7:57 “…the actual nuke has gone off.” I think we’re confusing a nuclear bomb with a nuclear reactor. Nuclear reactor aren’t housing nuclear bombs. Reactors produce energy and electricity. Hope this helps!
@@ryanasencio8299 Did somebody delete a reply in this chain? Because the original comment is in no way backhanded I fail to see how anybody can take it that way?
I am Estonian. When this disaster happened, we weren't allowed to pick berries and mushrooms for several years following, and going out during the rain was heavily discouraged. Fyi Estonia is around 1000km (600mi) away from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Another tragic part was the generational aftermath. Since Estonia was under USSR occupation at the time, a lot of Estonian men were forcibly mobilized to clean up the zone. My neighbour was 19 years old at the time. He was sent to clean. A year later he had a baby with his wife, who was consequently born with deformed limbs most likely caused by radiation poisoning on the father's side.
stop spreading misinformation so shamelessly and learn your own history! All Baltic States leaders invited USSR themselves after 1939 Agreement between USSR and Germany, so it wasnt occupation. If your country is occupated you're supposed to rebel and fight back, right? It wasnt the case, Estonia leaders welcomed USSR troops themselves seeking protection from Germany
It was a long and slow death of the USSR. Chernobyl and Afghanistan were merely the most obvious causes, but decades of behind the scenes incompetence and corruption ensured that it would all fall apart eventually.
21:35 the red forest, famously named that after most of the radiation got carried in that direction, still one of the most radiated places in Chernobyl to this day, not safe to walk into even tho the town is a tourist spot now and safe enough.
i remember watching some videos on TH-cam explaining how scientist are examining wildlife in the area, specifically wolfs, and how the radiation is effecting them. they are exposed to high amounts year round, but for some reason (maybe because of they adapted over generations) they are tolerating it well. scientist are using the information to help understand radiation and cancer if i remember correctly.
Heh, the Russian army dug in there when they fell back from Kiev. They had to evac the troops after a while because digging up the soil exposed them to radiation and they started getting sick.
@@CobGobblin Animals don't live long like a human and radiations are now way way way lower than 1986 so they naturally die of old age before cancer can kill them, this is why that area is now a wildlife paradise, no humans around
wow Actually, I did not expect to see your reaction to Chernobyl. I'm from Ukraine, and I want to explain things that are not spoilers. Soviet power is not so simple. Simply resigning, leaving, telling the information to everyone - you will not succeed. But about tragedies, large critical objects and other things. A lot is known about radiation, the operation of nuclear power plants and the risks - they happened thanks to the Chernobyl accident. This is probably the first such large and terrible man-made accident in the history of mankind, which was not widely heard of at that time. People who lived there think that it is just an accident and it is just a flame. And they will think like that for a long time. More information will be revealed in the next series. Just understand, these are different times, this is a different state, a different mentality. But the accident that affected almost everyone. On Netflix, there is a good documentary about the Cold War and nuclear weapons. It tells a good story about the times of the Soviet Union and the USSR. I will eagerly await your next reactions.
These guys are really young and have no experience of those times. I am writing an explanation. If you don't mind check it out and tell me what you think of what I said. Слава Україні 🇺🇦
@@thomasscott920 In fact, it's okay not to know, especially if you're far away. If even children living in Ukraine or in Europe do not know much about the tragedy, what can we ask others for? On behalf of all Ukrainians, we are grateful that we once again remembered this terrible tragedy and how important it is to never make the mistakes of the past. We in Ukraine were shocked when, after the start of a full-scale war from 2022, Russian soldiers dug trenches in the Chernobyl forest (red forest) and lived in them. If the information is reliable, most of them are already dead, and their commanders say that they did not believe and did not know about her 🤦♀ Героям Слава !❤ (thank you for supporting Ukraine)
In Ireland, which is an island at the far western edge of Europe, there was a massive spike in babies being born with birth defects along the eastern coast after Chernobyl. So even an island off the western coast of Europe, over 1,800 miles from Pripyat, we still felt the effects of the Chernobyl disaster just to show the scale of the disaster.
Same in Wales, Snowdonia is very rainy so a lot of the radioactive material got deposited there, they only removed the last restrictions on livestock movement in 2012.
@@rai2423 It depends on the rain and wind direction, clouds can carry the radioactive dust for a long time before rain disperses it. Same thing happens with Volcano eruptions where ash gets carried high.
I have to admit y'all's comments acting as if the average person in that country at the time had a choice to do other than what they were told is kinda funny because it shows how little is taught about what Governments like this are like and how the heirarchy works. You can't refuse. You can't run, you can't resign, and if you go against the grain in your words or actions, you end up dead or in jail
Yeah I think this lack of education on the realities of totalitarianism is what makes it possible for activists to convince people that the U.S. is some authoritarian fascist state, they literally have no idea how bad it can get.
@@jpmacdonell7970 Well I mean concentration camps were certainly worse than gulags, but both were inhumane and brutal. Gulags had a fatality rate of about 17% during Stalin's years in comparison to a rate of around 40%+ for Nazi-era concentration camps (that number from Ebensee subcamp). Another point is while gulags were brutal, they also were primarily focused on using forced labor, so it was in their interest to keep prisoners alive (though hundreds of thousands still ended up dying in them under Stalin's administration). Concentration camps however had sub-categories such as extermination/death camps where the entire purpose was to act as a pipeline for mass murder. Comparing two awful things in a competition of how awful they are never really satisfies anybody though because in both cases mass suffering is still occurring.
Well, not literally dead (comparing to today's methods). But rather put in prison, or at least erased from society, which means no job, no income, no reputation, total social isolation... As a person from Russia i can confirm.
Soviets took the idea of duty very seriously. If you just walked away, as a nuclear technician, during a nuclear catastrophe you're betraying your comrades, your coworkers, your countryman, your duty. If you ask me, there's nothing peticularly wrong there. It's about being responsible.
It's always so funny to watch americans reaction to this show. They legitimately don't have capacity to understand what USSR was, how it was built, how people lived and what kind of people were soviets. It's not country who appreciates creativity or rebellious behavior. That is literally dictatorship guys. You don't "resign" from this life.
Hey we at least admitted we are very ignorant on this topic😂 we are hoping to learn a lot from this mini series and already learned a bunch from just episode 1
Yeah it's always funny to see when "western" audiences suspect this might be some sort of propaganda) But in reality it was 10 times worse than they can even imagine( P.s. if u wanna know truth about the Soviet union timespan, ask someone from Eastern Europe (especially people from Finland, Baltic states or Ukraine).
I was a guest of the Soviet Writers Union meeting in Moscow in 1987. Been to Russia three times (my books do very well there). Some of us know, and remember. And I was at Chernobyl in 2011. Before the containment structure was built. Fascinating, sobering place to visit. The food in the facility's cafeteria was awful.
It's not just the stereotypical ignorant American thing, it's also a generational ignorance. I grew up in the 80s and have vivid memories of the Cold War and the disaster but anyone born in the 90s or later didn't experience any of it personally and the American education system is not great so it's barely taught, if taught at all. Average Americans didn't really know the details of how bad the USSR was, we got the western propaganda of communism/USSR bad but not many details. After the collapse people stopped caring
Guys, having some background will help you appreciate the show. This took place during the final phase of the Cold War between the USA and the Soviet Union which had been going on since the end of WWII in 1945. This was when the threat of nuclear war was hanging over every major crisis. When this happened even though nobody knew it at the time, these were the last days of Communism and the Soviet Union. Like Russia today, many internal conflicts and struggles were hidden from the outside world. But in 1989 it all came tumbling down, the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union broke apart. That is when Ukraine became a separate country. Chornobyl is located in Ukraine near its capital Kiev and very distant from the power center of Moscow. Believe me, they would have acted faster and more effectively if it had been in their backyard. In the Soviet Union, social controls were starting to ease up, in part as a way to stave off collapse by giving people a little more freedom, but there was no instant communication, no internet, or cell phones. Information traveled slowly and incompletely, and surveillance by the KGB was everywhere. Within living memory, the penalty for doing something that the state did not like would end up with you in a labor camp in Siberia, a dank and dangerous prison, or if you were unlucky on your knees with a bullet to the back of your head no questions asked. That's what you need to know to understand the motivations of these people. First, they are paranoid that they will be blamed which is why there is a lot of denial and trying to shift the blame. Second, they are afraid their phones are tapped, they are being followed, or otherwise under surveillance. That is the cause of the secretiveness. This paranoia went from the bottom all the way to top officials.Within living memory, under Stalin's control, many powerful officials were tried and executed in short order--Hero of the Republic or not. On a larger scale, the Kremlin was trying to avoid international embarrassment and condemnation. That is the reason it tried to keep things under wraps by not authorizing mass evacuations or otherwise calling attention to an enormous disaster that would show its weaknesses to the world. In fact, the outside world only found out when radiation levels suddenly started to rise in Scandinavia and other parts of Europe. That is when the whole world sat up and took notice. I hope this gives you enough context to sit back and enjoy this great show without second-guessing why people act as they do.
