HBO's Chernobyl (2019) - The Core Explodes (Episode 5)

Chernobyl S1E5 "Vichnaya Pamyat"

[@AQWorldsRay]

I love how in the first episode, they only showed the explosion from far away and saved the actual close up explosion for the final episode. Also the CGI is frighteningly good, this high budget mini-series has blown everyone away *pun not intended*

[@josephastier7421]

The depiction of the burning core as seen from inside the reactor was scary af. I know it did not look that way irl but it was still a great scene.

[@sburrows142]

Joseph Astier it might look like that, we will never know

[@josephastier7421]

@@sburrows142 One of the guys who saw it described "red and blue fire", and that the radiation shining upward was in all different colors not just blue. IIRC the people on the "Bridge of Death" also described the shine as multi-colored. But you're right - we will never really know. Hopefully nobody will ever see it again.

[@proserfina21096]

Not great, not terrible.

[@annostrander1628]

'Eyyyyyyy, this guy!

[@eganplaysMC]

This show is what all horror should strive for. Chernobyl deserves the Emmy.

[@MeatBunFul]

The horror of this series is battling something that is beyond human control or comprehension. So the genre in this series could be cosmic horror or lovecraftian horror.

[@valeshia385]

the chernobyl boss shouldnt have done the test after everything was going out of control and when the reactor started going haywire it blew up effecting everything and everyone and then the radiation took to the skies that spread out and all of the way to scotland ireland and england thats why u never ever ever mess with nuclear energy and broke up the ussr and also they also stole our nuclear energy plant designs to use and they built half based power plants that almost destroyed them

[@valeshia385]

i also feel for the victims of chernobyl and the children

[@madddogg7920]

Reality is often scarier than fiction.

[@GameArchiver]

No the Emmy is a fraud. It deserves to be preserved for all time.

[@tuanh_duong]

It’s cheaper... man that hit me

[@CorneliusCob]

He said it so casually too

[@mr.nemesis6442]

Yeah. That’s how they do things in communist countries

[@billythewraith]

@@mr.nemesis6442 nitty

[@sbains560]

That’s how it’s done every where save a penny Risk world safety

[@poopyjohn8182]

Gotta save money

[@policerthought5649]

I like how even Dyatlov looks horrified right as the reactor explodes. Like for a split second, the arrogant and caustic exterior drops, and he's shown to be just as scared as Akimov and Toptunov. All in the span of a few seconds, and all without saying a word. Incredible acting by Paul Ritter

[@vikki8699]

You can really see the fear in his eyes at that moment. Look at the sudden change from wtf to shit in his eyes. Incredible actor.

[@MaxFPSGamer]

Shit on it. Reactors buggered.

[@marianpazdzioch6632]

I know people like Dyatlov. I bet he wasn't scared of the explosion, he was scared of consequences he'll suffer from his superiors.

[@scoopidywhoop7484]

@@marianpazdzioch6632 I would be too. A famous Soviet phrase "it takes more courage to retreat than to advance".

[@moregltfirephotography4857]

Dyatlov was a good man he was stern but never thought what he was doing was dangerous. He hadn't slept in close to 48 hours and trained on a nuclear sub. He was far from an expert on power plants and their reactors. He actually did search for Hodemchuk and he did realize something terrible had happened. No one knew the core was open. Dyatlov actually instructed control room staff to go to the backup control room as he thought that a tank had blown located above the control room and that boiling water would rain down however the staff stayed and they soon realized that wouldn't happen. He later instructed some to go home because they knew the radiation situation was horrendous however staff stayed. Dyatlov did send two employees to the reactor hall to manually lower rods but realized his mistake and called for them however they were too far away to hear. He also went outside to survey damage and talk to firefighters which is where he started to comprehend the full scale of damage. I dislike that the series represented him this way however think it was well done and it spread awareness to a lot of people.

[@MichaelTheRead]

2:13 "Reactor 4, designed to operate at 3300 MW, went beyond 33,000." I like how in that moment, the guy looks over at Dyatlov, as if to say "I didn't know you screwed it up _that_ badly." And Dyatlov is just sitting there, dumbfounded, as if to say _"I_ didn't even know I screwed it up _that_ badly."

[@chriseffpunkt4333]

twentyfourhundred is what he said, to be accurate.

[@alonzochristensen6904]

@@chriseffpunkt4333 no, he definitely said ‘designed to operate at 3200 megawatts went beyond 33000.’

[@xaviersavedra711]

3,200MW is 3.2 gigawatts, right? So 33,000MW should be 33 gigawatts, pretty impressive power generation, too bad it wasn't very usable.

[@rick-vista1612]

@@chriseffpunkt4333 wrong gtfo

[@chris-zt7eo]

@@rick-vista1612 The RBMK 1000 was actually designed to only produce 1000w electrical power. The 3200w is the theoretical max thermal power generation.

[@MotigEx]

"The chain of disaster is now complete." Damn son, those goosebumps...

[@PannierLaw]

And this is why I love this series

[@Zaluskowsky]

jupp!

[@Falcrist]

This line also does it: "Where I once would fear the cost of truth, now I only ask: What is the cost of lies?"

[@UltimaKeyMaster]

The way he read that, you think it was Darth Vader narrating this.

[@GameFawx]

The most shocking detail about this set of events in this clip: Everything Prof described and detailed, happened in 5 seconds real time. Think about that. Just how quickly things fell apart from the button to boom.

[@Kamina.D.Fierce]

Supposedly... there was more activity in the first 5 seconds of the big bang across the entire universe than the combined activity of everything since.

[@alternativ7171]

@@Kamina.D.Fierce That makes sense, actually. The universe doubled around 80 times in size in the matter of a second. And if you think about it being a singularity that then exploded, then it basically has information stored that erupts. The force of that eruption forces an insanely fast expansion, but you could potentially argue that as time goes on, less information gets erupted and therefore less is happening. So, it wouldn't surprise me if what you said is actually true.

