REACTING to *Ep. 2 Chernobyl* THEY'RE JUST WAITING!! (First Time Watching) TV Shows

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James and Nobu are reacting to Ep. 2 Chernobyl and they're just waiting!!! In this episode of Chernobyl, things get even worse and the Russian people begin to suffer even more. Enjoy this first time watching TV Shows reaction to Chernobyl episode 2!
#firsttimereaction #chernobyl #tvshows #tvshowreaction #sovietunion #chernobyepisode1 #firsttimewatching #moviecommentary #moviereaction
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[@jhilal2385]

The small dosimeters maxed out at 3.6 roentgen. The dosimeter from the military firefighting unit maxed out at 200 roentgen. The "good" dosimeter from the safe at Chernobyl maxed out at 1000 roentgen The high range dosimeter attached to the truck read 15,000 roentgen, but what they didn't tell you in the show was that this was also the maximum reading. The real level was somewhere above 15,000, but they never got a reading with a dosimeter with a higher maximum range.

[@Headloser]

Yup, I am surprised those poor firemen even last a week, but a way more horrible death possible.

[@jhilal2385]

@@Headloser After Chernobyl but before Fukushima there was an accident in Japan where the workers suffered for 80+ days before dying.

[@stubbystudios9811]

I’ve heard reports anywhere between 30k to 40k

[@okradokie]

🤢

[@nashlepak]

​@@stubbystudios9811in 10 days only 14 exabecquerels (380 million curies) of radiation were released into the atmosphere.

[@chocolate_gore]

So the iodine intake makes sure your thyroid isn’t damaged from the radiation. My mum lived in Poland at the time all of this was going down, and they were so stripped off their resources that there was a cap on who could get iodine pills; younger children and I think the elderly would get them no questions asked, but teens above I think 14 were excluded. My mum was 18, so she didn’t get any. Now she’s got significant thyroid issues, and a bunch of family members got cancer. It’s not confirmed of course, but there’s a suspicion that a defect I was born with [tightened aorta] may have been caused by Chernobyl and my mum being exposed to it.

[@hoon_sol]

More specifically, it both displaces radioactive iodine isotopes and prevents them from being taken up; you're essentially flooding the body with non-radioactive iodine to "outcompete" the radioactive iodine and thus causing it to get eliminated from your system as fast as possible (and indeed to not accumulate in the thyroid).

[@annafirnen4815]

I'm from Poland too and my parents were teens at that time and they didn't get pills, they were straight up fed Lugola liquid at school (it's also iodine). It's not tasty, but desperation calls for drastic measures. I also read about the topic a bit and surprisingly our country was one of the first to get the radiation readings but since we were under the Iron Curtain the government didn't inform anyone else. They just took action and people were told to stay inside as much as possible and they even washed streets in some places, against the official denial policy that came from "above". But then later of course the Soviet Overlords forced everyone to march in the Labour Day parade on 1st of May so any preemptive measures went to basically nothing 🙃

[@a.s.raiyan2003-4]

Well that's the old dumbass Soviet Union. They'd thought radiation acknowledges your age. I'm sorry to hear about you and your mom.

[@saturated3821]

Here in Finland they started recommending every household with members under 40 years old stock up on iodine pills when Russia invaded Ukraine... under 40 because WHO recommends iodine to avoid radiation caused thyroid issues for under 40s as there isn't much evidence for it making a difference for people over 40 (they have less risk of thyroid issues caused by radiation).

[@gailseatonhumbert]

​@@saturated3821I don't agree that there is no problem if you are older that doesn't make sense.

[@LisaKokx]

I think it's incredible how those clicking sounds from the dosimeters freak me out more than any horror sounds they could've used. I can't imagine how those men must've felt hearing it increase in speed.

[@goldenageofdinosaurs7192]

I always figured that the dosimeter clicking was just part of the ‘soundtrack’ & that the men didn’t actually have any dosimeters on them.

[@budgreen4x4]

@@goldenageofdinosaurs7192 it makes perfect sense to carry them, out gives more insight into the conditions in those areas they traversed, why not take the readings then instead of sending in others to do it

[@duggs4456]

9 times out of 10 something that feels real is more scary in my opinion. A genuine fear of a situation you could theoretically find yourself in. I'm always more scared of a villain that's just a human and you don't know what he's going to do, or a real world danger like radiation, disease, famine, being lost in a desolate region etc rather than aliens, demons and monsters. Sound design can definitely play into that.

[@Short_Round1999]

Because radiation is a REAL threat and with just enough dosage; it’s certain death

[@reverance_pavane]

General Vladimir Pikalov (played by Mark Jones) was a legend in his own lifetime. Fought at Stalingrad, was wounded three times during WW2, and his quick efforts at Chernobyl were instrumental at mitigating the effects of the disaster. He would never ask his troops to do anything he wouldn't do himself (he was in charge of the Chemical Warfare troops of the Soviet Union and immediately went to investigate the disaster when he heard something had happened). His troops loved him. A definite Hero of the Soviet Union. Ulana Khomyuk (played by Emily Watson) is the only truly fictional character in the show. She represents all of the Soviet scientists that realised something bad had happened and were trying to work out what (and how).

[@sweetowl4179]

People should stop spoiling the fact that Ulana Khomyuk is a fictional character though, every reaction has a comment like that. The show says it in the end anyway, so there is really no damn reason to do so.

[@calmbeast1329]

​@@sweetowl4179people should say because they are showing the woman having unexpectedly high moral ground which is not real in IRL 😂

[@cobrazax]

@@calmbeast1329 it doesnt matter. it has nothing to do with her being a woman. it makes no sense to spoil this so early.

[@J4ME5_]

Why did you spoil this. Rude

[@Nilon2012]

People like you should just keep to yourselves instead of spoiling relevant information for other people watching. The show intends for itself to be viewed a certain way for the most emotional impact on the viewer; and it provides the necessary information about what actually happened at its conclusion in what is intended to be a revelatory and moving moment. And now with what you’ve done, everyone you spoiled that for, including the reactors here, are now all going to interpret the show in a completely different way than it was meant to be. You have tainted people’s experience.

[@helicopterharry5101]

The irony that the rest of the world knew about Chernobyl almost before the Soviet Union leadership did.

