Chernobyl

Where are you going?

Chernobyl.

Ignatenko, fire and rescue unit. I need to find him!

Moscow. Hospital number six.

Are you here because of the fire?

Anything we should be worried about?

No.

It cannot go over the core.

The nuclear plant in Sweden has detected radiation.

At least evacuate Pripyat.

When the lava enters these tanks,

it will instantly superheat,

causing a significant thermal explosion.

And how long before this happens?

Approximately 48 to 72 hours,

but we may have a solution.

Is it possible that the water has already killed them?

Yes.

Then what?

If it doesn't work?

Get them in the truck.

Get the hoses in! Start pumping!

Uh, I'm here to see my husband, Vasily Ignatenko.

He's a firefighter from Chernobyl. I have permission.

Chernobyl? I'm sorry, no visitors.

Well, but Major Burov told me,

- he said... - No exceptions.

Please. I've come all the way from Kievskaya Oblast.

Excuse me.

Excuse me, excuse me.

Who are you? What are you doing here?

- I have a pass. - You can't be here. It's not safe.

I am here to see my husband.

Vasily Ignatenko.

He's a firefighter from Chernobyl.

I know who Ignatenko is, but you can't.

I have permission. I-I've...

You can see him for 30 minutes, not a minute more.

And you cannot touch him in any way. Do you understand?

- Yeah. - Room 15.

Thank you.

- You're not pregnant, are you? - No.

I won't have to give that to you.

There they are.

No, wait, wait, wait. I haven't finished yet.

No, he hasn't.

Yeah, that's good.

Yeah, better.

Look who the cat dragged in.

What did I tell you?

There's no hiding from you, is there?

Easy, easy. It's okay.

We're all okay. Yeah, we're okay.

How, how, how did this happen? Who gave them the idea?

- Are you suggesting I did? - Someone did.

Someone decided that the evacuation zone

should be 30 kilometers, when we know, here,

Cesium-137 in the Gomel district.

- That's 200 kilometers away! - It was decided.

- Based on what? - I don't know!

Forgive me. Maybe I've just spent too much time in my lab.

Or maybe I'm just stupid.

Is this really the way it all works?

An uninformed, arbitrary decision

that will cost who knows how many lives

made by some apparatchik, some career party man?

I'm a career party man.

You should watch your tone, Comrade Legasov.

Comrades...

We have visual confirmation that the fire is nearly extinguished.

There has also been a reduction in iodine 131

and cesium-137 emissions.

Good. Yes?

But the temperature is rising.

And, uh...

There's a spike in zirconium-95.

It's from the cladding on the fuel rods.

Meaning what?

The meltdown has begun.

Get it off me!

Get it off me!

Stop moving!

Get off him! You're hurting him!

- You can't be in here. - What's happening to him?

Get out!

You can't be in here!

- Yes? - Comrade Shcherbina is on the phone.

Put him through.

Well?

The fire's nearly out.

The bubbler tanks are being drained.

We have successfully eliminated the risk of a thermal explosion.

And?

The situation inside the core

is deteriorating faster than anticipated.

The concrete pad will last for six to eight weeks,

but after that, Legasov estimates a 50% chance

that the fuel will breach the pad

and melt down into the groundwater itself.

And where does this groundwater go?

The Pripyat River,

which feeds into the Dnieper.

The primary water supply for approximately 50 million people,

not to mention crops and livestock,

would be... unusable.

We're recommending we install a heat exchanger under the pad

to lower to core temperature and halt the meltdown.

And in order to do that, I'm told that we will need...

all of the liquid nitrogen in the Soviet Union.

Oh.

- All right. -Yeah, and of course, we'll also need...

Whatever you need, you have it.

- That should be clear by now. - Yes.

- Anything else? - No, no, no. Thank you.

Yes. I'd like to address the 30-kilometer exclusion zone.

Wait, what? Professor Legasov, is that you?

What exclusion zone?

Minor details, General Secretary.

Um, Premier Ryzhkov has determined that...

If he determined, then he determined.

Look, Professor Legasov,

you are there for one reason only.

Do you understand? To make this stop.

I don't want questions.

I want to know when this will be over.

If you mean when will Chernobyl be completely safe,

the half-life of plutonium-239 is 24,000 years.

So perhaps we should just say, "Not within our lifetimes."

I think you and I should take a walk.

It's late. I'm tired.

We're taking a walk.

Was it it you want? An apology?

Not gonna sit back and...

What will happen to our boys?

Which boys? The divers?

The divers, the firefighters, the men in the control room.

What does the radiation do to them precisely?

At the levels some of them were exposed?

Ionizing radiation tears the cellular structure apart.

The skin blisters, turns red, then black.

This is followed by a latency period.

The immediate effects subside.

The patient appears to be recovering.

Healthy, even. But they aren't.

This usually only lasts for a day or two.

Continue.

Then the cellular damage begins to manifest.

The bone marrow dies, the immune system fails,

the organs and soft tissue begin to decompose.

The arteries and veins spill open like sieves,

to the point where you can't even administer morphine

for the pain, which is... unimaginable.

And then three days to three weeks, you are dead.

That is what will happen to those boys.

And what about us?

Well, we've...

We've gotten a steady dose, but not as much of it.

Not strong enough to kill the cells,

but consistent enough to damage our DNA.

So, in time... cancer.

Or aplastic anemia. Either way, fatal.

Well...

in a sense, it would seem we've gotten off easy then, Valery.

I've seen them before.

Now you know why I wanted to take a walk.

We can presume the work site is bugged.

And our rooms, even our bathrooms.

They've been here the whole time.

Of course they've been here the whole time.

But if we're seeing them out in the open now,

it's because they want us to know.

You've seen that?

The fuel is melting faster than we expected.

I know. I have a plan.

Heat exchanger, I hope.

Yes.

There's something I've wanted to ask you, comrade,

but I see you're already asking yourself the same question.

Why did it explode?

I've worked the numbers over and over,

presuming the worst possible conditions in an RBMK reactor.

And I always get the same answer.

Which is?

It's not possible.

And yet...

You're not going to solve this here.

Not on paper.

Everyone who was in the control room,

Dyatlov, Akimov, Toptunov,

they're all in Moscow, Hospital Number 6.

We need to find out exactly what happened that night,

moment by moment, decision by decision.

Go now while they're still alive.

Talk to them.

Because if we don't find out how this happened,

it will happen again.

And, Khomyuk...

be careful.

Well, fuck you!

Hey, here's one, here's one.