New Chernobyl mini-series delivers big drama without nuclear-scale hyperbole

Insidious Soviet-era leadership is the villain in this dark five-episode drama.

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[alphathreethree]

I've been looking forward to this series since I first saw the trailer. The disaster was a one of a kind event in human history. Really looking forward to dramatization of what happened and why. (and what could have happened...I remember hearing people say that the core could have melted its way all the way down into earth's mantle)

 

[kylector]

Is it released all at once or one episode per week? I think it is most common for HBO to release on a weekly schedule but would like clarification.

 

[Gyrotica]

The disaster was a one of a kind event in human history.

We hope.

 

[foetusinc]

This just combines sooooo many of My Things. Incredibly excited to check it out tonight.

 

[bjf182]

Curious if this is in any way based on the book "Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster" by Adam Higginbotham. Was an eye opening account of just how improvised the entire response was.

 

[570rmy]

I am exited to sit back and watch HBO tonight for both this and the new episode of Gentleman Jack. Pretty stoked, and good write up!

 

[Baron von Robber]

I remember seeing the footage from a helicopter of people throwing in sand from shovels into the melting pit from above. Those poor sods knew they were going to die.

 

[Albino_Boo]

I've been looking forward to this series since I first saw the trailer. The disaster was a one of a kind event in human history. Really looking forward to dramatization of what happened and why. (and what could have happened...I remember hearing people say that the core could have melted its way all the way down into earth's mantle)

The core melt idea came from the film China Syndrome, which came out about 5 years before.

 

[qedashin]

Is it released all at once or one episode per week? I think it is most common for HBO to release on a weekly schedule but would like clarification.

According to the schedule I can find, it's one episode per week.

 

[Martin Hooper]

This one sounds like something I would want to watch - Let's hope it makes its way over to the UK sometime...

 

[mschmitt]

Frederik Pohl's 1987 novel Chernobyl has a good hard-science explanation of exactly what went wrong.


Edit: formatting

 

[Sajuuk]

I remember seeing the footage from a helicopter of people throwing in sand from shovels into the melting pit from above. Those poor sods knew they were going to die.

All of the "Liquidators" were god damn heroes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_liquidators

 

[Limabean]

I'm in the midst of reading Midnight in Chernobyl, a book by Adam Higginbotham that recounts the accident and its aftermath in detail. It was truly an accident waiting to happen. Fatal design flaws in the reactor, utter lack of preparedness, hubris in the political chain of command, disinformation after the accident provided to neighboring countries as well as citizens in the Soviet Union, initial refusal to accept technical help from experts in Western countries exacerbated the effects of the incident. The description of the effects on the body from exposure to radiation are terrifying.

The manufacturing of component parts for the reactor was so sloppy that many of the parts were required to be disassembled and reassembled before inclusion in the construction.

After the initial meltdown, some experts in the Soviet Union believed that the extreme heat of the core could result in its melting through the structures beneath it (the "China Syndrome"), which would have contaminated the water table and a major river that supplied water to millions. There was a heroic attempt to smother the exposed core with lead, graphite sand and other materials wrapped in parachute material that were dropped by helicopter, but that only served to kick up radioactive dust that spread far and wide making the effect of the accident even worse.

I'm looking forward to seeing HBO's mini-series.

 

[mmiller7]

Congratulations, you finally found something that makes me wish I had cable, and HBO. Never have cared about those ultra-premium-expensive-tier channels before.

Wonder if they will come out in any rentable form or streaming...or if I'll have to wait until I visit some friend who has "acquired" them to watch...

 

[mvmiller12]

"[Legasov] wasn’t a bad guy," Mazin said. "What he was was like all of us, I think, going along to get along. When we’re not in crisis…we go along, and we continue to do so until a crisis dislodges us from our daily lives... then one day a nuclear power plant explodes and you can’t going through your day pretending that these little decisions don’t amount to big problems."

