10:17 - that's funny. You thought that you could have freedom of travel in the Soviet Union? To another country? Go anywhere you want, do anything you want? You truly cannot imagine living in a totalitarian regime :) 12:58 - he was ordered, by a Secretary General, to look into the core, personally, and report directly to him. It would be nuts to not comply, at least that is the first reaction in his mind, to not disobey orders. 15:34 - "scared taking x-rays". No need to be scared. It is nothing few times in a year. And now the RTG machines with better imagining can actually use much less radiation than the old ones. It is just problematic when you are doing it each day full shift as a technician. But then, pilots on long routes or astronauts have also much more radiation income from the outer space. Intensity, distance, time... low dosage but for long time will make also a a problem. 17:53 - "I am in charge".. then do something. You are seconds away from a scene where party officials tries to frantically shift blame to lower ranks as a survival instinct.. and yet surprised seconds later, when Boris is "in charge" but "told not to", so he will not decide about evacuation.. "in charge" in communist regime means accountable for everything, not having the decision power for everything. He was ordered what to do and put in charge to take blame for anything that will go wrong under his watch. Takes the responsibilities, but understands the meaning behind. Yeah, it sucks. 18:24 "superstitious" - it is valid concern from folklore angle, but Legasov obviously do not want to drink from glasses with fallout.. 22:10 - yeah, the quick evacuation "grab the essentials, you are out for some time".. was bad. But because not told that they cannot return, they brought much non-important items instead of clothes, food etc. And the worst was that nobody was told what radiation is.. so evacuees were handled in other towns by its people like they are carrying a disease, a plague. (Voices of Chernobyl book) 26:05 - "family with lot of money"... no. they just have the 400 rubles yearly. Which is almost nothing. But those three are heroes.
@@hristoyanakiev4785 You are absolutely right. I experienced it. Living in eastern part of Slovakia, not too far from Ukrainian borders, we had to go outside on the street for the 1st may manifestations. Nobody cared. We have been lied to. In the time, when in former Western Germany were closing windows and doors and not allowing kids to go to school.
@@koyabsbk1 Same here in Bulgaria, manifestation on 1may,nice radioactive rain, all schools and factory workers marsh on the streets, NO PROBLEM for the stuped pumpkins оn government.
The general drove the truck for two reasons. 1) he was indeed the kind to take the risks in place of his men, and 2) he knew that the plant officials couldn’t blow off what he found.
Something that most Americans are not aware of is how absolutely foreign the Russian mindset is compared to ours. Deeply ingrained in the Russian military culture is the ideal of the 'Unconquerable Brigade' - the spirit of tolerating enormous sacrifices to overcome material or leadership shortcomings. 20 million Soviet soldiers were killed during WWII, but it didn't stop them. Same with this general, and the three selfless plant workers at the end. Sacrifice runs in their blood.
@@zh2184 Yes, we have seen very well how little regard the Russians hold the value of human life during their war in Ukraine. Most of the lives lost are unnecessary and could've been avoided if they weren't so corrupt and devoid of empathy.
9:58 1. You can't say "no" to the general secretary of the communist party of the soviet union. It's like, you can't say "no" to Kim Jong Un in North Korea. Even if it's your life. 2. You couldn't go to a different country as a soviet citizen (unless explicitly permitted for some exceptional circumstances).
100% this. Many countries build border fences to keep non-citizens out. The Soviet Union and other socialist countries (East Germany, etc.) built border fences to keep their own people from fleeing.
@@cherylsims5636alright, easy there. Depending on their watch as compared to release schedule, it's decently likely that they watched this before they ever saw any comments.
Андрюх, ну что ты смуту вносишь. Можно было за бугор съездить, но не всем, и не только в эксепшенал цыркумстансес. Да и обстановка намного расслабленнее была, чем у того же Кима. Давай, завязывай кошмарить...
As far as Legasov simply refusing to go or leaving the country in order to not obey a direct command is concerned, keep in mind that the soviet union was an oppressive police state who ruled primarily through force, paranoia and fear. Even accidental deviation from the "party line" could have terrifying consequences for not just yourself but your entire family, and willful disobedience or dissent would almost certainly result in whoever did such a thing either being shipped off to a siberian gulag to be worked to death or simply "disappeared" by the KGB (secret police) and shot. The freedoms that those in the west enjoy and often take for granted were simply not present in the "workers paradise" of the cold war USSR.
Not to mention that Soviet citizens were precluded from leaving the country. People had to defect which was very risky and probably very difficult to do.
"leave the country" that was so cute and naive. in communist times, no-one would leave the country except for high-ranking party officials, diplomatic staff, athletes, that's the whole point of soviet opression. The iron curtain was a real thing, people would die trying to illegally cross borders into the west
25:39 - It might be easy to say for Boris, but the man has already given his life for this cause. Like Valery said, they'll be dead in 5 years. They may not die within a week, but they give their lives equally for this, cause it must be done. 26:04 - Honestly a bad take IMHO. It may be unbelievable to some, that people volunteered for this, but what would they do otherwise? It had to be done and if it wasn't, you can stand by on the sidelines, watching the entire continent be poisoned and fall apart. They volunteer, because it is the right thing to do, as it must be done, in order to avoid the death of millions upon millions. Considering that, I don't see it being unbelievable, that there be some willing to give their lives for the sake of so many.
I visited a multisensory exhibition here in Italy about Chernobyl and it's amazing. They rebuilt part of Pripyat, like the school, the fire station and others. There is a room about the liquidators and inside you can hear the sound of the dosimeters. Goosebumps.
Ananenko, Bespalov, Baranov. They were awarded the title of "Hero of Ukraine" by the President Petro Poroshenko in 2019. Ukraine's highest award. Baranov received the award posthumously.
15:17 He was Vladimir Pikalov Colonel-General and according to Russian sources, the scene seen in the series is true. Translated text: "Then the general personally carried out a circular radiation reconnaissance of the area around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in an armored personnel carrier, and identified the direction of radiation spread and the movement of the radioactive cloud. In the driver's seat sat a volunteer conscript, to whom the general addressed such a request and explained both the responsibility and the danger of the upcoming reconnaissance."
A typical chest X-ray is about 0.011 roentgen; a dental x-ray is about half of that. Your body is exposed to that amount of radiation in 10 days due to natural background radiation. So and exposure to 3.6 roentgen would be between 300-400 chest x-rays. 15,000 roentgen would be a lot more.
Self-sacrifice for the greater good is a very Russian/ eastern-European cultural thing, something the authoritarian regiemes of Russia and especially the Soviet Union would take advantage of when it comes to throwing the common people in to meat grinders.
When did they stop teaching about the Soviet Union & how communism works in schools? do you think people can just do whatever they want and say no in communist dictatorships? Cmon man you’re coming off extremely naïve.
It's in almost every reaction to this show and it never fails to shock me. People are legitimately clueless about how one can and cannot operate in a closed, police state.
Literally, as soon as the USSR fell.. my school stopped history at World War 2 and never even went into Cold War. Which given how the world is going is probably a more relevant bit of history now.