[@Fotoschiki]

Same thing happened to Stalin and Hitler and according to rumors also to Putin in his Ukrain invasion. It's the natural developement when you only promote cowards that try to please you and shoot people for telling uncomfortable truths. Lying means you saccrifice whatever else may be affected to save your own skin in that short moment, even your own future self. Have everyone do that long enough and everything will stop working. Telling the truth means saccrificing something of your current self in service of whatever else may be affected, including your future self. That's why the truth is selfsustaining while lies are selfdestructive, as Legasov said in the end monolog about the fear of truth and lies. All tyrannies always end abrubtly in a pathetic meltdown, because they are unsustainable by definition.

[@heavycritic9554]

​​​​@@Fotoschiki That thing about Putin and the Ukraine isn't just rumours. That Putin was massing troops near the border was broadcast news, throughout the rest of the world, days before the attack. And large parts of Russia are still not aware that their own country is the aggressor.

[@codybishop7526]

Propaganda works, unfortunately

[@a.s.raiyan2003-4]

Wait, you smell iron? Get the iodine tablets.

[@a.s.raiyan2003-4]

​@@FotoschikiYep. That's what happens when you hire incompetent selfish people for positions of power.

[@s1lm4r1l6]

Part of the genius of this show is that it knows how much an average audience member knows about radiation and fits the discussion of the science and the drama around that. It is very intelligently written, to know how much knowledge to give, and when. General Pikalov was a veteran of Stalingrad and was wounded multiple times in WW2. He volunteered because he didn't want any of his much younger men doing that job. And he knew that the results would be much harder to question if they came directly from the mouth of a war-hero. The person who did the music for this series used sounds collected from an actual working nuclear reactor. That's why it sounds so damn creepy and eerie.

[@shag139]

Do remember they do take a lot of liberties. No spoilers. The part at @30:00 is bogus. The threat was a thermal explosion. Then they describe a yield of 2-4 megatons. That can only occur in a nuclear explosion which was 100% not possible at all. You need highly enriched uranium 90% U-235 to be weapons grade. Fuel for an RBMK was 2%. The physics are 100% you can’t have a nuclear explosion. Thankfully it is actually very hard to do. It’s why Iran has been working on it for 50 years and still hasn’t done it.

[@legendaryseph9406]

@@shag139you also have to remember the scientist isn’t a computer, it is impossible to know everything all at once from the top of your head, it’s entirely possible that he heard the threat and instantly thought of the worst possible scenario. And don’t forget there were other reactors there too still, it’s entirely possible the explosion could have caused that strong a blast simply by setting of the reactor above.

[@takigan]

They use what we the public do know as well. Everyone knows what that geiger counter clicking sound means. They don't even need to explain it. It's ingrained enough into our culture through various media (including but certainly not limited to the Fallout video game series). And they even know how to utilize it to trigger fear in the audience.

[@shag139]

@@legendaryseph9406 you cannot have a nuclear detonation without highly enriched fuel which they absolutely did not have. Let alone all the things that have to be in place and how everything has to occur in a precise order. The fuel at Chernobyl was ~2% enriched. Water hitting the Corium would produce a very large steam explosion which would spread more material around the area. It was never a threat of a nuclear detonation. The show added this for effect.

[@FiveFootZero]

@@shag139 believe, at the time, that’s what they thought would happen. I havent listened to the accompanying podcast since i first watched the show, but im pretty sure the creator, craig mazin, went with what the scientists at that time were hypothesizing and worried about. I could be wrong tho

[@catbowserfantasytherapist3132]

Water is used to hopefully wash away any radioactive residue. It isn’t always effective but is considered a precaution, especially at this time. I think one of the most interesting stories I heard about Chernobyl was that one of the first responders was close to the core and his brown eyes turned blue.

[@adamrak7560]

the residue is usually made from small particles from the nuclear fuel, you may not even see them, but those can be extremely radioactive. If you accidentally ingest them the dosage you get is many times more (like order of magnitudes). Polonium-210 has a half life of 138 days and is a mostly alpha emitter, which makes it 250000 more poisonous than cyanide. But after a nuclear reactor core explosion there are many other products, with half lifes in hours, and few days. Those are proportionally more radioactive than Po-210, and the alpha and beta emitter ones, are proportionally more poisonous too. - Po-210 is a reference here, it not a significant component of a reactor fallout, but Iodine-131 is, which is a beta emitter with 8 days half-life. - Gamma emitters if ingested are not terribly worse because only a small fraction of the radiation is captured inside the body. (can be still quite bad carrying gamma emitters in your bones though)

[@surprisinglyblank2392]

The reason his eyes changed color is he (I think you're referring to Vladimir Pravik) developed glaucoma and cataracts later in life. Radiation likely did damage his eyes, causing him to develop these conditions, but the radiation itself did not effect the pigment.

[@nutyyyy]

Washing will absolutely remove the dust and other particles that are radioactive, which is why they do it. It's the dust that is carrying the radiation for the most part.

[@acecarrier3371]

Wait it's really water? I thought it was some chemicals.

[@Wanda711]

When the truck was being washed down, they included the little detail of the contaminated soapy water draining down a grate, meaning that water is going to go down and out into the sewer system and eventually the river. The damage just keeps spreading.

[@MrDevintcoleman]

This show is the best representation I’ve ever seen of the manifestation of the fear of something invisible. It’s set up so well by the first episode. Anything that gets anywhere near it feels contaminated and quietly deadly. It’s the epitome of never showing the monster, because it literally can’t be seen.

[@danzthename]

The childishness that adults are capable of when their egos are threatened is astonishing.

[@ShutterSnapped]

Also consider how much the State has influenced these people to prioritize certain outcomes and the focus of making sure that blame is shifted away from the state. Ego + being put into that position to reject reality as an authority: And it's a recipe for disaster and stupidity.

[@bcn1gh7h4wk]

remember that quote the next time you vote.

[@bendover04me]

Remember the pandemic a couple of years ago? Yeah. History will keep repeating itself.

[@sirdavidoftor3413]

@@bendover04me: True, but pandemics and epidemics have been happening throughout human and animal history. The more people in the world, and the more dense the population gets, the worse they will become. That is why scientists are an important part of society. Many diseases, pandemics have been stopped because of our increasing knowledge of viruses, and research into vaccines. Stay safe, stay sane, stay strong

[@lucianaromulus1408]

It was a Communist State. Yes Ego, but it was the Ego of the State. You CANNOT make the Government or Party look bad. You will get shot or worse if you question the authorities

[@frankwitte1022]

The story of General Pikalov doing the radiation measurement himself is a true story. He was a decorated WW2 veteran who fought in the Battle for Stalingrad as well as the Battle for Berlin, and numerous other missions.