This is a concept I have always found to be fascinating. How it is human nature to take small "one-time" shortcuts that eventually morph into routine and how the routine stays until the inevitable crisis unfolds as a result. Everyone is surprised by the disaster because they were just doing the same things they always do and it was never a big deal before.

Sometimes the inertia is so strong that even after the disaster, routine does not change thus perpetuating the cycle.

The same applies to our willingness to overlook little warnings; nothing bad actually happened today, so nothing bad will happen tomorrow, So many things in our history can be explained by this simple human trait. There's always a little earthquake, smoke from the volcano, a little bad weather... it's never a big deal, right?

 

[Komarov]

The disaster was a one of a kind event in human history.

We hope.

It probably is, unfortunately I half expect the next one coming close to be World War 3, where we blow up the whole planet in global nuclear winter...

I don't know ... Fukushima wasn't worse, strictly speaking, but building a nuclear power plant on a shore where tsunamis are fairly regular was hubris of Soviet proportions. Of course, the Japanese were much better prepared to deal with the aftermath.

 

[SierraAlphaHotel]

This one sounds like something I would want to watch - Let's hope it makes its way over to the UK sometime...

I’ve seen it advertised as being on Sky Atlantic (in the UK) but this would be another subscription too far for me. I’m hoping it is released on Blu-ray in the future.

*edit Review from the BBC:

Spoiler

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48152005

 

[mvmiller12]

Congratulations, you finally found something that makes me wish I had cable, and HBO. Never have cared about those ultra-premium-expensive-tier channels before.

Wonder if they will come out in any rentable form or streaming...or if I'll have to wait until I visit some friend who has "acquired" them to watch...

Unlike Netflix, HBO is really good about releasing their original content on disk some time after the fact. Not necessarily quickly, but it all gets released eventually...

 

[jwbaker]

Curious if this is in any way based on the book "Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster" by Adam Higginbotham. Was an eye opening account of just how improvised the entire response was.

Looking at the scenes in the trailer and the characters in these photos, it seems like it would almost have to be based on this book.

 

[NoDanaOnlyZuul]

Congratulations, you finally found something that makes me wish I had cable, and HBO. Never have cared about those ultra-premium-expensive-tier channels before.

Wonder if they will come out in any rentable form or streaming...or if I'll have to wait until I visit some friend who has "acquired" them to watch...

You don't need to have cable to stream HBO content. I have a streaming subscription to HBO Now, been using it to watch Game of Thrones, and am looking forward to this series. HBO Now is $15/mo (plus tax), you can subscribe through the Google Play store, Apple App Store, or Roku (maybe others, too).

 

[SierraAlphaHotel]

Congratulations, you finally found something that makes me wish I had cable, and HBO. Never have cared about those ultra-premium-expensive-tier channels before.

Wonder if they will come out in any rentable form or streaming...or if I'll have to wait until I visit some friend who has "acquired" them to watch...

Unlike Netflix, HBO is really good about releasing their original content on disk some time after the fact. Not necessarily quickly, but it all gets released eventually...

Yes, HBO’s Westworld on UHD Blu-ray is a rare gem.

 

[syncline]

"[Legasov] wasn’t a bad guy," Mazin said. "What he was was like all of us, I think, going along to get along. When we’re not in crisis…we go along, and we continue to do so until a crisis dislodges us from our daily lives... then one day a nuclear power plant explodes and you can’t going through your day pretending that these little decisions don’t amount to big problems."

This is a concept I have always found to be fascinating. How it is human nature to take small "one-time" shortcuts that eventually morph into routine and how the routine stays until the inevitable crisis unfolds as a result. Everyone is surprised by the disaster because they were just doing the same things they always do and it was never a big deal before.

Sometimes the inertia is so strong that even after the disaster, routine does not change thus perpetuating the cycle.

