasov — you are contradicting —
(searches documents)
You are contradicting your own testimony in Vienna —
LEGASOV
My testimony in Vienna was a lie. I lied. To the world.
Sredmash: Legasov’s testimony received a standing ovation in Vienna, and some of his colleagues still bristle at the suggestion that it was a lie. His performance reduced international pressure on the USSR, which enabled the other RBMK reactors to continue running. However, some figures in government still wanted to punish Legasov for revealing state secrets.[14]
ON KHOMYUK — a mixture of disbelief and gratitude. At last, someone has spoken the truth.
LEGASOV
I am not the only one who kept this secret. There are many. We were following orders. From the KGB, from the Central Committee.
Sredmash: Again, he would do better to name the Kurchatov Institute and the NIKIET design bureau responsible for the reactor. Elite scientists who got the state to go along with their coverup.
And right now, there are 16 reactors in the Soviet Union with this same fatal flaw. Three of them are still running less than 20 kilometers away… at Chernobyl.
Kadnikov is frightened by Legasov’s words. But he too has his orders. He too is at risk. And this is not the narrative over which he was meant to preside.
JUDGE KADNIKOV
Professor Legasov, if you mean to suggest the Soviet State is somehow responsible for what happened, then I must warn you — you are treading on dangerous ground.
LEGASOV
I’ve already trod on dangerous ground. We’re on dangerous ground right now. Because of our secrets and our lies. They are practically what defines us. When the truth offends, we lie and lie until we cannot even remember it’s there. But it is still there. Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth.
Sredmash: Spare a moment to think of the various lies which the miniseries has inadvertently repeated, endorsing accusations from the trial which the script itself describes as unjust.
(beat)
Sooner or later, the debt is paid.
Legasov turns back to the six scientists. His colleagues.
His peers. His secret jury. His hope.
LEGASOV
That is how an RBMK reactor core explodes.
(beat)
Lies.
Sredmash: To quote Legasov: “The Chernobyl disaster is the apotheosis, the peak of that mismanagement, which has manifested in our country over the course of many decades.”[15]
And one by one, the scientists look down or avert their eyes. Ashamed. Or frightened. Or in denial. It doesn’t matter which.
Legasov can tell from their faces. So can Khomyuk. It didn’t work. It wasn’t enough. They’ve failed.
Sredmash: Given that RBMK modifications were already in the works, Legasov’s failure involved his grand plans for reform of the nuclear and scientific sectors as a whole. He wanted cultural and institutional change that would address not just this disaster, but prevent future mishaps along the same lines.[16]
It’s over.
Sredmash: The historical trial was not without acts of defiance on the part of the witnesses. Some plant workers were called to the stand and refused to support the prosecutor’s narrative.
G. Dik, shift supervisor: Nowhere in the operating documents does it say that the reactor becomes a nuclear hazard when there are less than 15 control rods in the active zone. No one knew about the dangers of the reactor at low power. If a person does not know the dangers, then he will carry out the test program to its end. The RBMK was designed with deviations from the norms of nuclear safety; the void coefficient is positive. This led to the power surge. According to all the physics textbooks, this should not be the case.[17] (Dik was threatened by the prosecutor for this performance.)[18]
I. Kazachkov, former Unit 4 shift supervisor: Even with full observation of the regulations, the reactor could have exploded.
S. Parashin, former Secretary of the ChNPP Party Committee: The personnel are guilty, but not to the degree stated by this court. We worked on reactors that are nuclear hazards. We did not know that they are explosion-prone.[19]
A. Kryat, supervisor of the ChNPP laboratory of nuclear physics: The reactor exhibits such negative characteristics that this [explosion] would have happened sooner or later.[20]
INT. HALLWAY — MOMENTS LATER
Legasov walks down the hallway that leads away from the trial room. One of the ARMED SOLDIERS — who had been guarding the defendants — now walks behind Legasov.