23:18 Chornobyl is in Ukraine, most the Pripyat city and Chornobyl people are Ukrainians. Although some of the plant workers are indeed russian, including Dyatlov.
Absolute masterpiece. Among the miniseries, I think that the podium is for Chernobyl, Band of Brothers and True Detective (season 1) and the order is interchangeable.
86 was a big year. Challenger, then Chernobyl, then I was born.😅 Today actually, 8/27/86. But I think this show is probably one of the most important pieces of media people can and absolutely should watch, especially for you cooking juicy goated rizzed up youngins or whatever it is you kids say.
i gotta say, you guys have one of the most non-toxic audience for a reaction channel (in my experience) :) even if you are somehow uneducated on some topics in the shows you are watching, people are generally keen to explain calmly and provide some info in friendly way. (hope not to jinx it :D) just recently joined your Patreon and enjoyed the ride so far!
This will be a solid lesson for you guys and not only a history lesson. It will show you how USRR operated. It was a cruel oppressive system where personal liberties didn't exist. You could disappear without a trace for having a simple anti-government pamphlet with you. You didn't know who your friend was and who could denunciate you to the high authority, usually KGB. And you should remember that this oppressive mentality is still there, in modern-day Russia. KGB was never delegalized (the current Russian president is a former KGB agent) and it transformed into FSB - with the same methods, the same oppressive mentality. They mastered gaslighting way before it was in fashion.
as a post-Soviet citizen myself its always very interesting to watch how western people react to this...and our parents here directly witnessed this disaster
Here on our little island of Anglesey in North Wales UK we had to cull sheep after the disaster as they had radiation our land was also peppered with doses of radiation
Truly one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen. So glad you guys are watching it! Pay attention to NAMES, it’s easy to get them confused because so many are being thrown around.
7:10 iirc that dude was injured by superheated steam from a burst pipe since he was so close to the pumps, his face isn't caused by the radiation. Though he did receive around 390-490 rem.
Prepare yourself boys. This show is brutal. There is no happy ending. This is a real life event. There is still an exclusion zone in Pripyat, Ukraine to this day. The show is excellent but doesn't explain how radiation and radiation sickness works. It doesn't work how most people think. There are different kinds of radiation, some can't even penetrate skin while others can go through lead walls. Even if it can't penetrate skin, if you breathe in contaminated material (such as ash), it is literally inside your body and doesn't need to penetrate the skin. It kills your white blood cells which are responsible for fighting infection, meaning even if you don't die from the radiation you would probably die from merely breathing the air or touching surfaces that haven't been disinfected. High doses can cause your skin to basically disintegrate. Without skin there's not a whole lot left to define a boundary between the "inside" and "outside" of your body. Can't go into too much detail but that's definitely a gruesome rabbit hole
I know the comments are kinda "ripping" you guys for not knowing the realities of the USSR or what happened in Chernobyl, but I'm really glad you guys are going through this show to learn how the system kinda was back then. The Cold War, the USSR in general, the pitfalls of bureaucracy, the devastation that mismanagement creates...it's tragic man. It's horrifying and terrible, and we need to understand what the effects that the small decisions we make can have on the future.
Up until the Chernobyl event, they genuinely did not think that a nuclear reactor could explode; it was a perfect storm of conditions. It made more sense to them that all the radiation detection equipment was faulty than the reactor exploding because that was unfathomable.
Well it did not explode. It simply can't. It was a mealtdown which in some instances can lead to a hydrogen explosion, but the reactor itself cannot explode
While the Historical accuracy in HBO Chernobyl isn't perfect, the culture of intense denial in the Soviet Union is absolutely accurate, and still exists in Russia today (often to its detriment).
What they were showing us was the understanding of what they had at the time. This is not supposed to be a chemistry lesson and shouldn't be critiqued as such.
@@tealsquare Maybe not - but the show does serve to perpetuate that longstanding misrepresentation of nuclear energy, radiation, and death. In some cases, with extremely stupid ideas such as the baby absorbing the radition from the mother, killing the baby but saving the mother. Radition that they got from the father in the first place - which, again, is just so misleading. Radiation sickness is not contagious.
@@BoKruse It sucks, because Chernobyl survivors at the time were often times treated as "pariahs" and discriminated because they were believed to be contagious, a misconception that is still common to this day (as evidently shown by the fact the creators of this show literally believe this).
Hearing you guys talking about free will while watching a show about Soviet Russia is funny to me. "I would resign right there" No you wouldn't because you would be aware of the fact that resigning would lead to you dying right here right now (from a bullet not from radiation) and your entire family going to the Goulag on the following morning beacuse you were declared ennemy of the state (sometimes including family and friends along). That's why the answer of the comrade "Of course you will" makes sense. This show is not about nuclear power plants or the impact of nuclear radiations, it's about how much ideology can change a narrative despite the reality of things. It's about how far a state and all those who work for it can go when the truth doesn't benefit them. It is harsh for me watching grown and intelligent men discovering entirely Tchernobyl or Soviet Russia but i can't blame you guys for the incompetence of US education system. Anyway, I really like your channel and have not missed a single react for more than a year now, love from France 🇨🇵.
Yeah the freedom we have had growing up has definitely been a blessing, and it’s hard to believe what other people around the world have had to go through. I’m glad talented writers and people out there can make such a great work of art to help us understand
And this show was made by Craig Mazin, the showrunner of The Last of Us Many Americans aren’t aware of what happened in Chernobyl, but all Europe was aware and affected by it
Many americans were aware of what happened. Soviet Russia announced to the world on day 3 that an accident happened. A week later elevated levels of radiation were detected on the west coast, but not high enough to warrant protective measures. This also led to the rise in protest against building and having nuclear reactors.
Fuck yeah! One of my favourite shows ever. Chernobyl is a fucking masterpiece. I can't wait for your reaction to the end of episode 2. Also, you're one of the few reactors to point out that they genuinely believed that RBMK reactors could not explode. The "2+2=5" comment really summarized it well.
First off, SO GLAD you boys are checking out Chernobyl. It's a ten ton show that cooks way more than 3.6 roentgen. *We gonna need a higher dosimeter!* 21:11 Brig zeroed in on it immediately -- The Soviet culture had/has been been like this for a very long time. There's a lot of self-interest, passing the blame, and over-valuing higher-end leadership over subordinates, overlooking truth in favor of propaganda, and it persists to this day. Honorable young men like yourselves will undoubtedly find some of these characters' personalities exceptionally frustrating to behold. You can see examples of it in real time with the current events playing out in the region with regard to Russia. Chernobyl & the still-abandoned city of Pripyat are in Ukraine, which gained its own independence from the Russian state in 1991 at the fall of the USSR. However, this culture of gaslighting, shifting accountability, and turning away from horrific behaviors in that regional culture is pervasive and very difficult to break away from and change (especially when its perpetuation mostly benefits those who have the ability to change it), which is evident in this current conflict. UA is literally in the middle of breaking free of that wheel in real time within their own layers of leadership and culture, while RU is both holding onto, and being broken by that (self-maintained) wheel still. This show is both shocking, terrifying, and extremely thought-provoking. The tension is doubly compelling because it was a real event, that we (the world) _did_ somehow make it through.
