Chernobyl

Xarpolis · Apr 15, 2019

5.00 star(s) Rating: 5.00/5 6 Votes

Title: Chernobyl

Genre: Drama, Documentary

First aired: 2019-05-06

Creator: Craig Mazin

Cast: Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, Emily Watson, Paul Ritter, Jessie Buckley, Adrian Rawlins, Con O'Neill

Overview: A dramatization of the true story of one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history, the catastrophic nuclear accident at Chernobyl. A tale of the brave men and women who sacrificed to save Europe from unimaginable disaster.

Xarpolis · Apr 15, 2019

I saw this trailer after Game of Thrones. Wow, it looks very impressive. Evil show. I'm sure it'll be great. Hope this doesn't further destroy our willingness to use nuclear energy (AKA - Best Energy).

Gamma Rays · Apr 15, 2019

Some of my finest work.

Blakkheim · Apr 17, 2019

Amod

Chernobyl

Vandyn · May 8, 2019

Saw the first episode of this last night. Pretty good. Pretty amazing how due to the Soviet apparatus at the time the engineers didn't fully understand (or didn't want to believe) the full scope of the accident in the immediate aftermath.

Hosix · May 8, 2019

It’s good. It hits the ground running. I know this will be a short lived series but I am looking forward to episode 2!

a_skeleton_05 · May 8, 2019

Not bad so far

jooka · May 8, 2019

First episode was pretty good, hopefully the rest is as well. Incompetence right at the top from the get go.

TBT-TheBigToe · May 8, 2019

jooka said:
First episode was pretty good, hopefully the rest is as well. Incompetence right at the top from the get go.

I was going to ask if this covers the levels of corruption and incompetence that lead to this desire or it was just ‘nukular power scary bad’ because Chernobyl was shit built with shit on a shit foundation even by the standards of the time.

a_skeleton_05 · May 8, 2019

TBT-TheBigToe said:
I was going to ask if this covers the levels of corruption and incompetence that lead to this desire or it was just ‘nukular power scary bad’ because Chernobyl was shit built with shit on a shit foundation even by the standards of the time.

It does, and it seems to be touching on the cultlike behaviour of the party politics as well as there's a rousing speech from a senior member telling them to trust in the party and be brave etc... It doesn't seem to be trying to paint anyone in a good light, and is focusing on just how depressing the entire situation was.

wanand · May 9, 2019

Only the first episode but if the rest is as good as the first it will be a very good TV show. Don't look like it going to hold back on anything or sugar coat what happened. Parts with the kids and baby playing in the dust and parents just watching, obviously your average citizen is not going to know the dangers of nuclear back then, the engineers knew but could not say anything and the party people just left them to die it was very hard hitting on you as a viewer

Vandyn · May 9, 2019

The part towards the end where they send the guy to the roof to inspect the core, that look in the engineer's eyes like he knows he's being sent to his death is chilling. Looking forward to ep2.

I read a lot about this event and this idea that certain engineers truly believed that the radiation was only at 3.7 because that was as high as the instrument went was laughable (it was really in the thousands in the immediate area).

Cynical · May 9, 2019

wanand said:
...obviously your average citizen is not going to know the dangers of nuclear back then...

Your average Soviet citizen perhaps, I was a kid in the 80's and at least understood the basic dangers of radiation. I imagine adults had a much better grasp of the concept. That's part of the tragedy, the propaganda in relation to nuclear energy safety, and the belief that the state was infallible, and not capable of making mistakes.

Chernobyl isn't a lesson, or an example to fear nuclear energy.

It's yet another lesson on the joys of socialism, how a system that tells people what and how to think, leads to an environment of fear and distrust, especially among leadership, which results in chaos when a crisis occurs. That's the simple way to put it anyway.

I've read the shit out of this topic over the years, and still enjoyed the first episode. The moment the dude started walking down that catwalk to get a look at the reactor (or lack of it), I was gritting my teeth hard before I realized.

Weren't the Soviets fucking around with liquid sodium cooled reactors as well, and the tech was really unsafe? I'm hazy on that, could be getting mixed up with something else. I don't mean at Chernobyl, just USSR in general.

kaid · May 9, 2019

Vandyn said:
The part towards the end where they send the guy to the roof to inspect the core, that look in the engineer's eyes like he knows he's being sent to his death is chilling. Looking forward to ep2.