[@s0undwavekiller558]

Insane that humans have discovered something so powerful, that one mistake and everyone gets sick or dies

[@Adriana-eu6ty]

Reminds me of 9/11. You build something for years and then it’s gone in an hour.

[@AllahDoesNotExist]

@@Adriana-eu6ty Look into long nose tribe

[@brutusvonmanhammer]

The story of Chernobyl is so endlessly fascinating. It contains every aspect of humanity: greed, corruption, selfishness, conceit, cowardice, contempt, bravery, sacrifice, determination, ingenuity... It contains horror and intrigue and science and technology and war and politics There is nothing like it. No fictional story could ever hope to compare. It stands alone in its ability to fascinate and horrify and mystify and inspire...sheer madness mixed with sheer audacity. Truly incredible

[@captainopvious7498]

And its mostly real.

[@gandalf8216]

Mostly it was just common sense against stupidity.

[@danielward8645]

“no fictional story could ever hope to compare” I wouldn’t go that far. Someone wrote a fictional story over 2000 years ago that hundreds of millions of people today continue to center their entire life around.

[@Solkre82]

@@danielward8645 Not even a good one either.

[@danielward8645]

@@Solkre82 i didn’t think so either. but apparently we are in the minority 🤷‍♂️

[@SRFriso94]

Such great filmmaking. Rather than going the easy route with a watered-down, pop-science explanation for what happened, they give a 20-minute lecture of exactly how a nuclear reactor works and how it blew up, and I was hanging off of their every word the entire time. Also, I love Paul Ritter's acting in this scene, going from continuously flippant and dismissive, to kind of intrigued, to horrified as he learns exactly what he did.

[@huss4realz]

And what happened to him: how he was completely fucked from the start no matter what he did. RIP Paul.

[@jeremyrotenberg8426]

True that the graphite “tips” were explained, and I think they mention that the graphite had been inserted on purpose to accelerate the rate of reaction to offset the neutrons consumed by decay of Xenon isotopes, but I think they forgot to explain that the graphite didn’t extend into the bottom of the fuel channels where the reaction was strongest. Since the control rods were above the graphite rods, inserting the control rods necessarily pushed the graphite portion through the bottom region, accelerating the reaction at the bottom, an unintended interaction. That’s why it went critical.

[@Falcrist]

@@jeremyrotenberg8426 The graphite "tips" explanation is bogus. Half the rod is boron, and the other half is graphite. If you pull out the boron, the graphite is pulled in to displace the water in that channel which would otherwise absorb some neutrons. The graphite part of the rods are shorter than the full height of the reactor core, leaving space for a bit of water in their channel at the top and bottom of the core. The first thing that happens when you push the boron part of the rods in is a spike of reactivity localized at the bottom of the core, because you've pushed out that bit of water at the bottom. The soviet scientists had noticed this flaw in the past and covered it up.

[@among-us-99999]

this series _is_ the watered down pop sci explanation. good plot and acting tho.

[@stevem2323]

​@@among-us-99999Watered down? Only thing watered down is how more horrific it was and even potentially dangerous for the entire continent. And no, it's not pop culture it's serious as it can be

[@OvuncBakkaloglu]

I've never been so scared that before. And it's not even a horror movie.

[@VonRichtburg]

Well, it is, to some extent, a horror movie. But what is also great is that it is not relying on all the cheap tricks usually used in most tv-shows and movies. There is no jump-scares, there is no music to "tell you" what to feel/when to feel/etc..., there none of these classical emotional scenes with big motivational speeches, and so on.

[@1997theanimator]

​@@VonRichtburg That's the beauty of this show. It just shows you what happened; no matter how brutal the reality of the situation was.

[@damnsonwheredyoufindthis.3830]

Imo even though this is not horror its still better than any horror miniseries i have seen before because this shit actually happened and can happen again unlike all those haunted houses or rituals bs.

[@13thkommandant50]

Me too....

[@anujmchitale]

This one or the most horrific things to think of. Because the fear, awe and horror persists!

[@2sexyy]

We did everything right... We did everything right... We did everything right...

[@TheJoeSwanon]

I would say the same thing if I was that 25 year old kid

[@brabhamF1]

jonathan lavezzi well they did everything correctly by the book (except for doing the experiment at a much lower power output which wasn’t on them but rather Dyatlov), it’s just that the manual was completely bogus and the power plant should never have even been built that way.

[@ZhekUA]

@@brabhamF1 That was a military experiment that highly professional Dyatlov was running to get promoted. The main goal of the experiment was to know how to run power plant in case of war (after air or artillery strike damaged power plant). There is no difference who designed reactor core it will blow up in such a scenario anyway.

[@jakeparker5012]

@@brabhamF1 They also violated the test procedure and instead of stopping, putting the plant in a safe condition, and restarting when conditions permitted; they proceeded in the face of uncertainty and made things much worse. And that's neglecting the fact that they should've kept telling the government to get bent like other crews had in the first place.

[@sbains560]

You did everything right Your leaders failed you

[@theflyingfish66]

I always thought it was interesting how they show the pumping room at 2:06 for a split second. You can see Khodemchuk on the lower floor, looking between two of the massive pumps. When the reactor explodes seconds later, the wall on the right in between the pumping room and reactor hall is blown inward, Instantly killing Khodemchuk and burying his body under a mountain of rubble. His body is still in that position on the bottom of the pumping room today.

[@TheSacuLlp]

Isnt that body dissolved by now?

[@hrnytinoker4146]

@@TheSacuLlp His bones should still be there probably with a bit of meat on them given anything that would eat it would be killed by the radiation.

[@Thoralmir]

@@hrnytinoker4146 Same with all the piles of dead leaves in hotspots around the area. Not a single one has dec9mposed since the disaster. Imagine if they caught fire.