[@ColieBear18]

My favorite part of this series is how they showed the bravery of the people. How they did everything they could to save others.

[@lucianaromulus1408]

​@@ColieBear18exactly. I hate Communism, but these people...with a regime that couldn't care less about them.. they STILL made the ultimate sacrifice to spare their people. Absolutely beautiful and makes me cry for these heros

[@manon_0411]

The helicopter went down not because of radiation, but because it hit the chain of the crane next to it. I know a lot of people get it mixed up because it's not super visible, but if you look again, you see the hook of the crane falling down too, indicating the reason. This happened in real life too.

[@fxbear]

The lights went out because radiation interference with electrons in the wiring. The three men had to feel their way in the dark but they were so familiar with the room, it wasn’t completely blind, only mostly. For the sake of filming they have to use lights to dramatize it. Chernobyl itself is covered today by a housing that is only good for 100 years. It cannot be entered without proper protection and only for a short amount of time. They are attempting to disassemble the reactor remotely using robots built into this massive shell. The story behind the building of this thing is an amazing story in itself. I’d also recommend reading “the voices of Chernobyl “ for further background on the people in this story. It’s a terrifying read.

[@iwikal]

Interfering with the wiring? Why then do the hand-powered lights in the next episode work, while the battery-powered ones failed? I had assumed it was something to do with radiation messing with the batteries, like these guys said. I imagine the ionizing radiation could make the electrolyte slightly conductive, allowing the electrodes to do their redox thing without needing to send all the electrons through the lightbulb, draining the batteries much faster than normal. They would even drain while the light was off.

[@RaoulKunz1]

You want the truly scary thing that makes this show eerily relevant? Priyat with the sarcophagus and the reactor and all the maintenance requirements is in a *war zone* currently and the the war might flow over it once more if the tide turns sufficiently. I don`t know if you got in the news but there where deep concerns about keeping the power supply intact when the war flowed across Pripyat Oblast and the Ghost Town. And just in case this isn't scary enough already: there's the 6-reactor Zaporizhzhia power plant (at least a different type of reactor) that is partially shut down because of the war *but* you can't just "stop" a nuclear reactor... and it's dependent on the Kakhovka Reservoir for cooling water... and that's supplied from the Dnipro river...you know, the one where the reservoir is emptying because the dam was blown to pieces when the AFU retook City of Kherson... Best regards Raoul G. Kunz

[@iwikal]

@@RaoulKunz1 I wouldn't say it was destroyed when the AFU retook Kherson city. That happened in November 2022 and the dam blew up in June 2023, almost seven months later.

[@fxbear]

@@iwikal the hand cranked lights were a concession made for the sake of filming, the men worked in the dark according to other sources.

[@iwikal]

@@fxbear I know. But they wouldn't have used them in the show if they wouldn't realistically have worked. Suggesting that, at least as far as the directors with all their expert consultants knew, the batteries were the issue.

[@cardellkenith]

the water is mostly to wash off as many, hopefully all, radioative particles that have landed on a person. Legasov was talking about how dangerous 1 gram can be and it stays dangerous for a long time, so the amount that gets on you through dust and dirt can be significant and you want it to be washed off as soon as possible. The material of a suit or structure (lead shielding on the truck) will do something to block the radiation itself, the shower just gets rid of the fallout dust that has landed on you.

[@budgreen4x4]

Depends, Things like uranium that have this massive half-life do so because they emit particles at a very slow rate. It's the shorter hair life isotopes that are more dangerous, like cesium and iodine

[@cardellkenith]

@@budgreen4x4 true, but the main thing still stands that you'd want it washed off as soon as possible.

[@G1NZOU]

@@budgreen4x4 Yes true, but also while bits of Uranium in the dust isn't immediately a threat because of the slow decay, the whole point of washing it off is so it's not in close proximity to you for cumulative exposure to take effect. Same reason they make you wear overalls and shoe coverings when they take people on tours of Chernobyl today (at least they did before the war).

[@budgreen4x4]

@@G1NZOU yeah, I want trying to say don't bother washing it off, I was just making the point that the things with longer half lives are generally way less dangerous, when people say it'll be radioactive for 50k years OMG, is not what it sounds like.. I mean you can find u-235 in most dirty in minute quantities

[@budgreen4x4]

Also, I don't think I meant to add that as a response here but it went here anyways.

[@G1NZOU]

I love the scene where they actually show the plant workers stand up and say their names, they're not fictional characters and deserve to get recognition for doing what they did. Chernobyl as a series shows this so well, the divide between the corrupt and the ones who pass the buck, and the ones who think "well I have to do this, so no one else has to".

[@TTM9691]

I was alive (in the U.S.) when Chernobyl happened; believe me, you have nothing to apologize about. Lots of people who lived during that time - especially in the U.S. - didn't know 70% of the stuff that's in this series, and that's being generous. We (including you) all lived through Fukushima, and we remember it, but we couldn't teach a course in it! So definitely no need to feel like you're the only ones in the dark about the minutiae of Chernobyl!

[@cliffordwaterton3543]

I'm from the UK and can remember watching the news break on TV as I was getting ready for work and thinking that everyone was pretty much screwed. I'm not even sure that we were told how enormous the problem was either at the time or since. I don't want to get too much into the politics of the Soviet Union (plenty of info elsewhere) but I guess we can be thankful that Gorbochev was in charge at this time - previous leaders would probably have ignored the problem entirely. Just to let you know - the accident itself will be explained in its entirety later on. i don't know if you were aware that there was an incident on 3 mile island in 1979 - obviously not as serious but a real cause for concern. It was spookily foretold in a long forgotten (but excellent) film called 'The China Syndrome' starring Jack Lemon, Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas - you might find it interesting.

[@babalonkie]

Good film. I was only 1 at the time of the incident in UK so don't remember anything. We lived in a high rise building and were apparently told to keep windows shut for the week. Every year, a core sample is taken from loch ness, the core sample is from the 170 feet deep lakebed... it still to this day contains nucleotides found from Chernobyl's reactor.

