The limited capacity of measurement equipment makes sense. It is designed to be useful in normal situations, just like a kitchen scale allows to weigh up to 1 Kg because having one designed for tons would be useless.
@@panzerwolf494 the one from the safe went up to [I want to say] 2000. It's the one that maxed and fried out as soon as they turned it on. They got another one from the firefighters that maxed at 200 when they turned it on and that one did not fry out.
+Jaded Wonderland. Weird that the 2000 roentgen meter would burn out but the 200 roentgen meter didn't. Oh well, i guess that's just the slipshod nature of soviet electronics.
To be clear, the decimators that only read to 3.6 are not "bad" or "poor quality". They are useful for detecting low radiation, a higher reading decimator, the one that goes to 200 for example, would not be useful if the radiation was low. The needle would barely move, it would be hard to get an exact reading on low radiation levels. It makes perfect sense to have low reading decimators in a radiation power plant, as well as the higher reading ones.
The reason the techs still went out to open the valves in a futile attempt to cool the core is that they knew that, had the reactor actually exploded, they were already the walking dead. So either opening the valves would help, or it didn't matter what they did anyway; it was too late to protect themselves.
Impressive off the cuff analysis of their psychology. By 1986 Soviet citizens had a very clear idea of the consequences of going against the party line. They had very little awareness of the possibility, or consequences, of an RBMK reactor exploding!
also they knew the consequences would be so horrid. they refused to accept that as a possibility. it would be too horrible...for them too...on multiple levels.
The low-level dosimeters aren’t useless. As Jared Harris’s character alluded to, 3.6 rontkin is a not-insignificant amount of radiation and is as much as you could reasonably expect to encounter in the day-to-day operations of a nuclear plant. Something has to have gone seriously wrong before anything more is necessary, and they have higher level ones on hand in the event they’re needed. Not believing the high level dosimeters when they saw them though, and continuing to pass the 3.6 number up the chain? That was unforgivable.
It's the avoidance of blame thing - there's a tremendous contrast to what happens in the modern airline industry - when a plane crashes, there isn't a culture of blame, and the cause - whatever it is - is generally quickly and accurately established.
"There is graphite on the ground near reactor 4." "No. You didn't see graphite, because it's Not! There!!" And Lord Voldemort hasn't returned, because the minister doesn't want to deal with that reality. The enormity of the implication of graphite where before there was none is too much for the boss to process.
One thing that stood out to me was the cinematography. It's hard to make Chernobyl beautiful, but especially the sequence of shots as that one guy has to look down into the reactor core gave me that sense of sublime beauty I live for.
I think its called "Selective information bias". They decide by themselves whether the information they received is correct or wrong based on what they choose to believe, and they ignore the part of the information they receive that they think its wrong. Something very human that occurs within us when something seemingly impossible occurs.
Belief is always a choice until confronted with tangible proof. When all you're worried about is the pizza turning to charcoal, you don't believe the guy who tells you it blew up the oven.
@@Leo_ofRedKeep Agreed. However the more terrifying the reality of the situation, the more afraid we are of confronting that reality, the more afraid we are of dealing with the consequences so in extreme cases even when some see tangible proof with their own eyes they will choose to believe they didnt see it. It is possible that even if Dyatlov hadnt got sick at that moment and went up to see the reactor for himself, he might still have denied that the core exploded.
It's called "confirmation bias", aka "cherry-picking". It's when you allow your pre-existing biases and assumptions to control your evaluation of new information; that which confirms your worldview is accepted as true, that which contradicts it is rejected as false. No actual evaluation of the veracity of the information itself is ever done. Also the psychology behind the phenomenon of "hearing what you want to hear", wherein you begin from your preferred conclusion and work backwards selecting the evidence to support it, rather than following where the evidence leads. A good counter to this human tendency (basically, it's an ego defense) is to be most skeptical of that which you would most want to be true.
Great choice and reaction! :) I can highly reconmmend the official podcast for the show, where Craig Mazin explains some background and also where and why he took some creative liberties. Every episode of the show has an dedicated episode of the podcast. Something else I wanna mention: We tend to forget how much more we know today about nuclear power and its dangers (thx to accidents like Chernobyl). Back then nuclear power plants where considered as safe (and better yet, as the glorious clean future solution for all our energy needs). There was never any public known serious accident in a nuclear power plant before Chernobyl. Every government in the world of course claims, that their power plants are safe and they where right so far. The limited capacity of measurement equipment (like the used Dosimeters) for every day work at the plant was normal at that time and not different from western power plants. They had bigger (and more costly) dosimeters but these where securely stored for the special case, when they where needed. For everyday work you didn't need that high level of detection. The basic equipment only had the purporse to show when the limits are reached and when it is necessary to take additional precautions. You talked alot about "russian authority". Yeah, that for sure plays some part in it. But what I see more is human psychology at work and inherent problems of all big bureaucracies. Dyatlov didn't believe in an explosion, because it was unthinkable for him, that the reactor could explode. Not because "some authority" told him so, but because he as chief-engineer very well understood how the reactor works and what the (worldwide) scientific consense at that time was. No scientist could imagine, that a reactor could explode this way. We will later in the show learn how and why it exploded, but for Diatlov that was simply impossible. Of course he should have listened to all the witnesses who claimed otherwise, but here comes psychology in play. He was responsible and I find it believable that he was so in shock that he completely fell into denial because otherwise he would have to aknowledge that he is responsible for an unbelievable catastrophe. And of course the bureaucrats in the management want to believe their chief engineer, because everything else would be terrible for their career and conscience. So they grasp at every little spark of hope that it is not THAT bad and ignore most of the other signs. It is terrible but considering human psychology and the pressure they were under sadly not that far fetched.
