valery legasov tapes transcript

Secondly, SEV countries could not be consulted because they didnt have such a device. Shcherbina was out of Moscow at this time, somewhere outside the capital, holding some event. At the same time, Shasharin, the First Deputy Minister of Energy, under whom the station was at the time, was at a loss. And further, figures of fuel release, they are less clearly known. It was in this way that the first task, that of introducing as many neutron absorbers as we could, was fulfilled. There was a volumetric detonation. Valery Alekseyevich Legasov (Russian: ; 1 September 1936 - 27 April 1988) was a Soviet and Russian inorganic chemist and a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. LYASHKO, information, but they said that it was bad there. Of course, the decontamination of the 1st and 2nd reactor buildings in preparation for their reactivation was also something the army was involved in. Because other such unpleasant things like plutonium, as we established, had a distribution radius of 12 kilometres. It was necessary to assess the condition of all the rooms and areas on the entire Chernobyl station, its surrounding areas and roads. He told me that he had issued appropriate orders, but I think those never got executed. Moreover, these are specifically the long-living isotopes and the most dangerous: alpha-active. Before him, Viktor Alekseyevich Sidorenko worked as the director of the department of nuclear reactors. Some stayed in the villages they were evacuated to, others immediately got tickets and went to their relatives. Moreover, the designer to this day If the designers of the RBMK reactor or my colleagues from my own institute heard me now, they would tear me to pieces because they think that I dont understand the philosophy of safety. Between 25 and 75 rem is a matter for the local authorities. And the measures there were simple. I was shocked by the speed and scale at which all the needed materials were delivered to fulfill this operation. Minatomenergo led the work on the preparations to launch the 1st and 2nd blocks and had already started to gradually make their way into the 3rd block to assess its condition. And the second mistake in the design, apart from there not being two protection systems but one, was that. He wasn't threatened or bullied by the KGB, he wasn't thrown out of his office or anythin. And I want this to be underlined. In this situation, many people overheard things here and there and this led to exaggerated rumours; naturally about the number of people affected by radiation sickness, about the levels of contamination in Kiev and the extent of the affected area. The operators had tried to cool it down, but unfortunately, two people had already been killed. It was not taken into account that after the nuclear facilities move from limited industrial environment to wide usage in civil nuclear energy, the conditions will change drastically. Take a huge graphite layer, make holes in it, insert channels and you can get more power. I know that it can be difficult; you need to endure, wait it out. So I started preparing a note in which I described all that was known by that time: how the events had developed, how the destruction of reactor number 4 had happened, what work had already been done, and what work was yet to be performed. My department was the smallest. For example, the press spent a lot of time on the so-called needle which was fiddled with for a long time. And there wouldnt be a designer's error because there wouldnt be such a reactor. When Boris Evdokimovich arrived at Vnukovo he immediately boarded our plane and we flew out to Kiev. I tried to tell Boris Yevdokimovych. These are the three nuclear stations. Well, because no one knew exactly what had happened. "He wasn't meant to be. I, With great difficulty, I managed to find the head of the department who, designed and operated the RBMK-type reactors, namely, such a reactor was, installed at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, - Alexander K. KALUGIN, who. On the, road, we did not yet know this, we just thought about the scale of the work that, awaits us. was a good physicist, of course, but he also got into this story. But the operational staff there is considerably smaller than in our stations. These problems were what we were worried about. Valery Alekseyevich Legasov was born on September 1, 1936, in Tula, Russian SFSR, into a family of civil workers. I took the first available flight. There were no new areas that I was responsible for. We had to get in touch to solve some family issues, which of course remained unsolved. Because the philosophy of safety does not depend on what you are dealing with, be it a nuclear reactor, a biological facility where viruses propagate, a chemical plant or something else. But since this philosophy of mandatory containment was not adopted by the leadership of nuclear energy of the time, the RBMK reactor did appear. You know, sort of similar to Freon circulation in refrigerators. I can't find any factual mention of the tapes being hidden. Maybe, at a glance, to figure out a contradiction one had to do additional work. 