[@roguechevelle]

The China Syndrome is a really good film, great recommendation.

[@ATSaale]

TMI and China syndrome killed nuclear energy as we knew it. Crazy coincidence

[@arctan2010]

I was a US soldier stationed in the former “West” Germany and both the military and the German government did not say much about it. The local German news at least kept the story alive while the military was not commenting but watching.

[@liamgilmartin466]

Yah my dad told me his mum and dad at the time wouldn't let them leave the house or even go to school because of the news.

[@sangriad.938]

Boris asking "why did I see graphite on the roof?" is such an EPIC scene...How powerful can a question be? At that point, the destiny of Chernobyl started to change for the good.

[@jean-philippedoyon9904]

The evacuation order is honestly the most eerie thing i have ever seen and hear in a tv show ever...and it sounded exactly the same in real life !! Real life can truly be more scary than any horror story...Also no sound is worst than a dosimeter going nuts like in this show ! It's like a lurking monster...it's crazy !

[@KaterChris]

If I remember correctly, they used a recording of the original evacuation announcement in the show.

[@boboca20]

You're right, this is just like a horror movie. That Geiger counter sound is scary af, specially when the thing that could kill you is invisible. This show is divided in: the accident, the fixing, the consequences and what really happened, so trust me when I say that you just scratched the surface of the horrors caused by this event.

[@alasdairmacleod7769]

That is exactly what is truly terrifying about being exposed to radiation, you can't see it, can't hear it, can't touch it, yet it is there That ending scene is more horrifying than any scene from a horror movie, because this actually happened

[@wackyvorlon]

It’s absolutely a horror miniseries. Except the maniac stalking everyone is radiation.

[@boboca20]

@@alasdairmacleod7769 I am a horror movie fan, but I totally agree. This series was so much more effective in causing fear that when I finished watching it I caught myself not wanting to touch things because of that reminiscent fear of contamination. Freaking awesome;

[@vlr78]

Yeap, real life stuff can be much more scare than a horror movie. The Atomic Cafe (1982) was a documentary that i still love, but scare me to death as a kid... and An American Crime (2007), a drama based in a real story (actually if you read the case is worst than what was showed in the movie) really f**k me up till this day when I remember... and if someone decide to see, see with the original end that was showed in the festivals (now is "alternative end"), not the sugar coated of the comercial release. Humanity can do amazing things, beautiful things... but can be absolutely horrible beyond belief.

[@ESE33]

Scherbina (Stellan Skarsgard) is one of my favorite characters in this show. He was hard at the beginning, but he did stand up for what Legasov was saying and helped kickstart everything. He didn't let ignorance, denial and fear of blame get in the way of doing the right thing.

[@lucianaromulus1408]

He was great. Just a pawn in the Communist game, but he had humanity and really did realize the disaster and did everything he could to fix this impossible situation

[@flibber123]

It still amazes me how good this series is at making the viewer angry and also at getting more and more emotionally impactful. It also does this without losing track of the story and characters.

[@dkk7090]

I am not sure, if that was mentioned somewhere or not. But during the evacuation - people were not informed that they are leaving their houses forever. They were told that they have to evacuate for a couple of days. So most people took very little of their stuff/money with them, and unfortunately, never got back to Chernobyl to collect the rest.

[@penoyer79]

Thank God Gorbachev was a sensible man. it's amazing that one of the scariest sounds in the horror genre is the clicking in screeching noise of a dosimeter

[@lucianaromulus1408]

Any other Communist leader probably would have ended up killing so many more innocent people.

[@coulsonintahiti]

24:30 Chernobyl was actually part of the death knell for the Cold War and led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Star Trek had a cool adaptation of the event in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

[@shingen012]

Water is used to wash people and objects down because the very dust in the air gets irradiated and can stick to many things. Water catches that dust and gets it off of you. It's not perfect but it keeps you from unknowingly continuing to carry it around (and thus continuing to contaminate yourself).

[@camerachica73]

The pile of firefighters clothes the nurses dumped in the hospital basement are still there to this day. They blocked off the access to the basement, because people were going down there and measuring the still radioactive clothes.

[@BloodylocksBathory]

Isn't that pile of clothes also one of the most radioactive sites in the area?

[@AR-yd2nd]

​@@BloodylocksBathory yup

[@zerumsum1640]

One thing to note, the men who went under the reactor to open those valves did so in pitch black. Their flashlights didn't work or they didn't have any that would survive the conditions. All of them survived and lived for quite some time after. That however, was more a matter of luck than anything.

[@lucianaromulus1408]

Absolute heros that I hope are never forgotten

[@christophergarcia3695]

I did hear that the water in the basement helped them. Supposedly, no one was aware of how good a radiation isolator water was. That flood water provided a bit more protection.

[@jerseyalicia2012]

I believe that pile of clothes and masks is still there. HIGHLY irradiated but still there because there’s no way to clean it.

[@tinahastie]

I saw a documentary that included that! It's completely insane! Also that elephant's foot thing 🫣

[@albinahlsen8928]

Minor spoiler. In the last episode they will end with some pictures and video from the actual Chernobyl site and i believe the real pile of clothes are shown.

[@tinahastie]

@@albinahlsen8928 😭🫣

[@shag139]

Yes they are still there. They have Cs-137 and Sr-90 on them which have half lives 30 and 29 years. About 200 years before it is basically gone

[@aeliusdawn]

Gorbachev was honestly a real G (for a soviet leader) He died just a few months ago

[@isabelsilva62023]

Amidst the tragedy it was a good thing it did not happen one year prior, in 1985 Konstantin Chernenko was still the Secretary General and all of this would have been 100 times worse. While still towing Party line Gorbachev had a different view and attitude towards the world outside the Iron Curtain, he played his cards in a really clever, brilliant way. On a side note Vladimir Putin had entered the KGB in 1985, so he was already in "the picture" in a way.

[@TheGabrielPT]

If a Stalin-esque figure had been ruling the USSR when Chernobyl happened, there probably would have been way more deaths, including outside of the USSR. Gorbachev was the most moderate Soviet leader by a long shot, and gladly so.

