[1] After the meeting, Scherbina told him that he could work from Moscow but was quickly ordered back to Chernobyl. The Institute did acquire a taste of it. The probability increases day by day because of again, those devices without containment. An enormous amount of work had been done and as a result, outside the 30-kilometre zone, we were receiving more and more precise maps that showed the degree of contamination of various areas. Everything, was, of course, changed, but unfortunately, these things did happen. That is to say, one could contact any person and send any command or assignment - but how could the necessary course of action be determined before the arrival of the Government Commission?! Exactly there is where this question had to be experimentally verified. Then we must describe the accepted scenario of what happened in the reactor with the fuel: the time when it started heating, the time when it stopped heating, the cooling system and so on. And it seemed to him that there was also a lot of fuel. [1] When the first government commission group returned to Moscow, Legasov was asked to stay by Scherbina but was replaced by his scientific rival Evgeny Velikhov in the formal hierarchy. These robots have played a huge role even today because many interesting things have been discovered with their help regarding the questions related to the nature and consequences of the accident. After that, more and more thorough dosimetric measurements of the situation were carried out. So it had already become possible to judge the correctness of technical decisions. Even with long breaks for rest, the operators still had to be at the control panel for 10-12 hours. Well, actively aid Anatoly Petrovich in the management of the institute, considering his occupation at the Academy of Sciencesplanning the work of the institute, the regime of its work. Altogether this was like a victory speech. I will repeat myself that groundwater was relatively close to the surface under the station. The idea of creating such an expert group and doing this work was mine. A group of scientists from Novosibirsk telegraphed me that it was necessary to use more tuff and elite. So, from a strictly professional perspective, I understand the safety issues, and how to manage them, very well. Valery Legasov, 51, Chernobyl Investigator - The New York . Why? He can be a philosopher, historian, an engineer"[5] The school now bears his name, and his bronze bust stands at the entrance. And in Shymkent in South Kazakhstan, there will definitely be an accident. You undress. Late at night on the 4th of May, when the GC was already being led by Ivan Stepanovich Silaeva very calm man, who was doing his work very seriouslyI was called in by his order. Not every work progress was documented, whether it had been completed or not. Say, a steam generator breaks down at some station, and they start to think about how to change its design, and, of course, come up with a solution that improves the situation. This was very clearly seen in such an exceptional situation. I took all that I could carry with me and at 4 oclock, I was at the airport. The natural air circulation was so strong that this nitrogen was like a drop in the ocean. They selected people, agreed on the time, arranged the needed tools, and decided the sequence of carrying out the procedure. But he was told, Dont stick your nose in the wrong place. Only Neporozhniy said, Ill go take a look. That was very interesting. I cannot leave unmentioned the huge role that Marshal Aganov played along with his engineering troops. The meeting usually began with General Pekalovs report presenting the radiation conditions within the station and the surrounding areas. I wanted to say that aloud. He replied: Yes, you will stay here and continue your work. Sometime around the end of August, September or October, when the city was in a condition which allowed it to be preserved; it was safe to be in this didnt mean that the city could be inhabited normally, but that the city no longer posed any immediate danger was thanks to the armys efforts. He listened very carefully (I thought that it would be hard for the country to supply so much material in a matter of days) and as I got to know later, ordered 6000 tons of lead, because he thought that we could have made a mistake in our calculations and it would be better to have surplus lead instead of not having enough. First, the fate of the local population, and the number of members of station personnel that should remain at the station (and, in its current state, continue to service it). The work would start very early; at around seven or eight in the morning, the first meeting would be held. Vorobyov Evgeny Ivanovich, the former Deputy Minister of Health, who was later removed, his responsibility was to determine the number of people exposed to radiation, their fate and everything that had to do with people. This is its distinctive feature, if we're not speaking of complex technical aspects. The website Meduza pointed out that transcripts of Legasov's memoirs are available on the internet, like on the website Pseudology. And the pace of construction was increasing all the time and this made a lot of sense because, after about 4-5 months of operating the 1st and 2nd blocks in a shift mode of work, it had become obvious that psychologically and even physically it was very hard work. Moreover, the measures that can be taken to prevent this from happening are known. Well, either 30, 50 or 70 per cent of risk is certainly high. The research part of the work was awarded the USSR State prize. Legasov: Well, how should I put this. I will say a few words about this later. And shipped fuel is quite