The same applies to our willingness to overlook little warnings; nothing bad actually happened today, so nothing bad will happen tomorrow, So many things in our history can be explained by this simple human trait. There's always a little earthquake, smoke from the volcano, a little bad weather... it's never a big deal, right?

I would argue that a similar, but not identical, 'human nature' sensibility as you describe is at the root of many peoples reactions to... and thoughts about... climate change.

 

[digital0verdose]

Looks decent enough, will check it out

I love how you get downvoted simply because of your name , how very tolerant of other peoples beliefs are they.

I didn't notice his screen name until you mentioned it. I downvoted him because of his comment and wink, as if HBO isn't known for quality productions. Interesting assumption you made though.

I also downvoted yours for inaccuracy, at least as it relates to how I treated his comment.

 

[Albino_Boo]

"[Legasov] wasn’t a bad guy," Mazin said. "What he was was like all of us, I think, going along to get along. When we’re not in crisis…we go along, and we continue to do so until a crisis dislodges us from our daily lives... then one day a nuclear power plant explodes and you can’t going through your day pretending that these little decisions don’t amount to big problems."

This is a concept I have always found to be fascinating. How it is human nature to take small "one-time" shortcuts that eventually morph into routine and how the routine stays until the inevitable crisis unfolds as a result. Everyone is surprised by the disaster because they were just doing the same things they always do and it was never a big deal before.

Sometimes the inertia is so strong that even after the disaster, routine does not change thus perpetuating the cycle.

The same applies to our willingness to overlook little warnings; nothing bad actually happened today, so nothing bad will happen tomorrow, So many things in our history can be explained by this simple human trait. There's always a little earthquake, smoke from the volcano, a little bad weather... it's never a big deal, right?

Disagreeing with official decisions in the Soviet Union in this period could be up with being declared a non person and excluded from all but the most menial jobs. The other option was being declared insane under psychopathological mechanisms of dissent and sent to spend the rest of your life in a psychiatric hospital.

 

[FireWraith]

The disaster was a one of a kind event in human history.

We hope.

It probably is, unfortunately I half expect the next one coming close to be World War 3, where we blow up the whole planet in global nuclear winter...

I don't know ... Fukushima wasn't worse, strictly speaking, but building a nuclear power plant on a shore where tsunamis are fairly regular was hubris of Soviet proportions. Of course, the Japanese were much better prepared to deal with the aftermath.

First, you need to build (western-style) nuclear plants near a large body of water, to use it for cooling purposes. We do the same thing here, and even built one on the California Coast in the earthquake zone (which has since been decommissioned though).

Furthermore, there's absolutely nothing wrong with building one in a potential Tsunami zone. The problem was that they failed to properly account for the risk, and didn't have contingency plans in place that worked. The Fukushima meltdown was a combination of failures, and was in no way guaranteed to happen.

There's an interesting story related to this, about the village of Fudai, which was the only place in the region that survived the March 2011 tsunami unscathed. It did so because it had far better protections than anywhere else, thanks to an obsessed mayor who insisted on that, and did so despite people at the time criticizing what was seen as wasteful and unnecessary spending. Where most of the coastal towns thought a 33 foot high seawall was sufficient, he insisted on not only a 51 foot seawall, but also giant flood control gate for the river. Turns out he was right, and everyone else underestimated:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/43018489/ns/w ... d-tsunami/

 

[Defenestrar]

This might make a good "lunch and learn" style training. From the trailer it looks like a good topic for engineering ethics, but I've previously used the reactor design itself to emphasize safety by design.

 

[RandalierBear]

I remember seeing the footage from a helicopter of people throwing in sand from shovels into the melting pit from above. Those poor sods knew they were going to die.

Most of them had no idea they were already dead. Especially the fire fighters. Even today most people do not understand nuclear power, back then even fewer did.
The people sending them in knew. They knew most of those guys would be dead soon.