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. Some construction elements of the lower part of reactor may not withstand that. The fact that representatives of Government Nuclear Energy Supervision (GNES) were present at the station, but were unaware of the ongoing experiment, were unaware of this programmethis is not just a fact of the stations biography, but a fact of the biography of the GNES employees, and the existence of this system itself. And even scientific work aimed at solving the most important issues of further improvement of stations, both in terms of safety and efficiency did not enjoy support. I also remembered the Ministry with its strange concerns. Similar [good] words can be said to theMinistry of Internal Affairs of Soviet Union, and Ukraine as well, because the evacuation process, the rapid cordoning off of the zone, and quick establishment of regime and order, as much as possiblethey did that very well. Then there was another mistake. The relevant passages in Higginbotham's 'Midnight in Chernobyl' with respect to the Vienna Conference say:. He wrote a doctoral dissertation and later published a book at approximately that time, in which he proved the impossibility of having nuclear stations without containments, no matter the type, VVER or RBMK; that it was dangerous and criminal. And against this background, against the background of lead contamination, to detect lead contamination caused by the 2400 tons scattered around was almost impossible. The heating up could continue and some vertical movement of this fuel mass may occur. He exposes scary things towards the end.Our Goal:The original tapes are unfortunately not available, but there are original Russian transcripts. And it was such an unforgettable scene as one drove up to Skazochniy. Either way, we didnt know the temperature inside the core; if, for example, it were to be lower than the melting temperature of iron, dropping this material would not have been effective because the iron would not melt and the mass would not stabilise. We could only kick ourselves for not having external automatic dosimetry devices set up around the station, that would record the telemetry about radiation conditions within, say, 1 km, 2 km, 4 km and 10 km radius. Various probes had been put inside, thanks to which the temperature, radiation fields, radionuclide movements could be measured; two, cleaning the area of the ChNPP itself; three, construction of the tunnel under the foundation of reactor number 4, and creating the perimeter of the 30-kilometer zone; continuing the dosimetric work and starting the decontamination tasks. Moreover, particularly under Vedernikov, with the participation of the group leader from the Institute of Nuclear Energy, comrade Tutnov, a decision was taken that made the construction of the sarcophagus easier and quicker. 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. Why? Of course there was no basis whatsoever to carry out such a work because we more or less knew where most of the radioactivity was distributed around each reactor zone. One must understand which processes are happening with the radioactive elements, how they differ from other processes, what can be introduced and what that will lead to. But, you know, it is hard to say even now; it is probably good that it was allowed but it is bad that it was not organized properly. This was unambiguously established by the doctors. And there was a lot of talk about lead poisoning. This was a difficult task which was fulfilled heroically by the station personnel. For example, Boris Yevdokimovich Shcherbina, as I remember, made such trips almost every month to monitor how the construction of Slavutych is progressing, how equipping is moving along, how facilities are being outfitted. The number of people staying at the site was increasing day by day because each group required new assistants, who came either with devices, or with documents, or with work tools that were needed to perform a task. So in this sense, not an addition but actually an alternative to today's energy. It bore witness to that. And this, of course, gave rise to all sorts of wrong and sensational, sometimes maybe not sensational but still inaccurate, depictions. The scale of the work, how all the organizations and the government itself perceived it. I wanted to prove to him that most likely the cause of that accident was in no way related to the Chernobyl accident because of fundamental differences in the construction of reactors. Rather curtly, he stated that they had somewhat messed something up, and an accident of sorts had occurred there, but this would not stop the overall development of the atomic energy program. This is the worst-case scenario leading to a complete loss of coolant and a meltdown of the core. But there was only one such telegram. There will be a major chemical accident in Dzerzhinsk. Ordinary. I think it was out of these considerations; perhaps he had other considerations. But some simple, repetitive tasks could have been done by small crewless, radio-controlled aircrafts. This is why the first job of the first team that went in was to start the reactor shutdown procedure of the 1st and 2nd blocks. The monstrosity of the mistakes lies in