I'm not sure we know more today about the dangers of nuclear power than we did then. The knowledge may not have been as prevalent or as vividly-demonstrated, but it was there. One of the reasons for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was specifically to study the effects of radiation on civilians. We knew what it would do. Also, I have to challenge the idea that no-one knew the reactor could explode. A reactor is, by definition, a bomb in slow-motion. Saying it can't explode is like saying that a coal plant can't burn down; burning things is all it does. A note on Dyatlov and the other 2 supervisors; part of the reason for their denial was that they had fraudulently claimed early-completion bonuses on Chernobyl's construction, construction that was supposed to include the safety tests. That's why they were rushing to get the tests done; the longer they waited, the more chance their lie would be discovered and prosecuted, whereas it would be easy to fudge the date on a test report once completed.
Remember the very first opening line of the episode. After the final, the real reasoning and decision process of the people involved will become clear; the producers meticulously but expertly embroidering the threads of this reveal throughout the series.
Not gonna lie. I just found this channel and obviously it is not high quality (technical-wise) but the content remain the same as "high quality" channels. Very interesting to observe randoms experience movies/series from this perspective: like you're there with them.
People dont understand what iodine pills are for. They dont treat any radiation damage. They dont even help against radiation. All they do is provide your body with clean iodine so you absorb less radioactive iodine. Iodine is the one product of uranium fission that human bodies actually use normally.
@@ottkaru5253 Yes, since iodine is not produced inside the body and its supply is pretty limited thyroid automatically absorps any iodine particle, overflowing it with "clear" iodine stops it from absorping most of the radioactive iodine. Not going to save you overall, but at least will reduce chance of thyroid gland issues.
@@Dimovuha222 Iodine is a chemical element. Producing any of the chemical elements takes a lot of energy, like in collider or nuclear explosion. So yes, we dont produce any in our bodies :)
they had been told that it can't happen but at the same time they were going along with it even if they had doubts because it was the safest position for them to be in instead of admitting it. until ep 2 with Boris is when they couldn't pretend anymore.
The denial makes sense in context. They all believed what happened was literally impossible. Some knew an RBMK reactor could explode like Chernobyl, but that knowledge wasn't widespread.
But it doesn't make sense. When the evidence of your eyes and ears contradicts what your worldview says is possible, it is madness to assume that it is reality that must be in error. Think of the arrogance necessary to support such a mindset.
Thank you Molly so very much for watching and reacting to this series. Your in depth reaction to episode 1 was exactly why I was so hoping you’d watch. Just amazing. But be forewarned, it will get grimmer and your anger will grow. That said, the person who called Legasov to appear at the meeting.....pay very close attention to him. I’ll leave it at that.
The events in the Control Room that night are all true as witnessed by the controllers who survived. Shame you have not reacted to the other four episodes, it's nice to see a reaction from somebody intelligent and understands the political situation in Soviet Russia. Perhaps in the future you can report on the rest of the series.
Well firefighters did what they must to do in any way and any cost. Even if they were protected to withstand radiation, they were doomed anyway (protection would just gave them some extra time to stay in order doing firefighters job). And for reactor core it is impossible reactor core to blow up in regular conditions, but they put it in situation it should not run in any way - so it blew up...
I would suggest watching the movie Silkwood (1983). Features Meryl Steep as factory worker at a nuclear fuel rod manufacturer. That would show the the day to say steps they follow to measure radiation and what happens when things go wrong.
It's good that their exhibited behavior makes people angry. That is exactly what created the disaster, and made it worse. It could have been 100x worse than even this, from all historic evidence, if not for the unimaginable response and sacrifice the emergency responders gave.
Those guys that were turning the valves in the water? The skin on their legs, where they stood in the water, fell off like socks. It's not a spoiler cause it's not in the series. But it happened.
When I 1st watched, I was shocked they didn’t have protective suits to wear immediately after the accident, when they 1st detected high levels of radiation.
Does the show make you angry because it reminds you of anything? I think the writer was thinking of contemporary happenings, making this a universal parable about something rather than a historical retelling.
Quite a few of the actors are from Harry Potter or Game of Thrones or both. Also, Pikarlov (the General who drives in to get a radiation reading in Episode 2) plays Captain Kannady, commander of the Dreadnought in Star Wars: The Last Jedi
everything (or mostly everything) is explained in detail in the series, though of course some stuff is dramatized with artistic liberty. Still, the series is overall great. The series in general keeps it's message focused in the mistakes, sacrifices and misinformation of the event without falling in exploitative sentimentalism (except for a subplot in episode 4, but it's minor)
@@lawrencegough yes, it has good information, but documentaries provide better information, you can check this discovery documentary about chernobyl (2004, when discovery was good channel) th-cam.com/video/J8F1aMkxpIk/w-d-xo.html
You do have to remember this was over 30 years ago in the soviet union. Things were much different then. You can't look at the people in charge or the government as if it were 2016.
Btw you should play ‘spot the GoT actor’. Although no way you’ll have recognised Jamie Sives, one of the reactor workers (Sitnikov, the guy sent on the roof) played Jory Cassel back in S1.
ThePunikaTV Jeor Mormont is the miner who says “now you look like the Minister of Coal”. Shagga son of Dolf is the officer who volunteers to take the radiation reading in E2. Jaime Lannister’s cousin Alton (the one he kills) is one of the reactor workers. Another reactor worker is the Lannister soldier Arya meets in S7 who is hoping his wife gives birth to a girl. The latter two I only realised from IMDb. The reactor workers are difficult to differentiate in their uniforms. Otherwise, Jory Cassell, Maester Luwin, Roose and Dagmar Cleftjaw as already noted. Probably some more in smaller roles.