Sredmash: No filmmaker can resist the inclusion of incongruous AKs.
Guarding him.
They arrive at a DOOR. The soldier says nothing. Just gestures to the door.
Legasov opens it, and walks into:
Sredmash: In this scene he peers behind the open door, remembering stories of NKVD executioners who would shoot prisoners in the back of the head as they entered the room. Such a fear is completely unfounded in 1987, but Legasov and Scherbina are old enough to remember some of Stalin’s purges.
INT. FACILITY KITCHEN — CONTINUOUS
Legasov takes a step into the room, then stops. Looks down. There’s a small DRAIN set in the floor. So. This is where he dies. In an abandoned kitchen of an abandoned city in anabandoned land. He closes his eyes.
BOOM.
The echoey thud of the DOOR behind him. The soldier has left. Legasov is alone. He finds his breath.
INT. FACILITY KITCHEN — LATER
The door opens. CHARKOV enters. He closes the door behind him, and takes a seat across from Legasov.
He reaches into his coat pocket. Removes a piece of paper. Unfolds it. Puts on his glasses to read.
CHARKOV
Valery Alexeyevich Legasov. Son of Alexei Legasov, Head of Ideological Compliance, Central Committee.
(looks up)
You know what your father did there?
LEGASOV
Yes.
CHARKOV
(continues reading)
As a student, you had a leadership position in Komsomol. Communist Youth. Correct?
Sredmash: Komsomol membership was mandatory for anyone receiving a higher education.
LEGASOV
You already know —
CHARKOV
Answer the question.
LEGASOV
Yes.
CHARKOV
At the Kurchatov Institute, you were the Communist Party secretary. In that position, you limited the promotion of Jewish scientists.
Sredmash: As the revolutionary egalitarian ethos of Soviet socialism waned, the antisemitism engrained in Russian culture crept back into the halls of power.
A long pause.
LEGASOV
Yes.
CHARKOV
To curry favor with Kremlin officials?
Yes.
This is how they break you. With the sins of your father. With your own.
Charkov sighs. Puts the paper away.
CHARKOV
You’re one of us, Legasov. You’ve always been one of us. I can do anything I want with you, anything, but what I want the most is for you to know that I know. You’re not brave. You’re not heroic.
Sredmash: Legasov did not always toe the line. Before graduating high school, he attracted the attentions of the security services for rewriting the charter of the local Komsomol. Stalin’s death and the ensuing ‘thaw’ in Soviet society interrupted any serious repercussions that were in the works.[21]
(beat)
You’re just a dying man who forgot himself.
Legasov looks down. No.
LEGASOV
I know who I am, and I know what I’ve done. In a just world, I would be shot for my lies.
(beat)
But not for this. Not for the truth.
CHARKOV
Scientists… and your idiot obsession with reasons.
(leans in)
When the bullet hits your skull, what will it matter why?
A grim moment. Then — Charkov smiles. Leans back.
CHARKOV
No one’s getting shot, Legasov. The whole world saw you in Vienna. It would be embarrassing to kill you now. And for what? Your testimony today will not be accepted by the State. It will not be disseminated in the press. It never happened.
Sredmash: This could be said for Volkhov’s work on the RBMK, mentioned earlier.
(beat)
No, you will live — however long you have. But not as a scientist. Not anymore. You’ll keep your title and your office, but no duties, no authority, no friends. No one will talk to you. No one will listen to you. Other men — lesser men — will receive credit for the things you have done. Your legacy is now their legacy. You’ll live long enough to see that.
Sredmash: At this point in history, Legasov still expected to be named Hero of Socialist Labor, and continued to advocate for reform until immediately before his suicide. He was the target of recriminations from two sides: the scientific Old Guard who sought to defend their reputations, and Monday Morning Quarterbacks who questioned his decisions in the aftermath of the explosion.
Erased. He’s being erased. Before he can speak —
CHARKOV
What role did Shcherbina play in this?
