“[April 26, 1986: Meeting in the power plant office, engineer Anatoly Sitnikov reports high radiation in reactor 4]

Dyatlov: What's wrong with you? How'd you get that number from feedwater leaking from a blown tank?

Anatoly Sitnikov: You don't.

Dyatlov: Then what the fuck are you talking about?

Sitnikov: I... [clears throat] I walked around the exterior of building 4. I think there's graphite on the ground in the rubble.

Dyatlov: You didn't see graphite.

Sitnikov: I did.

Dyatlov: You didn't. YOU DIDN'T! Because it's NOT THERE!

Nikolai Fomin: What, are you suggesting the core... what? Exploded?

Sitnikov: [almost a whisper] Yes.

Fomin: Sitnikov, you're a nuclear engineer. So am I. So please tell me how an RBMK reactor core explodes. Not a meltdown, an explosion. I'd love to know.

Sitnikov: I can't.

Fomin: Are you stupid?

Sitnikov: No.

Fomin: Then why can't you?

Sitnikov: I... [stammers] I don't see how it could explode. [Fomin looks satisfied] But it did.

Dyatlov: [pounds the table] Enough! I'll go up to the vent block roof. From there, you can look right down into reactor building 4. I'll see it with my own... with my own eyes. [vomits on the table] I apologize. [collapses]”