I graduated in 2000, I dont recall being taught anything about the Soviet Union. I was just barely starting school when the Soviets were falling apart so that didnt get much airtime in Kindergarten. And by the time I got to high school there was nothing. We did the American Revolution, the Civil War and reconstruction eras. A little bit of WW2. I recall spending more time than made sense to me on the 50's and 60's but only from a civil rights/hippy movement viewpoint. Vietnam was touched on briefly but only in a "are we the baddies?" sort of context and the civil disobedience stuff. Civics class really only covered the basics of how the US and State governments work along with a bit of basic law and law enforcement stuff. And thus if you wanted to know anything about the Communists, you had to go read it yourself. Take a wild stab at how many bother to do that? And thats how you end up with a couple generations of people who think Communism hasnt really been tried, and that if THEY were running things, it would be utopia.
They never stopped, but they also never started for real. During cold war, Warsaw pact was the enemy. Western propaganda had the exact same goal the soviet one did: It was more important to sculpt "proper" way of thinking about the enemy, than to teach the truth. Methods were different, but that's all. After the fall of communism, the reasons to spin propaganda went away, but with it, the reasons to educate anybody about anything at all. It's a very broad statement and (I hope) there are exceptions to it, but nobody gives a damn about teaching history of other countries, unless it's relevant to some local events - and Cold War was creating an example of such relevance. TL;dr - the odds for people under 40 living outside of former Warsaw Pact area to have a decent idea about communist reality are slim. Older than 40, just a smidge higher, still low. Most reaction channels fit under the first group, it's not extreme naivety - it's par the course.
It's more so that these are the specific people in the USSR who simply wouldn't even think to disobey. Everyone we're seeing (except maybe for Khomyuk) is well-regarded in their line of work, meaning they earned many promotions over time, or are workers living in Pripyat. Living in Pripyat was a privilege -- it was a nice place, a new place, and not just anyone could move in. These aren't even just average Soviet citizens -- these are people invested in the system to varying degrees, and who have proven their loyalty over the years.
If you were a prominent member of Soviet society, it wouldn't even occur to you to run away from the situation. They were raised from childhood to think about the collective good of society. Self-sacrifice is also a big component of Russian identity, long before the USSR came into being.
Please don't take this the wrong way, but it's insane to me how ignorant many Americans are about how the Soviet Union operated. Come on guys they were your biggest enemies for the past nearly 80 years, do they not teach about this in school over there?
You didn't leave the Soviet Union whenever you want to, at all. Nobody left without high level permission. When a state locks its people inside it is major issue, of course. The Soviet Union would fall within 5 years of this event.
In this episode, there were a few things the makers of the show changed for various reasons. For one thing, the character who said that they should close off the city in the first episode and is evacuated in this one, did not exist...he was added for dramatic purposes. Also, the helicopter crash did not happen so soon after the explosion...it really happened months later in October, 1986, and had little to do with radiation. As I mentioned in my comment to episode 1, once you are done with the series, the History vs Hollywood article on the show is a must read.
24:38 Come on, when was Gorbachev ever trying to save his own ass? And why would the leader of the Soviet Union even have to? I think he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize he received in 1990.
It's interesting how many reactors in this episode assume that Prof. Legasov is thinking, "I don't want to go there!" when Gorbachev orders that he be part of the on-site investigation. He may indeed be thinking something like that. But my interpretation is that he's glad to be included. Legasov feels it's his duty, his responsibility to help get this matter dealt with properly, and not botched further by the bureaucracy.
It's a bit weird how so many reactors say that when in other disaster movies playing in the US the scientists aren't running either. You don't run if you can help.
9) 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.
I love the code they use to communicate in this, all the necessary info all in a chat about kids lol. "Yes it's extremely hot." - the fire is still burning, "But, his nephews are flying down, Simka who is 14 and little Boris who's 5." - They are flying loads of silicon (sand since it's mostly silicon dioxide) and boron to drop on the fire, since you edited the last part out from what I remember, "It can get hotter with them crawling all over you." or something similar is just acknowledgment that the core material temp will increase with the added blanket of boron and sand. It's cool.
once you have watched the series, if you want to see real footage of the plant after the explosion, the clean-up and actual interviews, i recommend watching "Battle of Chernobyl" it's 1 hour 36 minutes long, but you get information from the people who were there
Those divers actually lived for much longer than others involved. I think there's even one alive still but Im not sure. Their scuba outfit, paired with the shielding water provided was much better than the protection the army had.
Do yourselves a favour and do not read any comments until you have finished this series. For whatever reason, people love to come into reactions to Chernobyl and talk about their 'fun facts' that reveal important information or answers to questions you will eventually find out from watching the show. Trust in the show to reveal what needs to be revealed, they do an amazing job at it.
No it's not. Even if it was "to give them clues" you know perfectly well that 99% don't know how to properly give "clues" without spoiling everything. This is the tightest of tightropes to walk. Better not to engage at all than say something "to be helpful" in a series that, let's be honest, spoonfeeds the audience by the end.
10:14 you honestly would NOT be on a flight out of there. Youd be nodding your head and saying "Yes I'll go" as youre escorted by soldiers to your helicopter. Everyone likes to talk about what theyd do to be brave and strong. Most of them never would have the guts to do it 🤷♂️
@baronnuuke7821 its all about context to be fair. The act of standing up to your leaders who are ordering you to your doom, and forcing them to end you themselves, is a brave thing to do. But you're right, in this case they're ordering him to help a situation he's an asset to. So its more brave to go to Chernobyl than it is to stand up to the government. My point still stands, its the kind of situation everyone thinks and says theyd be defiant in. But Boris even mentions that everyone thinks they'd fight until its their turn to stand and fight. Most people sit down and obey at that point, because nothing can ever prepare you for that situation
Gloves wouldn't have made a difference when disposing of the clothes. They were doing all they could to reduce the amount of radiation they had to deal with within the emergency room. Also when Boris inspires the men to go into the water, he openly admits to the men in that room that he's aware he's a dead man walking, he doesn't know what to do, they do, they *had* to go into the water to empty the tanks. No one else could.
Their motivation to make it look better (and be in denial) is because they'll be held personally responsible. That leads people to do anything they can to cover it up. "Oh, the readings were off the top of the meter? Must be a crap meter."
The short bassy thumming sound track that keeps appearing throughtout the series is an audio representation of the radiation waves given out by the remains of the melted mass of fuel rods and rubble. Its called the Elephants foot. PS I think you two might need tissues for the next two episodes.
The Elephant's Foot is made of Corium, the most dangerous material on earth. Corium is found at Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima nuclear power plants. Corium is made from nuclear fuel rods, fuel assemblies, steel, concrete, and other materials when the reactor went critical. The photo of the Elephant's Foot with lightning around it is real. It was the most radioactive thing on earth.
It's always somehow uplifting that people are so much shocked with soviet reality - that is exactly what Boris described as "things you do not understand" when speaking with Legasov. Also: remember those guys from the bar, they will come back later.
One big inaccuracy in this episode is the helicopter scene. In real life it didn't occur while right after the accident, it happened 6 months later in October. It's represented here but it's hard to see at first glance but it didn't crash because of radiation like the show makes it seem. The helicopter blades hit the crane cable next to the building which caused the blades to snap. That's why you can see the crane hook falling. In real life that crane was there to aid in the build of the sarcophagus
We gotta start teaching world history well enough to at least explain the wars and tensions America was directly and intensely involved in within the last fifty years.
It's always funny to see people who grew up in the West to watch this series. All the behavior you think is baffling is perfectly familiar to anyone who dealt with communist regimes.
Don't have to have grown up there. Just need a little historical knowledge about those regimes. But the cost of a totalitarian regimes insistence on obedience over truth is the overarching point of the show, so they might get there at some point.
