"[April 26, 1986: Immediately after the explosion, deputy chi..." — Craig Mazin
Catalog
[April 26, 1986: Immediately after the explosion, deputy chief engineer Anatoly Dyatlov stands shocked as shift supervisor Aleksandr Akimov calls his name repeatedly and alarms blare]
Aleksandr Akimov: Comrade Dyatlov? Comrade Dyatlov?!
Anatoly Dyatlov: What just happened?
Leonid Toptunov: I don't know.
[Turbine engineer Vyacheslav Brazhnik rushes into the room]
Vyacheslav Brazhnik: There's a fire in the turbine hall.
Dyatlov: The turbine hall... The control system tank. Hydrogen. [addressing Akimov] You and Toptunov, you morons blew the tank.
Toptunov: No, that's not—
Dyatlov: This is an emergency, everyone stay calm. Our first priority is to—
[As Dyatlov speaks, foreman Valeriy Perevozchenko runs through the open door in a panic]
Valeriy Perevozchenko: It exploded!
Dyatlov: We know. Akimov, are we cooling the reactor core?
Akimov: We shut it down, but the control rods are still... They're not all the way in, I disengaged the clutch—
Dyatlov: Alright, I'll disconnect the servos from the standby console. [to two other engineers] You two, get the backup pumps running, we need water moving through the core, that is all that matters!
Perevozchenko: There is no core! It exploded, the core exploded!
[Beat as all the engineers stare at Perevozchenko in disbelief and fear]
Dyatlov: He's in shock, get him out of here.
Perevozchenko: The lid is off. The stack is burning, I saw it.
Dyatlov: You're confused, RBMK reactor cores don't explode. Akimov!
Akimov: [to Toptunov] Don't worry, we did everything right. Something... something strange has happened.
Toptunov: Do you taste metal?
Dyatlov: Akimov!
Akimov: [to Perevozchenko] Comrade Perevozchenko, what you're saying is physically impossible. The core can't explode. It has to be the tank.
[Perevozchenko wordlessly shakes his head]
Dyatlov: We're wasting time. Let's go. Get the hydrogen out of the generators and pump water into the core.
Brazhnik: What about the fire?
Dyatlov: [annoyed; as if it were obvious] Call the fire brigade. [storms out]
— Craig Mazin, Paul Ritter, and Anatoly Dyatlov