There is still radiation in the ground in northern Norway (my country) to this day from radiation downpour. Radiation can travel allot with the weather. It's suuuuuper scary. This show, and the actual events, were so frustrating as the soviet union would rather doom themselves then admit error or fault.
I grew up in Europe during this time. I remember that sandboxes in playgrounds were closed and we weren't supposed to go out when it rained. Certain foods from the ground were no longer sold and the windows were supposed to remain closed. It was scary and I get goosebumps when I remember it.
Chernobyl is an example of what happens if everyone gets to pick whatever truth is most comfortable to themselves. It's sad that the school system doesn't teach about the largest nuclear disaster in history.
I was a US military Rx operator when this happened. We were called into a conference room once word got out that the Soviets had an accident. No info was available as to specifics of the accident but we knew something serious had happened by the amount of fallout detected in other countries. Even though the cold war was in full swing this news was very alarming and upsetting to my colleagues because the nuclear power generation community is rather small even on a international scale. Our designs were PWR and theirs were boilers so different characteristics but the best guess we could come up with was that Chernobyl had some stuck control rods and had a reactivity addition accident during a cold start up. Ha - our guess never entertained the idea that anyone would operate a nuclear reactor outside of it's operational curves which are defined, documented, and policies put in place to ensure safe operation within those curves.
the recording in russian at the beginning calling the fire brigade is the actual recording of the call. lots of phones were tapped by the KGB/Government then especially in towns for nuclear workers.
Viktor, the injured guy in the beginning, was way worse off than that in reality. The door of the room he was in was one of those sealable doors you see on naval ships, so the bottom had this 6 inch lip that trapped the radioactive water from the equipment he was monitoring in the room along with the steam that burned him. He was pinned on the floor by a beam that had come down and crushed his spine. When he was found he was frothing blood from his lips and unresponsive. He died a few hours later
15) On the roofs of the machine room, on the site of the territory, there were pieces of graphite blocks, either whole or destroyed. Quite large elements of fuel assemblies were visible. A white column of combustion products, apparently graphite, was constantly flowing out of the reactor mouth, several hundred meters long. Inside the reactor space, a powerful crimson glow was visible in separate large spots. At the same time, it was difficult to say for sure what was the cause of this glow. It was clear that quite a lot of activity had come out of the 4th block, but the first question that worried us all was whether the reactor or part of it was working or not, i.e. whether the process of producing short-lived radioactive isotopes was continuing. Since it was necessary to establish this quickly and accurately, the first attempt was made by a military armored personnel carrier belonging to the chemical forces, sensors were mounted that had both gamma and neutron measurement channels. The first measurement with a neutron channel showed that there was supposedly powerful neutron radiation. In order to figure this out, I had to go to the reactor myself in this armored personnel carrier and figure out that under the conditions of those powerful gamma fields that existed at the facility, the neutron measurement channel, as a neutron channel, of course, does not work, because it senses those powerful gamma fields in which this neutron channel as a measuring device is simply inoperative.
10) Here in Pripyat there was already a sense of alarm, we immediately drove up to the building of the city party committee, located on the central square of the city. In short, a hotel, quite decent, was nearby and here we were met by the heads of local authorities. MAYORES was already here, he had flown there earlier than the government commission. There was also a group of specialists who had arrived there in response to the initial alarm signal. The first meeting of the Government Commission was immediately arranged.
It’s a nuclear reactor - not a nuclear bomb. This series is extraordinary! It was heartbreaking how they tried to cover how massive the danger was to the citizens and the rampant lies. The actors - all of them - in this series are phenomenal.
I work at Rosatom's library, and it was the only tv-show that we had conversations about as colleagues from 20s to 70s in age. A boss of mine worked at Chernobyl in the 90s, and our superior, who saw videos of people with radiation sickness, said they made a great make-up.
I was shocked to find out the guy who held open the door to the reactor chamber survived this, it seemed heavily implied he died after that scene where he's smoking in the rubble.
This show is great drama but it's pretty much a big anti-Nuclear hit piece focusing more on fear and drama than accuracy. And don't get me wrong, it's a great show, it's just heavily dramatized. Don't take it as the truth.
I live in Finland and this happened when i was 6 years old. Iwas getting prepeared that year summer and i had just got a new swimsuit and watermattress to play . then all of the sudden my mother ordered me and my twin brother inside and ordered not to swim that year and not to drink milk , eat berries, mushrooms and we had to take iodine pills several months . and i was pissed that my summer went badly that year that was because the radiation cloud came in top of us too. Today i can now understand better and understand that the people with Screbina and Legasov they did everything they got to stop the fires and clean the place up , i put the blame in Soviet Unions leaders and mamgment who tried to cover this up and make up all those lies.
Good to see you watching. The drama is based on real events with some things simplified to make story telling easier. The show confuses the roles of dosimeters (measuring cumulative radiation dose) and Geiger Counters (measuring instantaneous radiation) to make it easier to follow. Lyudmilla, the firefighter's wife, her story is real as told in unflinching detail in *Voices of Chernobyl*. It's far more horrifying than they even portray here, but you haven't gotten that far. The reactor workers told their stories as well, as did Valerey, who hung himself. The tapes and suicide are real, although the tapes were not hidden. They were left in plain sight, like the documents he'd gathered on the table. The accident that happened is what's called an excursion, caused by prompt criticality. With the Soviet paranoia of secrecy, they really literally believed this couldn't happen. For a much smaller prompt criticality excursion, look up SL-1 in Idaho. It's pretty horrifying. Dylatov is calm because he managed a nuclear accident aboard a Soviet Navy sub. He truly believed that this couldn't happen. Dylatov was indeed an arrogant guy who was hard on his subordinates, but he did spend the last years of his life trying to clear the names of the other workers in the control room. The actual number of valves the other two had to open was over 1000. The RBMK reactor, this type, was notorious in the west for its design flaws. There were also people in the Soviet Navy that knew. This series gets more intense the further you go, and the Finale wraps things up well. Absolutely worth it.
Dyatlov is an interesting character. Many who knew him say this is a dramatized version of him, making him more of a villain than he actually was. Sure he was a very serious and demanding person, but apparently they went over the top with his cruelty.
For perspective 10,000 farms in the UK, 1400 miles away from Chernobyl were put under severe restriction. Half a million sheep were destroyed. Over 300 farms in Wales are still under restriction in 2024. The nuclear material U235 was fissioning, that's when the fuel rods were reacting (a nuclear reaction) with each other and there atoms were splitting creating huge amounts of energy, the fire was burning at over 3600F, but it wasn't at critical mass which is what you are thinking of as a nuke. That's a self sustaining nuclear chain reaction and the atoms have to be forced to collide with each other with an implosion and a magnetic field. There is so much energy released it is hard for our minds to comprehend. Only 2% of the Uranium in the Hiroshima bomb exploded. Energy = mass x the speed of light squared. There is enough energy in the atomic bonds in your coffee cup to vapourize Manhattan. Einstein imagined this in 1904 before Atomic theory was widely understood. He was proved correct in 1945.
Radiation is pretty scary, though if you know how to deal with it and shield yourself it vastly improves your chances. Dealing with ionizing radiation you'd be dealing with a few types of particles, alpha, beta, gamma, and x-rays. Alpha particles are actually stopped by our skin, they wouldn't be able to get through to do damage, to little energy to penetrate. Beta particles are what is causing the red skin, the burns are called beta burns, they have more energy and can actually penetrate the skin but not pass through. Gamma and X-rays are the scariest, there is very little that can stop them due to their high energy, they pass through the body and does damage to the DNA leading to cancers or decomposing while you are still alive as your cells stop reproducing. Fun fact, Uranium glass can be pretty commonly found, it looks like clear glass with a green hue that glows under UV light. It 100% still gives off radiation but it only pretty much releases alpha particles so as long as you don't breath in dust from a broken one or get contaminated food into you it bypasses the skin and irradiates you from the inside. They are really cool to collect as a glass case or display cabinet would block all the radiation. One that everyone needs to be careful of though is old pre 30s pottery and fiesta-ware with red glaze on them. The red glaze if made before the 30s has a high chance of containing uranium oxide and that does give off more beta and gamma particles. It is important to have even a little info about how radiation works as well as what might be irradiated that you might innocently come into contact with. May not run into any orphan sources but I ran into a whole dinner set and tea set of uranium glass at a thrift store just the other week, they also had no idea what it was so I informed them and they keep them in a glass case now.