[@ocsjc13]

For all we know his body was disintegrated in that instant

[@traviousandrews1015]

@@TheSacuLlp i always wondered that shit if radiation would kill all the germs LMAO

[@charlie_0701]

Game of Thrones: I am the best TV show ever! Chernobyl: Hold my dosimeter

[@Random-mz4tg]

Chernobyl: Hold my VNIMANIE

[@cr1spy147]

Chernobyl: hold my radiation

[@wimblyninetynine6315]

Chernobyl: Hold my Graphite

[@pramodnaidu4202]

Chernobyl: Hold my Control rod

[@Eleni1002]

@@wimblyninetynine6315 What graphite? You didn't see any graphite.

[@MyGamer125]

For those who don’t understand the metric system, 350 kilograms is equal to around 771lbs. And those steel rods were jumping up and down like kids on a trampoline.

[@charlesundying5315]

So each rod weighed the same as roughly 7-10 children

[@charlesundying5315]

Hell, maybe as much as 5-6 full grown adults

[@Trazynn]

MAYBE AS MUCH AS 350 KILOGRAMS BECAUSE THAT'S HOW PEOPLE MEASURE THINGS.

[@Mariana-ck6cs]

decentradical true, the American metric system is weird af

[@user-dv6nh3mu3y]

The reactor only able contain 3000 megawatts elextricity began out of control to 33.000 megawatts, damn, after that the core is burning and keeps burning till this day. 😰

[@undeadreader23]

To illustrate how quickly things had went bad, 1:23:40 is when AZ-5 is pressed, and the core explodes at 1:23:45. In the time it will take to read this sentance, the core of the Chernobyl Reactor would have exploded. Five. Secconds.

[@KevinSmith-yo8qb]

Well not quite that quick. The core was suffering Xenon poisoning that built up over the afternoonn / evening

[@pookie247]

Lol

[@OneBiasedOpinion]

The last stage took 5 seconds. That’s actually longer than it takes for most remote detonators, which is what AZ-5 had become by the time they pressed it.

[@RussianSevereWeatherVideos]

I am still perplexed at the perfect nature of that time stamp. All counting up. There has to be some significance to it.

[@joegramlich]

@@RussianSevereWeatherVideosit’s satan or luck, perhaps both

[@percyplant474]

"When the truth offends, we lie and lie until the truth is no longer visible but it's always there. Sooner or later the debt must always be repaid. Our lies are what define us." "and that's how a RBMK Reactor explodes" What a beautiful, horrifying, heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, mind-opening finale. Chernobyl is absolutely a wonderful exceptional masterpiece from start to end. Heartfelt Thank you HBO. This miniseries is for the unsung heroes who served, died and saved the entire globe one step away from a dreadful apocalypse. Jared Harris performance as Valery Legaslov is one of the most convincing acting I've seen so far in small screen. He disintigrated effortlessly into his character. Give him the awards already!. Absolutely a groundbreaking role.

[@Ryan-mv2hx]

damn true bro. i felt so bad for him😭

[@aaronsanders6162]

Percy Plant it’s a cautionary tale for global neoliberalism, which also threatens mass death in our lifetime

[@rgwak]

Not to get political here, but I couldn't help think about the t'rump administration's non-stop lies and how t'rump's primary motivation is to maintain an air of perfection - no matter how comically pathetic it makes him look. His lies are literally how he defines himself.

[@mr.nemesis6442]

Ro G, lies? Look at the Democratic Party and how they affected black neighborhoods. They go than hooked on welfare and anyone who dares question them are racist sexist homophobic xenophobic nationalistic fascist bigots. Anyone from a minority group who questions them are traitors to their race and uncle toms. Seem familiar? The Democrats don’t care about the well being of illegal immigrants, all they care about is them having children to become US citizens and hijack out voting system. A lot of people on the right would rather have someone like general Mattis or McCane as president but we would rather have trump over any 2020 democrat. It like wanting Gorbachev as president but the only Khrushchev and you would rather have Khrushchev over Stalin. We would vote for a better republican if we had the choice.

[@nationofpigs485]

​@@rgwak The show is literally under a communist regime and woke culture is increasingly aggresive in denying truth and reality while punishing those who disagree. you got the exact wrong message here.

[@skateboarder9070]

The screenwriter is the same guy that made Hangover Part 3 and Scary Movies series.From funny genre to historic and serious genre.It's a goddamn masterpiece

[@casacara]

AffiqKimiLer difference between jobs done to pay bills and jobs done out of passion

[@Isa-cr7fd]

Harvey Weinstein produced scary movie... yikes

[@mikerosoft1009]

@@casacara thanks I didn't know that the hangover and the Scary series were passion projects for him...

[@lightflareproject]

Craig Mazin everybody

[@fraundakelmbrilpondaprost90]

@@Isa-cr7fd Harvey Weinstein produced probably 30-40% of your favourite movies. Not really a shocker or anything unusual.

[@ReaverLordTonus]

@0:23 - @1:00 This moment stands out for me. The judge breaks silence because he is genuinely curious as to why they would have something that accelerates the reaction on something designed to reduce it and when he is told he just looks at the others like "Seriously? Why the hell would you cut corners on something this critical?"

[@UltimaKeyMaster]

And it's such an astoundingly simple answer, too. Money.

[@jaymurr6788]

The prosecuter's look when the judge asks. His look says, "are you sure you want that answer"?

[@lordwarlockthangwrath8662]

Communism is a beautiful thing isn't?

[@RepellentJeff]

1:46 The sheer flood of terror that man must have felt in that moment had to have been unfathomable.

[@PitSectionLeader]

The actor in this scene looks verrrry similar to the actor that portrayed Stannis Baratheon in Game of Thrones

[@danilob766]

@@PitSectionLeader Yup, not him though. There are several actors from GoT who also showed up in Chernobyl but he's not one of them.