I read a lot about this event and this idea that certain engineers truly believed that the radiation was only at 3.7 because that was as high as the instrument went was laughable (it was really in the thousands in the immediate area).

A lot of really brave dudes died knowing they were going to die badly to try to keep that disaster from being worse than it was. From some of the interviews I have seen with survivors most of the men going in knew pretty well that shit was a lot worse than they were being told and went in anyway. When you see part of a forrest fluorescing red you know shit is a lot worse than people are saying.

kaid · May 9, 2019

Cynical said:
Your average Soviet citizen perhaps, I was a kid in the 80's and at least understood the basic dangers of radiation. I imagine adults had a much better grasp of the concept. That's part of the tragedy, the propaganda in relation to nuclear energy safety, and the belief that the state was infallible, and not capable of making mistakes.

Chernobyl isn't a lesson, or an example to fear nuclear energy.

It's yet another lesson on the joys of socialism, how a system that tells people what and how to think, leads to an environment of fear and distrust, especially among leadership, which results in chaos when a crisis occurs. That's the simple way to put it anyway.

I've read the shit out of this topic over the years, and still enjoyed the first episode. The moment the dude started walking down that catwalk to get a look at the reactor (or lack of it), I was gritting my teeth hard before I realized.

Weren't the Soviets fucking around with liquid sodium cooled reactors as well, and the tech was really unsafe? I'm hazy on that, could be getting mixed up with something else. I don't mean at Chernobyl, just USSR in general.

There were tests with a variety of liquid type reactors like thorium. In some ways they are safer than normal reactors because if you lose cooling the reactor basically melts its safety plug the fluid drains out and the reaction basically stops so no real risk of blowing up and the types of waste produce are less nasty than a uranium reactor. The downside you are dealing with highly corrosive thorium salts so long term viability of that design is still TBD.

brekk · May 9, 2019

Cynical said:
It's yet another lesson on the joys of socialism, how a system that tells people what and how to think, leads to an environment of fear and distrust, especially among leadership, which results in chaos when a crisis occurs. That's the simple way to put it anyway.

I don't want to start a big political argument, but the USSR was a Fascist state under the guise of Socialism and Communism.

Cynical said:
Weren't the Soviets fucking around with liquid sodium cooled reactors as well, and the tech was really unsafe? I'm hazy on that, could be getting mixed up with something else. I don't mean at Chernobyl, just USSR in general.

kaid said:
There were tests with a variety of liquid type reactors like thorium. In some ways they are safer than normal reactors because if you lose cooling the reactor basically melts its safety plug the fluid drains out and the reaction basically stops so no real risk of blowing up and the types of waste produce are less nasty than a uranium reactor. The downside you are dealing with highly corrosive thorium salts so long term viability of that design is still TBD.

Reactor worked very well, was very reliable. Big issue was GE had just heavily invested in pressurized water reactors.

Another primary benefit of an MSR, the lack of breeding plutonium and being weaponizable, was a big negative during the height of the Cold War.

Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

ZyyzYzzy · May 9, 2019

Previews make it seem like the are humanizing Soviets. Don't know if I can watch

Vandyn · May 9, 2019

ZyyzYzzy said:
Previews make it seem like the are humanizing Soviets. Don't know if I can watch

Based on the 1st episode it does try to humanize some of the low level engineers. The head engineer guy does not come off as sympathetic at all.

Bondurant · May 9, 2019

Vandyn said:
Based on the 1st episode it does try to humanize some of the low level engineers. The head engineer guy does not come off as sympathetic at all.

Cynical · May 9, 2019

brekk said:
I don't want to start a big political argument, but the USSR was a Fascist state under the guise of Socialism and Communism.

Reactor worked very well, was very reliable. Big issue was GE had just heavily invested in pressurized water reactors.

Another primary benefit of an MSR, the lack of breeding plutonium and being weaponizable, was a big negative during the height of the Cold War.

Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I was pretty sure I was wrong about that, was up late with insomnia, I was actually thinking some bloody book (fiction) I read years ago I think.

I don't want to start a big political argument, but the USSR was a Fascist state under the guise of Socialism and Communism.

No need for an argument, I disagree on your definitions though. Not the the thread for it, I agree. Similar systems, similar results though.

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