6) At Vnukovo I learned that the Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers Boris Evdokimovich Shcherbina, Chairman of the Bureau for the Fuel and Energy Complex, had been approved as the head of the Government Commission. He was outside Moscow, at that time in one of the regions of the country, conducting a party and economic activity there.
It’s worth noting that this takes place in the Soviet Union, but specifically in Ukraine near the Belarus border. Fallout was carried by wind west across Europe and specifically away from Russia. Among other things, Chernobyl was one of the final straws for the USSR before dissolution. In doing so however Russia was able to leave the disaster for Ukraine to deal with. Along with Moscow benefiting largely off of Ukrainian industry without compensation for all of Soviet existence, the current hostilities are more than understandable.
I have a relative who during the time in 1986, was conscripted , and worked with Geiger (radiation) counters, im from Czechia, so back then it was Czechoslovakia, and they did report increase at that time.
2) Around 12 o'clock a break was announced, I went up to the second floor to the room of the scientific secretary Nikolai Sergeyevich BABAY, but in order to discuss the main points of the report during the break. Alexander Grigorievich MESHKOV, the First Deputy Minister, immediately looked into this room and said that a Government Commission on the Chernobyl accident had been created, that I was also included in it and that the Government Commission should meet at Vnukovo Airport by four o'clock in the afternoon. I immediately left the activists, got into the car and drove to my Institute. I tried to find one of the reactor workers there.
At the beginning "It's not really peaking my interest" - that's because you weren't alive when this crap happened - believe me, if you had been any age in 1986 you suddenly wanted to know what the heck was going on at Chernobyl... This show (whilst taking some liberties for the benefit of the viewer) is a true work of art. And as harrowing as it is - the best respect you can give the real heroes is to watch and learn from this... (actually - with what's going on in the world today, this whole thing has just become more relevant than ever - watch - learn! - this must NEVER be allowed to happen again)
Idk if you guys are familiar with the real-life Chernobyl tragedy and the fallout from it for Nuclear Energy being our primary source of energy in our homes, but if you aren't, then I promise you that this miniseries is going to show you a whole bunch of incredible realities of bureaucratic failure on a lot of different levels.
Okay guys I just stumbled across this video and would like to make some suggestions for other series!! I enjoy watching younger people react to historical things so this should be very interesting!!! One of the best series for historical information and something that every generation should see is the series "Band of Brothers"!! 10 part series with an extra 11th"episode", so to speak, which is kind of a summary of the individuals involved!! Band of Brothers was produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg so you know it's top-notch with HBO money backing it so you guys will enjoy the subject and learn quite a bit!! Two other series that go along with B.o.B are "The Pacific" and "Masters of the Air", both deal with World War II content as does Band of Brothers!! "The Pacific" focuses on the fight against the Japanese!! And Masters focuses on the Army Air Force bombing missions over occupied Europe!!! Very educational and a must-see for gentleman of your age!!! PLEASE make them part of your agenda!!
It’s always crazy when I see people who don’t know much about Chernobyl or ww2 it’s just one of those things you think people have knowledge of. That’s why I enjoyed this show cause a lot of people learned about a horrible moment in human history and it does a good job of talking in a way for everyone to understand
Radiation is the most cruel way to die. More cruel than a pressure hole on a deep dive. Till you're dead you are still aware feeling of dying instead of pumped out through the hole and that is a action lesser than milliseconds.
You guys are gonna love this series. I actually remember when this happened. The truth wouldn't be known, and this world would be looking a lot different if it wasn't for some really brave people. Surprised you didn't recognize Maester Luwin from GOT lol. There are others, so be on the lookout.
Does anybody else remember how the Russians tried to take Kyiv in Ukraine by rolling through the Chernobyl Exclusion zone? And does anyone remember how their soldiers were so stupid that they decided to dig trenches in the the heavily contaminated soil , with multiple people getting acute radiation sickness?
7:57 “…the actual nuke has gone off.” I think we’re confusing a nuclear bomb with a nuclear reactor. Nuclear reactor aren’t housing nuclear bombs. Reactors produce energy and electricity. Hope this helps!
They seem unaware as to the Chernobyl disaster as a whole, to no fault of their own. You can shelve your backhanded comment.
@@ryanasencio8299 Did somebody delete a reply in this chain? Because the original comment is in no way backhanded I fail to see how anybody can take it that way?
@@ryanasencio8299 Their comment is more helpful than yours, dude.
@@ryanasencio8299ew
@ryanasencio8299 says the guy making assumptions about what another's comment is meant. Lol get off the internet Lil bro. You've had enough
I am Estonian. When this disaster happened, we weren't allowed to pick berries and mushrooms for several years following, and going out during the rain was heavily discouraged. Fyi Estonia is around 1000km (600mi) away from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Another tragic part was the generational aftermath. Since Estonia was under USSR occupation at the time, a lot of Estonian men were forcibly mobilized to clean up the zone. My neighbour was 19 years old at the time. He was sent to clean. A year later he had a baby with his wife, who was consequently born with deformed limbs most likely caused by radiation poisoning on the father's side.
That's incredible, thank you for sharing that experience. The true damage is really immeasurable.
Wow that is crazy. Thank you for sharing your experience ❤
stop spreading misinformation so shamelessly and learn your own history! All Baltic States leaders invited USSR themselves after 1939 Agreement between USSR and Germany, so it wasnt occupation. If your country is occupated you're supposed to rebel and fight back, right? It wasnt the case, Estonia leaders welcomed USSR troops themselves seeking protection from Germany
@@sikirer 1000km is 621 miles
@@Raven-lg7td yeah cause the leaders speak for what all the people want....
guys you might wanna search up what the ussr is... there is no resigning 💀
That was hilarious
idk 1980s ussr was a lot more chill compared to the 50s
Just stop with the propaganda bs
Maybe in the 60s but in the 80s it changed a lot and corruption was rife.
It was a long and slow death of the USSR. Chernobyl and Afghanistan were merely the most obvious causes, but decades of behind the scenes incompetence and corruption ensured that it would all fall apart eventually.
21:35 the red forest, famously named that after most of the radiation got carried in that direction, still one of the most radiated places in Chernobyl to this day, not safe to walk into even tho the town is a tourist spot now and safe enough.
and russian soldiers were digging trenches there and rising dust there with heavy machinery in the spring of 2022...
Yeah our guide told us to turn on our geiger meter when we drove through there and it went nuts, felt surreal
i remember watching some videos on TH-cam explaining how scientist are examining wildlife in the area, specifically wolfs, and how the radiation is effecting them. they are exposed to high amounts year round, but for some reason (maybe because of they adapted over generations) they are tolerating it well. scientist are using the information to help understand radiation and cancer if i remember correctly.
Heh, the Russian army dug in there when they fell back from Kiev. They had to evac the troops after a while because digging up the soil exposed them to radiation and they started getting sick.
@@CobGobblin Animals don't live long like a human and radiations are now way way way lower than 1986 so they naturally die of old age before cancer can kill them, this is why that area is now a wildlife paradise, no humans around
Chernobyl is goated. So is the netflix show 'Dark'. The definition of S Tier.
Might be a masterpiece even after just one episode
I love dark, so underrated.
Dark isn't. 3rd season is ass.
@@ZiadJimmy Ending was great
@@ZiadJimmy agreed
wow Actually, I did not expect to see your reaction to Chernobyl. I'm from Ukraine, and I want to explain things that are not spoilers. Soviet power is not so simple. Simply resigning, leaving, telling the information to everyone - you will not succeed. But about tragedies, large critical objects and other things. A lot is known about radiation, the operation of nuclear power plants and the risks - they happened thanks to the Chernobyl accident.
