Chapter 94 Presiding over the Overall Situation

Yeltsin's anger is not without reason, in fact, it has now been two full days since the initial Chernobyl explosion. It took less than twenty hours for everyone, including General Secretary Gorbachev, to know about it.

Why is it necessary to convene all officials above the deputy ministerial level in Moscow for a late-night meeting, because according to the speculation of experts from the Ministry of Nuclear Industry, the core of the current Chernobyl No. 4 reactor has melted, and there is a danger of explosion at any time. Under such circumstances, the Politburo must be anxious for all officials to discuss a countermeasure.

Today's unconventional meeting was extremely efficient, because time waits for no one. General Secretary Gorbachev even omitted the opening remarks. Experts from the Ministry of Nuclear Industry who were invited to this meeting tried to explain the current situation in Chernobyl in a way that ordinary people can understand, but everyone present is still Heard in a fog.

"Excuse me, can I interrupt?" Sergey suddenly stood up and interrupted the other party's speech.

Seeing Seryozha stand up, Gorbachev was not angry. He motioned to Seryozha to speak freely!

"Comrades from the Ministry of Nuclear Industry, it is impossible for all of us here to understand what happened in Chernobyl. We are all at the level of elementary school students on nuclear issues. I want you to tell me straightforwardly. What does Ernobyl need now?"

"We need borax, boron carbide, lead powder, radiation protection suits, a large amount of liquid nitrogen, large oil drilling equipment, and a large amount of cement and concrete..." The experts from the Ministry of Nuclear Industry listed one by one, and most of the people present Officials carefully recorded the rescue materials listed by experts.

"Why do you need oil drilling equipment? What other specifications do you need, and how many units do you need?" The Minister of Petroleum Industry spoke. He heard an expert talk about something related to himself, so he immediately asked.

"We need to inject liquid nitrogen into the soil below the No. 4 core to keep its temperature below minus 100 degrees Celsius. Only in this way can we ensure that the melted core will not continue to settle and pollute the groundwater."

"We have a batch of borax in the Ministry of Chemical Industry, just in Odessa..."

"Our Ministry of Transport's special trains and convoys can be ready within two hours..."

...

Under Sergey Sha's mobilization, the meeting lasted only half an hour, and the responsibilities of each department were basically clarified. At this moment, no matter how perfunctory they usually are, everyone who is doing it knows what they should do to avoid a bigger disaster in Chernobyl. Because if there is a nuclear explosion in the No. 4 reactor, it will not only be a problem for the Soviet Union, but the entire Eastern Europe and even the Baltic coast and Turkey will be harmed by nuclear radiation.

Much of Ukraine and Belarus will henceforth be off limits to humans.

"Comrades, on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation and the Foreign Trade Bank, I would like to provide an emergency fund of 10 billion rubles to Chernobyl. We will carefully monitor the use of this money." Sergey Sha said at the end of the meeting.

In this emergency meeting, the protagonists were not the top leaders of the country like Gorbachev, but officials like Seryozha, all of whom were in charge of specific business at the highest level of the Soviet Union Most of the officials are very familiar with the fields they are in charge of. As long as the rescue of Chernobyl is broken down into their own familiar fields, everyone can quickly claim their own tasks.

Gorbachev was not dissatisfied with Sergey's overreach. On the contrary, he admired Sergey's actions. Because he could fully imagine what the meeting would have been like without Seryozha's unexpected speech, and it might not have made any progress until the next morning. What's more, Xie Liaosha was a cadre he single-handedly promoted.

After the meeting, Ryzhkov, chairman of the Council of Ministers, rushed to the city of Pripyat in Ukraine by special plane. The location of Chernobyl is very important. It is close to the Pripyat River and surrounded by important agricultural production areas. The river network is densely covered with abundant water, and the Pripyat River is the upper water source of the Dnieper River. Dnepropetrovsk could also be in danger if nuclear radiation spreads to the Pripyat River.

Therefore, even according to the general speculation of experts from the Ministry of Nuclear Industry, in order to prevent the further spread of Chernobyl's nuclear radiation to a larger area through water sources, a series of dams must be built in the rivers around Chernobyl to seal off polluted waters.

The budget that was roughly estimated at this meeting alone is already an astronomical figure. This caused a headache for the Central Bank of the Soviet Union, which was already struggling financially. This fund from the Foreign Trade Bank really solved the urgent need. Seryozha was not a stingy person, and he spent what he earned. Over the past few days, Serezha's investment in Japanese yen has greatly increased the funds of the Foreign Trade Bank, and so far the floating profit has reached 700 billion U.S. dollars. If this sum of money was only spent on personal luxury, even Seryozha would not be able to spend it in ten lifetimes. Therefore, Seryozha did not intend to keep the Foreign Trade Bank out of the Chernobyl incident. He wanted to make a contribution to the country within his ability.

Seryozha drew a large number of business experts from the Foreign Trade Bank and rushed to Ukraine. His goal was not Pripyat, but Dnepropetrovsk, an important Ukrainian town thousands of miles away from Pripyat. Under the current circumstances, even Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, is also shrouded in the shadow of nuclear radiation. There is no need for Seryozha to take the risk alone. And Dnepropetrovsk is now under the management of the Tymoshenko family, and it is already considered the easiest area for Seryozha in Ukraine to control. Seryozha intends to set up Dnepropetrovsk as the capital turnover location of the Disaster Relief Committee.

Seryozha spent a week in Moscow mobilizing personnel and raising funds, during which time Gorbachev finally confessed to the Soviet people what had happened at Chernobyl. The solemn protest from the Swedish government surprised Gorbachev. He couldn't believe that the radioactive dust from Chernobyl had actually drifted into Sweden's airspace. It seemed that Moscow was no longer safe.

Seryozha didn't want to harm his body and affect his health because of nuclear radiation, but as a senior Soviet official, hiding in the Far East or abroad at this time would never be forgiven by the Soviet people anyway. So Seryozha quickly finished his work and rushed to Dnepropetrovsk.