Mfcttrf

I just watched Chernobyl Episode 2, and 3 heroic workers volunteer to sacrifice themselves and return to the power plant to take care of some water tanks.

In episode 1, Anatoly gave the order for two people^* to go and pump water in the core (since he stubbornly thought it hadn't exploded).

Are these two events related? I mean, do the 3 heroes need to go in because of that catastrophic command of Anatoly?

_{These two people are shown in the hospital, ill, in episode 2, a slim guy, and another one with squared black glasses.}

Are these two events related? Not entirely.

As you say, Anatoly Dyatlov is asking people to go and make sure water is pumped into the core because he is under the illusion that the core is undamaged and that it needs water to prevent a classic meltdown. This is where (even when the fission reaction is shut down) the breakdown of fission products generates enough heat over time to melt the fuel.

Akimov and Toptunov go and make sure water is running, by manually turning valves. However there was already water cooling the core before the incident, Dyatlov has only issued this order because they can't tell through the control panels whether there is water or not flowing.

Some of these valves were already open prior to the explosion. So the explosion is likely to have broken pipes and resulted in water spilling into the basement anyway. Akimov and Toptunov have to wade through some water to get to the valves.

Then there are the Firefighters. A large crew of Firefighters were trying to put out the fires in the building and (unknowingly) the reactor itself, and run a large number of hoses for a number of hours before its realized what dangers they are in. They are very likely to have contributed to the amount of water gathering under the reactor.

So (in my amateur opinion), there would likely have been a significant amount of water under the reactor anyway.