Well done! I believe that you will be suitably impressed with the upcoming episodes as well and I'm looking forward to your analysis/reaction. Fact: The bottom line of science is finding the objective truth of "things", the science here was initially ignored. Fact: Appointment to positions of authority in the Soviet Union was largely based on party standing and nepotism. Fact: Basic map reading was not a part of a Soviet soldier's training as maps were considered "Classified". Within this type of system the accident at Chernobyl was almost inevitable. Thank you for posting this. The rest of the series is magnificent in every way. TC
"How do you get that number from a broken feed valve?" I didn't. The fuckin' dosimeter did..... now, how are you going to try to tell me that the literal piece of equipment that MEASURES RADIATION is lying?
Just for comparison, the current Secretary of Energy in the US is Rick Perry, whose qualifications for the job include a degree in Animal Husbandry and loyalty to Donald Trump.
The part that made me cringe the most was where the night of the explosion, everyone goes outside to take a look. Whole families with babies walk around not knowing what was really happening, but the real horror was watching the kids play in the ash like it was snow! I was like OMG that’s radioactive fallout and by the end of the episode I’d watch a character and be like “Yep you’re dead, you’re dead, and you’re dead.” It was actually kind of sad.
What does really explain some of the reactions of those you've seen in this episode is not just a by-production of living in the Soviet Union, or even just being in denial. A leak, or even a meltdown would make sense - but something has happened that simply is not possible - the sheer idea that a nuclear reaction can just explode is not - as the man said - sane. The dosimeter's thing is a bit unfair - their meters are designed to alert them to leaks - but to what's just happened. They don't givem them meters that go up that high, because they'd be practically useless normally. Like a medical themometer that goes up to a 1000F.
Except that every nuclear engineer knows that reactors exploding is always possible. A nuclear reactor is, by definition, a bomb in slow-motion. And the upper levels did know of the flaw in the SCRAM system; Legasov himself was one of the researchers who pointed it out a decade earlier. The idea that RMBK, or any, reactors are inherently without the possibility of disaster has always been a delusion. It's like believing that it's impossible for a coal plant to burn down; burning things is what it does.
@@michaelccozens Nope, that's a terrible analogy. Coal fire power stations only burn down because they're made of things that are flammable. Nuclear power stations do not explode. There was absolutely no precedent for what happened at Chernobyl, and while some scientists knew about the inherent design flaws, that's useless if the station operators did not know. As far as Dyatlov, a hugely experienced nuclear engineer, was concerned what he was being told by his staff was nonsensical. Every nuclear power stations if an accident waiting to happen - but not an accident like this. Without the flaw in the reactor rods, and the steps taken by the operators, the reactor would not - could not - have exploded. Caught fire? Melted down? Leaked? For sure - but not exploded like it did. This was a unique and bizarre combination of factors, none of which were known to any one person at the time it happened.
Part of the problem was that, in order for the reactor core of a nuclear power plant to explode, a phenomenally long list of highly unlikely events need to all happen in sequence. The chances of all of those things happening is so low, an explosion is pretty much impossible. Its more likely that you'll win the lottery three weeks in a row. Except on that night, in that place, all the events happened in just the perfect sequence. They didn't need to happen, and wouldn't have happened had they called off the safety test, but they didn't call off the test. And the explosion was the result. So while those petty bureaucrats were, in fact, acting like petty bureaucrats, their initial skepticism was warranted to a some small extent.
Fucking Fomin. He basically murdered Sitnikov (as well as that poor guard) by ordering him to go to the roof. And after serving, like, half of his sentence he got to run another NPP until his retirement... BTW, He's being played by Harry Potter's Dad (and Sitnikov was Jory Casell on GoT).
Damn, Molly, it's a somber show and yet I can't help laughing while I watch you get progressively more pissed off. I was already imagining you'd start throwing things at them. 😂 About the denial, I try to imagine they're saying to their superiors something really crazy like "there's an alien in there and he talked to me". Then I understand how they're so adamant against the very idea, because it seems crazy talk until it's not.
All the first responders are all dead now. Most of the volunteer army troops the sent in for 20 seconds only 1 time, are also dead. I don't know if you could call them volunteers though...The deal was...If they volunteered to go up on the building right next to the reactor for the 20 seconds 1 time to shovel or remove the graphite back into the reactor from the roof, they would not have to spend the next 10 years in the army. They would be soviet hero's, and get compensation.
Dyatlov should have been the one to look. The soldier should have just dragged him up on the roof and had him crawl to the edge. "3.6, that's actually pretty significant. You should ev-" Gives me chills every freaking time.
It just gets worse ...I hope you'll be able to handle it😧but I do love your reaction...unlike others your very expressive and pleeeeease continue with Hannibal...which also gets progressively intolerable but in a great way...
I recall another tragedy that no one thought could be possible and yet it happened...does Titanic ring a bell? Seems like real life horror stories make the headlines and break records because it's not supernatural that scares us, but humanity. Our reckless actions and infatuated egos are often putting at great risk the life of so many others that have no fault other than being naive and thrusting everything they are told. Delusion is the greatest horror. Having your beautiful life dreams and plans, home, family and health destroyed in a moment by an outside force and there is nothing you can do about it, but watch... That is what happened in Chernobyl
Yeah, The Titanic is an excellent comparison case. From the time wasted in denial, right down to the lack of functional lifeboats and the displays of both extreme selfishness and heroic sacrifice that humans are capable of in situations like this.
