Accompanied by Scherbitsky, the Ukrainian first secretary: Ryzhkov, Ten Years of Great Shocks, 170–72. Ryzhkov describes the map he was using in the interview by Novoselova, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, 2016.
At 2:00 p.m.: Ivanov, “Chernobyl, Part 3: Evacuation,” 39.
All top secret: Sklyarov, Chernobyl Was . . . Tomorrow, 89.
11. THE CHINA SYNDROME
From high up on the roof of the Hotel Polesia: Mimka, author interview, 2016; author visit to the Hotel Polesia, Pripyat, April 25, 2016.
Taking off in a continuous carousel: Footage of the helicopters lifting and transporting these loads can be see at around 1:06 in Chernobyl: A Warning [Чернобыль: Предупреждение], a 1987 Russian state television documentary, available online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwxbS_ChNNk (accessed May 2018).
Although many routinely underreported it: Antoshkin, handwritten testimony, Chernobyl Museum.
Bitter potassium iodide tablets: Mimka, author interview, 2016.
“If you want to be a dad”: A. N. Semenov, “For the 10th Anniversary of the Chernobyl Catastrophe,” in Semenov, ed., Chernobyl: Ten Years On, 22.
Physicists were hauled into their offices: Alexander Borovoi (head of the neutrino laboratory at Kurchatov Institute at the time of the accident), account in Alexander Kupny, Memories of Lives Given: Memories of Liquidators [Живы, пока нас помнят: Воспоминания ликвидаторов] (Kharkiv: Zoloty Storynki, 2011), 6–7.
Five or six times every day: E. P. Ryazantsev, “It Was in May 1986,” in Viktor A. Sidorenko, ed., The Contribution of Kurchatov Institute Staff to the Liquidation of the Accident at the Chernobyl NPP [Вклад Курчатовцев в ликвидацию последствий аварии на чернобыльской АЭС] (Moscow: Kurchatov Institute, 2012), 85.
They watched as the pilots’ payloads: V. M. Fedulenko, “Some Things Have Not Been Forgotten,” in Sidorenko, ed., The Contribution of Kurchatov Institute Staff, 79.
A beautiful crimson halo: Ryazantsev, “It Was in May 1986,” 86.
The volcanoes of Kamchatka: Mimka, author interview, 2016.
At the very start, one member of the Kurchatov group: Fedulenko, “Some Things Have Not Been Forgotten,” 82; Read, Ablaze, 132–33.
Day after day, the volume of material: These statistics, which differ from those recalled by Antoshkin, are drawn from data in helicopter pilot logs recorded at the time, provided by Alexander Borovoi to Alexander Sich (“The Chornobyl Accident Revisited,” 241).
They began dropping lead: Shasharin, “Chernobyl Tragedy,” 107.
A hastily created new formation: Vladimir Gudov, Special Battalion no. 731 [731 спецбатальон] (Kiev: Kyivskyi Universitet Publishing Center, 2010), trans. Tamara Abramenkova as 731 Special Battalion: Documentary Story (Kiev: N. Veselicka, 2012). See 54 in the original Russian edition or 80 in the English translation.
The hot weather and the rotor wash: Piotr Zborovsky, interview by Sergei Babakov, “I’m still there today, in the Chernobyl zone” [Я и сегодня там, в Чернобыльской зоне], Zerkalo nedeli Ukraina, September 18, 1998: http://gazeta.zn.ua/SOCIETY/ya_i_segodnya_tam,_v_chernobylskoy_zone.html, translated in Gudov, 731 Special Battalion, 101. Also see pp. 124–25 for N. Bosy, “Open Letter of a Commander of a Radiological Protection Battalion 731 [. . .] to Battalion Staff.”
1,200 tonnes of lead, sand, and other materials: Antoshkin, handwritten testimony, Chernobyl Museum. Antoshkin states that he deliberately underreported these volumes so that Scherbina did not set an even higher target for the next day. The actual total dropped on May 1 attributed to the pilot logs cited by Sich is 1,900 tonnes (“Chornobyl Accident Revisited,” 241).
Some members of the government commission got to their feet: Antoshkin, handwritten testimony, Chernobyl Museum.
Instead of continuing to fall: International Atomic Energy Agency, International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group, “Summary Report on the Post-Accident Review Meeting on the Chernobyl Accident,” Safety series no. 75–INSAG–1, 1986, 35; Sich, “Chornobyl Accident Revisited,” 241–42, fig. 4.1 and fig. 4.4.