LEGASOV
None. He didn’t know what I was going to say.
CHARKOV
What role did Khomyuk play in this?
LEGASOV
None. She didn’t know either. Charkov stares into Legasov’s eyes. He sees no waver, no blink, no false bravado. He wasn’t expecting that.
CHARKOV
After all you’ve said and done today, it would be — curious — if you chose this moment to lie.
LEGASOV
(unfaltering)
I would think a man of your experience would know a lie when he hears one.
A long pause, as Charkov passes silent judgment. Then… he nods. Very well. He believes. But:
CHARKOV
You will not meet or communicate with either one of them ever again. You will not communicate with anyone about Chernobyl ever again. You will remain so immaterial to the world around you that when you finally do die, it will be exceedingly hard to tell that you ever lived at all.
Sredmash: As stated above, Legasov would go on to make quite a bit of noise concerning Chernobyl. Any KGB involvement has not made it into the historical record. But a parcel of grey-haired academics sitting next to their bookshelves do not make for effective on-screen villains.
LEGASOV
And if I refuse?
Charkov’s eyes deaden. The face of a murderer. Then, as if by the flip of a switch, an amiable shrug.
CHARKOV
Why worry about something that isn’t going to happen?
And Valery Legasov, as dead as a living man can be, can’t help but smile at that.
LEGASOV
“Why worry about something that isn’t going to happen.” That’s perfect.
(beat)
They should put that on our money.
Sredmash: Sick burn, Mazin.
EXT. CITY OF CHERNOBYL — STREET — BEFORE SUNSET
The front door of the building opens. KGB men emerge. They walk in unison, surrounding LEGASOV as they escort him.
Up ahead, a KGB agent waits by a CAR for Legasov. Legasov turns back… and there they are, across the street.
Khomyuk and Shcherbina. Khomyuk fights back tears. She knows what he did. She knows why. She knows what it means.
Legasov knows he can’t say a word. All he has is his face, his eyes, his heart. He absolves her as best he can.
And now, Shcherbina. His brother. His friend. His rock. Shcherbina raises a hand in goodbye. They don’t need words. It happened. They mattered. And now it’s over.
Legasov raises his hand back, then gets into the car. We RISE UP — as the car pulls away…
SOUND: the HISS of an audio tape, and then:
LEGASOV (VO ON TAPE)
To be a scientist is to be naive. We are so focused on our search for truth, we fail to consider how few actually want us to find it. But it is always there, whether we can see it or not, whether we choose to or not. The truth doesn’t care about our needs or wants. It doesn’t care about our governments, our ideologies, our religions. It will lie in wait, for all time.
We RISE UP HIGHER — as the car disappears down the road.
LEGASOV (VO ON TAPE)
And this, at last, is the gift of Chernobyl. Where I once would fear the cost of truth, now I only ask:
CUT TO BLACK:
LEGASOV (VO ON TAPE)
What is the cost of lies?
INT./EXT. THE REAL PRIPYAT — TODAY
MUSIC: Vichnaya Pamyat (Eternal Memory)
Photos of Valery Legasov…
Valery Legasov took his own life at the age of 51 on April 26, 1988, exactly two years after the explosion at Chernobyl.
Sredmash: Another of Legasov’s reform initiatives had failed the day before. He was also scheduled to present the results of his own personal investigation into the causes of the disaster the following day. Taken together, his action seems more like despair than a calculated attempt to draw attention to the flawed reactor. His tapes were freely circulated, and excerpts were published in the press.[22]
The audio tapes of Legasov’s memoirs were circulated among the Soviet scientific community.
Sredmash: President Boris Yeltsin named Legasov a Hero of Russia in 1995.
His suicide made it impossible for them to be ignored. In the aftermath of his death, Soviet officials finally acknowledged the design flaws of the RBMK nuclear reactors.
Those reactors were immediately retrofitted to prevent an accident like Chernobyl from happening again.