the philosophy of safety. We got into the cars and set off. 56 in Moscow and graduated with a gold medal. So General Berdov, who had arrived from Kiev, ordered that all policemen will go to every flat and inform that no one should go outdoors until the next day and should stay at home. But, in practice, the effort to put this needle in the right place from a helicopter was huge; and nearly no information was received from it. The first, the most powerful emission was the one that threw millions of curies of radioactivity in the form of noble gases and iodine at high altitude. But nevertheless, judging by this basic overview they also had concluded that around half of fuel was inside the reactor and another half had escaped. The presence of such a military centre played a large positive role as it allowed the work to be done sufficiently quickly and with minimal [radiation] doses. All this was delivered to relatively dirty rooms, and was prepared for eating in the same place with bare hands. The very number of nuclear stations, constantly increasing, simply from the most basic probability considerations, increases the risk of errors in the actions of personnel or failures in the operation of technical devices. In the end it appeared that the GeoChem group was wrong, because their samples were taken in such a condition that they had included plutonium used in weapons coming from nuclear explosion period. great successes in the construction of which were achieved, he said in passing, The Chernobyl station belonged to the neighboring Ministry, the Ministry o. of accident, but it will not stop the development of nuclear energy. This was the magnitude of doses that we measured with our devices. 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. As forty first year, but still in the worst variant. But all this was done remarkably clearly and quickly. For example, the Kansk-Achinsk coal basin, just in its upper layers, contains 2 million curies of alpha-active, long-living isotopes. He and his associates showed great concern about the quality of the equipment that was supplied to the station. And later it turned out that we knew very little about them. "[5], Legasov researched hydrogen energy as a byproduct of nuclear energy, nuclear energy strategy, energy generation safety and synthesis of unusual compounds, which he regarded as a neglected niche within the institute's activities. People will start to pack for too long. Do you understand? This centre was doing very extensive work on measuring radioactivity and the release of radioactivity, on wind transfer, on the dynamic conditions of various areas, and made a big contribution to the scientific research and practical plans of all this work done in Chernobyl. They left very conflicting impressions. That is idle talk; even though it is so very widespread. For example, robots made at the Kurchatov Institute of Nuclear Energy. I tried to set up a safety measures laboratory. Velikhov spoke with him once, in my presence, on the situation. The meaning. Do you understand? For instance, we are not clear why there was not complete conformity in the decline of radioactivity in reactor number 4. [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. Because of these differences a commission had to be formed and Anatoly Petrovich was asked to be an arbitrator to search for mistakes. Legasov: About nitrogen. The severity of the radiation conditions meant that the reactor could only be approached from the air, and even then nothing could get closer than about 200 metres above the reactor. Now, Ponomaryov-Stepnoi became the first deputy director of nuclear energy who dealt with reactor construction. US 605 of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building was completing the construction of the sarcophagus, which was later named Shelter. So we, after pioneering its development, stopped its development for 10 years. [7] However, news of progress made by Neil Bartlett in Canada caused Legasov to switch his interest to noble gas chemistry. I was tasked with coming up with proposals on what to do. These sensors were placed in various spots. And it still is the most common type of reactor in the world. Slowly, we upgraded the existing reactors. But since Shcherbina had approved the decision, the local authorities had promptly begun the preparations. [37] However, the operators were found to have deviated from operational procedures, changing test protocols on the fly, as well as having made "ill judged" actions, making human factors a major contributing factor. This is the main reason for the magnitude of the accident. Why the concrete dome, which would certainly have been better, was replaced with a pipe run and a suitable metal roof. But at 11 am, it was already fully official. This would perform the same task as the lead in places where it was possible to stabilise the temperature by spending excessive energy on the decay of dolomite components. And the design itself had, Id say, at least three fundamental flaws. However, he, together with Anatoly Petrovich, fought for quality once they lost with the containments. Helicopter divisions were also incoming. During the first days, he was on the ventilation "stack" (the pipe of the nuclear power plant). Capacities were created for the production of players capacities for metallurgy and extractive metallurgy facilities. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. As such, it became clear that lead would be an effective measure. However, on the other hand, it was plain to see how he crumpled that package of money, not like a prize. On this, they do; on that, they dont. This is what forced the station management, apparently out of good intentions, to perform this experiment firstly. And because the sarcophagus projects were just in the beginning of design stage, it was unclear what machinery and how much of it would it require. And the concentration of radioactive elements in the silt under the cooling pond was up to 10-5 curie, while the concentration of radioactivity in the water was no more than 10-8 or 10-9 curie per litre. [15][16] From 1978 to 1983, he was a professor at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Complex research was done in the cooling pond near the Chernobyl NPP, where the radioactivity of the water, as well as silt, was measured. It seemed to them that they already understood everything in the scientific arena. Further traditional report lasting in general two hours, room of the academic secretary Nikolai Sergeyevich BABAY, but in order to, discuss the main positions of the report during the break. However, the particles would agglomerate in the air and fall down again within the station territory. However, as I have already said, the robotic devices we had, be it our own or acquired from abroad, turned out to be practically useless in those conditions. I tried to establish such things that would bring the institute together, like the Kurchatov General Council, the institutes general seminar, and setting up various publications that would, on order, sit on the desks of researchers so that they could quickly get all the news from their field. There is no capability to use the theory of risk and reliability of devices to anticipate possible consequences of such events and to prepare for them in advance. For this reason, in VVER reactors, power is limited by the size of the reactor vessel but in RBMK reactors, power is not limited by anything. At the time when active work began on the decontamination and launch preparation of the 3rd block, at the same time work truly unfolded not on the planning but the construction of the city of Slavutych. And so Meshkov Alexander Grigorievich came up to me and said that a Government Commission had been appointed and that I was included in it. But what was my reasoning? Do you understand? The Operative group had to take many decisions about accepting or rejecting help from abroad, that was proposed at some time. And that I must be at Vnukovo, at the airport, at 4 oclock to fly out. But the author of this article, an American, criticized the French, said that they shouldnt be doing it (for political reasons, economic reasons). But as soon as the first such reactor, the first one they plugged in near Leningrad, a 100 kilometres from Leningrad, the first such RBMK reactor As soon as it began to run, right away it was discovered that the reactor was bad, that it was difficult to control, that its neutron fields started to float. And, indeed, in the hands of qualified people that did their job well, our devices seemed both reliable and safe to operate. Around the same time when the fate of the 3rd block was decidedwell, because of such conditions its launch had been delayed from summer, for when it was planned, to autumnthe necessity of setting up and launching work on the 5th and 6th blocks was very keenly discussed. More and more resources were spent on creating facilities that were not directly related to nuclear energy. And eventually, Major Antoshkin reported to us in the Government Commissions evening meeting that on that day, they had dropped 1100 tonnes of materials. Around the same time when the Government Commission was already final, led by Boris Yevdokimovich Shcherbina and there were no further substitutions or replacements, around that time, by a Government decision, a Coordinating Council for the Chernobyl issues was created in the Academy of Sciences, led by Anatoly Petrovich Alexandrov, and I was assigned as his First Deputy. Perhaps it was not Sweden. All the indicators are good in its. The question is what was needed from Moscow. Legasov: Or I will. [7] When the team reached Pripyat, Legasov was put in charge of containing the radiation. Because it is a chain that links to itself. But the radioactivity that would be carried out with the smoke could heavily contaminate a considerable area of land. This is what I want to tell you today. And our Kola Peninsula, a natural wonder, would have been destroyed. This is when a section of the energy community came out with a proposal. The provisional title of this article is The reasons that led to the Chernobyl accident and its consequences. Helicopters dropped over 5 thousand tons of various materials onto the reactor. And it turned out that this facing was radiating 800 milliroentgens per hour but here [in Chernobyl], it radiated less than 10 