Her conversation with Dyaltov lasted about half an hour.
Bessonova had done her best. Not only did she have to relay Dyaltov's words to Coconut telepathically, she also had to ask Dyaltov the questions she received from Coconut. The whole process left her exhausted, especially since so much technical terminology made her head spin. Yet, to play her current role properly, she had no choice but to act as if she understood it all perfectly.
Still, she had taken the opportunity to learn a little about how nuclear power plants generated electricity, along with some related knowledge.
As someone who lived in Pripyat, Bessonova naturally knew that the city was inseparable from the nuclear power plant three kilometers away. After all, the earliest residents to settle here had mainly been construction workers and employees of the plant. Their lives revolved around its construction and operation, and everyone had long grown accustomed to its presence.
As for the safety of nuclear power plants, N. M. Sinev, vice chairman of the State Committee for Nuclear Energy Utilization, had put it this way.
—A reactor is like a furnace, and a reactor operator is like a stoker.
Thus, in Bessonova's understanding, as well as that of most ordinary people, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was simply an oversized furnace, not terribly different from other thermal power stations.
Both the East and the West had been exploring and utilizing nuclear energy for decades, and the technology had grown increasingly mature. Apart from the unfortunate nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania not long ago, nuclear power plants were indeed safe most of the time. Especially within the Soviet Union, Bessonova had hardly ever seen reports of nuclear power plant accidents before.
Nuclear plant construction plans had been progressing steadily, and the plants that