Please Remain Calm: Three Go Forth
Dec. 12th, 2022 09:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerIn the climax of Chernobyl miniseries episode 2, "Please Remain Calm", scientist Khomyuk has warned lead scientist Legasov that his plan to put out the nuclear fire in the open core has a fatal flaw. The water tanks below the core are full, not empty. The core will remain hot even as it's buried with sand and boron (in an attempt to stop it from spewing radioactive material into the air). If the core melts down through the concrete and steel pad to the water tanks, it will flash all that water to steam, causing an explosion potentially big enough to damage the other three reactors at the plant. The water needs to be drained out of the tank. Fast.
The rub? The control systems in reactor #4 were all broken by the explosion, so the valves to drain the tanks need to be opened manually. They are underground, in an area flooded with radioactive water, in the dark. Three plant workers familiar with the layout need to go down there to open the valves. It's believed that this task will be fatal, due to radiation exposure— but is necessary to prevent a tragedy that could kill and injure vastly more people.
Link: YouTube video (2:18)
In the HBO miniseries, three workers volunteer. The clip above shows them responding to a gruff speech by Shcherbina, appealing to national pride to put the wellbeing of the country ahead of one's own life. One by one, they stand. "Ananenko." "Bespalov." "Baranov," they announce their names.
It's disputed whether the men actually volunteered. One eye-witness account holds that they were volun-told. "It's not like you could say no," the witness quipped.
The episode ends with the three men descending into the bowels of the plant. They're wading through chest deep water. Their Geiger counters are clicking like mad. Then one man's flashlight dies, followed shortly by the other two. The episode ends with all three left in the dark, the only sounds being their frantic breathing over the rapid clicking of the Geiger counters.
This cliffhanger ending is one of the reasons we stayed up until 2am to binge-watch all 5 episodes in one sitting.
Next in this series: Those Accents, Tho!
The rub? The control systems in reactor #4 were all broken by the explosion, so the valves to drain the tanks need to be opened manually. They are underground, in an area flooded with radioactive water, in the dark. Three plant workers familiar with the layout need to go down there to open the valves. It's believed that this task will be fatal, due to radiation exposure— but is necessary to prevent a tragedy that could kill and injure vastly more people.
Link: YouTube video (2:18)
In the HBO miniseries, three workers volunteer. The clip above shows them responding to a gruff speech by Shcherbina, appealing to national pride to put the wellbeing of the country ahead of one's own life. One by one, they stand. "Ananenko." "Bespalov." "Baranov," they announce their names.
It's disputed whether the men actually volunteered. One eye-witness account holds that they were volun-told. "It's not like you could say no," the witness quipped.
The episode ends with the three men descending into the bowels of the plant. They're wading through chest deep water. Their Geiger counters are clicking like mad. Then one man's flashlight dies, followed shortly by the other two. The episode ends with all three left in the dark, the only sounds being their frantic breathing over the rapid clicking of the Geiger counters.
This cliffhanger ending is one of the reasons we stayed up until 2am to binge-watch all 5 episodes in one sitting.
Next in this series: Those Accents, Tho!