 

[OtherSystemGuy]

This is a concept I have always found to be fascinating. How it is human nature to take small "one-time" shortcuts that eventually morph into routine and how the routine stays until the inevitable crisis unfolds as a result. Everyone is surprised by the disaster because they were just doing the same things they always do and it was never a big deal before.

Sometimes the inertia is so strong that even after the disaster, routine does not change thus perpetuating the cycle.

The same applies to our willingness to overlook little warnings; nothing bad actually happened today, so nothing bad will happen tomorrow, So many things in our history can be explained by this simple human trait. There's always a little earthquake, smoke from the volcano, a little bad weather... it's never a big deal, right?

There’s a term for this coined during the Challenger accident report: “normalization of deviance”. See Diane Vaughan’s research. The problem is we don’t really learn. NASA didn’t and we lost Columbia to ‘routine’ ice shedding. People text and drive because, well I didn’t hit anything last time...

 

[Richard Malcolm]

Jared Harris alone is enough to get me to tune in for this.

But it really does sound like the effort was made to do justice to this horrific story.

 

[Maury Markowitz]

The core melt idea came from the film China Syndrome, which came out about 5 years before.

The film makes it very clear that the term is a euphemism and that any sort of descent would end when it hit the local water table.

 

[Maury Markowitz]

I remember seeing the footage from a helicopter of people throwing in sand from shovels into the melting pit from above. Those poor sods knew they were going to die.

Jimmy Carter did exactly that at Chalk River. He's going to outlive us all.

 

[Albino_Boo]

The core melt idea came from the film China Syndrome, which came out about 5 years before.

The film makes it very clear that the term is a euphemism and that any sort of descent would end when it hit the local water table.

You know I was actually alive at the time that is not what the public took from the film and no amount of copy pasting from Wikipedia changes that.

 

[RandalierBear]

The disaster was a one of a kind event in human history.

We hope.

It probably is, unfortunately I half expect the next one coming close to be World War 3, where we blow up the whole planet in global nuclear winter...

I don't know ... Fukushima wasn't worse, strictly speaking, but building a nuclear power plant on a shore where tsunamis are fairly regular was hubris of Soviet proportions. Of course, the Japanese were much better prepared to deal with the aftermath.

First, you need to build (western-style) nuclear plants near a large body of water, to use it for cooling purposes. We do the same thing here, and even built one on the California Coast in the earthquake zone (which has since been decommissioned though).

Furthermore, there's absolutely nothing wrong with building one in a potential Tsunami zone. The problem was that they failed to properly account for the risk, and didn't have contingency plans in place that worked. The Fukushima meltdown was a combination of failures, and was in no way guaranteed to happen.

There's an interesting story related to this, about the village of Fudai, which was the only place in the region that survived the March 2011 tsunami unscathed. It did so because it had far better protections than anywhere else, thanks to an obsessed mayor who insisted on that, and did so despite people at the time criticizing what was seen as wasteful and unnecessary spending. Where most of the coastal towns thought a 33 foot high seawall was sufficient, he insisted on not only a 51 foot seawall, but also giant flood control gate for the river. Turns out he was right, and everyone else underestimated:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/43018489/ns/w ... d-tsunami/

There was a scientist running from mayor to mayor, official to offical, telling them he uncovered evidence that the area has been hit with a major tsunami once every few hundred years, he did that for over 20 years. His name was Koji Minoura, he was a Paleontologist, so almost everyone dismissed his theory. Because what does a fossil guy know about eathquakes?
There was plenty forwarning, but people tend to ignore things they cannot understand.
Other towns had flood walls, too. But none was big enough to stop the tsunami. The Fudai one was.
Just like with all disaster preparedness there is no such thing as too much.

 

[Maury Markowitz]

Fukushima was identical "accident" to Chernobyl.

It was nothing of the sort, except in that it was a meltdown.

But that's like saying Swissair 111 is the same as AA 191 because they were both aircraft crashes.

There is a semi-reasonable documentary on Netflix about what happened there, go and watch it.