Андрей Шаховской – учёный. Фрагмент из книги, которую он представляет на английском языке, — первая публикация, которая, надеемся, проложит путь другим двуязычным публикациям в альманахе.
Андрей рассказывает об истории этой книги: “Я физик, окончил московский Физтех, защитил диссертацию по электронно-лучевым приборам, работал в Академии Наук в Москве.
В 1992 году распался Советский Союз, упал железный занавес, и меня пригласили в Калифорнийский университет на работу по специальности, сначала на год, а потом и на постоянную позицию. Я написал более полусотни статей в научных журналах, выступал на международных конференциях с докладами, но литературным трудом и переводами не занимался, пока однажды не представился случай… Зашел сосед, Том Блисс, публицист, автор книги «Лекарство для планеты», сказал: «Вы ведь из России? Я тут знаю одного русского, вы его наверное тоже знаете». «Русских много». «Ну, этого вы точно знаете. Это академик Велихов, вице-президент Академии Наук». «Да, как ни странно, знаю, он заходил в нашу лабораторию, когда я был еще аспирантом». «А хотите с ним познакомиться лично? Он на следующей неделе выступает в Лас-Вегасе на конференции по управляемому термоядерному синтезу, полетели, вам будет интересно».
И вот мы с женой (она тоже с Физтеха) прилетели в Лас-Вегас и сразу же столкнулись с Е.П. Велиховым. Он уже немолод, ходит с трудом, но энергии хоть отбавляй. С энтузиазмом пожал мою руку и сразу взял «быка за рога»: «Мне о Вас Том рассказывал. Вы ведь работали в Москве у академика Мельникова в институте по созданию суперкомпьютеров? А сейчас преподаете микроэлектронику в Калифорнийском университете? А анекдоты Вы любите? Вас-то мне и надо!»… «Простите, не очень понял». «Вы переведёте на английский мою биографию, она только что вышла в Москве, хочу издать ее и в США. Мне переводчики попадались неправильные, то физики не знают, то жизни в Советском Союзе не нюхали, то не понимают американского читателя, или с юмором не важно. А у Вас есть все, что надо, вы справитесь». С этими словами Велихов вынул из портфеля книгу, надписал и протянул мне.
Я обещал подумать и вечером того же дня вновь встретился с Велиховым. «Я согласен. Но название надо будет изменить. «Я на валенках поеду в тридцать пятый год» звучит для Вас сентиментально, но ничего не скажет американскому читателю. Название должно быть кратким, хлёстким, узнаваемым и должно отражать какой-нибудь факт из Вашей биографии, желательно забавный». «А у Вас есть предложения?» «Да. Назовем книгу «Клубника из Чернобыля»…
[1986]
…
My stable and intense life was gradually moving along.
The ITER had been successfully designed in Garshing. I was elected the Chairman of the Board of Directors, and a wonderful Japanese scientist and engineer Ken Tomabechi was invited as the Director of the project. He had just finished a number of major nuclear projects and enthusiastically took up this new one. Experimental facilities for nuclear fusion research were under development, including a superconducting Tokamak T-15 as a prototype of the ITER at the Kurchatov Institute, a pulse Tokamak with adiabatic compression of the TSP at the branch in Troitsk, a pulse installation Angara in Troitsk, a laser installation Iskra in Sarov and two laser systems at FIAN , which was split into two institutions, one under N.G. Basov, the other under A.M. Prokhorov. The later also had the stellarator and the open trap in Novosibirsk. A new branch of the Informatics and Computing Technology at the Academy of Sciences began its work. Under the order of the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers, the infrastructure of this new branch was created: a specialized Institute for Software Technology in Pereslavl, the first in the U.S.S.R., a Center in Yaroslavl, and a number of other institutions. Together with the K.V. Frolov we began to create a branch of Mechanical Engineering. And then the Chernobyl accident happened.
V.A. Legasov was the first deputy of Aleksandrov at the Institute, responsible for the development of nuclear energy. Outsiders were not very much allowed into the «holy highhad problems. The plasma physicists, including myself, were not involved into this subject. On the way to work, I met Legasov. He said that something has happened at the Chernobyl station, and he was going there. Already at the Academy of Sciences Y. Izrael, who was responsible for Rosgidromet , was talking about the radioactive cloud, and it became clear that the events were taking a serious turn and would require the participation of all the scientific strength of the Institute. Knowing the aftermath of the accident of the U.S. nuclear power plant Three Mile Island, we began investigation of the possibility of penetration of molten fuel through the barriers we decided to immediately begin the experiments with high-power lasers and calculations. Today we know that the fuel in the reactor penetrated deep through the concrete foundation, but, fortunately, did not work its way outside the building and did not get into the groundwater. Based on these studies, we proposed to urgently build a trap underneath the fourth block, which was done in record time thanks to the heroic work of miners, with the most involved participation of the Minister M.I. Shchadov. The fuel did not reach the trap, so later we were blamed for its construction, but now such a trap is an integral part of the safety of nuclear power plants.