[@rubblerage1101]

Similar to Titanic really... "This ship can't sink!" "She can and she will" "RBMK's don't explode!" "The reactor exploded" "The ship isnt sinking!" *he says knee deep in water* "The reactor didn't explode!" *vomits from the radiation* More Similarities: Both of these cases were the result of the man in charge trying to go as fast as possible whilst ignoring the safety precautions. Both cases featured a fatal flaw down to human error in the designs of the machines that lead to the disasters. Both cases involved civilians who were told not to panic and died due to that belief. Differences: One man knew he had made an error and chose to die with it. The other chose not to believe that the error was his. One nation chose to spread the news to the world at the first sign of it. The other hid it until they no longer could.

[@gabip5977]

That basically shows how humanity doesn't learn. Some do, but there are other that will make the same miatake

[@Diax1324]

The worst part is that this specific type of reactor is pretty safe... Unless you do PRECISELY what this fucking historically massive idiot did.

[@NJPurling]

Legasov was aware of the problem with the control rods after the incident at Ignalina. He was prevented from spreading that information. The official line was that Soviet reactors have a flawless record. Therefore they would have had to admit they had been lying.

[@OlOleander]

"Human activity doesn't cause climate change" he says, over flooding and hurricanes.

[@entr0pix]

ah, hubris. that filthy ass fuckin slut.

[@alexwright5419]

Chernobyl as a disaster is fascinating. It’s essentially the closest thing to a real life cosmic horror story we’ll ever see. Not only did do many things go wrong, but they went *horribly* wrong

[@popsicIes]

i feel like unit 731's a pretty close contender for a comic horror story too

[@aria5614]

Because it was cheaper

[@reyubarra7513]

​@@popsicIescosmic*

[@Razgriz_01]

@@popsicIes Think what he means by cosmic horror is how it'll affect people for a long time. When we die of old age, or other causes, the fallout from Chernobyl will still be occurring. In that it's event will go waaay beyond our time. Unit 731 was horrible, but sadly there will be a time when people will forget that event or simply not care much. All the survivors and witnesses will be gone, and it'll be just another page in the history books. With Chernobyl, the future generations will still be *actively* dealing with it's consequences as the area contaminated with radiation won't recover for about 20,000 years.

[@skipperg4436]

@@Razgriz_01 actually, pretty much all high-level isotopes and most of medium-level isotopes has decayed by now. Iodine-131 half-life is just 8 days which means in practice that it is all gone in less than a year. Cesium half-life is 30 years which means that while most of it is gone, it still is around. Plutonium-241 half-life is 14 years which in practice means that it is almost gone by now. Plutonium-239 however have half life of ~20 thousands of years which means that it produces almost no radiation. Unfortunately, it is poisonous. Fortunately, it is a heavy metal and it tends to settle down in sediment. There was one other isotope which name I forgot that have half-life of 100-something years and in practical terms it is the most nasty one (decay fast enough to still be a health hazard but not fast enough to be gone by now). So in practice the exclusion zone would be safe for farming in 1 or 2 hundreds of years. I do hope though that it will remain a natural preserve. Before the war it had Europe's largest population of wild bisons, only population of wild horses, one of the largest lynx population and etc. But if you want to be scared, think of e.g. chlorine or mercury that are produced in several different processes in VERY LARGE numbers. These substances are toxic, have next to no use and have to be stored FOREVER. Yes, you heard that right: there are HUGE warehouses full of tanks with chlorine that we have to store until the Sun goes out.

[@SergeantExtreme]

3:25 I absolutely adore the little detail of HBO making sure that their uniforms were covered with debris from the ceiling. It's the small details that make this series so amazing.

[@raven4k998]

also the acting the actors really sell how they didn't see it coming even after the explosion they still cannot fathom that the core could explode let alone explode

[@DontDefuse]

Wait did this happen in real life??

[@LynxTheWhiteLatex]

@@DontDefuse Yes, it did. 1986. The Chernobyl Disaster is regarded as one of the worst nuclear incidents in history. And the Soviet People, Both Civil and Military, risked their lives and died, to prevent the world from a nuclear apocalypse.

[@helene4397]

​@@DontDefuse it did. And when Russia attacked Ukraine, Russian soldiers went to Chernobyl, and dug trenches in one forest near that plant, they apparently had no idea what had happened in Chernobyl...

[@thomasprent2179]

@@DontDefuse really? you never heard of Chernobyl?

[@abrahamvanhelsing6723]

“A lie told often enough becomes truth” -Vladimir Lenin(the man that the reactor was named after)

[@MS-ey3of]

Truth is bitter. But here it's surpassed bitter. It's surpassed depressing. It's disturbing.

[@saint_alucardwarthunder759]

Actually, that's Goebbels, if you're not joking and if you are - not funny

[@abrahamvanhelsing6723]

@@saint_alucardwarthunder759 Goebbels said it slightly differently. And why did you think this was a joke?

[@saint_alucardwarthunder759]

@@abrahamvanhelsing6723 because everyone knows "Lies that was repeated 1000 times, becomes truth" is Goebbels quote and rewriting it for Lenin sounds like a joke

[@abrahamvanhelsing6723]

Saint Militarist I don’t think you understand that it was Lenin that said it first. Look it up

[@Neojhun]

The part where the Rod Lids are dancing. Quite an awesome visualization.

[@MinSredMash]

Unfortunately according the plant workers it didn't happen. An unscrupulous writer named Medvedev invented the story after the fact.

[@eaglevision993]

No way all of the shield plugs could jump like that. Some maybe, which were atop the bursting fuel channels. But not all. That makes no sense. Before the lid was pushed up, only a small number of fuel channels ruptured. This was partially compensated by the 8 steam release valves. After that the whole lid was pushed up and the explosion followed. The whole timeline was maybe 5-10 secons. Not enough to stand there watching the shield plugs jump and get out alive.

[@robamiri9665]

They cut out the best line of the series. "And THAT, is how an RBMK reactor explodes." Referencing the defendants asking that very question in episode 1 when they ridiculed him for suggesting the core explodes

[@oldfrend]

it was an arrogant and stupid question if they really asked it. they're sitting on a barely controlled nuclear chain reaction and thousands of cubic feet of high pressure steam. there are a LOT of likely scenarios it could explode.