5) In Kyiv, when we got off the plane, the first thing that caught my eye was a cavalcade of black government cars and an anxious crowd of Ukrainian leaders, led by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Ukraine, Comrade Alexander Petrovich LYASHKO. Everyone had anxious faces, they did not have precise information, but they said that things were bad there. Since we did not receive any specific information here, we quickly got into the cars and I found myself in the car with comrade PLYUSHCH. We went to the nuclear power plant. It is located 140 km from Kyiv. It was an evening drive. There was little information, we were preparing for some unusual work and therefore the conversation was fragmentary with long pauses and, in general, everyone was tense and each of us wanted to get to the place as quickly as possible, to understand what had actually happened there and what scale the event was that we were supposed to meet. 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
When Legasov speaks to the couple in the bar he tells them not to worry, you need to be mindful of the time and the event. The military are here and one of their main remits is to stop the spread of misinformation as they see it, this couple could be KGB or Stasi checking Legasov is following the party line even though he knows differently. It’s so subtle most people miss it when this is viewed through a 21st century lens and you are more concerned about the threat from the radiation than the threat from the state that would have been in Legasov’s mind.
Also when Ulana is speaking at the meeting saying if the tanks explode "they will destroy the remaining three reactors" that's a complete lie and I honestly don't know why they put that in the script. Every reactor is separated in its own unit. The tanks blowing would have zero effect on the other three. It also wouldn't "destroy everything in a 30km radius". It's a steam explosion, not a nuke. There is so much wrong with that meeting and honestly never should have put it in the show because it gives everyone the wrong idea.
"Simka, who's 14..." refers to the element silicon, element 14 on the periodic table. Sand is mostly made of SiO2 or silicon dioxide. "...and Boris, who's 5." refers to element #5, boron. Boron is very good at absorbing neutrons and slowing the fission process, hence it is often used in the control rods in the reactor. Sand is heavy and dense so it helps to slow the release of radiation and heat from the reactor core. As the core continues to produce heat the sand will begin to melt, so it's a temporary solution at best, but it buys some time to come up with more long-term solutions.
10) Therefore, the most reliable information about the reactor condition was obtained by us from the ratio of short- and long-lived isotopes of iodine 134 and 131 and, by means of radiochemical measurements, we were able to quickly verify that short-lived isotopes of iodine were not being produced and, therefore, the reactor was not operating and was in a subcritical state. Subsequently, over the course of several days, repeated corresponding analysis of gas components showed the absence of short-lived isotopes escaping. And this was the main evidence for us of the subcriticality of the fuel mass that remained after the reactor was destroyed. Having made these initial assessments that the reactor was not operating, we then began to worry about the following questions. This is the fate of the city's population, the number of personnel that should be at the station and who should serve it, even in this state - the first questions. Predicting the possible behavior of the fuel mass that remained after the reactor was destroyed, determining the geometric dimensions and all possible situations and choosing a method of action. By the evening of the 26th, all possible methods of flooding the active zone had been tried, but they had produced nothing except a fairly high rate of steam generation and the spread of water along various transport corridors in the neighboring unit. It was clear that the firefighters, having eliminated the fires and fire sources in the turbine hall on the very first night, had done so very quickly and accurately.
3) Moreover, one died from mechanical injuries under the rubble of the collapsed structures, and the second died from thermal burns, that is, from a fire. Nothing was reported about radiation injuries and there was little understanding in this information. But it still brought some peace of mind. Having taken all the necessary technical documents and received from comrade KALUGIN some idea of the structure of the station, about 3 possible troubles that could be there, I dropped by my home. At this time, the driver brought my wife, as we agreed, from her work, we were supposed to meet there, somehow solve some of our family problems, which, of course, turned out to be unresolved. I briefly threw to her that I was leaving on a business trip, the situation was unclear, I did not know how long I was going and flew to Vnukovo. 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.
There are also things as responsibility, duty, concious. Fact that those people lived in opressive regime do not means that all of them was selfish. That's why those people did not run. They were sacrificing themselves to save others. And Legasow simply could not live with his concious after he sent so many people to sacrifice. There probably was no other way, but still - it is a huge burden to live with.
We mounted a play, at my suggestion after two weeks every morning as a student, teaching on nuclear accidents since it was personnal and I had the knowledge. One of my friend played the USA regarding safety of the Three Mile Island accident & me playing the devil's advocate of an RBMK reactor and why it was safer for the CCCP with charts & all. It was both ridiculus and instructing for everyone.
Dyatlov, the main asshole in the control room, DID know what happened because when he walked out into that hallway with the broken windows and looked down onto that rooftop with the glowing pieces of graphite, HE knew EXACTLY what happened!! He's just in complete denial. The rest of it with the state is just all about the Soviet Union remaining a powerful force in the minds of other countries!! The main focus was not to look weak or vulnerable to any of their enemies, especially the US!! And that meant not admitting that they have faulty nuclear generators!!😢😢
Yes they are touching the clothes. Just as, were these patients suffering from the plague, these medical health professionals would have touched those patients. Lugasov could not leave the country, could not leave the city, without government permission. He could lose his position, his employment, his freedom, and the same thing could happen to his family if Gorbachov decided to do that. And he might be tortured to get him to confess to whatever they decided to say he'd done. The Soviet Union was a police state and simply disobeying the government was extremely dangerous. Calling someone by their first name in Russian is a prickly thing, so I'm told. You're not supposed to do that without permission. So I am told. Boris was right. It HAD TO BE DONE. All these men, pretty much everyone they knew, including their friends and families were ALL on the line, along with millions of other lives. It had to be done. I so hope down to my soul that if the situation came up, I would have made the same choice. Remember these men's names. Remember them. Those who did the cleanup job in the wake of Chernobyl numbered around 300K, and were heroes. This series has more heroes on screen than any war movie ever.
@@cherylsims5636 There is always an exchange rate between national currencies otherwise how would that nation ever pay for goods it buys from other countries? And BTW the exchange rate in 1986 would make 400 Rubles worth $120 USD. Instead what you should be saying is the buying power is not equal between the two countries. For example: today $4.00 in the US buys a typical loaf of bread or gallon of milk but 400 rubles in a Russian store may have more local purchasing power even though both are considered equal values in international markets. In the Soviet economy it was a little different because life's staples were highly subsidized (some even free) in their centralized economy making the cost of those goods artificially low since in theory every citizen was a partial owner of the factory or farm that produced the goods. Only luxury goods really cost their true value since most such items were imported thus were full price (or more) using correct exchange rates.
I was in France when i t happened - I remember reading reports that pregnant women in West Germany (as it was then) were having abortions because they were terrified their babies would be born deformed.
In defense of the dosimeter readers on the scene, pretty much every nuclear accident involves stories of people not believing the high readings they're seeing. It appears to be only natural to not believe in the reality of extraordinary danger without obvious / tactile evidence. People just don't trust numbers, even when they should. It is _the_ problem with current anti-science hysteria, but it applies even to the knowledgeable.
@@cherylsims5636 you know, water actually is a fairly effective radiation blocker... Look up xkcd "what if you swam in a nuclear storage pool?" You might be surprised.
@@cherylsims5636 you know, water is actually a pretty effective block to nuclear radiation. Look for a video online about swimming in a nuclear fuel pool.