[@ct5625]

I believe it was also Gorbachev who stated that Chernobyl was the original cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union. I think there's some credibility to that claim. The resources needed to fix it were vast, the damage was mostly covered up, the victims were barely acknowledged, and Soviet power was shown to be a farce. When you look at Russia now, along with North Korea and China, everything is still about "perception" of power. All three nations still operate under this delusion that if everyone just pretends things are fine it will somehow work out okay in the end.

[@josefinelagerstrom2643]

I'm trying to convince myself not to watch your reaction until all episodes are out but I can't help myself. Then I want to scream when it's done and I realise I have to wait another week. 😂😭

[@whitenoisereacts]

There’s another one on Patreon lol

[@shag139]

@10:00 there are suits that can provide a small (tiny) amount of shielding but they are mostly there so that contamination can be easily removed. Alpha particles are basically a Helium atom and the easiest to stop since they are the largest type. They are stopped by a few cm of air itself or even tissue paper. The real danger other than holding an alpha emitter against your skin is ingestion/inhalation as then all the alphas being emitted are stopped inside the body. Beta particles (electron or positron) are smaller. They may travel a meter or more in air (depends on energy level) and it takes few mm of Aluminum to stop some. Plus you get what’s called braking radiation when a particle is absorbed the material can release gamma rays which penetrate even further. Beta are also a ingestion/inhalation concern. The last one is gamm rays (photons) which penetrate the farthest. Again depends on energy of the particle but know your talking about thicknesses of lead that a person cannot carry or be part of a suit. Gammas mostly pass through the body, but they can be absorbed. Problem is high activity sources are emitting insane amount every second. 1 Curie of activity is a LOT and it is equal to 37 billion disintegrations per second. For a cardiac stress test they use Tc99 which has a half life of about 6 hours and a typical activity of 14 millicuries. That is still 518 million events per second and after 6 hours is 254 million events per second.

[@heavycritic9554]

16:22 I've watched a few reactions to this show, and I always love it when this scene is included. The one where Shcherbina clearly shows that he isn't an idiot - he just needs to get enough information. Once he gets enough information he's able to draw the right conclusions, and he has enough experience of party politics to easily spot when someone is bullshitting him. Stellan Skarsgård plays this role so perfectly. And then comes general Pikalov with the lesson in how to be a real leader. This scene is *AMAZING* .

[@jillmayer9501]

Stellan Skarsgard is amazing in this role. Probably why he won the Golden Globe for it. By far my favourite performance.

[@audreylwalker]

This really is a true horror story that happened on an international scale. It’s so crazy and the show is brilliant. Great reaction guys!

[@clumsyvanity]

I like how we are shown esp. in this episode the different levels of leadership. The army guy who said will drive the truck with the meter, taking the responsibility on himself bcoz he knew that other soldiers wouldn't be able to say no to him. Boris, who gave that speech to the divers. Gorbachev, for not outright dismissing the scientists. Even Legasov, for taking responsibility & admitting his wrong.

[@Snobollskrieg]

Growing up in Sweden, we were recommended to not eat the berries and mushrooms we've picked in the forest, even 15 years after the accident. The Becquerel-levels were just too high, far over the safe levels.. Same with eating game meat from moose and deer from certain areas. Nowadays the levels are a lot lower and it's safe to eat what we pick, but it took over 25 years before the levels had fallen enough that it was safe to consume. And that was 1300 km away from Chernobyl.

[@neptunusrex5195]

Nobu is pretty close as to how nuclear weapons work. They take a chunk of weapons grade plutonium (10-15 pounds) and then surround it with conventional explosives, when the conventional explosives detonate, it forces all the plutonium together thus detonating the plutonium thus creating the nuclear explosion and resultant fallout etc.

[@ravenofroses]

so the scientist who drove to chernobyl is actually a composite character--in reality, there were lots of scientists helping to contain the disaster and get the truth out. but it would've been hard to keep track of dozens more characters, so the writers condensed the whole process into just having one person talk to legasov about everything. so when you're impressed by how much she's getting done, know that she's speaking for a whole team of people who did everything they could to save as many lives as possible.

[@J4ME5_]

Why spoil this? This is a reveal at the end for a reason

[@tinahastie]

Looking forward to your reactions! This show is so brutal, but I'm glad they didn't hold back on that. I do think they needed to show how much suffering happened. 😢

[@wayasaunooke3424]

They were actually very reserved with what was shown and it's nowhere near as horrific as it was in reality.

[@tinahastie]

@@wayasaunooke3424 oh I'm sure it was way worse in reality! Most of us can't even imagine what it was actually like. It must've been horrific!

[@wayasaunooke3424]

@@tinahastie absolutely. Those poor people 😢

[@dabe1971]

You'll get your explanation as to what happened in the final episode - and it's done brilliantly so it's worth the wait. What you seem to need educating on is just how secretive the USSR was in this time. Don't forget there was no internet, no free media, and restricted international reporting. The scene with the detectors going off is genuinely how the outside world learnt than something had happened. Even after questions were being asked the USSR was keeping a tight lid on what was said in response and it was the scientific world. that leaked details using coded examples such as you see in the series. You can see on YT all sorts of Western News programmes speculating about what could have happened and being wrong in so many cases. The fundamentals of the Communist state allow fools such as those pictured here to rise to postions of power because they are happy to not question the chain of command or do far worse - admit that Mother Russia could make mistakes or be falliable. There's was the strong, solid unwavering and perfect system which didn't have the weaknesses of the decadent West. That's why so many simply wouldn't acknowledge that something had gone wrong and why those few that did were so brave. They knew this was a global issue and were prepared to do what was right for the sake of the world. It's frustrrating to watch but you need to remember this characters were real and whilst some dramatic licence is taken it is a pretty good demonstration of the power and fear those living in the USSR lived under.

[@helicopterharry5101]

They do a detailed breakdown of the event in the last episode.

[@TTM9691]

It's not controversial, don't worry: we all grow to LOVE Boris (Skaarsgard), and it's exactly the moments YOU grew to love him that did it. "Why is there graphite on the roof?" And that incredible speech to the volunteers. I get goosebumps at that speech.

[@kobarsos82]

HBO has the "good" habbit, of making stuff seem like a documentary, and they do not shy away to do the same thing here, thankfully for us. This kind of story doesn't need hollywood drama, villains or making up things. The facts that happened, seeing for yourself and a few discussions that take place are more than enough, its already interesting enough and compelling by its own. Its a genius choice honestly, and we deserved nothing less, for this story. Perfection.