[@ArcaneAzmadi]

@@oldfrend Denialism and forced self-delusion is a hell of a drug- as the Covid pandemic has proven once again.

[@oldfrend]

@@ArcaneAzmadi sigh... don't remind me man. it literally hurts to think about.

[@adamb7460]

Also second best line "It's Chorbin time"

[@Valerio_the_wandering_sprite]

2:36 If you stop at the right time, you can see all the rods being ejected like a cork out of a bottle.

[@TheJoeSwanon]

But yeah it was the graphite that was the most radioactive 🤷‍♂️

[@arionerron4273]

2:37

[@abdulqudz89]

if you pause it and use the full stop button on a laptop/computer, you can see it frame by frame.

[@eaglevision993]

@@TheJoeSwanon No, the fuel channels that contained teh uranium pellets and some decay chain products like plutonium, iodine, strontium, caesium etc. were far more radioactive. Especially the short- lived isotopes.

[@SuperGirl-eq1le]

Holy shit!

[@augustjsb]

There's a piece of graphite you can follow throughout the entire series. It's the piece thar is picked up by the fire fighter in the first episode. It's highlighted when Dyatlov looks down through the broken windows and you can see it fly by here.

[@KSCKris]

Professor Legasov was a real hero.

[@mathiasvikander8592]

Why?

[@lotticarter8841]

@@mathiasvikander8592 watch the series

[@szymonmindykowski7370]

@@lotticarter8841 Better read some books than only watch some fictional serial. During the trial, no one defended the reactor crew. Nobody talked about design flaws. The idea was to take the responsibility off the authorities and reactor designers. "Honest" scientists are beautiful, but fiction.

[@u.v.s.5583]

@@szymonmindykowski7370 It is not true that nobody talked. Dyatlov did. He had demanded access to the testimony of the constructor and from there he finally understood what had been the missing pieces in the information the crew had been given. Dyatlov objected during the trial, continued to send letters everywhere from his cell and actually got tons of support from first rate nuclear physicists.

[@Attackonmuffin]

@@u.v.s.5583 that's the part about the show I don't like, how much they villanized dyatlov in reality he was a dude who was instructed to do a routine test. It ain't his fault that the designers cut corners and failed to research their "failsafe"

[@DiscoverMontréal]

A masterpiece of television

[@reahs4815]

its propaganda

[@Pelayum]

@@reahs4815 Whether or not you consider it so, the show is largely accurate. Obviously there are scenes of exaggeration but for the most part it's accurate.

[@generalirons9789]

1:52 At this point, I'm scares shitless

[@georgia673]

That actor is great! He looks absolutely terrified.

[@HM4Hill]

Imagine being Perevozhenko and seeing it in person. Seeing the impossible happen and knowing what comes next must have been utterly horrifying

[@zoeyl4d939]

Imagine you not believe in ghost... And then you see one

[@Subpac_ww2]

The best scene. "Because it's cheaper" You could hear a pin drop in that room.

[@ScareFaceOne]

Remember 2:47

[@TJSaw]

The most compelling series I’ve seen in a long, long time. I was glued to the screen throughout. Everything about this show was spectacular. My heart goes out to the innocent people who died in such agony at Chernobyl.

[@danielm.9331]

Amazing show. I had to stand up and get closer to the tv as if I was inside that court room.

[@susanta8346]

Only 5 episode and 1 season but every second in this Chernobyl is a masterpiece. No show can ever beat this..

[@rainfall2880]

i mean Breaking Bad exists but hey lets greatly exaggerate it since you love this show

[@yanami1241]

Nah I think the parts with the boy who is killing all the animals in that village is a bit stretched out and unnecessary but beside that you are right.

[@RandomVidsforthought]

@malicious intent Troll

[@SliceOfLife93]

@@yanami1241if you think that’s stretched out, you don’t understand it. Simple.

[@StargazerFS128]

“No one in the room that night knew the shutdown button could act as a detonator, they didn’t know it”

[@jeanswinter679]

All that because Dyatlov didn't want to wait. U see.. patience is everything folks. Patience can save your life.

[@policerthought5649]

@Inyalabudbud Punjabbidaliwad Dyaltov is already dead

[@oregonhighroller5178]

@Inyalabudbud Punjabbidaliwad moron

[@TheDarkAngel3579]

@Inyalabudbud Punjabbidaliwad I see your brain has been severely damaged... Radiation?

[@u.v.s.5583]

With that design there would have been a serious accident sooner or later. It was a time bomb.

[@Attackonmuffin]

Again dyatlov was simply doing what he was told to. A routine test, I hate how much this show villanized him man

[@VonRichtburg]

Incredible show. Though there are, apparently, historic inaccuracies, it is a truly amazing homage to the Chernobyl tragedy and those who died. I really hope that show receives the awards it deserves.

[@user-bv3kf4ms1z]

Loved that show, but power plant staff KNEW about both tip effect and positive void coefficient. Tip effect was discovered during the startup of Chernobyl's 4th reactor in 1983.

[@sam23696]

The first one that comes to mind to me is the second episode. When they were getting permission to send divers in to pump the water they claim it will cause a 2-4 megaton explosion if they don't pump the water. The meeting behind closed doors maybe had some kind of embellishment to get the politicians to understand. But, that number is totally inflated. The explosion at Hiroshima, a Nuclear bomb, not a reactor that sustains a reaction over years, had a yield of 18 kilotons. 4000 kilotons from a steam explosion? That is insane. Yet it doesn't detract from the show in any way, it's just that good.

[@madddogg7920]

Reactor operators at the Ignalina plant in Lithuania learned several years before Chernobyl that the graphite tips on RBMK control rods would cause a power spike when they caused one by inserting the rods during a reactor shutdown. The rods at Ignalina actually DID reach the bottom of the reactor and stopped the nuclear reaction but the power spike alarmed the operators enough that they said something about it. Soviet officials knew about this design flaw in the RBMK's but they didn't do anything about it until one exploded and turned a huge swath of land into an irradiated wasteland.