Great comparison. Delusion, lies, personal gain, selfishness, incompetence, negligence, lack of understanding risks, 0 awareness of others. All those were part of both events. Amazing comment sir, you won yourself a like.
I think an interesting point of view would be to compare this to Eros from the Expanse. The moment I saw it on the show it made me think of Chernobyl. There is a popular opinion here in Ukraine that one of the reason the incompetent scientists were allowed to operate in Ukraine was because USSR treated Ukranians with a bit of prejudice(Stalin tried to just starve them all at one point). So it was ok to perform shady experiments in Ukrane cause nobody gave a shit about Ukrainians. It wasn't even a thought out argument, and I'm not certain it's even true. Just a feeling lots of Ukrainians had after the accident. As you can imagine that didn't help the USSR stay together.
None of the engineers thought that such an explosion was possible. The atom at that time was called "peaceful" and people to the last did not believe that the power plant could turn into a nuclear bomb. The desire of people to live contributed to the denial: if the disaster really happened, they are all doomed, and therefore engineers, including Dyatlov, tried to find alternative explanations. In fact, there was no soldier. The engineer went to the roof voluntarily. He understands perfectly well that there is no more important task than to determine the real state of things.
I see alot of people reacting negitivly to denial of core exploding. But its need to be understanded that nuclear reactor is nothing like nuclear bomb. They do not explode. In this case same as fukushima and three mile island core itself did not blew it was hydrogen sepereted from cooling water by oxidation. And in fukushima and three mile island it didn not demage core vessel only containment buildings. Chernobyl was worse because of type of reactor (BWR not PWR).
@@Diraphe From wiki but still "and produced hydrogen gas that is believed to have caused a small explosion in the containment building later that afternoon"
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a shock to the world. Chernobyl and Fukushima created major crysis and concern. I believe the next failure of manking in this matter might be fatal and permanent. And it's all on us cause we have that choice. Our own free will let us decide and forge our fate.
i must tip my hat to the idea of lying in bed and watching tv and having a patrion account. that's basically what every other reaction channel does they just do a bunch of window dressing with star wars and game of thrones toys.
The first Deputy Director for scientific work of the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy, who studied inorganic chemistry and nuclear and plasma technology, constantly stressing the need for new security and safety methods to prevent large catastrophes knowing about the dangers of large quantities of water, graphite and zirconium and in the RBMK system. "No expertise"? Huh?
Fuzzy Dunlop If that’s your takeaway from the series then you really need to go listen to the podcast, that is NOT the message the writer was trying to send
Well done for making such a film, but Americans do not understand the mentality of the Soviet people. Then the Soviet people were ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of society, the socialist consciousness of the Soviet people is the highest degree of rejection and courage, starting from the miner finishing major officials. The way of life is transmitted perfectly, the character of the people is not. As always, they showed my people as drunks, intimidated by the KGB.
Does your kitchen scale go up to a ton? No? Why do you have such a shitty kitchen scale? Must be indicative of the system you live under. You should get a good one that goes up to a ton.
The limited capacity of measurement equipment makes sense. It is designed to be useful in normal situations, just like a kitchen scale allows to weigh up to 1 Kg because having one designed for tons would be useless.
They had two that could measure higher. One fried when it was turned on. The other was locked in a safe that was buried under debris
@@panzerwolf494 Except it didn't fail. The second meter maxed out at 200. It was working perfectly.
@@panzerwolf494 the one from the safe went up to [I want to say] 2000. It's the one that maxed and fried out as soon as they turned it on. They got another one from the firefighters that maxed at 200 when they turned it on and that one did not fry out.
+Jaded Wonderland. Weird that the 2000 roentgen meter would burn out but the 200 roentgen meter didn't. Oh well, i guess that's just the slipshod nature of soviet electronics.
@@killman369547 the more complex the circutry the easier it is to get fucked by radiation, pay attention western man
To be clear, the decimators that only read to 3.6 are not "bad" or "poor quality". They are useful for detecting low radiation, a higher reading decimator, the one that goes to 200 for example, would not be useful if the radiation was low. The needle would barely move, it would be hard to get an exact reading on low radiation levels.
It makes perfect sense to have low reading decimators in a radiation power plant, as well as the higher reading ones.
Dosimeters* (think of them as dose-meters)
You're right about everything you said though.
The reason the techs still went out to open the valves in a futile attempt to cool the core is that they knew that, had the reactor actually exploded, they were already the walking dead. So either opening the valves would help, or it didn't matter what they did anyway; it was too late to protect themselves.
Impressive off the cuff analysis of their psychology. By 1986 Soviet citizens had a very clear idea of the consequences of going against the party line. They had very little awareness of the possibility, or consequences, of an RBMK reactor exploding!
Yes, but the show downplayed that the scientists were very well aware of the dangers of the Soviet nuclear power program.
Please explain to me how an RBMK reactor core explodes.
also they knew the consequences would be so horrid. they refused to accept that as a possibility. it would be too horrible...for them too...on multiple levels.
@@imagiraffe4870 A reactor is a slow-motion bomb. QED.
The low-level dosimeters aren’t useless. As Jared Harris’s character alluded to, 3.6 rontkin is a not-insignificant amount of radiation and is as much as you could reasonably expect to encounter in the day-to-day operations of a nuclear plant. Something has to have gone seriously wrong before anything more is necessary, and they have higher level ones on hand in the event they’re needed. Not believing the high level dosimeters when they saw them though, and continuing to pass the 3.6 number up the chain? That was unforgivable.