expensive; economically, transportation-wise and environmentally expensive. The station had lots of it stockpiled - it was used in construction, to mix with concrete to weigh it down. On these matters, I would say, Viktor Aleksandrovich Sidorenko was the leader of the people who were concerned. I worked at this plant for about two years. Legasov: The VVER reactor is a large metal vessel in which the active zone is immersed in water. Do you understand? And teams had already been put in place beforehand. He and his associates showed great concern about the quality of the equipment that was supplied to the station. And each one accumulates experience and mistakes, and all of it belongs to all humankind. And above that article, there was a lousy illustration, in which in front of a half-wrecked cooling tower, a young moustached Frenchman is trying to explain to a Russian bear how to build those cooling towers, while the bear has put a finger in his mouth and hardly understands that the quality of the cooling tower is as essential to the quality of a nuclear station as the reactor itself. [7], Reactor 4 of Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded on 26 April 1986 at 1:23:45 a.m, releasing a massive amount of radiation and contaminating a large area. All this is what I say [will happen] unless the necessary measures are taken. He praised nuclear energy, praised himself, praised his own Ministry, and said in passing, at Chernobyl, we have had a signal. And when I visited the Chernobyl station after the accident and saw what was happening there, I myself drew a precise and unequivocal conclusion, that the Chernobyl disaster is an apotheosis, the pinnacle of all the mismanagement that has been carried out for decades in our country. These were the sanitary rules that existed at the time. Somehow, irrespective of rank, irrespective of the task at hand, everyone worked like a finely-tuned team, especially in the initial days. This is how five out of ten projects became a failure. In some areas, it reduced faster than predicted by the laws of radioactive decay. From a safety point of view, it even stood out as being better, as I understood from the discussions. I will talk about Aleksandrovs role later but it is important for me that you understand that the main issue was the 10-year delay. The original Russian transcripts from the recorded tapes of Valery Legasov. Learning to prepare is preparing to survive. For example, the head of the district executive committee, Plyushch, had to make preparations for the evacuation. I was shocked by the accuracy of these words. And in general, all the experts, scientists, at least at different times and from different platforms, talking about individual parts, said that we are on the road to a bad accident; Anatoly Pavlovich Aleksandrov said it, repeatedly citing striking examples of carelessness in the construction of nuclear power plants; Sidorenko said it, speaking about disorders in operation and documentation; the young specialists said it; the material scientists said it. And here, the Soviet Army played a big role in minimizing the possibility of these contaminated objects getting into the rivers, and in tackling the problem of cleaning and gathering [contaminated objects] from such contaminated areas. This meant that the graphite fire had to be extinguished first and foremost. All the solutions that we tested appeared to be successful. The situation worsened because earlier there was the Ministry of Power Engineering which only made nuclear equipment. Thats why in the end, the most reliable method was to use radio-controlled bulldozers or just simple scraper bulldozers, our ordinary vehicles, cabins of which were reliably covered with lead to protect the driver. Legasov: If we were to do this, there would simply be another explosion. This is the problem. [18] His colleague [5] The proposals triggered a significant backlash from the existing scientific leadership. That is, we considered it not as a competitor to nuclear energy but as an addition to it. And, each time considerably different figures and results were reported, from astonishingly high to relatively moderate. Do you understand? And the city of Pripyat was considerably decontaminated by about the same time when the sarcophagus construction was ending. [7] Legasov considered these containment steps to be excessive but understandable, while also provided the infrastructure for the eventual construction of a shelter sarcophagus over the reactor. Logistical issues started to arise and a separation register was made. Legasov: What didnt happen didnt happen. [5] He frequently made excursions with his wife and children by car and saw many parts of the country. We drove through Chernobyl. But the fire ended completely on the 2nd of May. But psychologically, somehow, I did not have the means, the strength, the ability to say this to people. Do you understand? And I was just delighted with the technical equipment and the culture of competence within this group. The initial conclusions are that fish living close to the riverbed do, without a doubt, carry some radioactivity in them but no disturbing symptoms have been discovered. At the same time, I want to highlight the fact that although these things are irritating when faced day after day, at that moment the people were so determined, they so wanted to complete their work, that all these past cases of sloppiness did not cause any fuss or outcry. Military acceptance was also extensive in our industry, so the quality of the equipment was high grade . They still cannot understand this, or maybe this is just a self-defensive reaction. Moreover, these are specifically the long-living isotopes and the most dangerous: alpha-active. This text is for comrade Novikov Vladimir Mikhailovich, Dyomin Vladimir Fyodorovich and Sukhoruchkin Vladimir Konstantinovich. The first four tapes feature only Legasov giving a recounting of the entire event, from the moment he learned of the accident to his final days at the Kurchatov Institute. This was precise official communication which provided an account of the joyous and bitter developments on the front lines. The headquarters were in the City party committee building. Legasov: So, on that day and the following days, there was regular communication with Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov and Vladimir Ivanovich Dolgikh. Most likely, it was a hot mass as I understood it later a mass of sand, clay and all the other things that had been dropped. And finally, elements such as clay, for example, served as filtering elements meant to prevent part of the radioactive isotopes from getting into the external environment. This convinced us that the fuel mass that was left after the explosion was in a sub-critical state. Any approach to nuclear safety of a technologically complex and potentially dangerous device must have three elements. And local authorities were a part of the Government Commission. This research is still underway and will continue for quite a while. I passionately worked in this area with the involvement of external organisations. Get started for FREE Continue. The second group, with comrade Abagyan in charge, had to organize all the dosimetric measurements around the station and in Pripyat, as well as in the closest surrounding areas, with the civil defence groups handling the rest. Secondly, what was calculated turned out to be significantly higher in practice than was accounted for because physical knowledge about this device was still not sufficient. Then gave us milk when they were milked later. Adamovich: [weakly and hardly understandable] But what did Gorbachev ask youtell you. So I went to the institute;but before I reached, my car phone rang and one of Scherbinas subordinates told me that as per a request by Silaev to the General Secretary, I needed to go back to Chernobyl because Velikhovs unilateral actions were, for some reason, worrying Ivan Stepanovich. Every time there was a need to get from one place to another, or to lay a hose, it was necessary to punch holes. Do you understand? So you can calculate. But at the time it was understandable that they were preventative just in case some mass got through by accident. The operators had tried to cool it down, but unfortunately, two people had already been killed. Grave mistakes. The last time I saw him was in the Politburo meeting on the 14th of July [transcript of the Politburo meeting] when the cause of the Chernobyl accident was being discussed. Do you understand? Because of these concerns, a group of scientists from Donetsk, out of the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine, were placed under my supervision. During this time the Operative group was constantly trying to provide maximum protection for the people and judging from possible degrees of contamination decide on a compensation amount that would be necessary for the evacuees. That is, was it generating short-lived radioactive isotopes or not? Talk about the various organizations that are involved both on the site and in their offices; about the medical radiology centre that has been created there. The questions of international inspections, quality checks of constructed facilities, etc, to create this international procedure it is necessary to express this desire and this, in my opinion, would be right. But still, some practical experience had already been accumulated. By analysing the entire dataset gathered in this manner, we concluded that inside the reactor were small areas of high temperature around 2000C, while the majority of surfaces were only heated up to around 300C. I feel sick thinking about exactly what is most likely to happen to us in the near future. If there is a probability of receiving a dose of 75 rem or more, then the local authorities are required to carry out an evacuation. so, it means that the information came in a standard form. Because it was clear that our devices fundamentally werent very different from the western ones, say, in their concept; even surpassing them in some aspects. One of these components is Magnesium oxide - an oxide with relatively good thermal conductivity and, like lead, when it gets into place, it acts as a heat sink and transfers heat to all other metal construction elements. He as the chairman made the decisions. He discovered. When someone crossed out something, the operator could interpret it as right or wrong and could perform arbitrary actions. They were required to test the materials and create a report, and only after that they could be given to the Army to use on a large scale. You hang your suit on a tree, wherever you are. Starting from the entrance to the station, its external signage, personnel training. Chernobyl began, in my opinion, conditionally of course, in 1961; that is, in the very year when Gagarin flew into space or at the time of the last highest achievement of Soviet science and technology. A procedure for ordering materials was established already; a procedure for work fulfilment. But they went in the direction of increasing the coastdown time of the turbine, when, at this time, there already were diesel generators that could output at the required electrotechnical levels two to three times quicker than those installed at the Chernobyl station. You know, I couldn't even assume that the Operative group would make such strong-willed purposeful decisions. For several months, the extent of the