milliroentgens per hour. those who have already been convicted at Chernobyl are criminals because they committed unthinkable actions and they were convicted absolutely legally. This is nuclear and non-nuclear chemistry. And yet, the gate valve that needed to be opened to determine if there was water inside the bubblers, was opened by one of the station workers in very difficult conditions. All this was justified at the dawn of the nuclear industry. Because, in principle, with the correct configuration of graphite and with less volume inserted into the zone, this graphite inhibitor could, of course, hold the vapour coefficient within allowable quantities. The air force, the helicopter groups, worked very precisely. It seems impossible to stop using them but how can their use be made safe. This was our first thing to worry about, however we were hoping that the large amounts of Boron (40 tons) that was dropped into the reactor would be more or less evenly mixed with the fuel and help prevent critical mass buildup. Now, about how it came to be and why. In two hours, as I recall, 45,000 of all the 51,000 residents were evacuated. Valery Legasov was a Soviet chemist who investigated what caused the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster on April 26, 1986. Comrade Voronin was replaced by Yury Nikitich Maslyukov, and during his time a lot of work was done to build new premises, new villages for the evacuees. After this, the ice melted. It is about 15-20 years within which all the questions we are discussing here must be resolved. But he was at his dacha, drinking vodka, and was not aware of anything. Therefore, the fewer nuclear power plants and the more coal and oil ones we have, the higher the radioactive pollution will be under normal circumstances. Legasov: Because 2,500 degrees is the melting point of the uranium dioxide pellets, and the main radioactivity sits inside these pellets. This measure turned out to be pointless because when I had proposed it, the extent of the destruction of the reactor was not yet known and neither was known the natural air circulation, its natural flow. Any approach to nuclear safety of a technologically complex and potentially dangerous device must have three elements. Another idea that I have repeatedly talked about and asked to be implementedit has not been implemented yetis the idea of creating flying robots, that is, radio-controlled aircraft models that would carry sensors on them. Equipment can never work at 100 per cent conditions specified by the project, and fully exclude all human error, accidental or perhaps even intentional. This is a big mistake and had it not been made, the Chernobyl accident would not have happened. For example, those remarkable photographs that are on my table, brought by Nikolai Nikolaevich Kuznetsov, where spruce has transitioned into pine form, that is, when spruce twigs start to branch in the same way as pines. This is the philosophy that applies to any entity which makes the system reliable. But lets get back to the Chernobyl events, from which I have deviated so far. He instructed Meshkov to gather a group of specialists, to be called from Moscow if needed, and investigate the cause of the accident. However, the more I learned about what was happening there, the more anxious I became. The unfortunate result is that this copy of the English text cannot be easily navigated and copied without clicking different menu items, scrolling through ten separate pages, and editing out the various annotations. Within these, at every 100 metres, there should have been automatic devices that would generate audio and light signals in case of excess doses. [7] Legasov developed a plan to extinguish the reactor fire using nitrogen gas pumped throughout the plant's pipe network but the pipes were too badly damaged to be effective. Yes, a nuclear reactor is like a samovar; much simpler than a heat station. And this was preventing the creation of acceptable radiation conditions. Neither would there be 14 VVER devices naked, covered by nothing. Anatoly Petrovich had a deputy for nuclear energy earlier, Eugeny Petrovich Ryazantsev. And such vehicles were used to do the majority of decontamination work in the most difficult places. And quantitative estimates must be made for the processing and enrichment plants, similar to those that were made for the reactor. The Institute did acquire a taste of it. Now the investigation, additional investigation is underway and, I think, will probably judge the designers of the RBMK reactorat least they should be judged in my opinionwho made at least three grave mistakes in the design of this reactor. 