This is probably the first such large and terrible man-made accident in the history of mankind, which was not widely heard of at that time. People who lived there think that it is just an accident and it is just a flame. And they will think like that for a long time. More information will be revealed in the next series. Just understand, these are different times, this is a different state, a different mentality. But the accident that affected almost everyone.
On Netflix, there is a good documentary about the Cold War and nuclear weapons. It tells a good story about the times of the Soviet Union and the USSR. I will eagerly await your next reactions.
These guys are really young and have no experience of those times. I am writing an explanation. If you don't mind check it out and tell me what you think of what I said. Слава Україні 🇺🇦
@@thomasscott920 In fact, it's okay not to know, especially if you're far away. If even children living in Ukraine or in Europe do not know much about the tragedy, what can we ask others for? On behalf of all Ukrainians, we are grateful that we once again remembered this terrible tragedy and how important it is to never make the mistakes of the past.
We in Ukraine were shocked when, after the start of a full-scale war from 2022, Russian soldiers dug trenches in the Chernobyl forest (red forest) and lived in them. If the information is reliable, most of them are already dead, and their commanders say that they did not believe and did not know about her 🤦♀
Героям Слава !❤ (thank you for supporting Ukraine)
Slava Ukraini
Do you know the name of the documentary?
@@bens8183 As if the name is like that "Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War"
In Ireland, which is an island at the far western edge of Europe, there was a massive spike in babies being born with birth defects along the eastern coast after Chernobyl. So even an island off the western coast of Europe, over 1,800 miles from Pripyat, we still felt the effects of the Chernobyl disaster just to show the scale of the disaster.
Same in Wales, Snowdonia is very rainy so a lot of the radioactive material got deposited there, they only removed the last restrictions on livestock movement in 2012.
Weird. It didn’t effect people in Scandinavia as much. And they are closer to Chernobyl. Wonder why that is.
@@rai2423 It depends on the rain and wind direction, clouds can carry the radioactive dust for a long time before rain disperses it.
Same thing happens with Volcano eruptions where ash gets carried high.
@@G1NZOUOh that makes sense. Didn’t think of that
I have to admit y'all's comments acting as if the average person in that country at the time had a choice to do other than what they were told is kinda funny because it shows how little is taught about what Governments like this are like and how the heirarchy works. You can't refuse. You can't run, you can't resign, and if you go against the grain in your words or actions, you end up dead or in jail
You get the bullet!
most likely dead even if you're sent to the jail.
Yeah I think this lack of education on the realities of totalitarianism is what makes it possible for activists to convince people that the U.S. is some authoritarian fascist state, they literally have no idea how bad it can get.
Not even jail, you get sent to gulags in Siberia that were as bad as concentration camps
@@jpmacdonell7970 Well I mean concentration camps were certainly worse than gulags, but both were inhumane and brutal. Gulags had a fatality rate of about 17% during Stalin's years in comparison to a rate of around 40%+ for Nazi-era concentration camps (that number from Ebensee subcamp). Another point is while gulags were brutal, they also were primarily focused on using forced labor, so it was in their interest to keep prisoners alive (though hundreds of thousands still ended up dying in them under Stalin's administration). Concentration camps however had sub-categories such as extermination/death camps where the entire purpose was to act as a pipeline for mass murder.
Comparing two awful things in a competition of how awful they are never really satisfies anybody though because in both cases mass suffering is still occurring.
In USSR you don’t just simply walk away. You either cooperate with the state or end up dead.
Often both
Well, not literally dead (comparing to today's methods). But rather put in prison, or at least erased from society, which means no job, no income, no reputation, total social isolation... As a person from Russia i can confirm.
Yeah, and don´t forget that your kid can say good-bye to higher education or good paying job.
Soviets took the idea of duty very seriously. If you just walked away, as a nuclear technician, during a nuclear catastrophe you're betraying your comrades, your coworkers, your countryman, your duty. If you ask me, there's nothing peticularly wrong there. It's about being responsible.
It's always so funny to watch americans reaction to this show. They legitimately don't have capacity to understand what USSR was, how it was built, how people lived and what kind of people were soviets. It's not country who appreciates creativity or rebellious behavior. That is literally dictatorship guys. You don't "resign" from this life.
Hey we at least admitted we are very ignorant on this topic😂 we are hoping to learn a lot from this mini series and already learned a bunch from just episode 1
Yeah it's always funny to see when "western" audiences suspect this might be some sort of propaganda)
But in reality it was 10 times worse than they can even imagine(
P.s. if u wanna know truth about the Soviet union timespan, ask someone from Eastern Europe (especially people from Finland, Baltic states or Ukraine).
I was a guest of the Soviet Writers Union meeting in Moscow in 1987. Been to Russia three times (my books do very well there). Some of us know, and remember.
And I was at Chernobyl in 2011. Before the containment structure was built. Fascinating, sobering place to visit.
The food in the facility's cafeteria was awful.
It's not just the stereotypical ignorant American thing, it's also a generational ignorance. I grew up in the 80s and have vivid memories of the Cold War and the disaster but anyone born in the 90s or later didn't experience any of it personally and the American education system is not great so it's barely taught, if taught at all. Average Americans didn't really know the details of how bad the USSR was, we got the western propaganda of communism/USSR bad but not many details. After the collapse people stopped caring
Crazy how people think that americans need to know every culture from past present and future of different countries
Guys, having some background will help you appreciate the show. This took place during the final phase of the Cold War between the USA and the Soviet Union which had been going on since the end of WWII in 1945. This was when the threat of nuclear war was hanging over every major crisis. When this happened even though nobody knew it at the time, these were the last days of Communism and the Soviet Union. Like Russia today, many internal conflicts and struggles were hidden from the outside world. But in 1989 it all came tumbling down, the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union broke apart. That is when Ukraine became a separate country. Chornobyl is located in Ukraine near its capital Kiev and very distant from the power center of Moscow. Believe me, they would have acted faster and more effectively if it had been in their backyard.
In the Soviet Union, social controls were starting to ease up, in part as a way to stave off collapse by giving people a little more freedom, but there was no instant communication, no internet, or cell phones. Information traveled slowly and incompletely, and surveillance by the KGB was everywhere. Within living memory, the penalty for doing something that the state did not like would end up with you in a labor camp in Siberia, a dank and dangerous prison, or if you were unlucky on your knees with a bullet to the back of your head no questions asked.
That's what you need to know to understand the motivations of these people. First, they are paranoid that they will be blamed which is why there is a lot of denial and trying to shift the blame. Second, they are afraid their phones are tapped, they are being followed, or otherwise under surveillance. That is the cause of the secretiveness. This paranoia went from the bottom all the way to top officials.Within living memory, under Stalin's control, many powerful officials were tried and executed in short
order--Hero of the Republic or not. On a larger scale, the Kremlin was trying to avoid international embarrassment and condemnation. That is the reason it tried to keep things under wraps by not authorizing mass evacuations or otherwise calling attention to an enormous disaster that would show its weaknesses to the world. In fact, the outside world only found out when radiation levels suddenly started to rise in Scandinavia and other parts of Europe. That is when the whole world sat up and took notice.
I hope this gives you enough context to sit back and enjoy this great show without second-guessing why people act as they do.
"Kyiv" is the proper spelling, you gave great explanation☺
12:34 "It's gonna be like 8.4!"
15:16 "Oh my gosh they gonna pull it out and it's something like 10 point..."
... LOL
23:18 Chornobyl is in Ukraine, most the Pripyat city and Chornobyl people are Ukrainians. Although some of the plant workers are indeed russian, including Dyatlov.
Hey, I just realized this myself but that's Maester Luwin at 16:36 !
Chernobyl and Band of Brothers are the two best mini-series ever shown on television.
I'd also add The Pacific.
Absolute masterpiece. Among the miniseries, I think that the podium is for Chernobyl, Band of Brothers and True Detective (season 1) and the order is interchangeable.