Photographs of various scientists who participated in the battle to clean up Chernobyl…
Legasov was aided by dozens of scientists who worked tirelessly alongside him at Chernobyl.
Some spoke out against the official account of events and were subject to denunciation, arrest and imprisonment.
Sredmash: If anyone was repressed, I was unable to find any information regarding it. Actual imprisonment was highly unlikely in the midst of Glasnost. The KGB did recommend ‘harsh punishment’ for scientists who published a detailed report on the consequences of the disaster, but they were protected by Ryzhkov.[23]
The character of Ulana Khomyuk was created to represent them all and to honor their dedication and service to truth and humanity.
Sredmash: To this day, former Communist countries are more likely to have women in STEM fields.[24] Female liquidators were primarily medical personnel, but there were also female scientists working in the Zone.
Photographs of Shcherbina…
Boris Shcherbina died on August 22, 1990… four years and four months after he was sent to Chernobyl.
Images from the actual trial…
For their roles in the Chernobyl disaster, Viktor Bryukhanov, Anatoly Dyatlov and Nikolai Fomin were sentenced to ten years hard labor.
Sredmash: All six defendants secured early release, with Dyatlov the last to leave prison after serving four years of his sentence. The famous dissident scientist Andrei Sakharov was instrumental in securing his release. Ironically, Sakharov also wrote the forward to G. Medvedev’s book, which would go on to slander Dyatlov for generations to come.[25]
After his release, Nikolai Fomin returned to work… at a nuclear power plant in Kalinin, Russia.
The final photo taken of Dyatlov, hunched over, thin, bald.
Anatoly Dyatlov died from radiation-related illness in 1995.
Sredmash: Numerous colleagues wrote letters to his widow, describing their recollections of Dyatlov and eulogizing him. He had few friends at Chernobyl, other than Sitnikov, but quite a few colleagues who followed him there from the Far East.[26] Several of them visited Dyatlov in prison and met him at the gates upon his release.[27]
He was 64.
A photo of the real Khodemchuk standing with his young son. Valery Khodemchuk’s body was never recovered. He is permanently entombed under Reactor 4.
EXISTING FOOTAGE: handheld video of someone in a protective suit moving through the dark, dilapidated hallways…
The firefighters’ clothing still remains in the basement of Pripyat Hospital.
VIDEO: a dosimeter is held near one of the firefighter’s actual boots. The beeping turns into one long, loud alarm. It is dangerously radioactive to this day.
Abandoned rooms in Pripyat…
Following the death of her husband and daughter, Lyudmilla Ignatenko suffered multiple strokes.
Doctors told her she would never be able to bear a child.
They were wrong.
She lives with her son in Kiev.
Sredmash: Ignatenko has stated that she does not want to be the public face of Chernobyl survivors, and wishes to maintain her privacy.
The actual railway bridge…
Of the people who watched from the railway bridge, it has been reported that none survived.
Sredmash: “It has been reported” is a nice way of saying “old wives’ tale”. Most of Pripyat slept through the explosion, and did not take their young children on a 4 kilometer walk at 2:00 am. One youngster on a bicycle contracted mild radiation poisoning when riding over the bridge towards the plant. Author Higginbotham also interviewed a (perfectly healthy) couple who stood on the bridge later the next day, although their daughter later died of an asthma attack.[28] The statistical odds of 10 people standing on the bridge and all developing cancer (from both natural and nuclear causes) is less than 0.1%.[29]
It is now known as “The Bridge of Death.”
Sredmash: And quite popular with certain tour guides in the Zone.
Photos of the miners…
400 miners worked around the clock for one month to prevent a total nuclear meltdown.
It is estimated that at least 100 of them died before the age of 40.