It's the avoidance of blame thing - there's a tremendous contrast to what happens in the modern airline industry - when a plane crashes, there isn't a culture of blame, and the cause - whatever it is - is generally quickly and accurately established.
Rontkin
That scene at 9:35 of the forest was so freaky. The trees actually turned red from the radiation.
Finally! A Chernobyl Review and Reaction video by someone who gets the science! Can't wait to see the rest of your series.
"There is graphite on the ground near reactor 4."
"No. You didn't see graphite, because it's Not! There!!"
And Lord Voldemort hasn't returned, because the minister doesn't want to deal with that reality. The enormity of the implication of graphite where before there was none is too much for the boss to process.
One thing that stood out to me was the cinematography. It's hard to make Chernobyl beautiful, but especially the sequence of shots as that one guy has to look down into the reactor core gave me that sense of sublime beauty I live for.
It's very impressive to me how they make you feel the invisible threat of radiation. You just feel it the whole series .
This show is showing you don't need dialogue or jumpscares to make a threat real.
Silence and sound design. The score is fantastic and some of the cinematography and the grimmness of it all really accentuates that 'dread'.
I think its called "Selective information bias". They decide by themselves whether the information they received is correct or wrong based on what they choose to believe, and they ignore the part of the information they receive that they think its wrong. Something very human that occurs within us when something seemingly impossible occurs.
Belief is always a choice until confronted with tangible proof. When all you're worried about is the pizza turning to charcoal, you don't believe the guy who tells you it blew up the oven.
@@Leo_ofRedKeep Agreed. However the more terrifying the reality of the situation, the more afraid we are of confronting that reality, the more afraid we are of dealing with the consequences so in extreme cases even when some see tangible proof with their own eyes they will choose to believe they didnt see it. It is possible that even if Dyatlov hadnt got sick at that moment and went up to see the reactor for himself, he might still have denied that the core exploded.
It's called "confirmation bias", aka "cherry-picking". It's when you allow your pre-existing biases and assumptions to control your evaluation of new information; that which confirms your worldview is accepted as true, that which contradicts it is rejected as false. No actual evaluation of the veracity of the information itself is ever done. Also the psychology behind the phenomenon of "hearing what you want to hear", wherein you begin from your preferred conclusion and work backwards selecting the evidence to support it, rather than following where the evidence leads.
A good counter to this human tendency (basically, it's an ego defense) is to be most skeptical of that which you would most want to be true.
Great choice and reaction! :) I can highly reconmmend the official podcast for the show, where Craig Mazin explains some background and also where and why he took some creative liberties. Every episode of the show has an dedicated episode of the podcast. Something else I wanna mention: We tend to forget how much more we know today about nuclear power and its dangers (thx to accidents like Chernobyl). Back then nuclear power plants where considered as safe (and better yet, as the glorious clean future solution for all our energy needs). There was never any public known serious accident in a nuclear power plant before Chernobyl. Every government in the world of course claims, that their power plants are safe and they where right so far. The limited capacity of measurement equipment (like the used Dosimeters) for every day work at the plant was normal at that time and not different from western power plants. They had bigger (and more costly) dosimeters but these where securely stored for the special case, when they where needed. For everyday work you didn't need that high level of detection. The basic equipment only had the purporse to show when the limits are reached and when it is necessary to take additional precautions.
You talked alot about "russian authority". Yeah, that for sure plays some part in it. But what I see more is human psychology at work and inherent problems of all big bureaucracies. Dyatlov didn't believe in an explosion, because it was unthinkable for him, that the reactor could explode. Not because "some authority" told him so, but because he as chief-engineer very well understood how the reactor works and what the (worldwide) scientific consense at that time was. No scientist could imagine, that a reactor could explode this way. We will later in the show learn how and why it exploded, but for Diatlov that was simply impossible. Of course he should have listened to all the witnesses who claimed otherwise, but here comes psychology in play. He was responsible and I find it believable that he was so in shock that he completely fell into denial because otherwise he would have to aknowledge that he is responsible for an unbelievable catastrophe. And of course the bureaucrats in the management want to believe their chief engineer, because everything else would be terrible for their career and conscience. So they grasp at every little spark of hope that it is not THAT bad and ignore most of the other signs. It is terrible but considering human psychology and the pressure they were under sadly not that far fetched.
Excellent analysis! Thank you!
I'm not sure we know more today about the dangers of nuclear power than we did then. The knowledge may not have been as prevalent or as vividly-demonstrated, but it was there. One of the reasons for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was specifically to study the effects of radiation on civilians. We knew what it would do.
Also, I have to challenge the idea that no-one knew the reactor could explode. A reactor is, by definition, a bomb in slow-motion. Saying it can't explode is like saying that a coal plant can't burn down; burning things is all it does.
A note on Dyatlov and the other 2 supervisors; part of the reason for their denial was that they had fraudulently claimed early-completion bonuses on Chernobyl's construction, construction that was supposed to include the safety tests. That's why they were rushing to get the tests done; the longer they waited, the more chance their lie would be discovered and prosecuted, whereas it would be easy to fudge the date on a test report once completed.
This is how TV should be done. Pretty much perfect in every way.
So glad you are reacting to this series. I'm very eager to get your take on it. I think it's one of the best TV shows I've seen in years.
"I don't like x, thus x is false."
Excellent logic; wishful thinking in a nutshell.
That was a fantastic breakdown. Best I've seen.
Remember the very first opening line of the episode. After the final, the real reasoning and decision process of the people involved will become clear; the producers meticulously but expertly embroidering the threads of this reveal throughout the series.