[@Trazynn]

The show goes out of its way to point out the inaccuracies in the compendium. Can't make a series about the cost of lies without owning up to their own 'lies'.

[@Ghosts-jx7dw]

Not to many*

[@HM4Hill]

1:00 Lord Bolton is most displeased

[@spooder_jockey]

Roosevich Boltonov is thinking about flaying Legasov alive.

[@emre833]

The Lannisters send their regards

[@Bayan1905]

I was a kid in school when Chernobyl happened, 4th grade. No one knew what was going to happen because there was no news coming out of the Soviet Union, even what news footage that did get out was only a little and grainy. Remember, this was when the news was 3 channels, and only at 6-7pm. I remember my 4th grade teacher walking us over to the giant map that ran along the whole wall of the world, and explained what "fallout" was. I also learned for the first time what "prevailing winds" were and how if the whole place blew up how it could possibly affect the food supply for the world if the radioactive particles got into more of the atmosphere. We were truly scared sh**less right on the spot. This as we were already living during the Cold War when we were told the Soviets could nuke us at any time (I grew up living only 20 miles from several nuclear missile silos as it was).

[@mostly_harmless42]

I was in 3rd grade attending a school for Americans in Europe. When the radiation cloud went over us everyone was terrified. Couldn't go outside. We had a huge snowstorm that winter. It was the most snow I had ever seen up that point. We could not go outside, though. Just looked at it through the window.

[@CephalopodsRock]

When all the scientists are telling you that something is happening, believe them.

[@veganstoiclinuxwarriormonk8187]

yeah, okay, comrade Lysenko.

[@mistrants2745]

tell that to those who deny manmade climate change or who believe vaccines are poison.

[@ronaldtartaglia4459]

Except global warming.

[@ondrejlukas1121]

Dyatlov was also a scientist technically

[@OlOleander]

Those echoes you hear are global warming and vaccines.

[@hfar_in_the_sky]

"It's cheaper." One of the most chilling lines of modern history

[@edwinhernandez6805]

2:23 Dyatlov's face like "Did I screwed it all in that way?"

[@poundtownforever6126]

2:24 *guy in blue* Nigga what now?

[@RoRo-hw3um]

"Me chooses the cheaper toilet paper at Walmart to save a buck" - whole bathroom explodes and graphite/uranium lay waste to my house

[@ausguy5052]

I'd tolerate the graphite/uranium but the shit would definitely send me over the edge!

[@u.v.s.5583]

@@ausguy5052 You didn't see shit all over the walls and ceiling because there is none. Excuse me.

[@thebobloblawshow8832]

If you haven’t seen this mini series you must. It’s absolutely riveting. One of the best mini’s I’ve seen in years. Everything about it is great. The acting, effects, set, all amazing.

[@kossttamojaan]

the methodical delivery of facts and the tone of Jared Harris's voice...chilling

[@InfantTree]

pretend being the person that saw the rod caps jump up and down. thats real horror

[@jamesgordon6483]

Nah, that was actually cool.

[@capnbilll2913]

I would seriously wet myself.

[@marinadinova1119]

OSCAR to all who create this MASTERPIECE

[@angryvoices177]

And the Oscar goes to......the Soviet Union for their efforts to build the cheapest reactor with the most inexperienced crew possible

[@Artyom.2033]

Thats sadly true, cheaper is bad (but too expensive neither is good)

[@melissawickersham9912]

Oscars are for movies shown in movie theaters. This is a mini series on HBO.

[@higaiwokeru]

The most horrifying part about this Is that it’s real and that it happened

[@Slears]

"The chain of desaster is now complete" that is one of the most powerfull scenes ever on TV

[@Spectre1122]

R.I.P. SOME HEROES WHO DIED AT CHERNOBYL IN 1986!

[@thatsmadcrazy8953]

I don't see how they were heros but ok

[@jarskil8862]

@@thatsmadcrazy8953You serious?

[@tylerunderwood8317]

The damage and destruction would of been worse if those man did not go in there.

[@jayw3688]

One of the best mini-series to ever be released, seriously. I watch this at least once a year, then go down the rabbit hole of the thousands of pictures and videos of the aftermath and just get lost learning about it. The show got me into learning and appreciating anything nuclear related. I cannot wait to go see Oppenheimer as well.

[@meris8486]

"It's Cheaper" what a damning answer

[@RamdomView]

It is now estimated that the true power output of Reactor 4 in its final moments was around 1.3 *Terawatts* , or about 1,300,000 megawatts.

[@Cerberusx32]

Where is this info coming from?

[@Dennis19901]

@@Cerberusx32 Source: Trust me bro

[@BassDude-wb9ic]

@@Dennis19901 LMFAO

[@bobbob5007]

thats real unlimited power

[@bobbob5007]

@@dptuller ur insane lol u cant super cool it at all it would get so hot it destroys the containment structure which is why it gets that hot in the first place bc something wrong happened not only that it would probably vaporize any amount of water u put in it faster then any turbine on earth could handle.

[@lbowsk]

I was a Chernobyl freak long before this series came out. I read just about everything that I could on the disaster and its cause. I thought it was a fascinating look at how the Soviets did things, before and after. Then I watched the show. Fantastic. I didn't think I'd gain any more appreciation for the event but I did. This should be required watching in High School Civics classes.

[@cappunocci9211]

The eerie sound, the alarm ringing, and the shot of the building exploding... that is what gives you the chills and realize the severity of the incident...

[@Hawkeye83627]

Worth remembering: that reactor lid, the biological shield above the rods? It weighed 4 million pounds. The explosion shot that 4 million pound lid through the roof, where it hung in the air for ten seconds. A 4 million pound object. In the air. For ten. Seconds. Think about the raw energy that that requires.