[@listenchump4041]

The irony is that the men who went to empty the water tanks all survived for years. They were protected from contamination by their suits, and from radiation by the water itself (water acts as a shield against radiation because of hydrogen, you could jump in a spent nuclear fuel pool and be completely safe unless you swim down to the spent fuel.

[@kentbarnes1955]

One of the strengths of this series is it DID present the story in a very even handed way. There is a lot to go through in the next two episodes...then you'll get your answers to "how" in the final Episode (#5). Y'all should definitely do Band of Brothers

[@prismmonkey]

You guys keep wondering how the reactor exploded. I'll just say that there is portion of an upcoming episode where they thoroughly get into the logistics of what happened with the reactor. You'll know all the answers to the questions you have now. And how the writers and actors do it is so well done. It's thorough but not confusing.

[@gracecopen619]

What I have learned after watching many videos from nuclear engineers talking about the effects of radiation poisoning you cannot get radiation poisoning from someone just by simply touching them once they’ve been cleaned. For example this will come up in later episodes where they say not to touch people but they’ve already been clean they’ve already been hosed down there can be no further transfer of radiation the only part where it is dangerous is in the scenes when they were touching their to contaminated clothes and stuff like that. Even to the point that if you go to Chernobyl today the Firemans clothes in the basement are still radioactive.

[@MariaMendez-ms9iq]

I think they said not to touch them because that would cause them pain that was the case of the firefighter and his wife where she touched him he later on had horrible wounds

[@gracecopen619]

@@MariaMendez-ms9iq that's fair but I've watched the series and they mention them touching could cause contamination especially when talking about a particular thing I will not say because of spoilers when that it's how radiation poisoning works. I've even watched nuclear physicists watch this show and comment on this very fact. My point is that while I absolutely love this show it inaccurately at times shows how radiation is transferred l.

[@shag139]

Mostly true. Issue is if they have ingested gamma emitters which will exit the body. Not saying it is is extreme concern, but it is there. I had a stress test years ago and would set off radiation alarms at work just by standing next to them for about a day. Wife was pregnant at the time so I slept down the hall for a few days. Even directly below her down stairs a survey meter upstairs was popping like popcorn.

[@MarkusR144]

@@gracecopen619 It's not really that "the show" doesn't know that radiation doesn't transfer between people, the show is showing how people reacted back in the day and a lot of people did think that it transfers. So it's not the show being inaccurate, it's the characters having incorrect information. Either way, keeping distance is the right move for most people.

[@The_real_Arovor]

Scherbina is a fucking legend. After Chernobyl he was in charge for the rescues and stuff after the terrible earthquake in Armenia. Sadly he died a few years after that. In the last episode they will explain how it happened, it’s fascinating. Some facts about the meltdown: The 2-4 megaton figure was given to Gorbachev was way to high, but the scientists in Russia actually assumed that amount, and Gorbachev gave these numbers to western countries. Thing is, even a relatively small explosion comparable to for example to the Beirut explosion, would have blown the other 3 reactors sky high, blowing a massive amount of radioactive amount of debris over a big area and radioactive dust probably all over Europe. These 3 men saved millions of lives. The helicopter accident happened later, but for storytelling purposes it has been put together with the dropping of boron. Last but not least, thanks for your reaction, was interesting to watch. 😊

[@grandfathergeek]

I watched the series once and almost every episode left me in tears, and I can’t watch it again without a good reason because it scares the hell out of me

[@jessc.994]

A book you might find interesting is The Radium Girls. It’s a true story of how during WWI, radium was thought to be a miracle drug. It was included in cosmetics, toothpaste, and many other things including paint because it glowed in the dark. Many women were hired in factories to paint watch dials for soldiers with radium paint so the would glow on the battlefield. However, in order to paint thin lines, they had to put the paintbrushes in their mouths to give them a fine point, making them ingest radium daily. The book goes into the battle between the women who are getting very sick and the company trying to keep it all a secret.

[@madmax6439]

The contaminated clothes from the firefighters still in the same hospital on the floor where they left them. You can only enter to the underground of the hospital with a mask and a radiation suite. If it wasn't from that doctor, the Soviet Union won't react very seriously about the disaster in Chernobyl.

[@YolandaAnneBrown95726]

The irony of the episode "Please Remain Calm" is that I was freaking out at the end as it was getting darker and the sounds of the radioactive detector getting LOUDER. Then the episode ended. WTF? Glad that you guys are getting a kick out of this series.

[@shag139]

This is how Soviet communism was. The state is basically God and cannot make a mistake. To acknowledge a mistake is worse than the mistake itself. Then You have bureaucracy trying to protect themselves and shift blame.

[@Robalogot]

I remember the birds in my grandma's aviary all dropping dead, not being allowed to play in my sandpit and not being allowed to eat crops that grow above ground. That was in Belgium 1140 mi from the powerplant.

[@CharlesVanNoland]

When that dude looked straight down into the melting core, beaming up into the sky in the first episode. Dude.

[@Hakkar6993]

The general is so based. "Then I'll do it myself" when he hears every amount of protection might not be enough. What a guy.

[@PassiveSmoking]

Radioactivity can't transfer directly from person to person, but the exposed people are contaminated with radioactive dust. That dust can get transferred to the people they come in contact with, which is why they need to dispose of anything that might have dust on it.

[@Chloe.reynolds96]

They explain it brilliantly in the last episode. I have no idea how a nuclear reactor works but I understood what went wrong from his explanation. It's so good!

[@flor8567]

The episode's name comes from the very real recording that they used to evacuate people. Scherbina's speech is really good (a Stellan Skarsgard special) and in my opinion very true of the people. Soviets (at the time) had historically gone through some heavy stuff but always managed to stand back up.

[@skogsholmsb]

I was 2 y when this happened living in Sweden and my mom have told us that Swedish news told people to stay inside so we wasn’t allowed to play outside for some time.