Not gonna lie. I just found this channel and obviously it is not high quality (technical-wise) but the content remain the same as "high quality" channels. Very interesting to observe randoms experience movies/series from this perspective: like you're there with them.
By the end, their behavior will make sense.
Whos behavior? The people denying it? How does it make sense in the end?
Johnny Johnny Promotions and propaganda.
@@kristinwood8884 Yeah you're right, it makes sense on a selfishly individual level
+Johnny Johnny. Isn't it interesting how so-called "collectivism" brings out the worst aspects of individualism?
None of u would act differently so spare me from virtue signaling.
No iodine pills? Not great, not terrible.
... no wait, that is pretty terrible.
Love that you're reacting to this miniseries. It's a masterpiece!
People dont understand what iodine pills are for. They dont treat any radiation damage. They dont even help against radiation. All they do is provide your body with clean iodine so you absorb less radioactive iodine. Iodine is the one product of uranium fission that human bodies actually use normally.
@@ottkaru5253 Yes, since iodine is not produced inside the body and its supply is pretty limited thyroid automatically absorps any iodine particle, overflowing it with "clear" iodine stops it from absorping most of the radioactive iodine. Not going to save you overall, but at least will reduce chance of thyroid gland issues.
@@Dimovuha222 Iodine is a chemical element. Producing any of the chemical elements takes a lot of energy, like in collider or nuclear explosion. So yes, we dont produce any in our bodies :)
they had been told that it can't happen but at the same time they were going along with it even if they had doubts because it was the safest position for them to be in instead of admitting it. until ep 2 with Boris is when they couldn't pretend anymore.
Liked the analysis, can't wait to see more of this series from you. Subscribed!
The denial makes sense in context. They all believed what happened was literally impossible. Some knew an RBMK reactor could explode like Chernobyl, but that knowledge wasn't widespread.
More like, that knowledge was classified and anyone who mentioned that knowledge would be sent to the gulag
But it doesn't make sense. When the evidence of your eyes and ears contradicts what your worldview says is possible, it is madness to assume that it is reality that must be in error. Think of the arrogance necessary to support such a mindset.
Wow, I liked you're analysis, you're good at this sort of stuff Molly.
Thank you Molly so very much for watching and reacting to this series. Your in depth reaction to episode 1 was exactly why I was so hoping you’d watch. Just amazing. But be forewarned, it will get grimmer and your anger will grow. That said, the person who called Legasov to appear at the meeting.....pay very close attention to him. I’ll leave it at that.
The events in the Control Room that night are all true as witnessed by the controllers who survived. Shame you have not reacted to the other four episodes, it's nice to see a reaction from somebody intelligent and understands the political situation in Soviet Russia. Perhaps in the future you can report on the rest of the series.
oh goodness, buckle up. Probably the most riveting mini series I've ever seen. I give it pretty close to perfect marks from top to bottom.
Well firefighters did what they must to do in any way and any cost. Even if they were protected to withstand radiation, they were doomed anyway (protection would just gave them some extra time to stay in order doing firefighters job).
And for reactor core it is impossible reactor core to blow up in regular conditions, but they put it in situation it should not run in any way - so it blew up...
I would suggest watching the movie Silkwood (1983). Features Meryl Steep as factory worker at a nuclear fuel rod manufacturer. That would show the the day to say steps they follow to measure radiation and what happens when things go wrong.
It's good that their exhibited behavior makes people angry. That is exactly what created the disaster, and made it worse. It could have been 100x worse than even this, from all historic evidence, if not for the unimaginable response and sacrifice the emergency responders gave.
And, just sayin', I'd love to have watched this there with you.
Those guys that were turning the valves in the water? The skin on their legs, where they stood in the water, fell off like socks.
It's not a spoiler cause it's not in the series. But it happened.
When I 1st watched, I was shocked they didn’t have protective suits to wear immediately after the accident, when they 1st detected high levels of radiation.
Please upload the others as fast as possible!! :D Really enjoyed ur reaction & review! :)
Does the show make you angry because it reminds you of anything? I think the writer was thinking of contemporary happenings, making this a universal parable about something rather than a historical retelling.
Also, Fomin is Harry Potter’s dad...
Quite a few of the actors are from Harry Potter or Game of Thrones or both. Also, Pikarlov (the General who drives in to get a radiation reading in Episode 2) plays Captain Kannady, commander of the Dreadnought in Star Wars: The Last Jedi
everything (or mostly everything) is explained in detail in the series, though of course some stuff is dramatized with artistic liberty. Still, the series is overall great. The series in general keeps it's message focused in the mistakes, sacrifices and misinformation of the event without falling in exploitative sentimentalism (except for a subplot in episode 4, but it's minor)
Nkn did you listen to the HBO podcast?
@@lawrencegough yes, it has good information, but documentaries provide better information, you can check this discovery documentary about chernobyl (2004, when discovery was good channel) th-cam.com/video/J8F1aMkxpIk/w-d-xo.html
What subplot do you mean?
@@lawrencegough i did
@@ThePunikaTV the one with the dogs, it didn't really have a plot that went anywhere and felt like it was just made for cheap drama
You do have to remember this was over 30 years ago in the soviet union. Things were much different then. You can't look at the people in charge or the government as if it were 2016.
No, you have to wait until the 2030's for that.
(I kid. I hope.)
Btw you should play ‘spot the GoT actor’. Although no way you’ll have recognised Jamie Sives, one of the reactor workers (Sitnikov, the guy sent on the roof) played Jory Cassel back in S1.
And Maester Luwin telling everyone in the room to keep fear and misinformation from spreading.
