Mark Lewis Jones credited as playing...
General Pikalov
- Boris Shcherbina: Tell me how to put it out.
- General Pikalov: We'll use helicopters. Drop water on it like a forest fire...
- Valery Legasov: No, you don't understand, this isn't a fire. This is a fissioning reactor core burning at over two thousand degrees. The heat will instantly vaporize the water...
- Boris Shcherbina: [insistently] How do we put it out?
- Valery Legasov: You are dealing with something that has never occurred on this planet before.
- Fomin: It's overkill. Pikarov's showing off to make us look bad.
- Bryukhanov: It doesn't matter how it looks. Shcherbina's a pure bureaucrat, as stupid as he is pigheaded. We'll tell him the truth in the simplest terms possible. We'll be fine.
- [to Pikarov]
- Bryukhanov: Pikarov!
- [to Shcherbina]
- Bryukhanov: Comrade Shcherbina, Chief Engineer Fomin. Colonel General Pikarov and I are honored at your arrival.
- Fomin: Deeply, deeply, honored.
- Bryukhanov: Naturally, we regret the circumstances of your visit, but as you can see, we are making excellent progress in containing the damage. We have begun our own inquiry into the cause of the accident, and I have a list of individuals who we believe are accountable.
- [Shcherbina summons Legasov]
- Bryukhanov: Professor Legasov, I understand you have been saying saying dangerous things.
- Fomin: Very dangerous things. Apparently, our reactor core exploded. Please, tell me how an RBMK reactor explodes.
- Valery Legasov: I'm not prepared to explain it at this time.
- Fomin: As I presumed, he has no answer.
- Bryukhanov: It's disgraceful, really. To spread disinformation at a time like this.
- Boris Shcherbina: Why did I see graphite on the roof? Graphite is only found in the core where it is used as a neutron flux moderator. Correct?
- Bryukhanov: Fomin, why did the Deputy Chairman see graphite on the roof?
- Fomin: Well, that... that can't be. Comrade Shcherbina, my apologies, but graphite... that's not possible. Perhaps you saw burnt concrete.
- Boris Shcherbina: Now there you made a mistake, because I may not know much about nuclear reactors, but I know a lot about concrete.
- Fomin: Comrade, I assure you...
- Boris Shcherbina: I understand. You think Legasov is wrong. How shall we prove it?
- General Pikalov: Our high-range dosimeter just arrived. We could cover one of our trucks with lead shielding, mount the dosimeter on the front.
- Valery Legasov: Have one of your men get as close to the fire as he can. Give him every bit of protection you have. But understand that even with lead shielding, it may not be enough.
- General Pikalov: Then I'll do it myself.
- [General Pikalov returns from driving the dosimeter truck close to the fire]
- General Pikalov: It's not three roentgen. It's fifteen thousand.
- [Legasov closes his eyes]
- Bryukhanov: Comrade Shcherbina...
- [Shcherbina just looks at him, and he shuts up instantly]
- Boris Shcherbina: What does that number mean?
- Valery Legasov: It means the core is open. It means the fire we're watching with our own eyes is giving off nearly twice the radiation released by the bomb in Hiroshima. And that's every single hour. Hour after hour.
- [checks his watch]
- Valery Legasov: Twenty hours since the explosion. Forty bombs' worth by now. Forty-eight more tomorrow. And it will not stop. Not in a week. Not in a month. It will burn and spread its poison until the entire *continent* is dead.
- [silence]
- Boris Shcherbina: [to soldier] Please escort Comrades Bryukhanov and Fomin to the local Party headquarters.
- [to Bryukhanov and Fomin]
- Boris Shcherbina: Thank you for your service.
- Bryukhanov: Comrade...
- Boris Shcherbina: You're excused.
- Fomin: [as they are dragged away] Dyatlov was in charge. It was Dyatlov!