Ulana Khomyuk is a nuclear physicist. She knows 'sand and boron' just from 'simca and boris'. The ages were thrown in just for the audience to clue in ( as well as showing the periodic table - a physcist in Kurchatov institute doesn't need to reference the periodic table to know the atomic numbers of silicon and boron. most BSc level physicists know most of the periodic table by heart. Khomyuk knows so much/figures out so much is because she is an expert in the field and knows what the heck just happened in terms of the physical reality of the situation ( the core is split open, the radiation leakage is massive, etc) and is able to deduce their courses of action + the pitfalls of it. PS: the ' omg megaton explosion from bubler-tanks' is a 'play to the audience' move, that was never the risk. Because hot lava entering the bubler tanks wont cause all the water to instantly vaporize and cause an explosion, as this is not a high pressure and high mass chamber, like the inside of a volcano. What would happen, is that the bubler tanks will burst open and spread their massive water load all over the place, with potentially causing a massive sinkhole and sinking the whole damn powerplant, making it nearly impossible to deal with/contain and that is a pretty ghastly scenario: the structural integrity is compromised by the bubler tanks violently leaking into the sub-basement. But an explosion ? No. An explosion in *megatons* ? Bahahahaha. Fyi, the hiroshima/nagasaki bombs were in the order of kilotons, a megaton is a 1000 kiloton and hiroshima/nagasaki were low range in Kt, ie, around 25-50Kt. Worst case scenario of a nuclear power plant is an explosion 200 times more than the hiroshima bomb ? Welcome to hollywood :)
@@tawogtrailers i dont think i spoiled anything really,since i am just commenting on this particular episode's events and not even saying what happens in the series, but the physics of it and why Khomyuk is ' so competent' - at this point in the series when i first watched, i was impressed by Khomyuk in the sense that they finally potrayed a nyookoolar physicist properly, coz so far her every single move is what a competent nuclear phyisicst would do. As for the megaton explosion, i think its fair to comment on it as it comes up,coz well,we all already know that it doesn't happen anyways, as this is afterall, recent history.
this really happened and the cancer levels increased world wide 4x times since earth radiation level worldwide increased 4x times since the radiation particles spreaded troughtout the entire planet. so even today we see the consequences of chernobyl.
According to EU guidelines, food products offered for sale should not contain more than 600 becquerels per kilo (Bq/kg) of caesium-137. Mushrooms picked in Pälkäne, south-central Finland five years ago had a reading of nearly 1,000 Bq/kg. Meanwhile those picked in Hyvinkää, some 60 km from the capital, contained 1,300 Bq/kg. This is 33 years later and 650 miles away from Chernobyl, in FInland.
@aagc1988 International agency for Cancer research made estimates on increased cancer rates and found that while of course there must be some increase even if not including thyroid cancer in most contaminated regions, the increase is so small as to not be possible to measure against tracked cancer incidence rate in Europe. I literally just looked up the study.
Disliking the video simply for the use of the cringey clickbait over exaggerated expressions in the thumbnail. Especially from the guy. Have some respect for such a horrible disaster. Tool.
"I would say no" to an order from Gorbachev, the ruler of Soviet Russia ..... hahahahahaha .... Jesus .... so clueless. Must be nice living such an easy going life believing that everywhere you have the same freedoms and rights as in America. Complete disregard for history and the rest of the world. How can people of your age exist with so little knowledge is completely baffling to me.
Hi Guys. Did you not read my long comment in Episode 1? A lot of the questions and issues your asking , I answered in Episode 1.One thing you felt unbelievable was that the 3 guys volunteered to go in. If they didnt then 60 million people would die.They are the ONLY ones who can do this. For these reasons I'm giving you a DISLIKE on this episode
Ulana Khomyuk, the female scientist is a fictional character for the show, she represents the composite of the numerous real scientists that worked together to investigate the cause of the incident but are too numerous to cohesively bring to the on-screen dramatisation.
This guy wants to feel special by being the first with unnecessary spoilers. In fact, that goes for all of you with your “fun facts”. Stfu. And if you can’t do that, at least wait til the series is over because I can guarantee you that no one cares. We know that crap already, or it’s simply not important.
It's weird that you would not sacrifice yourself to save half of a continent 😅 why is that even a hard choice... at least you're going out for something bigger than you. I don't know maybe it's just an Eastern European mindset 😅 or old school mindest not sure 😅
15:05 When Boris Shcherbina says "I know a lot about concrete", it's true: before becoming a politician he was a civil engineer.
10:17 - that's funny. You thought that you could have freedom of travel in the Soviet Union? To another country? Go anywhere you want, do anything you want? You truly cannot imagine living in a totalitarian regime :)
12:58 - he was ordered, by a Secretary General, to look into the core, personally, and report directly to him. It would be nuts to not comply, at least that is the first reaction in his mind, to not disobey orders.
15:34 - "scared taking x-rays". No need to be scared. It is nothing few times in a year. And now the RTG machines with better imagining can actually use much less radiation than the old ones. It is just problematic when you are doing it each day full shift as a technician. But then, pilots on long routes or astronauts have also much more radiation income from the outer space. Intensity, distance, time... low dosage but for long time will make also a a problem.
17:53 - "I am in charge".. then do something. You are seconds away from a scene where party officials tries to frantically shift blame to lower ranks as a survival instinct.. and yet surprised seconds later, when Boris is "in charge" but "told not to", so he will not decide about evacuation.. "in charge" in communist regime means accountable for everything, not having the decision power for everything. He was ordered what to do and put in charge to take blame for anything that will go wrong under his watch. Takes the responsibilities, but understands the meaning behind. Yeah, it sucks.
18:24 "superstitious" - it is valid concern from folklore angle, but Legasov obviously do not want to drink from glasses with fallout..
22:10 - yeah, the quick evacuation "grab the essentials, you are out for some time".. was bad. But because not told that they cannot return, they brought much non-important items instead of clothes, food etc. And the worst was that nobody was told what radiation is.. so evacuees were handled in other towns by its people like they are carrying a disease, a plague. (Voices of Chernobyl book)
26:05 - "family with lot of money"... no. they just have the 400 rubles yearly. Which is almost nothing. But those three are heroes.
western people cant understand that,even younger generation on eastern europeans cant,only we who lived in this era can
@@hristoyanakiev4785 You are absolutely right. I experienced it. Living in eastern part of Slovakia, not too far from Ukrainian borders, we had to go outside on the street for the 1st may manifestations. Nobody cared. We have been lied to. In the time, when in former Western Germany were closing windows and doors and not allowing kids to go to school.
@@koyabsbk1 Same here in Bulgaria, manifestation on 1may,nice radioactive rain, all schools and factory workers marsh on the streets, NO PROBLEM for the stuped pumpkins оn government.
The general drove the truck for two reasons. 1) he was indeed the kind to take the risks in place of his men, and 2) he knew that the plant officials couldn’t blow off what he found.
General Pikalov was a real person, one of many heroes involved in the aftermath of Chernobyl.
@@MelODeon-l9bAs fine an example of real heroism as is possible.
Something that most Americans are not aware of is how absolutely foreign the Russian mindset is compared to ours. Deeply ingrained in the Russian military culture is the ideal of the 'Unconquerable Brigade' - the spirit of tolerating enormous sacrifices to overcome material or leadership shortcomings. 20 million Soviet soldiers were killed during WWII, but it didn't stop them. Same with this general, and the three selfless plant workers at the end. Sacrifice runs in their blood.
