The country's top experts are called into action. Vassili Nesterenko was one of them.
全国顶尖专家受命采取应对措施 瓦沙里纳特瑞柯是其中一位专家
At the time, he was working on improving the Soviet Union's intercontinental nuclear missiles.
当时他正从事改善苏联洲际核弹的工作
If the heat managed to crack the cement slab, only 1400 kgs of the uranium and graphite mixture would have had to hit the water to set off a new explosion.
如果热气造成水泥板裂开 现场1400公斤的铀跟石墨混合物只要碰到水就足以引发新的爆炸
The ensuing chain reaction could set off an explosion comparable to a gigantic atomic bomb.
接下来的连锁反应将引发可比原子弹威力的爆炸
Our experts studied the possibility and concluded that the explosion would have had a force of 3 to 5 megatons.
我们的专家研究爆炸可能 推断这次爆炸威力将高达3到5百万吨
Minsk, which is 320 km from Chernobyl, would have been razed, and Europe rendered uninhabitable.
离切尔诺贝利320公里的明斯克将被夷为平地 整个欧洲将无法住人
We had to stop the process. If it continued, it would have been an enormous disaster. An enormous nuclear disaster.
我们得阻止情况继续进展 再持续下去必定会酿成巨祸 一场巨大的核子灾变
This second explosion would have been accompanied by a terrible shock wave and a massive rise in radioactivity that would have claimed thousands of lives in a matter of hours.
第二次爆炸将伴随著惊人的震波 放射量会极度升高 在几小时内夺走数千条人命
Thank God it didn't happen. There were trains with over a thousand cars in Minsk, Gomel and Kiev, ready to evacuate the population. The situation is critical.
感谢老天这并没有发生 在明斯科哥麦尔和基辅已备好火车并加挂上千车厢 准备疏散所有居民 情势非常紧张
In Moscow, the state commission decrees two emergency measures.
在莫斯科 国家委员会颁布两项紧急措施
First, send in a batallion of firemen to drain the water from under the reactor.
首先派出大队消防员 把反应炉底部的水抽干
They will later be declared national heroes, but will suffer from radiation sickness the rest of their lives.
他们在后来被称为国家英雄 但是余生将受辐射病所苦
Second: Seal the breach more effectively to bring the temperature down once and for all.
第二:以更有效方式封住裂缝 一劳永逸地降低温度
In two days, General Antochkin's men will drop 2400 tons of lead into the reactor.
在两天内 安托区金将军的手下空投2400吨的铅进入反应炉
When we started dumping lead in, the temperature went down right away.
我们一丢铅进去温度马上就降低了 它的吸热效果良好
It absorbed well and sealed the hole as it melted, so there was less radiation.
熔化后也封住了洞口 所以辐射降低了
But some of this lead melts when it hits the blaze and vaporises into the atmosphere.
但是有些铅被火熔化后蒸发到大气中
Twenty years later, traces of it can be found in the sick children of Chernobyl.
20年后 切尔诺贝利病童的身体中仍可见到微量的铅
It's highly criticized today, but given the situation, there was no better solution.
这种做法在今天遭到高度抨击 但是在当时的情况下并没有更好的办法
And all the people - military or civilians, officers or not - worked selflessly.
所有的人 不论军民 不论阶级全都无私地工作