“[Colonel General Pikalov returns from the testing to give his report]

Pikalov: It's not three roentgen. It's 15,000.

Bryukhanov: Comrade Shcherbina—

Shcherbina: [Turns to Legasov] What does that number mean?

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, [looks at his watch] 20 hours since the explosion, so 40 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.

Shcherbina: [Turns to the soldiers] Please escort Comrades Bryukhanov and Fomin to the local party headquarters. [Turns to Bryukhanov] Thank you for your service.

Bryukhanov: Comrade—

Shcherbina: You're excused.

Fomin: [As he's being taken away] Dyatlov was in charge. It was Dyatlov!

Shcherbina: Tell me how to put it out.

Pikalov: We'll use helicopters. We'll drop water on it like a forest fire—

Legasov: No, no, no. You don't understand. This isn't a fire. This is a fissioning reactor core burning at over 2,000 degrees. The heat will instantly vaporize the water or worse—

Shcherbina: How do we put it out?

Legasov: [Sighs] You are dealing with something that has never occurred on this planet before. [Shcherbina begins to speak] Boron. Boron and sand. Well, that'll create problems of its own, but I—I don't see any other way. Of course, it's going to take thousands of drops, because you can't fly the helicopters directly over the core, so most of it is going to miss.

Shcherbina: How much sand and boron?

Legasov: [Scoffs] Well, I can't be—

Shcherbina: For God's sake, roughly!

Legasov: Five thousand tons. And obviously, we're going to need to evacuate an enormous area—

Shcherbina: Never mind that. Focus on the fire.

Legasov: I am focusing on the fire. The wind, it's carrying all that smoke, all that radiation. At least evacuate Pripyat. It's three kilometers away.

Shcherbina: That's my decision to make.

Legasov: Then make it.

Shcherbina: I've been told not to.

Legasov: Is it or is not your decision—

Shcherbina: I'm in charge here! This will go much easier if you talk to me about the things you do understand and not about the things you do not understand. [Walks back to the tent]

Legasov: Where are you going?

Shcherbina: I'm going to get you 5,000 tons of sand and boron.”