第4期:抢救切尔诺贝利(4)

There was a metallic taste in our mouths, an acidity. They say radiation has no taste. It was only later we realized it was the taste of radioactive iodine.

While children are still out playing in the squares. Colonel Grebeniouk's men spend the day taking the first readings of radioactivity in the city. In those days, radioactivity is measured in units called roentgens. Normal atmospheric level is about 12 millionths of a roentgen.

In Pripyat, by early afternoon, readings are already over 200 thousandths of a roentgen, in other words, fifteen thousand times higher than usual. By the evening, the level has shot up to 600,000 times above normal. Boulevard Lenin, 200. Boulevard Ukalna, 25O milliroentgens. And that night, 7 roentgens.

My subordinates were starting to wonder: Were the machines not working properly, or were we being lying to us? We didn't know that the reactor was still burning and radiation was still spreading.

This map is sealed in plastic because it's still radioactive. It's thought that a human being can absorb up to 2 roentgens per year without being affected.

But, the body is lethally contaminated if it receives over 400 roentgens. During that first day, the inhabitants absorb over fifty times what is considered to be a harmless dose.

At such a pace, they would have reached lethal dosage in four days. To understand what is going on, the colonel sents a patrol to take the first readings at the base of the plant.

Their first readings were recorded on this map: 2080 roentgens! I was worried about my subordinates. How could I send them in there? At these astronomical levels 15 minutes is all takes for a human being to absorb a lethal dose of radiation.

At the nuclear institute, the figures provoke a shock. Such a level of radioactivity has never been seen before. Gorbatchev hurriedly creates a governmental commission made up of the country's top experts in nuclear energy.

It is led by the academician Legassov, a nuclear physicist of international renown. He immediately leaves for Chernobyl at the head of a scientific delegation.