Approaching 1,700 degrees centigrade: Legasov’s report to the Politburo, in minutes of the May 5, 1986, meeting reproduced in Maleyev, Chernobyl. Days and Years, 258. The transcript cites “20 degrees,” but this seems likely to be an erroneous transcription of 2,000 degrees Centigrade, since Legasov adds that the temperature has been rising by about 135 degrees per day since Saturday, April 26, when it measured 1,100 degrees. Based on these calculations, by the evening of Thursday, May 4, the reactor would be at around 1,595 degrees. In Legasov Tapes (cassette One, 20), he similarly mentions 2,000 degrees Centigrade as “approximately the highest temperature we have observed.” In reality, all of these figures could be little more than educated guesses, since the scientists did not yet have any way of taking accurate readings from inside the reactor space.
The academicians now feared: Sich, “Chornobyl Accident Revisited,” 241 and 257–58.
If the temperature of the molten fuel: Ryzhkov, statement to Politburo on May 5: minutes reproduced in Maleyev, Chernobyl. Days and Years, 252. Sich (“Chornobyl Accident Revisited,” 242) specifies the temperature necessary for liquefaction as between 2,300 and 2,900 degrees centigrade.
A whole range of toxic radionuclides: P. A. Polad-Zade (deputy minister of water of the USSR), “Too Bad It Took a Tragedy” [Жаль, что для этого нужна трагедия], in Semenov, ed., Chernobyl: Ten Years On, 195.
But the second threat: Karpan, Chernobyl to Fukushima, 68; Vitali Masol (head of the Ukraine State Planning Committee and deputy chairman of the Ukraine Council of Ministers at the time of the accident), interview by Elena Sheremeta, “We were quietly preparing to evacuate Kiev” [Виталий Масол: «Мы тихонечко готовились к эвакуации Киева»], Fakty i kommentarii, April 26, 2006: http://fakty.ua/45679-vitalij-masol-quot-my-tihonechko-gotovilis-k-evakuacii-kieva-quot.
On Friday, May 2, the new team: The resolution to send in a duplicate team was reached by the Kremlin’s task force on Chernobyl on May 1, 1986: “Protocol no. 3 of the meeting of the Politburo Operations Group,” in RGANI.
Thoroughly irradiated: Drach, author interview, 2017; Kopchinsky, recollections in Kopchinsky and Steinberg, Chernobyl, 53.
The commission members had not been given iodine tablets: Sklyarov, Chernobyl Was . . . Tomorrow, 52; Shasharin writes that there were no dosimeters available to the commission members at first and that “a subsequent analysis showed that the exposure dose ranged from 60 to 100 rem (without the internal radiation)” (“Chernobyl Tragedy,” 99).
Now their eyes and throats were red and raw: Evgeny P. Velikhov, My Journey: I Shall Travel Back to 1935 in Felt Boots [Мой путь. Я на валенках поеду в 35-й год] (Moscow: AST, 2016), translated by Andrei Chakhovskoi as Strawberries from Chernobyl: My Seventy-Five Years in the Heart of a Turbulent Russia, 253. Also see Abagayn, account in Voznyak and Troitsky, Chernobyl: It Was Like This, 216.
Others felt sick: Sklyarov, Chernobyl Was . . . Tomorrow, 141.
They surrendered their clothes and expensive foreign-made watches: Sklyarov, Chernobyl Was . . . Tomorrow, 83; Drach, author interview, 2017.
Legasov chose to stay behind: Vladimir Gubarev, testimony in Margarita Legasova, Academician Valery A. Legasov, 343.
Velikhov had no direct experience: Velikhov, Strawberries from Chernobyl, 245–46.
His manner didn’t impress the generals: Read, Ablaze, 138–39.
But Velikhov: Bolshov, author interview, 2017; Vladimir Gubarev (science editor at Pravda), memorandum to the USSR Central Committee, summarized by Nicholas Daniloff, “Chernobyl and Its Political Fallout: A Reassessment,” Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization 12, no. 1 (Winter 2004): 123. Alexander Borovoi describes Gorbachev’s personal animosity toward Legasov in Alla Astakhova,
interview with Alexander Borovoi, “The Liquidator” [Ликвидатор], Itogi 828, no. 17 (April 23, 2012), www.itogi.ru/obsh-spetzproekt/2012/17/177051.html.
Now, in addition to their different personalities: Rafael V. Arutyunyan, “The China Syndrome” [Китайский синдром], Priroda, no. 11 (November 1990): 77–83. In his taped recollections of the events, Legasov mentions that Velikhov had seen the film recently: Legasov Tapes, cassette One, 19.
The chances of a full meltdown: Shasharin, “Chernobyl Tragedy,” 100; Legasov Tapes, cassette One, 20.
A 50 percent margin of error: International Atomic Energy Agency, INSAG–1, 35.
They knew nothing: A. A. Borovoi and E. P. Velikhov, The Chernobyl Experience: Part 1, Work on the “Shelter” Structure [Опыт Чернобыля: Часть 1, работы на объекте «Укрытие»] (Moscow: Kurchatov Institute, 2012), 28.