@@zh2184 Yes, we have seen very well how little regard the Russians hold the value of human life during their war in Ukraine. Most of the lives lost are unnecessary and could've been avoided if they weren't so corrupt and devoid of empathy.
9:58
1. You can't say "no" to the general secretary of the communist party of the soviet union. It's like, you can't say "no" to Kim Jong Un in North Korea. Even if it's your life.
2. You couldn't go to a different country as a soviet citizen (unless explicitly permitted for some exceptional circumstances).
100% this.
Many countries build border fences to keep non-citizens out.
The Soviet Union and other socialist countries (East Germany, etc.) built border fences to keep their own people from fleeing.
I explained this to them in My comments in Episode one, which they didnt read obviously
@@cherylsims5636alright, easy there. Depending on their watch as compared to release schedule, it's decently likely that they watched this before they ever saw any comments.
@@adamwells9352 Yeah I kinda know this. One thing which SUCKS ABOUT TH-cam
Андрюх, ну что ты смуту вносишь. Можно было за бугор съездить, но не всем, и не только в эксепшенал цыркумстансес. Да и обстановка намного расслабленнее была, чем у того же Кима. Давай, завязывай кошмарить...
"Sinka who is 14, and little Boris who's 5."
Silicon is atomic number 14. Boron is atomic number 5.
As far as Legasov simply refusing to go or leaving the country in order to not obey a direct command is concerned, keep in mind that the soviet union was an oppressive police state who ruled primarily through force, paranoia and fear. Even accidental deviation from the "party line" could have terrifying consequences for not just yourself but your entire family, and willful disobedience or dissent would almost certainly result in whoever did such a thing either being shipped off to a siberian gulag to be worked to death or simply "disappeared" by the KGB (secret police) and shot. The freedoms that those in the west enjoy and often take for granted were simply not present in the "workers paradise" of the cold war USSR.
Not to mention that Soviet citizens were precluded from leaving the country. People had to defect which was very risky and probably very difficult to do.
"leave the country" that was so cute and naive. in communist times, no-one would leave the country except for high-ranking party officials, diplomatic staff, athletes, that's the whole point of soviet opression. The iron curtain was a real thing, people would die trying to illegally cross borders into the west
I explained this to them in My comments in Episode 1, which obviously they didnt read
Tell these tales to your children
25:39 - It might be easy to say for Boris, but the man has already given his life for this cause. Like Valery said, they'll be dead in 5 years. They may not die within a week, but they give their lives equally for this, cause it must be done.
26:04 - Honestly a bad take IMHO.
It may be unbelievable to some, that people volunteered for this, but what would they do otherwise? It had to be done and if it wasn't, you can stand by on the sidelines, watching the entire continent be poisoned and fall apart.
They volunteer, because it is the right thing to do, as it must be done, in order to avoid the death of millions upon millions.
Considering that, I don't see it being unbelievable, that there be some willing to give their lives for the sake of so many.
They dont really reply much unfortunately
I maintain that the chattering of the dosimeters throughout this series is truly the most frightening villain in all of tv or movie history.
I visited a multisensory exhibition here in Italy about Chernobyl and it's amazing. They rebuilt part of Pripyat, like the school, the fire station and others. There is a room about the liquidators and inside you can hear the sound of the dosimeters. Goosebumps.
They definitely used it very effectively
“You are dealing with something that has never occurred on this planet..”
Earth is 4.5 billion years old 😭😳
"You have made lava?" Didn't make the cut on this edit, but an all time delivery in this episode
Not even the third volunteer made the cut which i find a bit disrespectful.
Those 3 divers are true heros. They knew what had to be done to save millions.
Correct and the men in that room were the ONLY ones who could do it
Ananenko, Bespalov, Baranov. They were awarded the title of "Hero of Ukraine" by the President Petro Poroshenko in 2019. Ukraine's highest award. Baranov received the award posthumously.
"Those poor doggies."
😬
The little touches meant a lot. When he went to the bar and asked for one of the upside glasses, as in one that hadn’t gotten any dust/ash in it.
15:17 He was Vladimir Pikalov Colonel-General and according to Russian sources, the scene seen in the series is true. Translated text: "Then the general personally carried out a circular radiation reconnaissance of the area around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in an armored personnel carrier, and identified the direction of radiation spread and the movement of the radioactive cloud. In the driver's seat sat a volunteer conscript, to whom the general addressed such a request and explained both the responsibility and the danger of the upcoming reconnaissance."
In WW2 he had done a lot of Dangerous missions as a soldier and awarded medals
18:23 amazing attention to detail here, he prefers the upside down glass that has less chance of having radioactive particles in it.
A typical chest X-ray is about 0.011 roentgen; a dental x-ray is about half of that. Your body is exposed to that amount of radiation in 10 days due to natural background radiation. So and exposure to 3.6 roentgen would be between 300-400 chest x-rays. 15,000 roentgen would be a lot more.
15,000 is about 1,666,650 chest x rays
The firefighters' clothes are still there in the basement and are very radioactive. The basement had been sealed off.
Self-sacrifice for the greater good is a very Russian/ eastern-European cultural thing, something the authoritarian regiemes of Russia and especially the Soviet Union would take advantage of when it comes to throwing the common people in to meat grinders.
The Ruble taking a shit today is evidence of that bullshit still being very much a thing today.
"But now I'm in charge."
I grew up in East Germany, which was part of the Eastern Bloc at the time. I know people like that.
When the evacuation order was given the people were given 3 hours to pack up and they were told the evacuation would last three days...
The dogs of Chernobyl are still there. They have become a scientific curiosity as they formed a unique society of their own to survive.
Most were shot but obviously not all
Not dogs, wild wolves.
@@robinhood5627 Watch movie and then tell me
@@robinhood5627 th-cam.com/users/shorts1ejCGkfeZYs
@@robinhood5627 th-cam.com/users/shorts1ejCGkfeZYs
"I feel so bad for those dogs that were left behind..."
😮
Get read to cry a lot more is coming with the animals
/Awkward Monkey Puppet Meme
When did they stop teaching about the Soviet Union & how communism works in schools? do you think people can just do whatever they want and say no in communist dictatorships? Cmon man you’re coming off extremely naïve.
It's in almost every reaction to this show and it never fails to shock me. People are legitimately clueless about how one can and cannot operate in a closed, police state.
Literally, as soon as the USSR fell.. my school stopped history at World War 2 and never even went into Cold War.
Which given how the world is going is probably a more relevant bit of history now.
I graduated in 2000, I dont recall being taught anything about the Soviet Union. I was just barely starting school when the Soviets were falling apart so that didnt get much airtime in Kindergarten. And by the time I got to high school there was nothing.
We did the American Revolution, the Civil War and reconstruction eras. A little bit of WW2. I recall spending more time than made sense to me on the 50's and 60's but only from a civil rights/hippy movement viewpoint. Vietnam was touched on briefly but only in a "are we the baddies?" sort of context and the civil disobedience stuff.
Civics class really only covered the basics of how the US and State governments work along with a bit of basic law and law enforcement stuff.
And thus if you wanted to know anything about the Communists, you had to go read it yourself. Take a wild stab at how many bother to do that? And thats how you end up with a couple generations of people who think Communism hasnt really been tried, and that if THEY were running things, it would be utopia.