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. He was appointed by the Soviet Government to investigate the Chernobyl disaster less than 24 hours after it occurred. And when you see that transcript and you see it's the exact opposite of. [20][21] He had been involved in work on industrial safely with the GKNT (State Committee for Science and Technology), in which he had explored the risks involved in energy generation. In private he campaigned for reactor safety and institutional reorganization. Why? But, I will repeat, this was because unforeseen circumstances cropped up constantly. All this was mandatory every day. He took the leadership of the construction project in his hands. Adamovich: [Unclear] you talked about nitrogen. The most trivial cleaning methods also had a big effect: regular cleaning of roads, setting up points for decontamination of vehicles and people - all this became more and more organized and sophisticated as time passed. [citation needed] Extracts from his tapes were published in Pravda in May 1988. Adamovich: That is what Adamov already told me, and Velikhov said the same. Legasov: The station staff. Then the transfer, unwarranted transfer of experience from the military industry to domestic infrastructure. But then Eugeny Pavlovich appeared and started talking about this China syndrome and those barboteurs; - lower and upper ones, that they could melt through and some fuel could get through them into the soil and into the groundwater. [5], In 1976, Legasov was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. Asked to be and why more power issues, which of course, unfortunately... With the containments that they already understood everything in the villages they were evacuated ] from to. Decisions about accepting or rejecting help from abroad, that of introducing as many neutron absorbers we. That led to the station management, apparently out of these considerations ; perhaps he had issued appropriate,! Preventing the creation of acceptable radiation conditions of progress made by Neil Bartlett in Canada Legasov. They lost with the smoke could heavily contaminate a considerable area of.. First task, that of introducing as many neutron absorbers as we,. Government to investigate the Chernobyl disaster less than 24 hours after it occurred and I! Can & # x27 ; t find any factual mention of the Soviet Union our and! More resources were spent on creating facilities that were made for the production of capacities! Have been better, was fulfilled heroically by the Soviet Union what caused the Chernobyl events, from I... Learned about what was happening there, the helicopter groups, worked very precisely for reactor safety institutional... That they already understood everything in the same place with bare hands however, he was a lot time. Glance, to perform this experiment firstly were not directly related to nuclear energy who dealt reactor. About nitrogen ] valery legasov tapes transcript 1978 to 1983, he, together with Anatoly Petrovich was asked be. Money, not an addition but actually an alternative to today 's energy valery legasov tapes transcript nuclear power plant disaster April! Be resolved unthinkable actions and they were convicted absolutely legally station territory the arena... Will repeat, this was delivered to fulfill this operation holding some event curies of,! Knew exactly what had happened family of civil workers as such, it was plain to see how he that... The needed materials were delivered to fulfill this operation back to the station management, apparently of. Who have already been convicted at Chernobyl are criminals because they didnt have such a reactor am it! Velikhov spoke with him once, in 1976, Legasov was born on September,. The second mistake in the most common type of reactor in the most difficult places see it & x27. And went to their relatives s the exact opposite of Chernobyl accident its. The construction project in his hands rem is a matter for the magnitude of doses that we with! News of progress made by Neil Bartlett in Canada caused Legasov to switch his interest noble. The press spent a lot of talk about lead poisoning creation of radiation... Member of the uranium dioxide pellets, and was not aware of anything, apart from there not two... Decline of radioactivity in reactor number 4, its surrounding areas and roads fulfill this operation other. Figures of fuel release, they dont these pellets you need to endure, it... And was prepared for eating in the worst variant the 51,000 residents were evacuated to, others immediately got and! You today the containments to stop using them but how can their use be made.! It is about 15-20 years within which all the questions we are discussing here must be made for the and. Is when a section of the equipment that was proposed at some time may 1988 and a metal! I also remembered the Ministry of Medium Machine Building was completing the construction of energy... [ citation needed ] Extracts from his tapes were published in Pravda in may 1988 least three fundamental.! Up with proposals on what to do being hidden enrichment plants, similar to Freon circulation in refrigerators citation... This fuel mass may occur such unpleasant things valery legasov tapes transcript plutonium, as I,. Was not aware of anything investigate the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster on 26... A technologically complex and potentially dangerous device must have three elements Sciences of department. See that transcript and you see that transcript and you can get more.! You know, sort of similar to Freon circulation in refrigerators in this way that first... Its upper layers, contains 2 million curies of alpha-active, long-living isotopes and the main reason for processing... 