86 was a big year. Challenger, then Chernobyl, then I was born.😅 Today actually, 8/27/86.
But I think this show is probably one of the most important pieces of media people can and absolutely should watch, especially for you cooking juicy goated rizzed up youngins or whatever it is you kids say.
" cooking juicy goated rizzed up youngins " I'm dying, you made my day🤣
Lmaoo those terms in one sentence 😂
i gotta say, you guys have one of the most non-toxic audience for a reaction channel (in my experience) :) even if you are somehow uneducated on some topics in the shows you are watching, people are generally keen to explain calmly and provide some info in friendly way. (hope not to jinx it :D) just recently joined your Patreon and enjoyed the ride so far!
ngl biting my tongue on how shockingly little they know
@@scemat true, and everyone is really nice about
9:17 The sight on Earth that likely comes closest to the fires of hell
this is one of those few shows that is literally 10/10 every episode
The sound scapes of this show blow me away to this day.
20:01 The face of defeat. I feel so bad for that guy.
Worker: I think there's graphite on the ground
Dyatlov: You didn't see graphite
Worker: I did
Dyatlov: You didn't because it's not there
😭😭
Thats not the look of defeat, its the look of "i know i am going to die a horrible and slow death".
@@MaetMenhow is that not defeat?
@@jeffstorey9147 a look of defeat implies you gonna be living majority of the time.
@@Izumiuo no. No it doesnt.
Chernobyl explosion happened a few months before I was born. I have always been fascinated.
This will be a solid lesson for you guys and not only a history lesson. It will show you how USRR operated. It was a cruel oppressive system where personal liberties didn't exist. You could disappear without a trace for having a simple anti-government pamphlet with you. You didn't know who your friend was and who could denunciate you to the high authority, usually KGB. And you should remember that this oppressive mentality is still there, in modern-day Russia. KGB was never delegalized (the current Russian president is a former KGB agent) and it transformed into FSB - with the same methods, the same oppressive mentality. They mastered gaslighting way before it was in fashion.
as a post-Soviet citizen myself its always very interesting to watch how western people react to this...and our parents here directly witnessed this disaster
"Western" 😂😂😂
My guy, everyone in Europe knows this story and what the USSR was. Americans don't get that benefit
@@tilltronje1623This. I am Dutch and am familair with the history of the USSR. Americans don't represent us lmao
Here on our little island of Anglesey in North Wales UK we had to cull sheep after the disaster as they had radiation our land was also peppered with doses of radiation
Truly one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen. So glad you guys are watching it! Pay attention to NAMES, it’s easy to get them confused because so many are being thrown around.
Love this series so much and awesome to see you guys react to it!
“That the nuke has gone off”
😅
You guys are going to love this, instantly in my top 5 show’s its just so perfectly executed
For this only being 5 episodes, this is one of my favorite shows of all time. It is so well written and acted out
7:10 iirc that dude was injured by superheated steam from a burst pipe since he was so close to the pumps, his face isn't caused by the radiation. Though he did receive around 390-490 rem.
It’s crazy to me how many young people don’t know that Chernobyl actually happened that this is all real
so excited you're reacting to this MASTERPIECE
Prepare yourself boys. This show is brutal. There is no happy ending. This is a real life event. There is still an exclusion zone in Pripyat, Ukraine to this day.
The show is excellent but doesn't explain how radiation and radiation sickness works. It doesn't work how most people think. There are different kinds of radiation, some can't even penetrate skin while others can go through lead walls. Even if it can't penetrate skin, if you breathe in contaminated material (such as ash), it is literally inside your body and doesn't need to penetrate the skin.
It kills your white blood cells which are responsible for fighting infection, meaning even if you don't die from the radiation you would probably die from merely breathing the air or touching surfaces that haven't been disinfected.
High doses can cause your skin to basically disintegrate. Without skin there's not a whole lot left to define a boundary between the "inside" and "outside" of your body. Can't go into too much detail but that's definitely a gruesome rabbit hole
Im ready 😓
Isn't that explained in the 4th Episode? Of course not to such detail, but for them to understand?
@@petrkdn8224 somewhat yes
I know the comments are kinda "ripping" you guys for not knowing the realities of the USSR or what happened in Chernobyl, but I'm really glad you guys are going through this show to learn how the system kinda was back then. The Cold War, the USSR in general, the pitfalls of bureaucracy, the devastation that mismanagement creates...it's tragic man. It's horrifying and terrible, and we need to understand what the effects that the small decisions we make can have on the future.
Up until the Chernobyl event, they genuinely did not think that a nuclear reactor could explode; it was a perfect storm of conditions. It made more sense to them that all the radiation detection equipment was faulty than the reactor exploding because that was unfathomable.
Well it did not explode. It simply can't. It was a mealtdown which in some instances can lead to a hydrogen explosion, but the reactor itself cannot explode
You guys need to watch DARK, won’t regret it and it is so fun to watch as group
that post episode discussions gonna be insane
Actual good recommendation
@@JoaquinGarcia3-kg1dj exactly!!
Absolutely!
That would be awesome and I bet they would love that show
While the Historical accuracy in HBO Chernobyl isn't perfect, the culture of intense denial in the Soviet Union is absolutely accurate, and still exists in Russia today (often to its detriment).
What they were showing us was the understanding of what they had at the time. This is not supposed to be a chemistry lesson and shouldn't be critiqued as such.
@@tealsquare Maybe not - but the show does serve to perpetuate that longstanding misrepresentation of nuclear energy, radiation, and death. In some cases, with extremely stupid ideas such as the baby absorbing the radition from the mother, killing the baby but saving the mother. Radition that they got from the father in the first place - which, again, is just so misleading. Radiation sickness is not contagious.
@@BoKruse It sucks, because Chernobyl survivors at the time were often times treated as "pariahs" and discriminated because they were believed to be contagious, a misconception that is still common to this day (as evidently shown by the fact the creators of this show literally believe this).
Hearing you guys talking about free will while watching a show about Soviet Russia is funny to me.
"I would resign right there" No you wouldn't because you would be aware of the fact that resigning would lead to you dying right here right now (from a bullet not from radiation) and your entire family going to the Goulag on the following morning beacuse you were declared ennemy of the state (sometimes including family and friends along). That's why the answer of the comrade "Of course you will" makes sense.
This show is not about nuclear power plants or the impact of nuclear radiations, it's about how much ideology can change a narrative despite the reality of things. It's about how far a state and all those who work for it can go when the truth doesn't benefit them.
It is harsh for me watching grown and intelligent men discovering entirely Tchernobyl or Soviet Russia but i can't blame you guys for the incompetence of US education system.
Anyway, I really like your channel and have not missed a single react for more than a year now, love from France 🇨🇵.
That’s what I was trynna say 😂
Yeah the freedom we have had growing up has definitely been a blessing, and it’s hard to believe what other people around the world have had to go through. I’m glad talented writers and people out there can make such a great work of art to help us understand
Agree with your comment, just one remark: Chernobyl is in Ukraine.
@@stanislavastartseva9639 I was thinking about USSR when saying "Soviet Russia" but you're right it's not the correct formulation.
people live differently from you and have different educational needs, just let them enjoy the show and drop the lecturing tone little frenchie
And this show was made by Craig Mazin, the showrunner of The Last of Us
Many Americans aren’t aware of what happened in Chernobyl, but all Europe was aware and affected by it
Many americans were aware of what happened. Soviet Russia announced to the world on day 3 that an accident happened. A week later elevated levels of radiation were detected on the west coast, but not high enough to warrant protective measures. This also led to the rise in protest against building and having nuclear reactors.
Sweden and Denmark found elevations in radiation, but the Sovjet kept denying anything was wrong.
Fuck yeah! One of my favourite shows ever. Chernobyl is a fucking masterpiece. I can't wait for your reaction to the end of episode 2.
Also, you're one of the few reactors to point out that they genuinely believed that RBMK reactors could not explode. The "2+2=5" comment really summarized it well.