An enclosed body of water: Shasharin, “Chernobyl Tragedy,” 100.
In the West, scientists had been simulating: Arutyunyan, “China Syndrome,” 77–83.
Velikhov contacted the head of his research lab: Bolshov, author interview, 2017.
The temperature inside Reactor Number Four continued to rise: Legasov, statement at the Politburo meeting on May 5, 1986, in Maleyev, Chernobyl. Days and Years, 259.
Velikhov called Gorbachev: Velikhov, My Journey, 274.
Less volatile than Boris Scherbina: Velikhov, Strawberries from Chernobyl, 251.
But he faced an even more dire situation: Velikhov, interview transcript, 2RR, 1; Chernobyl: A Warning (Soviet documentary, 1986); Read, Ablaze, 137–38.
Many slept for only: BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, “Velikhov and Silayev: ‘Situation No Longer Poses Major Threat’ ” (text of a Vesti video report from Chernobyl on May 11, 1986), translated May 13, 1986.
He summoned subway construction engineers: The head of the Kiev Metro construction company (Kievmetrostroi) arrived on site May 3, according to the account of Nikolai Belous, a senior surveyor, in Shcherbak, Chernobyl, 172.
Five thousand cubic meters: Ryzhkov, statement at the Politburo meeting on May 5, 1986, in Maleyev, Chernobyl. Days and Years, 252.
In the meantime: Mimka, author interview, 2016. A Ukrainian KGB memo of May 5, 1986, records plans to drop another thousand tonnes of loads on the reactor the following day (Danilyuk, ed., “Chernobyl Tragedy,” Z arkhiviv, document no. 28: Report of the UkSSR KGB 6th Department to the USSR KGB Concerning the Radioactive Situation and Progress in Investigating the Accident at the Chernobyl NPS).
At 1:00 a.m. on May 3: Zborovsky, interview by Babakov, Zerkalo nedeli, 1998. Zborovsky recalls that this incident took place at one o’clock on the night of May 1–2, but Silayev was not scheduled to fly into Chernobyl until the morning of May 2 at the earliest. (His appointment and impending travel to Chernobyl were discussed during the Politburo meeting on the afternoon of May 1: “Protocol no. 3 of the meeting of the Politburo Operations Group,” in RGANI. Velikhov’s presence was also recorded at that meeting.) So it seems likely that Zborovsky meant instead the night of May 2–3.
The steam suppression pools: Shasharin, “Chernobyl Tragedy,” 100; Sich, “Chornobyl Accident Revisited,” 254 and 257. See photographs of the pools in Borovoi and Velikhov, The Chernobyl Experience: Part 1, 123 and 142.
But on April 26 the condensation system: Karpan, Chernobyl to Fukushima, 68–69; Alexey Ananenko, a senior engineer at Unit Two reactor shop, recollections [Воспоминания старшего инженера-механика реакторного цеха №2 Алексея Ананенка], Soyuz Chernobyl, undated (before September 2013), www.souzchernobyl.org/?id=2440.
It was still the small hours: Zborovsky, interview by Babakov, Zerkalo nedeli, 1998.
Gradually, the water level rose: Zborovsky, testimony in Gudov, 731 Special Battalion, 112. Karpan explains that the intake point was located in the stairway compartment 05/1 of the Auxiliary Reactor Equipment block, beneath Unit Three (Chernobyl to Fukushima, 69).
Back in Moscow, Evgeny Velikhov’s team: Bolshov, author interview, 2017.
They sent samples to Kiev: Borovoi and Velikhov, Chernobyl Experience Part 1, 29–30.
They quickly confirmed: Arutyunyan, “China Syndrome,” 78–81.
But they also found: Bolshov, author interview, 2017.
In Chernobyl, the commission remained: Zborovsky, testimony in Gudov, 731 Special Battalion, 103–9.
The plant physicists, consumed with fear: Prianichnikov, author interview, 2006.
By 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, Legasov’s readings: Legasov, statement at the Politburo meeting on May 5, 1986, in Maleyev, Chernobyl. Days and Years, 258.
12. THE BATTLE OF CHERNOBYL
Shortly after 8:00 p.m.: The White House, “Presidential Movements” and “The Daily Diary of President Ronald Reagan,” April and May 1986, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, online at www.reaganlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/digitallibrary/dailydiary/1986-05.pdf; Paul Lewis, “Seven Nations Seeking Stable Currency,” New York Times, May 6, 1986.
The first reports of the radiation: Ronald Reagan, diary entry, Wednesday, April 30, 1986, in Douglas Brinkley, ed., Reagan Diaries, vol. 2: November 1985–January 1989 (New York: HarperCollins, 2009), 408; George P. Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1993), 714.