Around April 28th Frank von Hippel called me and advised me to check whether people, and above all children, in the accident zone received iodine tablets. The fact is that radiation has an insidious ability to concentrate. In this case we were talking about radioactive iodine. Escaping from the destroyed reactor to the atmosphere, iodine falls on grass with the rain, the cows eat the grass, and from the milk the iodine gets into human intestines, blood, and concentrates in the thyroid gland. This can lead to very high doses and, eventually, can cause cancer of the gland. Iodine tablets saturate the gland with non-radioactive iodine, thereby preventing the accumulation of radioactive iodine. I called Ivan Stepanovich Silaev, and he invited me to a meeting of the governmental commission immediately after the May parade and demonstration. On the committee there was the deputy of Health Minister and the Chief of Civil Defense. They stated that steps had been taken and all who were in need were already receiving the tablets. Regrettably, it was not true, leading to very unfortunate consequences.
After the meeting Prime Minister N.I. Ryzhkov, saying that members of the governmental commission received a dose of radiation and they needed to be changed, dispatched Silaev, as deputy President of the Council of Ministers, and me as an organizer of scientific support. As they say, I came from the frying pan into the fire, as I did not have admission to the nuclear reactor at the Institute, and as an engineer-lieutenant in my military profession I had only a theoretical understanding of the effect of radiation and radiometry. I had to learn everything on the fly, as in 1941, when many learned the skills to fight at the front. Unfortunately, later there were many similarities between the unpreparedness for the disaster in April of 1986 and in June of 1941. I drove home and left a note to my wife, who at that time was at the dacha «I have gone for a couple of days to Chernobyl.» I returned in six weeks. I could phone Mikhail Gorbachev from there, but I was forbidden to call home, so my wife was fed by the most terrible rumors until I returned.
I flew on an airplane with a very sweet and intelligent Marshal, a commander of the Corps of Engineers. When the next day we were inspecting the station, for both of us everything was a surprise. According to the handbook for working with radioactive materials, they should be inside, and we should be outside. In fact, everything turned out to be the opposite, everything around us was radioactive, and the level measured not in micro-roentgens but in roentgens, up to hundreds and thousands. I asked the Marshal «How would we act in a military situation?» «Go around» he responded. But we needed to get inside to sort everything out.
In Moscow the experts were calculating the temperature of the reactor and the moment when the support structures would stop sustaining, and here we were trying to come up with a quick estimate. On the third day, coasting around the block on the helicopter, I was able to look inside the reactor core that was illuminated by the light of a burning parachute that fell into the hole. I saw that there was no reactor; the top plate, weighing three hundred tons stood almost vertically, with nothing underneath. Silayev was shocked, as well as Moscow. Only a few years later, when we drilled holes into the protective shield of the reactor and shoved in a video camera, we became convinced that the bottom plate brought down the supporting structures and fell down immediately, so that the reactor had not existed since the beginning. We were especially worried about the possibility of a second steam-ejection if case the overheated fuel would fall into the pool under the reactor filled with water after the first explosion. It was at this time that Gorbachev asked me “Should we evacuate Kiev?” I could not give him a definite answer until, thanks to the heroic efforts of station staff, who worked to their waists in the radioactive water, it became possible to open the valves and drain the water.
Where was the fuel, together with the accumulated fission fragments and the plutonium? This issue was most important to us. To find an answer, we organized to measure levels of background gamma radiation outside the station throughout the contaminated area, as well as the measurements inside. Outside, we mostly used a helicopter, but from within, of course, it was all on foot. I tried to use Gorbachev’s own special tank, but nothing particularly useful came out of it, since the radiation levels near the destroyed unit had reached hundreds of roentgen per hour. Our stay at the station was determined by the doses received and was shrinking with each day like shagreen leather. We set for ourselves a limit on the level, about a hundred roentgen, based on our experience at the Institute. It was an individual’s own decision; the officially permissible doses were many times lower. During one standard visit to the unit we usually would get up to one roentgen, although it was quite often a guessed value due to the imperfections of dosimeters, the inhomogeneity of the radiation field, and the unknown contribution of the internal exposure. I was vindicated when I visited Hiroshima; the Japanese tested my blood, determined the proportion of damaged chromosomes and within a deuce confirmed the level of my own estimations.
Many years have passed since systematic mapping of background gamma-ray radiation in the vast territory has been carried out. It had to wait until the measurements of alpha activity were completed, which was technically a very challenging task, particularly for plutonium, and until all the main rooms were examined, where the liquid lava penetrated through the cracks, the passageways, and through the concrete floors. It took the heroic effort of scientists and workers from the Kurchatov Institute and other institutions of Sredmash and the Academy of Sciences — completely voluntary and selfless. I must say, during this period one could call any Soviet organization or factory, any local authority or party boss, and instantly get any, even the most exotic assistance. For some time the spirit of the brotherhood of the front lines came back: «Everything for Victory!» Politicization and commercialization came later, and we all became members of the Roadside Picnic , one of the most prophetic and profound fantasy novels of our time. «Stalker» has become a favorite movie in the zone.
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