First off, SO GLAD you boys are checking out Chernobyl. It's a ten ton show that cooks way more than 3.6 roentgen. *We gonna need a higher dosimeter!*
21:11 Brig zeroed in on it immediately -- The Soviet culture had/has been been like this for a very long time. There's a lot of self-interest, passing the blame, and over-valuing higher-end leadership over subordinates, overlooking truth in favor of propaganda, and it persists to this day. Honorable young men like yourselves will undoubtedly find some of these characters' personalities exceptionally frustrating to behold. You can see examples of it in real time with the current events playing out in the region with regard to Russia. Chernobyl & the still-abandoned city of Pripyat are in Ukraine, which gained its own independence from the Russian state in 1991 at the fall of the USSR. However, this culture of gaslighting, shifting accountability, and turning away from horrific behaviors in that regional culture is pervasive and very difficult to break away from and change (especially when its perpetuation mostly benefits those who have the ability to change it), which is evident in this current conflict. UA is literally in the middle of breaking free of that wheel in real time within their own layers of leadership and culture, while RU is both holding onto, and being broken by that (self-maintained) wheel still. This show is both shocking, terrifying, and extremely thought-provoking. The tension is doubly compelling because it was a real event, that we (the world) _did_ somehow make it through.
There is still radiation in the ground in northern Norway (my country) to this day from radiation downpour. Radiation can travel allot with the weather. It's suuuuuper scary.
This show, and the actual events, were so frustrating as the soviet union would rather doom themselves then admit error or fault.
They should definitely watch Dark
Their predictions, and how they will get tuned in each episode and dial down every scene
Its perfect for them
I grew up in Europe during this time. I remember that sandboxes in playgrounds were closed and we weren't supposed to go out when it rained. Certain foods from the ground were no longer sold and the windows were supposed to remain closed. It was scary and I get goosebumps when I remember it.
the american education system displayed here in all its "Glory"
Chernobyl is an example of what happens if everyone gets to pick whatever truth is most comfortable to themselves.
It's sad that the school system doesn't teach about the largest nuclear disaster in history.
I was a US military Rx operator when this happened. We were called into a conference room once word got out that the Soviets had an accident. No info was available as to specifics of the accident but we knew something serious had happened by the amount of fallout detected in other countries. Even though the cold war was in full swing this news was very alarming and upsetting to my colleagues because the nuclear power generation community is rather small even on a international scale. Our designs were PWR and theirs were boilers so different characteristics but the best guess we could come up with was that Chernobyl had some stuck control rods and had a reactivity addition accident during a cold start up. Ha - our guess never entertained the idea that anyone would operate a nuclear reactor outside of it's operational curves which are defined, documented, and policies put in place to ensure safe operation within those curves.
50 thousand people used to live here…. Now it’s a ghost town
Btw 3.6 roentgen , while dangerous, is still baby talk , compared to what you are gonna see in later episodes 😅
the recording in russian at the beginning calling the fire brigade is the actual recording of the call. lots of phones were tapped by the KGB/Government then especially in towns for nuclear workers.
All those radiation in the sky caused it to rain 😂 ... Bro, it's radiation not water vapour 😂😂😂
Do they not know how microphonic that table is? lol, him sitting that cup down sounded like a kick drum on a metallic trac.
All this video did was make me want to sit them down and go on a 30 minute history lesson about Chernobyl and the Soviet Union
We would gladly sit and learn
Viktor, the injured guy in the beginning, was way worse off than that in reality. The door of the room he was in was one of those sealable doors you see on naval ships, so the bottom had this 6 inch lip that trapped the radioactive water from the equipment he was monitoring in the room along with the steam that burned him. He was pinned on the floor by a beam that had come down and crushed his spine. When he was found he was frothing blood from his lips and unresponsive. He died a few hours later
15) On the roofs of the machine room, on the site of the territory, there were pieces of graphite blocks, either whole or destroyed.
Quite large elements of fuel assemblies were visible. A white column of combustion products, apparently graphite, was constantly flowing out of the reactor mouth, several hundred meters long. Inside the reactor space, a powerful crimson glow was visible in separate large spots.
At the same time, it was difficult to say for sure what was the cause of this glow.
It was clear that quite a lot of activity had come out of the 4th block, but the first question that worried us all was whether the reactor or part of it was working or not, i.e. whether the process of producing short-lived radioactive isotopes was continuing. Since it was necessary to establish this quickly and accurately, the first attempt was made by a military armored personnel carrier belonging to the chemical forces, sensors were mounted that had both gamma and neutron measurement channels. The first measurement with a neutron channel showed that there was supposedly powerful neutron radiation. In order to figure this out, I had to go to the reactor myself in this armored personnel carrier and figure out that under the conditions of those powerful gamma fields that existed at the facility, the neutron measurement channel, as a neutron channel, of course, does not work, because it senses those powerful gamma fields in which this neutron channel as a measuring device is simply inoperative.
10) Here in Pripyat there was already a sense of alarm, we immediately drove up to the building of the city party committee, located on the central square of the city. In short, a hotel, quite decent, was nearby and here we were met by the heads of local authorities. MAYORES was already here, he had flown there earlier than the government commission. There was also a group of specialists who had arrived there in response to the initial alarm signal. The first meeting of the Government Commission was immediately arranged.
It’s a nuclear reactor - not a nuclear bomb. This series is extraordinary! It was heartbreaking how they tried to cover how massive the danger was to the citizens and the rampant lies. The actors - all of them - in this series are phenomenal.
Important Russian people: Peter the Great. Ivan the Terrible. And Dyatlov the Not Great, Not Terrible.
I'm laughing harder than I should be at that joke, thanks
12:36 lmfao carter you have no idea brother.
Lol
I work at Rosatom's library, and it was the only tv-show that we had conversations about as colleagues from 20s to 70s in age. A boss of mine worked at Chernobyl in the 90s, and our superior, who saw videos of people with radiation sickness, said they made a great make-up.
I was shocked to find out the guy who held open the door to the reactor chamber survived this, it seemed heavily implied he died after that scene where he's smoking in the rubble.
What no way?! That’s actually insane
This show is great drama but it's pretty much a big anti-Nuclear hit piece focusing more on fear and drama than accuracy. And don't get me wrong, it's a great show, it's just heavily dramatized. Don't take it as the truth.
@@SpitFir3Tornadodramatized? Bet your family didn’t suffer that, that’s why you are saying it
I live in Finland and this happened when i was 6 years old. Iwas getting prepeared that year summer and i had just got a new swimsuit and watermattress to play . then all of the sudden my mother ordered me and my twin brother inside and ordered not to swim that year and not to drink milk , eat berries, mushrooms and we had to take iodine pills several months . and i was pissed that my summer went badly that year that was because the radiation cloud came in top of us too. Today i can now understand better and understand that the people with Screbina and Legasov they did everything they got to stop the fires and clean the place up , i put the blame in Soviet Unions leaders and mamgment who tried to cover this up and make up all those lies.
Good to see you watching.
The drama is based on real events with some things simplified to make story telling easier.
The show confuses the roles of dosimeters (measuring cumulative radiation dose) and Geiger Counters (measuring instantaneous radiation) to make it easier to follow.
Lyudmilla, the firefighter's wife, her story is real as told in unflinching detail in *Voices of Chernobyl*. It's far more horrifying than they even portray here, but you haven't gotten that far.
The reactor workers told their stories as well, as did Valerey, who hung himself.
The tapes and suicide are real, although the tapes were not hidden. They were left in plain sight, like the documents he'd gathered on the table.
The accident that happened is what's called an excursion, caused by prompt criticality. With the Soviet paranoia of secrecy, they really literally believed this couldn't happen. For a much smaller prompt criticality excursion, look up SL-1 in Idaho. It's pretty horrifying.
Dylatov is calm because he managed a nuclear accident aboard a Soviet Navy sub. He truly believed that this couldn't happen.
Dylatov was indeed an arrogant guy who was hard on his subordinates, but he did spend the last years of his life trying to clear the names of the other workers in the control room.
The actual number of valves the other two had to open was over 1000.
