technicians from the power station embarked on Legasov’s plan to extinguish the burning reactor with nitrogen gas. The idea was to use the plant’s existing pipe network—which before the accident had distributed the various gases used in plant maintenance—to help direct the nitrogen through the basement and into the ruins of the reactor hall. From the outset, the members of the plant staff executing this scheme recognized that it was pointless: the pipework in the area beneath the reactor was almost certainly damaged, and even if it reached the reactor hall, the nitrogen couldn’t hope to starve
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