48 Hours a Day

Kovitz felt physically and mentally exhausted.

Even before dawn, almost all of the first experts who arrived were woken up by the phone. They hurriedly dressed and rushed to gather at the airport. On the way, they studied the report submitted by Bryuhanov and Fomin, discussing how to restore the power supply to the nuclear power plant as soon as possible.

However, when they arrived at the scene of the explosion, they realized that the severity of the problem was far greater than they had imagined. The previous plans were all based on the reactor being safe and sound. Now, they were all useless, so they had to collect information and find new solutions.

Before Scherbina arrived, the experts had argued for a long time about how to put out the fire in the reactor. After that, they waited for him to take a helicopter to the reactor to inspect it before returning to the DW office and continuing the previous debate.

Water was the most commonly used fire-fighting material. However, water could not put out the nuclear fire. Instead, it would only accelerate the pollution of the surrounding area after it evaporated. In the end, the scientists decided to use sand to put out the fire. However, getting the sand into the reactor was also a troublesome problem. It was not until around 3 am that Scherbina found the air force general in Kiev to borrow pilots and helicopters that could carry out the mission from the latter.

Due to the lack of manpower, some people had to stay behind to help transport the sand, including a few deputy ministers. Kovitz got lucky, though, managing to get himself a few hours of rest. He dragged his tired body back to the hotel.

After opening the door lock with his hey, he did not even have the strength to brush his teeth and wash his face. He just wanted to lie on the bed and sleep.

However, the next moment, something cold pressed against his throat, causing him to shiver uncontrollably. He instantly became a little more awake.

Kovitz then heard the sound of the door closing behind him. After about half a second, the light in his room lit up. Kovitz saw a woman sitting on the sofa.

“Hello, Deputy Director.”

“Who are you people? Why are you in our room?” Koviz asked with a trembling voice.

“It doesn’t matter who we are. The important thing is that we don’t mean you any harm,” Besnova said. She was wearing a gas mask, so Kovitz couldn’t see her face.

In reality, this was also to protect Besnova. After the mission was completed, the players would leave this place, so it didn’t matter if they would be targeted. Besnova, however, was a native of this dungeon, so if her identity was exposed, dealing with her wouldn’t be too difficult with the power Kovitz yielded.

Besnova understood this, so she was very grateful when she heard Zhang Heng asking her to put on the mask. Furthermore, with her previous experience, she was becoming more and more adept at this kind of thing.

At least now, from Koviz’s point of view, he would never believe that the woman in his room was just a nurse.

“Then why did you sneak into my room?”

Kovitz did not seem to believe Besnova’s words, especially considering how Zhang Heng’s knife was still at his throat.

“We just want to ask you for a small favor,” Besnova continued.

“Do you want money? I’m in a hurry this time, so I only brought around 100 rubles. If it’s not enough, you can take my watch too,” Kovitz said as he took off the watch on his wrist.

“No, keep the watch. We just want to ask you a few questions about Chernobyl.”

Kovitz’s body trembled slightly when she heard the name. “Chernobyl? Who are you people? Why do you care about Chernobyl?”

“You just need to answer our questions truthfully. We have the same goal as you. We all want to find out about this accident,” Besnova said.

After a pause, she continued, “You are the deputy director of the Institute of Hydropower Engineering in charge of nuclear power plant safety. As far as I know, the Institute of Hydropower Engineering was responsible for the overall design of the nuclear power plant.”

“That’s right.” These things were not very secret, so Kovitz did not deny it.

“So the design of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was also done by you guys?”

“Uh, yes, but strictly speaking, this design was done before I became the director of the design department of the Nuclear Power Plant.” Kovitz wiped the sweat on his forehead. “I was still doing hydropower designs at that time.”

“Then, according to what you know, were there any omissions in this design?” Besnova continued to ask.

“Omissions?

“Oh, of course, but such things are inevitable. I mean, design is one thing, but when the nuclear power plant is actually operating, it’s another thing. We’re a little behind in the treatment of radioactive waste, and now it seems the pipelines are buried a little densely, not separated…”

“Mr. Deputy Director, I’m not asking about such a small problem, but a design flaw that could cause an explosion of the nuclear power plant,” Besnova interrupted Kovitz.

“A flaw that could cause an explosion at the nuclear power plant?” Kovitz’s mouth was wide open. It was obvious that his surprise was not faked. “Do you think that the explosion at Chernobyl’s reactor No. 4 could be due to a design flaw?”

After a long while, the deputy director squeezed out six words from his mouth. “This is too ridiculous!”

“The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was built in 1970 and put into operation in 1977. It has been nine years since then, and it has been safe and sound until now. How could it be a design problem The workers on duty that night must’ve not followed the safety manual, causing improper operation. I’m not the only one who thinks so. The other members of the expert group also think the same. Unfortunately, we heard that they were very exposed to radiation, so we couldn’t ask them in person.”

Seeing that Besnova did not seem to believe him, Kovitz added, “I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not saying this to shun responsibility. The RMBK reactor is found everywhere in the Soviet Union. You can take a look around. Their performance has always been good.”

Besnova made no comment and continued to ask, “Who is the designer?”

“What?”

“The RMBK reactor that you mentioned. Who designed it?”

“It’s academician Dorezali.”

“Dorezali? Where can we find him? Moscow?”

A strange expression appeared on Kovitz’s face when he heard that.

“Academician Dollezhal led the design of the RMBK reactor in 1947, then built the first Soviet nuclear power plant. But now… he is no longer there.”