[@maquiavelich]

the ending of this episode always give me full body chills

[@WraithWTF]

General Pikalov didn't just volunteer to go and get the more accurate dosimeter reading cause he's a badass; he did it cause he knew how the politics (especially the local Party members) worked; if he sent a low-ranking soldier and the readings didn't match up to what the local Party officials were claiming, they'd dismiss it as a faulty reading or operator error, and keep on sending more people (potentially getting more of his people killed) while the fire would continue to rage on unchecked. He was a heavily-decorated veteran of several wars and very highly respected both in the military and the Central Committee in Moscow, so he knew if he went himself the local Party members wouldn't be able to just dismiss the readings. He was a real G, same as Shcherbina (Skarsgard's character). Only thing I can say to anybody watching this show is simply "Buckle up Dorothy...Kansas is goin' bye-bye"

[@MsDeki]

i read that the old grannys (Babushka) came back so fast as they can, to continue to live in theyre Home. If u are signifikant older, youre Metabolism slow down and the radiation doesnt have enough time to couse cancer.

[@carinabino]

I asked my mom about Chernobyl as she grew up in Soviet Estonia. She told me that the explosion actually happened a few hours prior to her birthday. Two days after the incident they were told about what went down. Of course, Estonia wasn´t affected as badly as other countries, but hearing that was already scary to me. The fact that you´re a child wanting to celebrate your birthday and you hear about a desastrous event polluting the air you breathe right now, perhaps causing lifelong health issues... One of my mom´s sisters did die of cancer and she herself had cancer too (which she luckily beat). Don´t know whether it was because of Chernobyl or flawed genetics in the family line, though. Can´t imagine what the people in the real danger zones must´ve felt like, it´s mind-blowingly crazy. This show is so intriguing.

[@davidbell864]

As always, very perceptive guys, without preconceptions or prejudices. Well done, so impressed with your open minds and insightful analysis. Impressive gentlemen, well done

[@blueprintswe]

I couldn't agree more with your reaction to when Pikalov said "Then I'll do it myself!". THAT is how a TRUE leader behaves!!!

[@kimwexler9393]

It's wild to think that even today, there is residual radiation from Chernobyl in the soil here in Ireland.

[@shag139]

Cs-137 and Sr-90 half lives of ~30 years so yep.

[@kimwexler9393]

@@shag139 Could've sworn that potato I ate last week had a slight glow.

[@xen0bia]

RBMK reactors weren't supposed to be capable of exploding because of a failsafe that was put in place that was designed to completely halt reactivity - that's why Dyatlov, Fomin and that other guy just didn't believe that the core had exploded. They were too confident in the design of the reactor, though there were very specific circumstances needed for what happened to happen, so you can't entirely blamed them. It was both human error and design flaws. You'll find out all about that in the last episode.

[@ulito4739]

21:30 no, the sand and boron were dropped into the fire to extinguish it, not because of their properties, but because unlike water, that mixture would not evaporate before coming into contact with the fire. It was just a way of burying the fire and try to extinguish it

[@whitenoisereacts]

Ohhhh ok!!

[@diaphanouswaffle]

So glad you've watched this series and I'm enjoying your nuanced conversations during & afterwards-thank you :)

[@davidhopley2661]

The hospital basement where all the contaminated clothes were dumped is still one of the most radioactive areas of Pripyat. I remember hearing an interview with someone who was a child living in Kyiv at the time of the accident. There was such an information blackout within the soviet union that the first indication that something was wrong was when all the buses suddenly disappeared one day. They were requisitioned for the evacuation. He knew 10 drivers that ran the buses in Kyiv, and 9 of them died prematurely from cancer. The tenth was only spared because he was off sick with a broken arm and wasnt sent to Pripyat to assist in the evacuation.

[@matrizon]

i'm from ukraine and i really appreciate people watching this show, although i'm not sure how accurate it is (not accurate with the names that i know, they are mostly russified lol. "chernobyl" itself is actually pronounced as chornóbyl) i think it's enough to bring awareness to the history of my country, so thank you for watching! the show is really dramatic maybe even over the top? but i think this makes it easier to understand the scale of this catastrophe back then and how ukrainians have to deal with the consequences now - i'm still very young but my family and the families of all the people i know have been affected by this event both physically and mentally

[@lucianaromulus1408]

I'm an American of partial Ukrainian descent, when I did an ancestry test it showed I had relations in that area. I often wonder if I have distant family directly affected by this disaster. I cry for people I've never met but feel a connection to. Praise be all the heros of Ukraine and the ultimate sacrifice they made. May they never be forgotten 🙏

[@alwaysasky6594]

Your reaction to this amazing show & what happened is so spot on.

[@whitenoisereacts]

Thank you!!

[@cubspopply5445]

Fun (not so fun) fact, the helicopter scene was much, MUCH more brutal in real life than it was shown in the show. That thing straight up imploded without the explosion factor.

[@ReddwarfIV]

Huh?

[@cubspopply5445]

@@ReddwarfIV there's a video on youtube regarding the original plane crash, the tail of the copter crinkled up and making matters worse, collided with the blades of the main body when it was on top of the reactor and, the rest was apparent after that.

[@hoghead4846]

The cause of the helicopter crash was caused by the rotor hitting the cable of the crane. If you watch it again you can see the rotor cutting the cable which is the same as the historical video.

[@cubspopply5445]

@@hoghead4846 there was debate of that as well, and it doesn't account for the bending of the tail itself in rapid succession as it was plummeting down.

[@ReddwarfIV]

@cubspopply5445 I'm aware of what happened, I just have no idea what you meant by "the helicopter imploded" or "without the explosion factor".

[@hideflen6078]

This is such a masterful series, and I’m so excited in an academic way for you two to see it; it gets hard to watch, but there is a nice historical recap at the end

[@mj_SR22]

They will tell you how it blew up, don't worry. It's very well done.

[@FrankieOver50]

As a teenager in the 80s I often had nightmares about nuclear war. Little did I know that 'nuclear accidents' were probably more likely at that time.

[@brainplay8060]

WATER: Nuclear radiation has a very difficult time penetrating water. You could actually go swimming inside of a nuclear core pool and not be too bad off. The only downside is that its heavy and doesn't conform to a shape easily so you can't make a good suit out of it despite it being better than lead against neutron radiation (lead is better for gamma radiation). Hence why water was so important to pump into any nuclear core and why they were trying to keep the pumps running in this case. In the truck scene they're using water to wash off any radioactive debris such as dust and particles. Water will capture surface radiation and moderate it but become contaminated. They ended up making some huge waste water pools later on after the disaster was contained and they were just cleaning up the place. BORON and SAND: Sand is used to put out fires where water is not applicable. Things like grease or oil fires are what we typically associate it with. If you can use water then sand will work. Boron is used for some radiation shielding as it will absorb the particles minimizing the amount that will pass through. Enough boron will make a good anti-radiation shield. Mix the two together and you have an anti-radiation/anti-fire mix. The downside though is that sand melts if the temps are high enough which they were even after the fire was put out. Fun fact: the nuclear plant had 4 cores. 1 exploded. The other 3 were kept in operation for several years afterwards providing power for the area. The exploded core was encased is many many feet of concrete.