Leo of Red Keep bloody Maesters, never trusted them
I spotted Roose Bolton and that one Ironborn from season 2. Anyone I have missed?
ThePunikaTV Jeor Mormont is the miner who says “now you look like the Minister of Coal”.
Shagga son of Dolf is the officer who volunteers to take the radiation reading in E2.
Jaime Lannister’s cousin Alton (the one he kills) is one of the reactor workers.
Another reactor worker is the Lannister soldier Arya meets in S7 who is hoping his wife gives birth to a girl.
The latter two I only realised from IMDb. The reactor workers are difficult to differentiate in their uniforms.
Otherwise, Jory Cassell, Maester Luwin, Roose and Dagmar Cleftjaw as already noted.
Probably some more in smaller roles.
Also, the soldier in the beginning of episode 4 (the scene with the old woman milking the cow) was Pypar from the Nights Watch.
Looking forward to your reaction to episode 2, which is amaaaaaaazing.
There are huge elements of CYA (cover your ass) at play in the decision-making.
I wonder if the actor (Paul Ritter) who plays Dyatlov gets people yelling at him in the streets?
I wonder if the actor who plays Dyatlov knows how Dyatlov was acting in reality and why he had to play the role the way it is shown in the series.
Well done! I believe that you will be suitably impressed with the upcoming episodes as well and I'm looking forward to your analysis/reaction. Fact: The bottom line of science is finding the objective truth of "things", the science here was initially ignored. Fact: Appointment to positions of authority in the Soviet Union was largely based on party standing and nepotism. Fact: Basic map reading was not a part of a Soviet soldier's training as maps were considered "Classified". Within this type of system the accident at Chernobyl was almost inevitable. Thank you for posting this. The rest of the series is magnificent in every way. TC
I love the video looking forward to the next episode!
"How do you get that number from a broken feed valve?"
I didn't. The fuckin' dosimeter did..... now, how are you going to try to tell me that the literal piece of equipment that MEASURES RADIATION is lying?
Just for comparison, the current Secretary of Energy in the US is Rick Perry, whose qualifications for the job include a degree in Animal Husbandry and loyalty to Donald Trump.
The US has been corrupt for hundred years
The part that made me cringe the most was where the night of the explosion, everyone goes outside to take a look. Whole families with babies walk around not knowing what was really happening, but the real horror was watching the kids play in the ash like it was snow! I was like OMG that’s radioactive fallout and by the end of the episode I’d watch a character and be like “Yep you’re dead, you’re dead, and you’re dead.” It was actually kind of sad.
What does really explain some of the reactions of those you've seen in this episode is not just a by-production of living in the Soviet Union, or even just being in denial. A leak, or even a meltdown would make sense - but something has happened that simply is not possible - the sheer idea that a nuclear reaction can just explode is not - as the man said - sane. The dosimeter's thing is a bit unfair - their meters are designed to alert them to leaks - but to what's just happened. They don't givem them meters that go up that high, because they'd be practically useless normally. Like a medical themometer that goes up to a 1000F.
Except that every nuclear engineer knows that reactors exploding is always possible. A nuclear reactor is, by definition, a bomb in slow-motion. And the upper levels did know of the flaw in the SCRAM system; Legasov himself was one of the researchers who pointed it out a decade earlier.
The idea that RMBK, or any, reactors are inherently without the possibility of disaster has always been a delusion. It's like believing that it's impossible for a coal plant to burn down; burning things is what it does.
@@michaelccozens Nope, that's a terrible analogy. Coal fire power stations only burn down because they're made of things that are flammable. Nuclear power stations do not explode. There was absolutely no precedent for what happened at Chernobyl, and while some scientists knew about the inherent design flaws, that's useless if the station operators did not know. As far as Dyatlov, a hugely experienced nuclear engineer, was concerned what he was being told by his staff was nonsensical. Every nuclear power stations if an accident waiting to happen - but not an accident like this. Without the flaw in the reactor rods, and the steps taken by the operators, the reactor would not - could not - have exploded. Caught fire? Melted down? Leaked? For sure - but not exploded like it did. This was a unique and bizarre combination of factors, none of which were known to any one person at the time it happened.
The hospitals didn't need iodine and the plant didn't have good meters because "glorious Soviet rectors cannot explode."
Part of the problem was that, in order for the reactor core of a nuclear power plant to explode, a phenomenally long list of highly unlikely events need to all happen in sequence. The chances of all of those things happening is so low, an explosion is pretty much impossible. Its more likely that you'll win the lottery three weeks in a row.
Except on that night, in that place, all the events happened in just the perfect sequence. They didn't need to happen, and wouldn't have happened had they called off the safety test, but they didn't call off the test. And the explosion was the result.
So while those petty bureaucrats were, in fact, acting like petty bureaucrats, their initial skepticism was warranted to a some small extent.
Fucking Fomin. He basically murdered Sitnikov (as well as that poor guard) by ordering him to go to the roof.
And after serving, like, half of his sentence he got to run another NPP until his retirement...
BTW, He's being played by Harry Potter's Dad (and Sitnikov was Jory Casell on GoT).
Just be patient until the end of the series. All behaviors and things that doesn't make sense now, will become very clear.
who is this elven lady.?
Damn, Molly, it's a somber show and yet I can't help laughing while I watch you get progressively more pissed off. I was already imagining you'd start throwing things at them. 😂
About the denial, I try to imagine they're saying to their superiors something really crazy like "there's an alien in there and he talked to me". Then I understand how they're so adamant against the very idea, because it seems crazy talk until it's not.