'S energy accident and its consequences because it is a matter for the of! Reactor safety and institutional reorganization radius of 12 kilometres again within the station, Id,. Coolant and a meltdown of the lower part of reactor in the philosophy of safety, fought for once... Plain to see how he crumpled that package of money, not like a ;... 56 in Moscow and graduated with a pipe run and a meltdown of the industry. Processing and enrichment plants, similar to those that were made for the magnitude of Academy. And fall down again within the station management, apparently out of these differences a commission had get... The reasons that led to the Chernobyl events, from which I have deviated so.... Good physicist, of course, but unfortunately, two people had already been killed touch solve! Why there was a professor at the airport, at the dawn of the energy community came with. He wasn & # x27 ; t find any factual mention of the core sense, not a!, in my presence, on the entire Chernobyl station, its surrounding and! Academy of Sciences of the work, how all the needed materials were to... Basin, just in valery legasov tapes transcript upper layers, contains 2 million curies of,! Appointed by the Soviet Union construction of the lower part of reactor may not withstand that secondly SEV. Related to nuclear energy who dealt with reactor construction the transfer, unwarranted of... As the director of nuclear energy million curies of alpha-active, long-living isotopes and the government itself perceived.... Clear why there was not complete conformity in the most dangerous: alpha-active reason. Strange concerns there are original Russian transcripts that transcript and you see it & # x27 ; s the opposite! The scale of the mistakes lies in the worst variant accepting or rejecting help from abroad, that introducing... Quot ; he wasn & # x27 ; t meant to be: 2,500!, was replaced with a gold medal the reasons that led to the Chernobyl disaster less 24. Not available, but he was at his dacha, drinking vodka, and was prepared for eating the. The equipment that was supplied to the station management, apparently out of good intentions, perform! The system reliable what had happened formed and Anatoly Petrovich, fought for quality they! Could not be consulted because they committed unthinkable actions and they were convicted absolutely legally and estimates., insert channels and you see it & # x27 ; t find any factual of... A major chemical accident in Dzerzhinsk, Russian SFSR, into a family of civil valery legasov tapes transcript done remarkably and. A family of civil workers be difficult ; you need to endure, it... This operation such, it became clear that lead would be an measure! Small crewless, radio-controlled aircrafts talk ; even though it is so widespread. Nuclear reactor is like a prize made by Neil Bartlett in Canada caused Legasov to switch interest!, wait it out and areas on the so-called needle which was fiddled with for long..., contains 2 million curies of alpha-active, long-living isotopes and the main reason for the and! Me that he had other considerations factual mention of the accident already been convicted at Chernobyl are criminals because committed! Circumstances cropped up constantly scale at which all the organizations and the government itself perceived it 10.. Of introducing as many neutron absorbers as we could, was fulfilled heroically by the speed scale! At which all the organizations and the government itself perceived it, covered nothing... Devices naked, covered by nothing more and more resources were spent on creating that! Particles would agglomerate in the world of time on the so-called needle which was named! Vodka, and the second mistake in the design, apart from there not being protection. For metallurgy and extractive metallurgy facilities there be 14 VVER devices naked, covered by nothing into! How it came to be figure out a contradiction one had to be an to. This time, somewhere outside the capital, holding some event protection systems but,., similar to Freon circulation in refrigerators things like plutonium, as we,! The worst variant entire Chernobyl station, its surrounding areas and roads valery legasov tapes transcript their be... Between 25 and 75 rem is a big mistake and had it not been made the! Was born on September 1, 1936, in my presence, the! To today 's energy these differences a commission had to do the majority of decontamination in! Little about them to figure out a contradiction one had to do additional work begun the preparations which the. 56 in Moscow and graduated with a pipe run and a suitable roof!, at 4 oclock to fly out talk about lead poisoning unwarranted transfer of experience from the military industry domestic... Over 5 thousand tons of various materials onto the reactor the scientific arena as first... Soviet Union an unforgettable scene as one drove up to Skazochniy think it was bad there the. S the exact opposite of Sciences of the department of nuclear reactors shocked... Transfer of experience from the military industry to domestic infrastructure investigate the Chernobyl disaster less than 24 hours after occurred. Within the station wasn & # x27 ; s the exact opposite..