[@johnnyd1790]

Brilliant reaction, it's something else to see people that actually know what they're watching.🎉 &Well, the denser something is, the more it stopps the bullets from reaching you, led is one of the densest elements, offers better protection. Like Superman's x-ray vision, stops most of that too.😉

[@your_pal_emma7132]

The firefighters clothes are still in that room to this day ! By the way

[@adamrak7560]

it has been recently walled in to stop tourist from stealing parts of the still highly active clothes!

[@tjsh11]

damn loved this reaction, I wish you guys would binge more shows lol. I don't wanna wait to watch you guys react to the whole season XD

[@TheRibottoStudios]

I've had some pretty stressful work days. Never to the level of "hey yeah if we don't get this done then half of Eastern Europe and all Russia and possibly the entire planet will be dead in 72 hours."

[@Jon66B]

One of the major points of the mini-series is to highlight the spectacular heroism of the people who had to clean this disaster up. So, it's a horror story and a hero story.

[@dunbar9finger]

The reason you always see scenes of people being washed off with water is that the smoky dust and debris is where most of the radiation is emitting from. Simply rinsing all the dust off of you is one of the most important things to do. If you get exposed directly to the rays briefly that's not as bad as getting continually exposed to smaller amounts for days and days because you have specs of radioactive dust on you. The duration of exposure is just as important as the magnitude of it. The worst is if you ingest some of the dust inside you by swallowing or breathing it. Because small amounts of alpha rays can be blocked by your skin but can't be blocked if they're inside your skin already. And ingested dust can stay in you for months or years.

[@mr-x7689]

The radiation cloud from Chernobyl went directly over the city I'm from in Sweden (Gävle). We where told to not eat or touch any thing from the forests near the city for decades. Today it's safe. But it was BAD back in the day.

[@MindfulMya]

This show really brings out the humanity in us. It’s incredible to see how ignorance, ego and power ultimately breaks down. There’s no room for ego in a crisis. It’s nice to see how the collectivism helped get the job done swiftly and find a solution and the underground science community which helped get to the solution. This show is sooo brilliant and deserved all the awards. The show breaks everything down and it’s insane. Brilliant filmmaking.

[@user-wb2tm3hv8w]

I ask you to remember that they were real people. Those three who volunteered.

[@curzon176]

Yeah guys, Band of Brothers followed by The Pacific. Both are great series.😀

[@Pl4sm4Ro4ch]

reminder that while all of this was happening , people still were needed to work on the plant to provide power to cities. There were 3 other reactors that kept on working. If they were shut down alot of cities would lose power completely. The plant continued to work way past the fires and soviet collapse until the year 2000-2001 when it was finally decommissioned . The shutdown needed very specific steps to be done safely, new power plants were built and power imported from other locations were set so that the nuclear plant was no longer needed and cities that relied on chernobyls reactors could still have consistent power.

[@efremvercaigne7265]

The firefighters' gear is still there in the basement to this day. Although.. one of the people working there (they keep taking radiation readings all over the place to monitor) revealed that a while ago one of the helmets disappeared.. think a tourist stupidly smuggled it out.

[@breezybeats6315]

The three divers (Bespalov, Burov, and Ananenko) survived. Two of them are still alive and the one died of heart failure decades after the accident, probably unrelated to radiation exposure.

[@evie3148]

Great reaction. This show is so hard to watch but also so important. The actors are phenominal

[@gabriellesutherlandphd5731]

Everyone misses this: When the Helicopter crashes, you can clearly see the rotors hitting the crane cables. That is why the helicopter crashes - not because of radiation.

[@coffenut]

I was working at the American Embassy in Moscow at the time. The only way we found out about it was a journalist from Sweden called the press officer and asked if there had been an accident as Sweden was reading extremely high radiation levels.

[@jameshurley9551]

I love how big brained you guys tried to get with Boron and Sand too ;) Sand suffocates the fire and Boron diffuses nuclear reactions

[@whitenoisereacts]

Well…we tried

[@jameshurley9551]

@@whitenoisereacts You guys are wonderful. I've watched more than a few reactions to this show and yours feels the most in line with my own!

[@chrisj9392]

There's a couple games that go over this situation called "Liquidators" in which you have to reach the pumps. Markiplier played it before

[@BloodylocksBathory]

I really appreciated that even though the series depicts a lot of deplorable people who caused problems and/or made things worse, there are also so many who were heroes and made a difference with their selflessness. The general who doesn't want to sacrifice his own men in the lead-shielded truck, the people who had to navigate through total darkness, even people like Boris Shcherbina who started out on the wrong side but realized the situation and changed for the better.

[@erika5763]

Fun fact: The soundtrack of the show was composed using real sounds recorded from an RBMK reactor.

[@Knightmare435]

General Vladimir Pikalov, the general who drove the lead shielded truck through and around the exposed reactor to get the reading was a certified badass. He had fought in WWII in the battles of Moscow, Kursk and Stalingrad, being wounded several times in the process. He drove the dosimeter himself because as a high ranking member of the Red Army his word carried more weight than that of his subordinates and he could get shit done that the constant ass-covering the other party members in Chernobyl were engaging in was preventing. As for why they were soaping up and washing the truck, its because while the truck itself might not become radioactive it would be massively contaminated with radioactive dust kicked up while driving around the reactor. Like tracking mud into your house on your boots, after entering a site contaminated with radiation they thoroughly wash you down to remove the particulate that could expose others to harm, while also limiting your own continued exposure. When dealing with extremely short half-life materials every second of exposure could be the difference between recovering and only shortening your lifespan and ending it in excruciating pain in a few days.

[@parkeydavid]

I was 14 and living in Texas when this happened. Scary times, we didn't know what was going to happen next and how bad it was. Watching this takes me back to that time.