Chernobyl
PLOT
Chernobyl dramatizes the story of the April 1986 nuclear plant disaster which occurred in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Soviet Union), telling the stories of the people who caused the disaster and those who responded to it. The series depicts some of the lesser known stories of the disaster, including the efforts of the firefighters who were the first responders on the scene, volunteers, and teams of miners tasked with digging a critical tunnel.
Chernobyl dramatizes the story of the April 1986 nuclear plant disaster which occurred in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Soviet Union), telling the stories of the people who caused the disaster and those who responded to it. The series depicts some of the lesser known stories of the disaster, including the efforts of the firefighters who were the first responders on the scene, volunteers, and teams of miners tasked with digging a critical tunnel.
EPISODES
1:23:45
On the second anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, Valery Legasov, the chief of the commission which investigated it, records tapes blaming engineer Anatoly Dyatlov and others higher up for what happened. After hiding the tapes, Legasov hangs himself. Two years earlier, firefighter Vasily Ignatenko's pregnant wife Lyudmilla witnesses an explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. In the plant's control room, where they have been running a safety test, Dyatlov dismisses evidence that the core has exploded. He calls in firefighters and workers, and orders his subordinates to manually lower control rods and restore cooling to prevent a meltdown, then leaves to report the accident. At the fire, Vasily and other firefighters suffer radiation burns and acute radiation syndrome (ARS). Plant Manager Viktor Bryukhanov, Chief Engineer Nikolai Fomin and Dyatlov conclude that it was a hydrogen explosion causing a leak of contaminated vessel water. The Pripyat Executive Committee decides to downplay the incident and blocks evacuation. As Dyatlov succumbs to ARS, Sitnikov reports seeing nuclear graphite on the ground; the others reject this and have a soldier escort him to the roof to make a visual inspection, where he is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation. Legasov is informed of an under control accident at Chernobyl and ordered to provide technical advice to the committee managing the response.
Please Remain Calm
Seven hours after the explosion, Ulana Khomyuk detects a spike in radiation levels at Minsk. When her concerns are dismissed by local authorities, she sets out for Chernobyl, the likely source. At Pripyat's overloaded hospital, Lyudmilla finds that Vasily and the other ARS patients have been evacuated to Moscow. In Moscow, Legasov explains to Gorbachev that the situation is more serious than reported and is sent to Chernobyl with a skeptical Shcherbina. From a helicopter, Legasov points out graphite debris and a blue glow from ionizing radiation, indicating the core is exposed. Shcherbina confronts Bryukhanov and Fomin, who accuse Legasov of misinformation, but General Vladimir Pikalov has high-range dosimeter readings that prove Legasov is correct. Legasov instructs the military to suppress the fire with sand and boron, which proves risky. As news of the incident spreads, Pripyat is finally evacuated. Khomyuk arrives and warns Legasov and Shcherbina that if the molten core reaches the water in the basement there will be a destructive steam explosion. Legasov asks Gorbachev to authorize a lethal mission to drain the water; Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bezpalov, and Boris Baranov volunteer.
The basement is successfully drained, but a nuclear meltdown has begun and threatens to contaminate the groundwater. Shcherbina and Legasov convince Gorbachev that a heat exchanger is needed under the plant, for which Mikhail Shchadov recruits from Tula coal miners, led by Glukhov, to excavate a tunnel in extremely adverse conditions. Shcherbina warns Legasov that they are under KGB surveillance. Legasov sends Khomyuk to a Moscow hospital, where she finds Dyatlov uncooperative but learns from dying Toptunov and Akimov that the reactor exploded after Akimov initiated an emergency shutdown, a scenario thought impossible. Bribing her way into the hospital and lying about her pregnancy, Lyudmilla is allowed to visit Vasily but disobeys orders by staying with her husband longer than instructed. During Khomyuk's visit to the hospital, she witnesses Vasily touching Lyudmilla. Realizing Lyudmilla's pregnant, Khomyuk threatens to report everything to the committee and is arrested by KGB agents. She is imprisoned, but Legasov arranges her release. As Shcherbina and Legasov report to the Central Executive Committee their decontamination plans requiring the mass mobilization of liquidators, Lyudmilla stands among relatives of other deceased ARS victims as Vasily, sealed in a lead casket, is buried in concrete at a mass grave.
Residents are evacuated from the wider Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and decontamination operations are underway. Civilian draftee Pavel is paired with Soviet–Afghan War veteran Bacho to patrol the Zone to shoot and dispose of abandoned animals due to radioactive contamination. Chernobyl liquidator commander General Nikolai Tarakanov deploys Lunokhod programme rovers to clear the plant's roof for a shelter. After a West German police robot almost instantly fails on the most irradiated level, Tarakanov is forced to cycle 3,828 liquidators to clear it by hand, allowed only 90 seconds each, once. Khomyuk investigates the Moscow archives and confronts Dyatlov, who knows the government is not interested in the truth. Meeting away from KGB bugs, Shcherbina and Legasov inform Khomyuk they must testify as experts in the trial of Dyatlov, Bryukhanov, and Fomin, and Legasov will address the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Khomyuk reveals an article about an identical incident at the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant in 1975, suppressed by the KGB, and tells them Lyudmilla gave birth to a girl who soon died from radiation poisoning. Khomyuk urges Legasov to tell the IAEA the complete truth, while Shcherbina urges caution to avoid government retaliation.
Following Legasov's testimony to the IAEA in Vienna, in which he lies, Dyatlov, Bryukhanov, and Fomin are put on trial in the abandoned city of Chernobyl. Shcherbina is called first to give testimony, explaining the general workings of a nuclear power plant. Khomyuk and Legasov testify on the events leading up to the accident, based on interviews with people in the control room. Flashbacks show that due to a ten-hour delay in the safety test and Dyatlov's impatience to carry it out, the reactor stalled, then experienced a power spike. Akimov activated the emergency shutdown, but a design flaw in the control rods spiked the power to ten times the reactor's limit before it exploded. Legasov reveals the suppressed information about the Leningrad plant, admitting he lied in his previous testimony in Vienna. He is detained by the KGB and informed that his testimony will be suppressed in the state media; furthermore, he is forbidden to speak to anyone about Chernobyl, he will receive no credit for his role in containing the disaster, and he will never work again. The ending shows pictures and video of the real Legasov and other major players, revealing their fates, as well as the ongoing aftermath of the accident.
About Kshitij Bombarde