[@anb7408]

I’ve seen a lot of scary stuff in movies over the years. But, watching this reactor core explode, and subsequently the control room operators staring down into the molten core (and their eventual deaths) gave me chills. Never knew just how close the entire European continent came to irradiation until I watched this. Truly horrifying.

[@awetistic5295]

Honestly, I thought horror movies or series couldn't scare me anymore until I watched Chernobyl.

[@anb7408]

Scariest part is, unlike all the horror movies, this actually happened! And we’ll never know the true number of deaths, as communist Russia covered it up and lied.

[@Slaytera35]

Love the visual metaphor at 2:43: The Gates of Hell open.

[@levilevis9032]

2:22 I think that's the only time Dyatlov looks shocked and horrified through the entire series.

[@tuorofgondolin8235]

Because, in part, his trust in himself is based on his knowledge of how that sort of nuclear reactor works. And right then, at that trial, he found out that at least one of the things he had been told -- had always accepted as being true -- was in fact a lie, and it was a lie that led to a tremendous disaster and the deaths of many, many people.

[@kinkarcana1293]

This is probably the coolest and most disturbing natural disaster scene I have ever witnessed in entertainment and even in real life. Like you see the Earthquakes and Explosions and Nuclear test and biological disasters but nothing is as visceral and what is show in this scene with all that radioactive material igniting the graphite and being shot into the air to rain down on an unsuspecting populace that can do fuck all about. Like you can prepare for all other forms of disaster even uncontrolled like Earthquakes, Volcanic eruptions and hell even solar flairs to an extent but this shit is beyond the scope of human perception and literally fuck all can be done. Holy shit this show was fucking fantastic and the screen writers, directors, and actors deserve all the fucking accolades that can be given.

[@elizabethfigueroa6159]

So true it literally was like death you can’t see it but it was all around them everywhere

[@himanshus754]

It was not natural. It was Man made..!

[@kinkarcana1293]

@@himanshus754 said reaction can and commonly does occur naturally my dude in the universe. Although you are correct this is man made and not a natural disaster.

[@shockwave2291]

Probably the closest thing in nature that could cause a global apocalypse is a Gamma Ray Burst, and we can't do anything to stop that either.

[@generalyellor8188]

This was decidedly anything but a "natural" disaster.

[@akhil__dev]

Incredible acting, writing, editing and direction.. What a masterpiece!

[@The_Curious_Cat]

The fact that this happened makes this show terrifying. The fact that it happened when I was 6 makes it even more terrifying to me.

[@h.cedric8157]

GoT: messes up final season, causes a runaway fandom reaction meltdown HBO Chernobyl: *We did Everything Right*

[@u.v.s.5583]

Daenerys: Raise the power!!!! Drogon: Just does it. John: And this is how a Khaleesi explodes. She goes mad.

[@Henry_Cat]

Everybody gangsta until the control and fuel rods start dancing.

[@Ometochtli]

The RBMK reactors were so badly designed, had so many faults and problems. That it’s not surprising that one exploded. It’s surprising that only one exploded.

[@ImperialDiecast]

i believe they are still in operation today.

[@fortis6258]

@@ImperialDiecast Yes. at least 2 or 3. Maybe more. "Nuclear Wessles" Checkov.

[@garyreid2178]

Great miniseries. The single shaft of light after the explosion was frightening. And the daylight scenes of the black smoke from Reactor 4 moving slowly toward Pripyat like a huge serpent moving toward its prey. Chilling!

[@SamBlitzBullet09]

Everyone’s faces when said the word ‘cheaper’, it’s like they were thinking “oh we are so getting shot for this”

[@gvnaolvraa]

the silence after he tells about the number is so loud and when he says that it was cheaper, Jesus

[@theivory1]

This is one of the best mini series the world has ever seen. It is a masterpiece from start to finish. I lost count how many times I have watched it over the last few years. My third oldest had Chemistry last spring semester in high school. They talked a bit about Chernobyl. She mentioned the tv show. I didn't even hesitate or ask, just said let's watch it, now. We did and she was fascinated.

[@hera7884]

Seeing that beam of light come out of the reactor terrifies me. It reminds me of a black hole, all life ending.

[@jamesfrank3213]

Wish they showed the 2,000,000lb reactor lid lift off, bounce off the reactor roof and land back down sideways on the reactor which is what happened in real life. The pressure inside was insane.

[@briansonnenfelt7125]

Give a whole new meaning to “just the tip”

[@grimreaper9853]

What kind of visualization and explanation of the explosion, this is definitely just proof that human stupidity has no limits!

[@user-bv3kf4ms1z]

It's not stupidity, but greed and vanity

[@T0mmy7777]

They want the promotion

[@Biosynthnut]

Doesn't help they went the cheap route. Cost cutting isn't always the best idea.

[@folx2733]

What?

[@Biosynthnut]

@@folx2733 The guy explains in one part how they cut costs as opposed to Western Nuke plants.

[@menotyou2790]

Chernobyl drinking game: down a shot of vodka every time someone says Graphite.

[@BLARGHALT]

So take zero shots because there is no graphite?

[@mindlessdroid3630]

Dyatlav's face when Lagasov says 33000

[@KingHelmer]

handy down one of the best shows ive watched ever. Even though it is quite short, i loved every second of it.

[@saveir6601]

1:40 this man must be thinking “this is the end for me” That’s so freaking scary

[@DucatiSydney]

Every actor was incredible, performance was brilliant and so was the story telling perfect with horror driven true story. Direction made me feel like I experienced it in real life.

[@CorneliusCob]

2:37 when u open a bottle after shaking it

[@sjonnieplayfull5859]

When people wonder why the technicians at Chernobyl stayed at their posts on Februari 22, 2022....

[@u.v.s.5583]

They say all the rockets and all the helicopters were flying straight over the station in the direction of Kiiv...

[@posthocprior]

This series is a work of art. It should be required viewing for all of humanity.