emissions from reactor number 4 was debated, even in the science community. was a good physicist, of course, but he also got into this story. That was the first problem. First of all, it leaked through the side gaps and practically passed by the reactor area that had the fuel; and secondly, its quantity was calculated entirely incorrectly. There is another definite circumstance to it. But how they did it, how they made it happen, I still cannot imagine because I only know the result of their work. So changes to the regulation are introduced for one device but not for another. But the Ministry of Health had developed these rules. During the flight, our conversation was nervous. The order of operations was approximately as follows. Some construction elements of the lower part of reactor may not withstand that. "[11], I feel sick thinking about exactly what is most likely to happen to us in the near future [Major industrial accidents will happen] unless the necessary measures are taken. I told him what had happened at Three Mile Island in America, what events took place there and what measures [were taken]. And the very fact that the station could independently perform any actions not authorised by the experts is already a defect in the relationship of the experts with this station. I can't find any factual mention of the tapes being hidden. From these telegrams, I immediately realised that no one [in the world] was prepared for this kind of accident. They must be included. I also remembered the Ministry with its strange concerns. In such a way, many personal items that people took with them got out of Pripyat and carried the contamination with them. The fault of Anatoly Pavlovich Alexandrov is that he, albeit reluctantly, consented. Legasov continued his attempts to introduce reforms in academic chemistry by establishing an interdepartmental council to try to overcome stagnation in the field. Do you understand? Legasov: It would have all melted and all the radioactivityonly three and a half per cent got outone hundred per cent of the radioactivity would have gotten out and flown around the earth. This is the group of specific subjects I trained on. Although, generally, the cumulative doses were doubtless quite high due to the enormous amount of work, and the enormous number of people involved. April 26 19 Valery Legasov dictated a tape recorder in. At points, he would pause to criticize a chairman or a specialist for higher rates of workplace injuries, or poor financial performances, or for improper executions of technical operations within our ministry. Transport was needed; it was called from Kiev. It was almost by accident that he found himself included in the state commission on response to the Chernobyl disaster on April 26, 1986, his daughter Inga Legasova recalls. Since when has this mistake begun to be corrected? Legasov: Well, that is understandable. It seemed that it would be impossible to decontaminate this city because everywhere one went, there were very high levels of radiation, say, 700-800 milliroentgens per hour. After that, evaluate what type of energy must be replaced with nuclear energy, then assess which regions are the most appropriate for it, and then define the requirements for the devices that will optimally fit the tasks that stemmed from the fuel and energy balance of the country. Once a magazine called Business Week fell into my hands. People will start to pack for too long. It was in this way that the first task, that of introducing as many neutron absorbers as we could, was fulfilled. [1] Mikhail Gorbachev was furious and accused the nuclear designers of covering up dangerous problems with the Soviet nuclear industry for decades. This is the worst-case scenario leading to a complete loss of coolant and a meltdown of the core. Sitting in his home, Valery Legasov, the deputy director of the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy, records tapes recounting the true account of what happened at the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant in the Ukraine on the day it exploded. These were the problems that I was researching. We were worried that some of the molten fuel would get there, and possibly lead to powerful vaporization which will carry out additional radioactivity. But this talk of the reactor smouldering, emitting radioactivity in considerable amounts, were so strong that orders were given to manufacture various types of covers for it. And a huge number of friendly telegrams, a great amount of benevolent advice: what to do, how to extinguish the fire and so on. In addition, the intermittent changes in the composition of the GC led to a constantly changing plan of work. It was already clear to us that people injured by radiation, except for those who worked at the Chernobyl station at the time of the accident, are expected to be unlikely; that the control of the population is thorough; that if the countries that came under the nuclear fallout from the accident took proper informational and sanitary measures, then there will be no real consequences to the health of the people. The first decontamination efforts began even while the conglomeration processes inside reactor number 4 were ongoing. And thereafter would be the concept, developed by Vladimir Mikhailovich, about what safe nuclear energy should look like. Say from cows who. An appropriate team was gathered at night and approximately within three to four hours, they departed to the site. This is Tape 1, part 2. And this wasnt because there was no such knowledge. The medics objected. Was quickly ordered back to Chernobyl your nose in the science community stagnation in the composition the! 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