They never stopped, but they also never started for real. During cold war, Warsaw pact was the enemy. Western propaganda had the exact same goal the soviet one did: It was more important to sculpt "proper" way of thinking about the enemy, than to teach the truth. Methods were different, but that's all. After the fall of communism, the reasons to spin propaganda went away, but with it, the reasons to educate anybody about anything at all.
It's a very broad statement and (I hope) there are exceptions to it, but nobody gives a damn about teaching history of other countries, unless it's relevant to some local events - and Cold War was creating an example of such relevance.
TL;dr - the odds for people under 40 living outside of former Warsaw Pact area to have a decent idea about communist reality are slim. Older than 40, just a smidge higher, still low. Most reaction channels fit under the first group, it's not extreme naivety - it's par the course.
It's more so that these are the specific people in the USSR who simply wouldn't even think to disobey. Everyone we're seeing (except maybe for Khomyuk) is well-regarded in their line of work, meaning they earned many promotions over time, or are workers living in Pripyat. Living in Pripyat was a privilege -- it was a nice place, a new place, and not just anyone could move in.
These aren't even just average Soviet citizens -- these are people invested in the system to varying degrees, and who have proven their loyalty over the years.
If you were a prominent member of Soviet society, it wouldn't even occur to you to run away from the situation. They were raised from childhood to think about the collective good of society. Self-sacrifice is also a big component of Russian identity, long before the USSR came into being.
Please don't take this the wrong way, but it's insane to me how ignorant many Americans are about how the Soviet Union operated. Come on guys they were your biggest enemies for the past nearly 80 years, do they not teach about this in school over there?
You didn't leave the Soviet Union whenever you want to, at all. Nobody left without high level permission. When a state locks its people inside it is major issue, of course. The Soviet Union would fall within 5 years of this event.
"I prefer my opinion to yours."
I'm so glad that here in the U.S. we don't invent facts that contradict science. 🙄
In this episode, there were a few things the makers of the show changed for various reasons. For one thing, the character who said that they should close off the city in the first episode and is evacuated in this one, did not exist...he was added for dramatic purposes. Also, the helicopter crash did not happen so soon after the explosion...it really happened months later in October, 1986, and had little to do with radiation. As I mentioned in my comment to episode 1, once you are done with the series, the History vs Hollywood article on the show is a must read.
Film Makers license...
24:38 Come on, when was Gorbachev ever trying to save his own ass? And why would the leader of the Soviet Union even have to?
I think he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize he received in 1990.
He said ""All victories come at a cost" meaning of course people will die
It's interesting how many reactors in this episode assume that Prof. Legasov is thinking, "I don't want to go there!" when Gorbachev orders that he be part of the on-site investigation. He may indeed be thinking something like that. But my interpretation is that he's glad to be included. Legasov feels it's his duty, his responsibility to help get this matter dealt with properly, and not botched further by the bureaucracy.
It's a bit weird how so many reactors say that when in other disaster movies playing in the US the scientists aren't running either. You don't run if you can help.
9) 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.
That pile of firefighter clothing is still there to this day and is still radioactive...scary.
6:11 interesting fact: the bit about the clothing is accurate. That pile still sits there to this day.
I love the code they use to communicate in this, all the necessary info all in a chat about kids lol. "Yes it's extremely hot." - the fire is still burning, "But, his nephews are flying down, Simka who is 14 and little Boris who's 5." - They are flying loads of silicon (sand since it's mostly silicon dioxide) and boron to drop on the fire, since you edited the last part out from what I remember, "It can get hotter with them crawling all over you." or something similar is just acknowledgment that the core material temp will increase with the added blanket of boron and sand. It's cool.
The couple "casually" talking to Legasov at the bar are KGB.
The cloths being piled up at the hospital are still there till this day
once you have watched the series, if you want to see real footage of the plant after the explosion, the clean-up and actual interviews, i recommend watching "Battle of Chernobyl" it's 1 hour 36 minutes long, but you get information from the people who were there
Those divers actually lived for much longer than others involved. I think there's even one alive still but Im not sure. Their scuba outfit, paired with the shielding water provided was much better than the protection the army had.
Do yourselves a favour and do not read any comments until you have finished this series. For whatever reason, people love to come into reactions to Chernobyl and talk about their 'fun facts' that reveal important information or answers to questions you will eventually find out from watching the show. Trust in the show to reveal what needs to be revealed, they do an amazing job at it.
The WHOLE POINT OF WRITING COMMENTS IS TO GIVE THEM CLUES< BUT NOT SPOILERS
No it's not. Even if it was "to give them clues" you know perfectly well that 99% don't know how to properly give "clues" without spoiling everything. This is the tightest of tightropes to walk. Better not to engage at all than say something "to be helpful" in a series that, let's be honest, spoonfeeds the audience by the end.
@@FurtherFromHeaven-uu6fb Read MY Comments and learn how to then
10:14 you honestly would NOT be on a flight out of there. Youd be nodding your head and saying "Yes I'll go" as youre escorted by soldiers to your helicopter.
Everyone likes to talk about what theyd do to be brave and strong. Most of them never would have the guts to do it 🤷♂️
The brave thing would actually be to go on site and help (If you are Lagasov) and leaving would be the most cowardly move
@baronnuuke7821 its all about context to be fair. The act of standing up to your leaders who are ordering you to your doom, and forcing them to end you themselves, is a brave thing to do.
But you're right, in this case they're ordering him to help a situation he's an asset to. So its more brave to go to Chernobyl than it is to stand up to the government.
My point still stands, its the kind of situation everyone thinks and says theyd be defiant in. But Boris even mentions that everyone thinks they'd fight until its their turn to stand and fight. Most people sit down and obey at that point, because nothing can ever prepare you for that situation
Gloves wouldn't have made a difference when disposing of the clothes. They were doing all they could to reduce the amount of radiation they had to deal with within the emergency room.
Also when Boris inspires the men to go into the water, he openly admits to the men in that room that he's aware he's a dead man walking, he doesn't know what to do, they do, they *had* to go into the water to empty the tanks. No one else could.
Their motivation to make it look better (and be in denial) is because they'll be held personally responsible. That leads people to do anything they can to cover it up. "Oh, the readings were off the top of the meter? Must be a crap meter."
The short bassy thumming sound track that keeps appearing throughtout the series is an audio representation of the radiation waves given out by the remains of the melted mass of fuel rods and rubble. Its called the Elephants foot. PS I think you two might need tissues for the next two episodes.
The Elephant's Foot is made of Corium, the most dangerous material on earth. Corium is found at Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima nuclear power plants. Corium is made from nuclear fuel rods, fuel assemblies, steel, concrete, and other materials when the reactor went critical. The photo of the Elephant's Foot with lightning around it is real. It was the most radioactive thing on earth.
These divers, soldiers and miners were real heros!
It's always somehow uplifting that people are so much shocked with soviet reality - that is exactly what Boris described as "things you do not understand" when speaking with Legasov. Also: remember those guys from the bar, they will come back later.
One big inaccuracy in this episode is the helicopter scene. In real life it didn't occur while right after the accident, it happened 6 months later in October. It's represented here but it's hard to see at first glance but it didn't crash because of radiation like the show makes it seem. The helicopter blades hit the crane cable next to the building which caused the blades to snap. That's why you can see the crane hook falling. In real life that crane was there to aid in the build of the sarcophagus
Thanks, Sam! Thanks, Tristan! ☢
We gotta start teaching world history well enough to at least explain the wars and tensions America was directly and intensely involved in within the last fifty years.