All the first responders are all dead now. Most of the volunteer army troops the sent in for 20 seconds only 1 time, are also dead. I don't know if you could call them volunteers though...The deal was...If they volunteered to go up on the building right next to the reactor for the 20 seconds 1 time to shovel or remove the graphite back into the reactor from the roof, they would not have to spend the next 10 years in the army. They would be soviet hero's, and get compensation.
Dyatlov should have been the one to look. The soldier should have just dragged him up on the roof and had him crawl to the edge.
"3.6, that's actually pretty significant. You should ev-"
Gives me chills every freaking time.
What freaks me out is the firefighter picking up a piece of the reactor core with his hand.
Please Molly, review the rest of the season.
I love Donald Sumpter's character. He's a born and bred Soviet believer. Probably served in WWII.
Heck, he may even have been involved in the Revolution.
It just gets worse ...I hope you'll be able to handle it😧but I do love your reaction...unlike others your very expressive and pleeeeease continue with Hannibal...which also gets progressively intolerable but in a great way...
I recall another tragedy that no one thought could be possible and yet it happened...does Titanic ring a bell? Seems like real life horror stories make the headlines and break records because it's not supernatural that scares us, but humanity. Our reckless actions and infatuated egos are often putting at great risk the life of so many others that have no fault other than being naive and thrusting everything they are told. Delusion is the greatest horror. Having your beautiful life dreams and plans, home, family and health destroyed in a moment by an outside force and there is nothing you can do about it, but watch... That is what happened in Chernobyl
Yeah, The Titanic is an excellent comparison case. From the time wasted in denial, right down to the lack of functional lifeboats and the displays of both extreme selfishness and heroic sacrifice that humans are capable of in situations like this.
Great comparison. Delusion, lies, personal gain, selfishness, incompetence, negligence, lack of understanding risks, 0 awareness of others. All those were part of both events. Amazing comment sir, you won yourself a like.
I think an interesting point of view would be to compare this to Eros from the Expanse. The moment I saw it on the show it made me think of Chernobyl. There is a popular opinion here in Ukraine that one of the reason the incompetent scientists were allowed to operate in Ukraine was because USSR treated Ukranians with a bit of prejudice(Stalin tried to just starve them all at one point). So it was ok to perform shady experiments in Ukrane cause nobody gave a shit about Ukrainians. It wasn't even a thought out argument, and I'm not certain it's even true. Just a feeling lots of Ukrainians had after the accident. As you can imagine that didn't help the USSR stay together.
None of the engineers thought that such an explosion was possible. The atom at that time was called "peaceful" and people to the last did not believe that the power plant could turn into a nuclear bomb. The desire of people to live contributed to the denial: if the disaster really happened, they are all doomed, and therefore engineers, including Dyatlov, tried to find alternative explanations.
In fact, there was no soldier. The engineer went to the roof voluntarily. He understands perfectly well that there is no more important task than to determine the real state of things.
I see alot of people reacting negitivly to denial of core exploding. But its need to be understanded that nuclear reactor is nothing like nuclear bomb. They do not explode. In this case same as fukushima and three mile island core itself did not blew it was hydrogen sepereted from cooling water by oxidation. And in fukushima and three mile island it didn not demage core vessel only containment buildings. Chernobyl was worse because of type of reactor (BWR not PWR).
@@weWillkillHim Three Mile Island didn't have any explosions.
@@Diraphe From wiki but still "and produced hydrogen gas that is believed to have caused a small explosion in the containment building later that afternoon"
@@weWillkillHim Interesting; first ive heard of that.
Of course, Fukushima didn't explode did it?
did she skip the bird scene ?? she miss a powerfull scene
You really didn't watch it before..?
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a shock to the world. Chernobyl and Fukushima created major crysis and concern. I believe the next failure of manking in this matter might be fatal and permanent. And it's all on us cause we have that choice. Our own free will let us decide and forge our fate.
Careful of hierarchies. You're cool.
Columbia also?
i must tip my hat to the idea of lying in bed and watching tv and having a patrion account. that's basically what every other reaction channel does they just do a bunch of window dressing with star wars and game of thrones toys.
No expertise. Legasov was a chemist, not a nuclear phisicist.
The first Deputy Director for scientific work of the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy, who studied inorganic chemistry and nuclear and plasma technology, constantly stressing the need for new security and safety methods to prevent large catastrophes knowing about the dangers of large quantities of water, graphite and zirconium and in the RBMK system.
"No expertise"? Huh?
As good of an advertisement as any for Socialism. What a nightmare.
Fuzzy Dunlop If that’s your takeaway from the series then you really need to go listen to the podcast, that is NOT the message the writer was trying to send
@@11ammas - not my only takeaway obviously, and I never said it was their intended message.
Exactly. God Bless America
Totally agree!
alot of british actors in this.
This reaction video is not great not terrible
Lovely
GIVE ME MORE...GIVE ME NOW... S2...
=)
Do you mean the one about Three Mile Island, or the one about Fukushima?
Well done for making such a film, but Americans do not understand the mentality of the Soviet people. Then the Soviet people were ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of society, the socialist consciousness of the Soviet people is the highest degree of rejection and courage, starting from the miner finishing major officials. The way of life is transmitted perfectly, the character of the people is not. As always, they showed my people as drunks, intimidated by the KGB.
Does your kitchen scale go up to a ton? No? Why do you have such a shitty kitchen scale? Must be indicative of the system you live under. You should get a good one that goes up to a ton.
Who needs reactions? Just watch the show and come to your own conclusions.
Are u ok
Well, of course, you have to seal off the city. Don't want any fake news to spread.