[@colin8696908]

This series is shit.

[@Bubbles99718]

To kill a mockingbird 12 angry men There are a bunch that should be required viewing

[@caczech]

​@@Bubbles99718... religious or not ... The Ten Commandments is another example.

[@jamshaidmushtaq1811]

AZ-5 and Anatoly Dyatlov are the most hatable villains in the whole scenario. 😅

[@michealbay1290]

Cries in Thanos

[@madddogg7920]

Given that the RBMK reactor was a Soviet state secret and that no one was allowed to talk about it even though they knew the fatal flaw with the control rods from the Ignalina incident, I'm not sure that Dyatlov knew that much more than the guys who reported to him. Not that I'm trying to absolve him of blame because it was stupid to remove all but 6 control rods from the reactor and to disable so many safety systems but I don't know that he or anyone else in the control room that night knew just how wrong things could go.

[@u.v.s.5583]

@@madddogg7920 "The" accident was in Leningrad, otherwise you are correct.

[@marioaquilina248]

I watched all 5 episodes in a row. Masterpiece.

[@aidankilleen7372]

I remember watching this for the first time with my girlfriend, and during the first episode we see the Cherenkov radiation. When the episode ended, she asked me how bad the "blue glow" was, and what it meant. I explained it to her as best I could by saying "if you stuck your hand into that light for even one second, you'd be dead in a matter of days." Needless to say, this show terrified her, lol.

[@lajoswinkler]

That light above the reactor is *not* Cherenkov radiation. Cherenkov radiation is visible in dense dielectrics such as water. It happens in all dielectrics, but by the time it's visible in air, glow from ionization would already be visually overpowering the scene by orders of magnitude. Air was glowing from ionization, not Cherenkov radiation. It was not visible in daylight, though.

[@jerlewis4291]

I had a friend who was a Nuc in the Navy and someone asked him what the difference was between a nuclear reactor and a nuclear bomb. He said that basically in a reactor the atoms only split once because of control rods, the split causes heat the heat turns water to steam and steam turns the turbines to generate power and then cools and is used again. With a bomb, they split until they explode.

[@blppt]

Even this out of control RBMK didn't explode like a nuclear bomb---it was a massive steam and hydrogen explosion. If I remember my nuclear physics right, reactor fuel cannot explode like a nuclear bomb because the fuel is not enriched enough.

[@jeffcastor9509]

To be blunt your friend is outright wrong. Atoms only split once in either case. Once a uranium atom splits it becomes 2 lighter elements and it's no longer reactive. The difference is the rate at which the atoms are splitting. The control rods can absorb some of the neutrons to raise or lower this amount but the bigger difference is nuclear fuel only ~3% of atoms in there are even able to split. The rest are too stable. In a nuclear bomb it is as damn close to 100% as they can get

[@grummanae]

@@jeffcastor9509 US Naval reactors do use a higher concentration of U235 in fuel I cant remember how much but it is north of 40% ...the actual number is of course not revealed however it is considerably higher as those reactors are expected to last 20+ years and refueling them takes considerable time for a nimitz class its generally a part of a much larger overhaul lasting 2+ years since they basically have to gut the ship to get at the reactors. On average US commercial plants use 3-5% enriched U235 and refuel every 12 to 24 months

[@grummanae]

@@blppt correct Chernobyl was a steam explosion there was not a nuclear " event ". Even if there was a nuclear " event" I do not think they could figure it out due to the amounts and types of radiation emitted and radionuclides emitted ... I think the products from a fission explosion and what were released by basically an open air nuclear reactor are too alike in quantity and quality to diffrentiate

[@tuorofgondolin8235]

The main difference is actually the geometry of where the reaction is taking place. A nuclear bomb and a nuclear reactor are designed in very different ways to obtain very different results. No nuclear power plant will ever be able to explode like a nuclear bomb. That doesn't mean a nuclear plant can't explode at all, though, as this series shows. But, to throw some shade on your Nuke friend: it's hard to properly explain things like this to people who have little or no knowledge of the subject, and maybe he didn't parse his words in the best way while trying to explain it to you. I do know that this exact question was asked to our instructor back when I went through Nuke School, and my response above is what I recall of his answer to us.

[@-.-Monster]

If you don't have 6 hours don't start this. You will not want to stop until you're done.

[@DPMusicStudio]

I agree. I felt similarly about Midnight Mass (though a very different show)

[@straightup7up]

Kudos to all who contributed to make this great series - it's truly spectacular.

[@lauralangham9657]

This series is so well done, I continue to watch it again and again.

[@AL-fl4jk]

Jared Harris is a goddamn legend

[@Schmidhead]

truly

[@morrisergeo]

The broken pieces of graphite made for a better antagonist than the white walkers.

[@JRHYTNATIONS]

Everyone is tough until the fuel and control rod caps start jumping up and down. Even Dyatlov’s face was like “omg.”

[@fuschiafox501]

“And sees the impossible” is such an eerie line. The confusion, the fear, wow.

[@RobertMREst]

I remember the how the last season of GoT left a hole in everyone. Luckily this show was released sooner after on HBO and it helped my friends and I fill that void. Great show for ever in my heart!

[@jamshaidmushtaq1811]

The most thrilling Finale in TV history!!

[@maxd2215]

Everyone gangster until the control rods are jumping up and down.

[@Schrodingers_kid]

I remember having to learn about Chernobyl as a kid and we even put up an act about it. We all were either learning texts about what happened, or putting up an act of an infamous call. I had poems. It was around 10 years ago and I remember two lines: "Nuclear child" and "May the atom sleep peacefully"

[@MikeJones-qn1gz]

2:27 Me explaining why and how I shit all over the bathroom after taco night

[@samkf250]

Hold my vodka, and watch this.

[@manifestgtr]

I love that frustrated “why” that legasov utters…an entire novel’s worth of meaning fit into one syllable…

[@localsussybaka277]

2:36 imagine the kinetic energy that lid is carrying.