Berthold Brecht
A hero is a man of exceptional dedication, courage, and valor. In a prosperous country, in normal
everyday life, there is no need for heroes. Heroes solve difficult tasks that a
country cannot solve except by demanding exceptional courage and sometimes even
life from its citizens. In Russia, there
has always been a cult of the Hero, because Russia is a country that needs
Heroes.
Chernobyl is a good movie. It is multifaceted.
I will tell very briefly only about two sides of this film:
1. collaboration science and the KGB (The all-powerful
intelligence and security service of the U.S.S.R)
2. heroism of the people
Since Soviet
science mainly worked for military needs, which are related to secrets, the
participation of the KGB at all stages of decision-making was mandatory. The
KGB in science was omnipresent and omnipotent. Nobody dared to disobey their
decisions, because the position of a person in science, in society, depended on
it, and even life itself depended. KGB decisions were often incompetent, but in
all cases they were binding.
All this is
convincingly shown in the dramatic fate of Valery Legasov, who was a member of
the government commission to investigate the causes and to eliminate the
consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (ChNPP).
The construction
of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant named after VI Lenin began in 1970. It was
a military strategic object included in the plan of the Soviet army because it was producing, besides energy, weapons-grade plutonium for nuclear bombs.
The ChNPP was to become the largest nuclear power plant in the world with 12 RBMK reactors, each with a capacity of 1000 MW.
The ChNPP was to become the largest nuclear power plant in the world with 12 RBMK reactors, each with a capacity of 1000 MW.
The
first unit was launched in 1977, the next - in December 1978, 1981 and 1983,
another 2 had already been built. The fourth block was put into operation ahead
of time, without security checks.
The main designer
of RBMK reactors was the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy. The reactor was
not equipped with a modern security system, the level of automatic control and
monitoring was too low. One of the scientists wrote an article about the unsatisfactory
reactor safety system. He lost his job and then disappeared. The KGB did not
want to know about the problems, as this would postpone the implementation of
the plan, which was usually associated with medals, bonuses, and promotions.
The disaster at
the power plant happened on April 26, 1986 [1].
The Soviet press
has always called this catastrophe an accident, not an explosion of a reactor.
Initially, only
one scientist, Professor Valery Legasov, was sent to Chernobyl. He served as
Deputy Director for Science of the Kurchatov Institute. He was not a nuclear
physicist. His specialty was inorganic chemistry. He came to the Kurchatov
Institute after the design of the reactor was completed. His career was typical
of a Soviet scientist who achieved administrative advancement. He was a
talented scientist, an active Komsomol activist in his youth, and then an
active party member. The KGB saw him as incompetent in nuclear physics, an
obedient employee who would carry out all orders. But they were wrong. Legasov
behaved like a real scientist and a patriot. He was a hero because he started a
battle with the party leadership and the KGB, and this saved many lives. Boris
Shcherbina, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Chairman
of the Commission for the Elimination of the Consequences of the Accident,
worked closely with Legasov and helped him much.
Upon arrival,
Legasov was informed that there were pieces of graphite on the ground near the reactor. Graphite was
located in the reactor on the retarding rods. If graphite was outside the
reactor, it meant that there was an explosion. All measurements of
radioactivity made before the arrival of Legasov were fake and were reduced
thousands of times. This data was sent to Gorbachev. The party leadership of
the Chernobyl NPP assured that there is no big problem, and everything will be
adjusted in the coming days. In order not to create panic, it was forbidden to
leave the zone around the reactor and the city of Pripyat, located 3 km from
the reactor. The press was forbidden to mention the accident.
Legasov himself
made measurements in the dangerous zone and realized that the explosion really took place. At the
same time, he himself received a high dose of radiation, much higher than the
allowable one.
It was necessary
to urgently evacuate the population living in the zone of high radiation. The
KGB did not agree. But the Western press helped. Less than a day later, the
radioactive cloud reached Sweden and other western countries. They did not know the reason, but they were
sure that something terrible had happened. For KGB, there was no longer worth keeping a
secret anymore. Pripyat evacuated.
The radiation from
the reactor was very strong. At 1 hour, it was equal to the explosion of 2
Bombs dropped on Hiroshima. And every hour was adding the radiation of two
Hiroshima bombs.
On the roof of
the reactor was a lot of graphite ejected during the explosion. To drop the graphite from the roof,
a robot was bought in Germany. The robot
thrown on the roof was immediately killed by radiation. The KGB gave a much smaller figure
for radiation than it actually was. The robot was not designed for such a high
dose. The robot cost several million dollars. Robots for higher radiation would
be much more expensive. KGB found a cheap way. It used Bio robots. The job was
made by the soldiers who were on the
roof for only 1.5 minutes and dumped graphite with shovels. A total of 3826
soldiers were involved. Each of them received a premium of 800 rubles and large
doses of radiation. They became heroes, not of their own accord. They were
ordered to be heroes.
To reduce
radiation, it was decided to dump sand mixed with Boron directly into the
reactor. This was done by helicopters. Pilots who worked on helicopters also
received a large portion of radiation.
There was another problem. Immediately
after the accident, firefighters poured a large amount of water into the
reactor. That was a big mistake. Now the reactor fuel heated the water and
raised its pressure, and if there was a new explosion, it would have killed
everything around for hundreds of kilometers. It was necessary to drain the
water. Three people went to the reactor building. They knew the reactor plan well and could open
the lock for water release. All three were volunteers. They agreed in total
darkness, without protective equipment, in some scuba tanks to descend into
radioactive water under a burning reactor to open the gateway and prevent a
potentially more dangerous new catastrophe. They went to a painful radioactive
death consciously.
The film has many
examples of the heroic behavior of the people.
Two weeks after
the atomic explosion, the Soviet state authorities decided to cover the
destroyed power unit with a sarcophagus, a reinforced concrete structure with
its own cooling system. Inside the sarcophagus is at least 95% of the
irradiated nuclear fuel from the destroyed reactor. In 2018, a new sarcophagus
was built, which should protect against radiation for the next 100 years.
Professor Legasov
received a large dose of radiation. He had 5 years left to live. He constantly
had trouble at work. The KGB and its cooperating science bosses paid him for
disobedience. On the day of the second anniversary of the Chernobyl accident,
he committed suicide.
A. Alexandrov, Director of the Kurchatov Institute, Academician and President of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1975–1986), the official author of the RBMK reactor project, a great KGB collaborator, until the end of his life (1994) refused to admit that design flaw contributed to the catastrophe. In Russia, many RBMK reactors worked and KGB did not want "to create panic".
A. Alexandrov, Director of the Kurchatov Institute, Academician and President of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1975–1986), the official author of the RBMK reactor project, a great KGB collaborator, until the end of his life (1994) refused to admit that design flaw contributed to the catastrophe. In Russia, many RBMK reactors worked and KGB did not want "to create panic".
There is a lot of truth in the film. That is its value.
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[1] https://www.chernobylwel.com/en/istorija-cernobylja
© Galina Popovici, 2019 All rights reserved
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