From high-resolution spy satellite photographs: Laurin Dodd (RBMK reactor expert in Nuclear Systems and Concepts Department, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, March 1986 to May 1994), author interview by telephone, May 2018.
And officials at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission: Stephen Engelberg, “2D Soviet Reactor Worries U.S. Aides,” New York Times, May 5, 1986.
American nuclear experts could only speculate: Dodd, author interview, 2018.
In a classified report: Eduard Shevardnadze, “Memorandum, CPSU Central Committee, no. 623/GS” [ЦК КПСС № 623/ГС], classified, May 3, 1986, in RGANI, opis 53, reel 1.1007, file 3.
President Reagan broadcast: Ronald Reagan, “Radio Address to the Nation on the President’s Trip to Indonesia and Japan,” May 4, 1986, The American Presidency Project (collaboration of Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley), www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=37208.
Radioactive rain fell on Japan: P. Klages, “Atom Rain over U.S.,” Telegraph, May 6, 1986; D. Moore, “UN Nuclear Experts Go to USSR,” Telegraph, May 6, 1986.
The following afternoon: Moore, “UN Nuclear Experts Go to USSR.”
In the hours before their arrival: “Draft minutes, the meeting of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee on May 5, 1986” [Рабочая запись, Заседание Политбюро ЦК КПСС 5 мая 1986 г.] (Russian Government Archives collection 3, opis 120, document 65, 1–18), reproduced in Maleyev, Chernobyl. Days and Years, 249–64.
“I can only imagine”: Politburo meeting minutes (May 5, 1986), in Maleyev, Chernobyl. Days and Years, 253.
“a nuclear explosion”: Ibid., 252.
The republican authorities had begun: Masol, “We were quietly preparing to evacuate Kiev”; Vitali Masol, author interview, Kiev, June 2017.
“We’ve got to pick up our pace”: “Minutes from the Politburo meeting (May 5, 1986), in Maleyev, Chernobyl. Days and Years, 249–64.
Zborovsky had set out: Zborovsky, testimony in Gudov, 731 Special Battalion, 108.
When they arrived on the scene: Vladimir Trinos, interview by Irina Rybinskaya, “Fireman Vladimir Trinos, one of the first to arrive at Chernobyl after the explosion: ‘It was inconvenient to wear gloves, so the guys worked with their bare hands, crawling on their knees through radioactive water’ ” [Пожарный Владимир Тринос, одним из первых попавший на ЧАЭС после взрыва: «в рукавицах было неудобно, поэтому ребята работали голыми руками, ползая на коленях по радиоактивной вод
е»], Fakty i kommentarii, April 26, 2001: http://fakty.ua/95948-pozharnyj-vladimir-trinos-odnim-iz-pervyh-popavshij-na-chaes-posle-vzryva-quot-v-rukavicah-bylo-neudobno-poetomu-rebyata-rabotali-golymi-rukami-polzaya-na-kolenyah-po-radioaktivnoj-vode-quot. Abandoned fire trucks are also mentioned by Nikolai Steinberg in his recollections from arriving on the scene on May 7: Kopchinsky and Steinberg, Chernobyl, 56.
They drilled again and again: Read, Ablaze, 135.
At first, Captain Zborovsky wasn’t afraid: Zborovsky, testimony in Gudov, 731 Special Battalion, 111.
The specialists and management from the plant: Kopchinsky and Steinberg, Chernobyl, 57–59.
Since the final evacuation of Pripyat: Glukhov, author interview, 2015.
Decorated with whimsical sculptures: Photographs of the camp can be found at https://www.facebook.com/pg/skazochny/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1631999203712325 and http://chornobyl.in.ua/chernobyl-pamiatnik.html.
Now the woods and the fields nearby: Kopchinsky and Steinberg, Chernobyl, 55–56.
First, the subway engineers: V. Kiselev, deputy chief engineer of the Ministry of Transport department for special projects (known as Department 157 and responsible for building the Moscow Metro), account in Dyachenko, ed., Chernobyl: Duty and Courage, vol. 1, 38–40; Belous, account in Shcherbak, Chernobyl, 172.
At the same time, technicians: Steinberg, author interview, 2015; Kopchinsky and Steinberg, Chernobyl, 67.
Silayev’s government commission sent out instructions: Read, Ablaze, 139–40; Steinberg, author interview, 2015; Kopchinsky and Steinberg, Chernobyl, 67.
Carried by a pair of Antoshkin’s: Mimka, author interview, 2016.
“Find the nitrogen”: Read, Ablaze, 140.
It was eight in the evening on Tuesday: Zborovsky, testimony in Gudov, 731 Special Battalion, 107–9.
The men stopped the trucks: Karpan, Chernobyl to Fukushima, 69.
They ran out the hoses: Trinos, interview by Rybinskaya, Fakty i kommentarii, 2001.
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