Chernobyl (TV Mini Series)

Please Remain Calm (2019)

Stellan Skarsgård: Boris Shcherbina

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Valery Legasov : [to himself, on seeing the site for the first time]  What have they done?

  Boris Shcherbina : Can you see inside?

  Valery Legasov : I don't have to. Look. That's graphite on the roof. The whole building's been blown open. The core's exposed!

  Boris Shcherbina : I can't see how you can tell that from here.

  Valery Legasov : Oh, for God's sakes, look at that glow. That's radiation ionizing the air!

  Boris Shcherbina : Well, if we can't see, we don't know.

  [to pilot] 

  Boris Shcherbina : Get us directly over the building!

  Valery Legasov : Boris...

  Boris Shcherbina : Don't use my name!

  Valery Legasov : ...if we fly directly over an open reactor, we'll be dead within a week! Dead!

  Commission Heli Pilot : Sir?

  Boris Shcherbina : [to pilot]  Get us over that building, or I'll have you shot!

  Valery Legasov : [to pilot]  If you fly directly over that core, I promise you, by tomorrow morning, you'll be *begging* for that bullet.

  [after a tense pause, the Pilot changes course, to Shcherbina's fury] 

• Boris Shcherbina : How does a nuclear reactor work?

  Valery Legasov : What?

  Boris Shcherbina : It's a simple question.

  Valery Legasov : It's hardly a simple answer.

  Boris Shcherbina : Of course, you presume I'm too stupid to understand. So I'll restate: Tell me how a nuclear reactor works, or I'll have one of these soldiers throw you out of the helicopter.

  Valery Legasov : [Glances at soldiers flanking him]  A nuclear reactor makes energy with steam. The steam turns a turbine which generates electricity. Where a typical power plant makes steam by burning coal, a nuclear plant... In a nuclear plant, we use something called fission.

  [Proceeds to diagram] 

  Valery Legasov : We take an unstable element like uranium 235, which has too many neutrons. A neutron is, uh...

  Boris Shcherbina : The bullet.

  Valery Legasov : Yes, the bullet. So, bullets are flying off of the uranium. Now... if we put enough uranium atoms close together, the bullets from one atom will eventually strike another atom. The force of this impact splits that atom apart, releasing a tremendous amount of energy, fission.

  Boris Shcherbina : And the graphite?

  Valery Legasov : Ah, yes. The neutrons are actually traveling so fast - we call this "flux"- it's relatively unlikely that the uranium atoms will ever hit one another. In RBMK reactors, we surround the fuel rods with graphite to moderate, slow down, the neutron flux.

  Boris Shcherbina : Good. I know how a nuclear reactor works. Now I don't need you.

• 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.

• Plant Employee : Why are reactors 1 and 2 still operating at all? My friend was a security guard that night, and, uh, she's now dying. And we've all heard about the firemen. And now you want us to swim underneath a burning reactor? Do you even know how contaminated it is?

  Valery Legasov : I... I don't have an exact number.

  Plant Employee : You don't need an exact number to know if it'll kill us. But you can't even tell us that. Why should we do this, for what, 400 rubles?

  Boris Shcherbina : You'll do it because it must be done. You'll do it because nobody else can. And if you don't, millions will die. If you tell me that's not enough, I won't believe you. This is what has always set our people apart. A thousand years of sacrifice in our veins. And every generation must know its own suffering. I spit on the people who did this, and I curse the price I have to pay. But I'm making my peace with it, now you make yours. And go into that water. Because it must be done.

  Ananenko : [stands]  Ananenko.

  Bezpalov : [stands]  Bezpalov.

  Baranov : [stands]  Baranov.

• 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.

• Boris Shcherbina : [answers phone]  Shcherbina.

  Caller : [speaks indistinctly] 

  Boris Shcherbina : Thank you.

  [to Legasov] 

  Boris Shcherbina : A nuclear plant in Sweden has detected radiation and identified it as a byproduct of our fuel. The Americans took satellite photos. The reactor building, the smoke, the fire. The whole world knows. The wind has been blowing toward Germany. They're not letting children play outside... in Frankfurt.

  [glances at children playing outside] 

• Michail Gorbatchev : Comrade Shcherbina, I want you do to go Chernobyl. You take a look at the reactor, you personally, and you report directly back to me...

  Boris Shcherbina : [speaking too soon]  Wise decision, comrade general secretary.

  Michail Gorbatchev : ...and take professor Legasov with you.

  Boris Shcherbina : Eh, forgive me, comrade general secretary, but I...

  Michail Gorbatchev : Do you know how a nuclear reactor works?

  Boris Shcherbina : [beat]  No.

  Michail Gorbatchev : No. Well then, how will you know what you are looking at? Meeting adjourned.

• Boris Shcherbina : And as for the radiation...

  Valery Legasov : Yes, 3.6 roentgen, which, by the way, is not the equivalent of one chest X-ray, but rather four *hundred* chest X-rays. That number has been bothering me for a different reason, though. It's also the maximum reading on low-limit dosimeters. They gave us the number they had. I think the true number is much, much higher. If I'm right, this fireman was holding the equivalent of four *million* chest X-rays in his hand.

• [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!