Those clothes still remain there to this day
It's always funny to see people who grew up in the West to watch this series. All the behavior you think is baffling is perfectly familiar to anyone who dealt with communist regimes.
Don't have to have grown up there. Just need a little historical knowledge about those regimes.
But the cost of a totalitarian regimes insistence on obedience over truth is the overarching point of the show, so they might get there at some point.
5) In Kyiv, when we got off the plane, the first thing that caught my eye was a cavalcade of black government cars and an anxious crowd of Ukrainian leaders, led by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Ukraine, Comrade Alexander Petrovich LYASHKO. Everyone had anxious faces, they did not have precise information, but they said that things were bad there. Since we did not receive any specific information here, we quickly got into the cars and I found myself in the car with comrade PLYUSHCH. We went to the nuclear power plant. It is located 140 km from Kyiv. It was an evening drive. There was little information, we were preparing for some unusual work and therefore the conversation was fragmentary with long pauses and, in general, everyone was tense and each of us wanted to get to the place as quickly as possible, to understand what had actually happened there and what scale the event was that we were supposed to meet. 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
My grandfather was a chief of a commune in 80s. His salary was 700 so 400 is not that much 😂
When Legasov speaks to the couple in the bar he tells them not to worry, you need to be mindful of the time and the event. The military are here and one of their main remits is to stop the spread of misinformation as they see it, this couple could be KGB or Stasi checking Legasov is following the party line even though he knows differently. It’s so subtle most people miss it when this is viewed through a 21st century lens and you are more concerned about the threat from the radiation than the threat from the state that would have been in Legasov’s mind.
@larrybremer4930 Why in the world are you putting spoilers in the comment section?
@@larrybremer4930 DONT" give them SPOILERS
Stop spoiling it bud
Also when Ulana is speaking at the meeting saying if the tanks explode "they will destroy the remaining three reactors" that's a complete lie and I honestly don't know why they put that in the script. Every reactor is separated in its own unit. The tanks blowing would have zero effect on the other three. It also wouldn't "destroy everything in a 30km radius". It's a steam explosion, not a nuke. There is so much wrong with that meeting and honestly never should have put it in the show because it gives everyone the wrong idea.
"Simka, who's 14..." refers to the element silicon, element 14 on the periodic table. Sand is mostly made of SiO2 or silicon dioxide. "...and Boris, who's 5." refers to element #5, boron.
Boron is very good at absorbing neutrons and slowing the fission process, hence it is often used in the control rods in the reactor. Sand is heavy and dense so it helps to slow the release of radiation and heat from the reactor core.
As the core continues to produce heat the sand will begin to melt, so it's a temporary solution at best, but it buys some time to come up with more long-term solutions.
And, I believe the immediate objective was just to smother the fire -- stop all that ash poring out from the 'core'
10) Therefore, the most reliable information about the reactor condition was obtained by us from the ratio of short- and long-lived isotopes of iodine 134 and 131 and, by means of radiochemical measurements, we were able to quickly verify that short-lived isotopes of iodine were not being produced and, therefore, the reactor was not operating and was in a subcritical state. Subsequently, over the course of several days, repeated corresponding analysis of gas components showed the absence of short-lived isotopes escaping. And this was the main evidence for us of the subcriticality of the fuel mass that remained after the reactor was destroyed. Having made these initial assessments that the reactor was not operating, we then began to worry about the following questions. This is the fate of the city's population, the number of personnel that should be at the station and who should serve it, even in this state - the first questions. Predicting the possible behavior of the fuel mass that remained after the reactor was destroyed, determining the geometric dimensions and all possible situations and choosing a method of action. By the evening of the 26th, all possible methods of flooding the active zone had been tried, but they had produced nothing except a fairly high rate of steam generation and the spread of water along various transport corridors in the neighboring unit. It was clear that the firefighters, having eliminated the fires and fire sources in the turbine hall on the very first night, had done so very quickly and accurately.
3) Moreover, one died from mechanical injuries under the rubble of the collapsed structures, and the second died from thermal burns, that is, from a fire. Nothing was reported about radiation injuries and there was little understanding in this information. But it still brought some peace of mind. Having taken all the necessary technical documents and received from comrade KALUGIN some idea of the structure of the station, about 3 possible troubles that could be there, I dropped by my home. At this time, the driver brought my wife, as we agreed, from her work, we were supposed to meet there, somehow solve some of our family problems, which, of course, turned out to be unresolved. I briefly threw to her that I was leaving on a business trip, the situation was unclear, I did not know how long I was going and flew to Vnukovo. 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.
There are also things as responsibility, duty, concious. Fact that those people lived in opressive regime do not means that all of them was selfish. That's why those people did not run. They were sacrificing themselves to save others. And Legasow simply could not live with his concious after he sent so many people to sacrifice. There probably was no other way, but still - it is a huge burden to live with.
Love the over the top thumbnails 😭 Also you need to remember that this is an authoritarian communist regime, you can't just "leave".
We mounted a play, at my suggestion after two weeks every morning as a student, teaching on nuclear accidents since it was personnal and I had the knowledge.
One of my friend played the USA regarding safety of the Three Mile Island accident & me playing the devil's advocate of an RBMK reactor and why it was safer for the CCCP with charts & all. It was both ridiculus and instructing for everyone.
Dyatlov, the main asshole in the control room, DID know what happened because when he walked out into that hallway with the broken windows and looked down onto that rooftop with the glowing pieces of graphite, HE knew EXACTLY what happened!!
He's just in complete denial.
The rest of it with the state is just all about the Soviet Union remaining a powerful force in the minds of other countries!! The main focus was not to look weak or vulnerable to any of their enemies, especially the US!!
And that meant not admitting that they have faulty nuclear generators!!😢😢
Yes they are touching the clothes. Just as, were these patients suffering from the plague, these medical health professionals would have touched those patients.
Lugasov could not leave the country, could not leave the city, without government permission. He could lose his position, his employment, his freedom, and the same thing could happen to his family if Gorbachov decided to do that. And he might be tortured to get him to confess to whatever they decided to say he'd done. The Soviet Union was a police state and simply disobeying the government was extremely dangerous.
Calling someone by their first name in Russian is a prickly thing, so I'm told. You're not supposed to do that without permission. So I am told.
Boris was right. It HAD TO BE DONE. All these men, pretty much everyone they knew, including their friends and families were ALL on the line, along with millions of other lives. It had to be done. I so hope down to my soul that if the situation came up, I would have made the same choice. Remember these men's names. Remember them.
Those who did the cleanup job in the wake of Chernobyl numbered around 300K, and were heroes. This series has more heroes on screen than any war movie ever.
Today the value of that 400 ruble annual stipend is roughly $4 USD
You cannot really compare the Ruble in Soviet times to the Dollar, because they had a "Closed" economy.
not great not terrible
@@cherylsims5636 There is always an exchange rate between national currencies otherwise how would that nation ever pay for goods it buys from other countries? And BTW the exchange rate in 1986 would make 400 Rubles worth $120 USD. Instead what you should be saying is the buying power is not equal between the two countries. For example: today $4.00 in the US buys a typical loaf of bread or gallon of milk but 400 rubles in a Russian store may have more local purchasing power even though both are considered equal values in international markets. In the Soviet economy it was a little different because life's staples were highly subsidized (some even free) in their centralized economy making the cost of those goods artificially low since in theory every citizen was a partial owner of the factory or farm that produced the goods. Only luxury goods really cost their true value since most such items were imported thus were full price (or more) using correct exchange rates.