Sredmash: Of course, the tunnel was probably the least radioactive area in a 2-kilometer radius. Unfortunately, coal miners are at appallingly high risk of chronic disease and early death at the best of times. The nitrogen heat exchanger was installed, but never activated, since the melted core cooled into slag on its own, aided by some of the water that remained in the basement of the plant. Legasov had never been particularly concerned about the threat of ‘China Syndrome’ in the first place, although others were.[30]
Photos of the interior of damaged reactor building 4… It has been widely reported that the three divers who drained the bubbler tanks died as a result of their heroic actions.
In fact, all three survived after hospitalization. Two are still alive today.
Sredmash: Any hospitalization would have been for the purposes of observation. Reconnaissance indicated that their mission would not expose them to excessive radiation hazards. Ananenko recalls that their total dose was modest, perhaps a few Roentgen. However, there was one moment when the trio rushed past a hallway filled with shards of corium that had fallen from the ceiling, and their dosimeters briefly maxed out. They recalled their feat as a straightforward task, all in a day’s work.[31]
Photos of liquidators…
Over 600,000 people were conscripted to serve in the Exclusion Zone.
Despite widespread accounts of sickness and death as a result of radiation, the Soviet government kept no official records of their fate.
Sredmash: The liquidators are now scattered across several different countries, making it difficult to study their health. The Soviet Union would collapse before many cancers related to radiation would have been expected to appear. Perhaps more deleterious was the widespread perception that the liquidators were damaged goods whose health was inevitable ruined. A significant increase in drinking and other risky behaviors would cause far more early deaths than the 2–3% increase in cancer risk suggested by the radiation exposure.
High above the desolate countryside. Disintegrating boats rust in piles on the shores of the Pripyat River. The contaminated region of Ukraine and Belarus, known as the Exclusion Zone, ultimately encompassed 2,600 square kilometers.
Pripyat from above
Approximately 300,000 people were displaced from their homes. They were told this was temporary.
It is still forbidden to return.
Footage of Gorbachev presiding over a Labor Day parade… Mikhail Gorbachev presided over the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991.
In 2006, he wrote, “The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl… was perhaps the true cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union.”
Sredmash: It would be difficult to find a historian who shares this opinion. Given that Gorbachev’s economic and political reforms triggered the collapse of the USSR, Chernobyl is a convenient scapegoat.
We move around the power plant as it exists now. The reactor building is entirely encased in a metal half-dome.
Sredmash: The world’s largest movable structure.
In 2017, work was completed on the New Safe Confinement at Chernobyl at a cost of nearly two billion dollars.
It is designed to last 100 years.
EXISTING FOOTAGE: Doctors examine children. Some are clearly sick.
Following the explosion, there was a dramatic spike in cancer rates across Ukraine and Belarus.
The highest increase was among children.
Sredmash: Specifically, the only clear spike was among children. Radioactive iodine caused several thousand cases of thyroid cancer, which could have been avoided had iodine tablets been promptly distributed and contaminated foodstuffs discarded. Thankfully, thyroid cancer has an extremely high survival rate, and only 9 children died from these cancers.[32]
PRIPYAT — we move slowly toward: A MONUMENT. Two large, stone hands reaching up and cupping the reactor building.
We will never know the actual human cost of Chernobyl. Most estimates range from 4,000 to 93,000 deaths.
Sredmash: The latter figure is not particularly credible (published by Greenpeace), but the additional cancer cases may well reach into the low tens of thousands. The issue is essentially impossible to study, because radiation-related cancers exist as a tiny subset of millions of identical diseases from natural causes. Perhaps more devastating to human health and quality of life was the economic stress, social dislocation and sheer trauma suffered by the Ukrainian and Belarussian evacuees.[33] Millions of women across Europe aborted their pregnancies over fear of birth defects which never materialized.[34] Although unrelated to radiation, this too is the toxic legacy of Chernobyl.
The official Soviet death toll, unchanged since 1987…
…is 31.