The RBMK reactor, this type, was notorious in the west for its design flaws. There were also people in the Soviet Navy that knew.
This series gets more intense the further you go, and the Finale wraps things up well. Absolutely worth it.
way to spoil it for them, jesus buddy
@@miniroseyo I didn't spoil anything. I left a huge amount out, *especially* if you have seen the series.
Dyatlov is an interesting character. Many who knew him say this is a dramatized version of him, making him more of a villain than he actually was. Sure he was a very serious and demanding person, but apparently they went over the top with his cruelty.
For perspective 10,000 farms in the UK, 1400 miles away from Chernobyl were put under severe restriction. Half a million sheep were destroyed. Over 300 farms in Wales are still under restriction in 2024. The nuclear material U235 was fissioning, that's when the fuel rods were reacting (a nuclear reaction) with each other and there atoms were splitting creating huge amounts of energy, the fire was burning at over 3600F, but it wasn't at critical mass which is what you are thinking of as a nuke. That's a self sustaining nuclear chain reaction and the atoms have to be forced to collide with each other with an implosion and a magnetic field. There is so much energy released it is hard for our minds to comprehend. Only 2% of the Uranium in the Hiroshima bomb exploded. Energy = mass x the speed of light squared. There is enough energy in the atomic bonds in your coffee cup to vapourize Manhattan. Einstein imagined this in 1904 before Atomic theory was widely understood. He was proved correct in 1945.
Radiation is pretty scary, though if you know how to deal with it and shield yourself it vastly improves your chances. Dealing with ionizing radiation you'd be dealing with a few types of particles, alpha, beta, gamma, and x-rays. Alpha particles are actually stopped by our skin, they wouldn't be able to get through to do damage, to little energy to penetrate. Beta particles are what is causing the red skin, the burns are called beta burns, they have more energy and can actually penetrate the skin but not pass through. Gamma and X-rays are the scariest, there is very little that can stop them due to their high energy, they pass through the body and does damage to the DNA leading to cancers or decomposing while you are still alive as your cells stop reproducing. Fun fact, Uranium glass can be pretty commonly found, it looks like clear glass with a green hue that glows under UV light. It 100% still gives off radiation but it only pretty much releases alpha particles so as long as you don't breath in dust from a broken one or get contaminated food into you it bypasses the skin and irradiates you from the inside. They are really cool to collect as a glass case or display cabinet would block all the radiation. One that everyone needs to be careful of though is old pre 30s pottery and fiesta-ware with red glaze on them. The red glaze if made before the 30s has a high chance of containing uranium oxide and that does give off more beta and gamma particles. It is important to have even a little info about how radiation works as well as what might be irradiated that you might innocently come into contact with. May not run into any orphan sources but I ran into a whole dinner set and tea set of uranium glass at a thrift store just the other week, they also had no idea what it was so I informed them and they keep them in a glass case now.
6) At Vnukovo I learned that the Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers Boris Evdokimovich Shcherbina, Chairman of the Bureau for the Fuel and Energy Complex, had been approved as the head of the Government Commission. He was outside Moscow, at that time in one of the regions of the country, conducting a party and economic activity there.
3:56 you have my condolences
Another goated hbo series.
It’s worth noting that this takes place in the Soviet Union, but specifically in Ukraine near the Belarus border. Fallout was carried by wind west across Europe and specifically away from Russia. Among other things, Chernobyl was one of the final straws for the USSR before dissolution. In doing so however Russia was able to leave the disaster for Ukraine to deal with. Along with Moscow benefiting largely off of Ukrainian industry without compensation for all of Soviet existence, the current hostilities are more than understandable.
what’s the Nevada St. George thing?
The area of dead trees is called the Red Forest.
I’m so glad you guys are reacting to Chernobyl !!!
Yayyy another goated series reaction. Next up, DARK!
This series is 🐐!
I was and ignorant of this subject too here en Argentina.
This series it's so well done, the actors are so good to.
A masterpiece wouldn't have to take such wild liberties with the truth or slander dead people so horribly.
I have a relative who during the time in 1986, was conscripted , and worked with Geiger (radiation) counters, im from Czechia, so back then it was Czechoslovakia, and they did report increase at that time.
Most of the radiation from chernobyl went north-west with the wind so makes sense
The guy who plays Viserys Targeryn is one of the guys in the control room.
You guys watch all the goated shows... so hyped this is in my top 5 shows of all time
YES FINALLY MY FAVORITE MINI SERIES IM SO EXCITED!!! I love this show so so so much.
You guys should watch Dark and true detective season 1
Let's go for 5 episodes of pain and suffering, you guys just started a MASTERPIECE
2) Around 12 o'clock a break was announced, I went up to the second floor to the room of the scientific secretary Nikolai Sergeyevich BABAY, but in order to discuss the main points of the report during the break. Alexander Grigorievich MESHKOV, the First Deputy Minister, immediately looked into this room and said that a Government Commission on the Chernobyl accident had been created, that I was also included in it and that the Government Commission should meet at Vnukovo Airport by four o'clock in the afternoon. I immediately left the activists, got into the car and drove to my Institute. I tried to find one of the reactor workers there.
At the beginning "It's not really peaking my interest" - that's because you weren't alive when this crap happened - believe me, if you had been any age in 1986 you suddenly wanted to know what the heck was going on at Chernobyl... This show (whilst taking some liberties for the benefit of the viewer) is a true work of art. And as harrowing as it is - the best respect you can give the real heroes is to watch and learn from this... (actually - with what's going on in the world today, this whole thing has just become more relevant than ever - watch - learn! - this must NEVER be allowed to happen again)
in some parts in europe its still recommend not to eat mushrooms and animals like boar because of the radiation.
Idk if you guys are familiar with the real-life Chernobyl tragedy and the fallout from it for Nuclear Energy being our primary source of energy in our homes, but if you aren't, then I promise you that this miniseries is going to show you a whole bunch of incredible realities of bureaucratic failure on a lot of different levels.
Okay guys I just stumbled across this video and would like to make some suggestions for other series!!
I enjoy watching younger people react to historical things so this should be very interesting!!!
One of the best series for historical information and something that every generation should see is the series "Band of Brothers"!! 10 part series with an extra 11th"episode", so to speak, which is kind of a summary of the individuals involved!! Band of Brothers was produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg so you know it's top-notch with HBO money backing it so you guys will enjoy the subject and learn quite a bit!!
Two other series that go along with B.o.B are "The Pacific" and "Masters of the Air", both deal with World War II content as does Band of Brothers!!
"The Pacific" focuses on the fight against the Japanese!! And Masters focuses on the Army Air Force bombing missions over occupied Europe!!!
Very educational and a must-see for gentleman of your age!!!
PLEASE make them part of your agenda!!
acary how real it is . this really happend and the fallout even reached the whole of europe THE WHOLE of europe had radiation rains on em
oo a hot take video would actually be bomb, I can already see the arguments in the comments
You guys need to do dune part 1 and 2 for a movie Saturday!
It’s always crazy when I see people who don’t know much about Chernobyl or ww2 it’s just one of those things you think people have knowledge of. That’s why I enjoyed this show cause a lot of people learned about a horrible moment in human history and it does a good job of talking in a way for everyone to understand
I wish i can forget this show so I can watch it the first time again. Its my favorite HBO show of all time.
Fantastic show, glad you’re watching it 💯
Radiation is the most cruel way to die. More cruel than a pressure hole on a deep dive. Till you're dead you are still aware feeling of dying instead of pumped out through the hole and that is a action lesser than milliseconds.
You guys are gonna love this series. I actually remember when this happened. The truth wouldn't be known, and this world would be looking a lot different if it wasn't for some really brave people. Surprised you didn't recognize Maester Luwin from GOT lol. There are others, so be on the lookout.
Does anybody else remember how the Russians tried to take Kyiv in Ukraine by rolling through the Chernobyl Exclusion zone? And does anyone remember how their soldiers were so stupid that they decided to dig trenches in the the heavily contaminated soil , with multiple people getting acute radiation sickness?
What a great choice of series to watch