@@larrybremer4930 Thats what I said minus 200 words. There is a not really equivalant exchange rate becuase things cost different in Soviet Economy.
I was in France when i t happened - I remember reading reports that pregnant women in West Germany (as it was then) were having abortions because they were terrified their babies would be born deformed.
Sad that they didnt understand effects of radiation, which was known at this time.
One thing Russians are known for -- a reputation cemented during WWII -- is physical courage and self-sacrifice.
This show isn't about russians
@@PUARockstar You are right. I should have said "Soviet."
In defense of the dosimeter readers on the scene, pretty much every nuclear accident involves stories of people not believing the high readings they're seeing. It appears to be only natural to not believe in the reality of extraordinary danger without obvious / tactile evidence. People just don't trust numbers, even when they should. It is _the_ problem with current anti-science hysteria, but it applies even to the knowledgeable.
Listen to the companion Chernobyl podcast. Skarsgaard remembers the effect during his childhoos
You guys really should read and watch documentaries about the soviet union. It would make a lot easier to understand how soviet union used to operate.
I gained one foot in height and I also got good-looking when Chernobyl exploded
I lost a foot of height and got a lot hairier. But I did get this nifty healing factor and these claws, so feel like I did okay.
Yeah right. Did you see the idiots swimming in the reactor now? They have a TH-cam channel. Lets see how long they live
@@cherylsims5636 you know, water actually is a fairly effective radiation blocker... Look up xkcd "what if you swam in a nuclear storage pool?" You might be surprised.
@@cherylsims5636 you know, water is actually a pretty effective block to nuclear radiation. Look for a video online about swimming in a nuclear fuel pool.
@@cherylsims5636 I keep trying to respond to this but it gets insta removed... Water is a good radiation shield. Look for Randall Munroe on the issue.
10:10 bounce into a grave when they shoot you
Ulana Khomyuk is a nuclear physicist. She knows 'sand and boron' just from 'simca and boris'. The ages were thrown in just for the audience to clue in ( as well as showing the periodic table - a physcist in Kurchatov institute doesn't need to reference the periodic table to know the atomic numbers of silicon and boron. most BSc level physicists know most of the periodic table by heart.
Khomyuk knows so much/figures out so much is because she is an expert in the field and knows what the heck just happened in terms of the physical reality of the situation ( the core is split open, the radiation leakage is massive, etc) and is able to deduce their courses of action + the pitfalls of it.
PS: the ' omg megaton explosion from bubler-tanks' is a 'play to the audience' move, that was never the risk. Because hot lava entering the bubler tanks wont cause all the water to instantly vaporize and cause an explosion, as this is not a high pressure and high mass chamber, like the inside of a volcano. What would happen, is that the bubler tanks will burst open and spread their massive water load all over the place, with potentially causing a massive sinkhole and sinking the whole damn powerplant, making it nearly impossible to deal with/contain and that is a pretty ghastly scenario: the structural integrity is compromised by the bubler tanks violently leaking into the sub-basement. But an explosion ? No. An explosion in *megatons* ? Bahahahaha. Fyi, the hiroshima/nagasaki bombs were in the order of kilotons, a megaton is a 1000 kiloton and hiroshima/nagasaki were low range in Kt, ie, around 25-50Kt. Worst case scenario of a nuclear power plant is an explosion 200 times more than the hiroshima bomb ? Welcome to hollywood :)
Stop spoiling it bud
@@tawogtrailers i dont think i spoiled anything really,since i am just commenting on this particular episode's events and not even saying what happens in the series, but the physics of it and why Khomyuk is ' so competent' - at this point in the series when i first watched, i was impressed by Khomyuk in the sense that they finally potrayed a nyookoolar physicist properly, coz so far her every single move is what a competent nuclear phyisicst would do.
As for the megaton explosion, i think its fair to comment on it as it comes up,coz well,we all already know that it doesn't happen anyways, as this is afterall, recent history.
Unfortunately the money they are talking about is next to nothing ❤
Well you have to remember the Soviet Union had a Closed Economy then so there is not an exact rate of Rubles to Dollars, but still it was not a lot
Those 3 divers survived after their feat in real life
Excellent spoiler there.
@mattseaton3521 some things in the series are fictional or do not correspond to reality. Sorry, did not restrain from clarification😶🌫️
@@Bugmihvik but this is revealed in the closing real footage montage?
@@mattseaton3521 uops i just forget about that🫣😆
I was very interested in documentary material about Chernobyl and just remembered that fact🙄
26:01 these 3 guys in fact survived whole ordeal and lived quite long lifes.
13:17 definition of how communism works
this really happened and the cancer levels increased world wide 4x times since earth radiation level worldwide increased 4x times since the radiation particles spreaded troughtout the entire planet. so even today we see the consequences of chernobyl.
That's not remotely true.
According to EU guidelines, food products offered for sale should not contain more than 600 becquerels per kilo (Bq/kg) of caesium-137. Mushrooms picked in Pälkäne, south-central Finland five years ago had a reading of nearly 1,000 Bq/kg. Meanwhile those picked in Hyvinkää, some 60 km from the capital, contained 1,300 Bq/kg. This is 33 years later and 650 miles away from Chernobyl, in FInland.
@@Bog_Dog research it
@aagc1988 International agency for Cancer research made estimates on increased cancer rates and found that while of course there must be some increase even if not including thyroid cancer in most contaminated regions, the increase is so small as to not be possible to measure against tracked cancer incidence rate in Europe. I literally just looked up the study.
@@aagc1988 www.iarc.who.int/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/IARCBriefingChernobyl.pdf
Disliking the video simply for the use of the cringey clickbait over exaggerated expressions in the thumbnail. Especially from the guy. Have some respect for such a horrible disaster. Tool.
"I would say no" to an order from Gorbachev, the ruler of Soviet Russia ..... hahahahahaha .... Jesus .... so clueless. Must be nice living such an easy going life believing that everywhere you have the same freedoms and rights as in America. Complete disregard for history and the rest of the world. How can people of your age exist with so little knowledge is completely baffling to me.
Hi Guys. Did you not read my long comment in Episode 1? A lot of the questions and issues your asking , I answered in Episode 1.One thing you felt unbelievable was that the 3 guys volunteered to go in. If they didnt then 60 million people would die.They are the ONLY ones who can do this. For these reasons I'm giving you a DISLIKE on this episode
You sound fun to be around. Have you considered maybe they're not reading comments because all of these morons in here leaving spoilers🙄
Ulana Khomyuk, the female scientist is a fictional character for the show, she represents the composite of the numerous real scientists that worked together to investigate the cause of the incident but are too numerous to cohesively bring to the on-screen dramatisation.
Spoiler: :/
Why do you people always have to spoil everything?
Bruh
This guy wants to feel special by being the first with unnecessary spoilers. In fact, that goes for all of you with your “fun facts”. Stfu. And if you can’t do that, at least wait til the series is over because I can guarantee you that no one cares. We know that crap already, or it’s simply not important.
WTF?
People like you are why creators turn comments off.
It's weird that you would not sacrifice yourself to save half of a continent 😅 why is that even a hard choice... at least you're going out for something bigger than you. I don't know maybe it's just an Eastern European mindset 😅 or old school mindest not sure 😅