Sredmash: The USSR isn’t around anymore to update the tally, but more importantly, it is impossible to determine whether a cancerous growth is caused by radiation or not. For instance, even among those who suffered from ARS and then cancer, there is a 60%-90% chance that their cancer was from natural causes.[35] The WHO’s present count of deaths directly attributable to the disaster is 50.[36]
FADE TO BLACK:
In memory of all who suffered and sacrificed.
END OF SERIES
Sredmash: At some point I hope to pick up where we left off in the control room by resuming with Episode One. There we can go into more detail on the heroism and sacrifice of the plant workers and first responders.
With thanks to:
Strywolf
Saracen87
Beebyontheworld
alliumnsk
HBO/Craig Mazin for releasing the scripts
Cast and crew of the miniseries who went to such lengths to authentically recreate the atmosphere and material culture of the late USSR
Everyone on the internet who accused me of pro-Soviet propaganda
Sources Cited in Part 4
[1] INSAG Series №7; The Chernobyl Accident: Updating of INSAG-1, International Atomic Energy Agency, 1993, Link., pp. 18.
[2] INSAG-7, 66.
[3] Карпан Н.В., Чернобыль. Месть мирного атома, IKK Balans-Klub, 2006., pp. 337.
[4] Karpan, 492.
[5] Дятлов А.С., Чернобыль. Как это было, 2004., pp. 41.
[6] Dyatlov, 42.
[7] Dyatlov, 105.
[8] For more information: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171117085130.htm
[9] Причины Чернобыльской аварии известны, Accidont.ru, 13 May 2006., <http://accidont.ru/evid02.html>.
[10] Accidont.ru, http://accidont.ru/evid02.html.
[11] Accidont.ru, http://accidont.ru/evid02.html.
[12] Dyatlov, 50.
[13] Accidont.ru, http://accidont.ru/evid02.html.
[14] Как убивали академика Легасова, который провел собственное расследование Чернобыльской катастрофы, Moskovskii Komsomolets, 25 April 2017, Link.
[15] Лучевая болезнь, депрессия и отчаяние: почему покончил с собой Валерий Легасов, Fakty, 18 June 2019, Link.
[16] Fakty.
[17] Karpan, 498.
[18] Dyatlov, 118.
[19] Karpan, 499.
[20] Karpan, 500.
[21] Moskovskii Komsomolets.
[22] Facts.
[23] Interview with Vladimir Asmolov, Medium, 1 August 2019, Link.
[24] For more information: https://www.economist.com/europe/2019/07/18/why-half-the-scientists-in-some-eastern-european-countries-are-women
[25] Сергей Добрынин, Чернобыль: срок полураспада. Взрыв, Радио Свобода, 25 April 2016, Link.
[26] Dyatlov, 181.
[27] Dyatlov, 106.
[28] For more information: https://thebulletin.org/2019/05/the-human-drama-of-chernobyl/
[29] Based on an extremely conservative estimate of 45% chance of developing cancer from non-radiation sources, and 5% additional cancer risk from radioactive fallout. Assuming a 50% mortality rate for cancer makes this legend even more implausible from a statistical standpoint.
[30] Легасовым В.А, Об аварии на Чернобыльской АЭС, Pseudology, Link.
[31] For more information: http://www.souzchernobyl.org/?id=2440
[32] Higginbotham, Chapter 20.
[33] For more information: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22394694
[34] For more information: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/06/11/top-ucla-doctor-denounces-depiction-of-radiation-in-hbos-chernobyl-as-wrong-and-dangerous/#616c5161e072
[35] Victims of Acute Radiation Sickness have a heightened risk of developing cancer, but for the vast majority of Chernobyl’s first responders, this increase would have been less than 10%. Liquidators receiving 25 Roentgen could expect an increased risk of 2–3%. By comparison, the average male has a roughly 45% chance of developing cancer during his lifetime, due to lifestyle factors such as cigarettes and alcohol, environmental factors involving various pollutants and contaminants, or just genetic bad luck.
[36] For more information: https://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr38/en/
