Chernobyl HBO Miniseries

Here's the first teaser trailer of the upcoming russian Chernobyl The Abyss movie. Stars top box office names like Danila Kozlovsky. Everyone already hates it online since HBO series acquired a cult status here but we'll see. Anyway, it looks more like a traditional catastrophe movie. The good thing is the station itself looks more authentic than on HBO, just like I remember it looking from the TV reports I saw as a kid.

 

But will they blame American spies and bombs for the disaster?

 

Don't think so.

 

great series, I think HBO did a great job. Scary and real stuff, must remember the brave men and women who were part of liquidation efforts

 

I watched the 5 parts on dvd yesterday in one sitting. Wow, powerful stuff. Although its a drama and not a documentary, I didn't get the impression that the filmmakers took too many liberties and attempted to keep things as realistic as possible. There are certainly a lot of people who are alive today thanks to the bravery of men and women who put others before themselves.

 

There are some inaccuracies including the whole ‘bridge of death’ references. There were also some factual shortcuts and at least 0ne major character Created to represent many many people. The changes (with the exception of the myth of the bridge of death) made sense dramatically. There were other dramatic license taken but it is a dramatization and most made sense.

 

I have not seen the series but have segments on YouTube. It does appear to be well done but it also does contain many factual inaccuracies.

One scene that comes to mind was the scene in the hospital where a visitor to an exposed radiation victim is warned about him being radioactive, which is not accurate.

 

I just binged the HBO series. What a great job telling this story. Tremendous human sacrifice on the part of so many people to contain the damages.

 

Now the big trailer for the upcoming russian Chernobyl. I hate the main star Danila Kozlovsky so I'm unlikely to even watch this. One cliche after another. Way too mainstream compared to the wonderful HBO. No english subtitles yet but we all know the story.

 

Appears to have taken lots of liberties. There's no way anyone could fight the fires for anymore than a few minutes. That's why there were so many liquidators.

 

You're referring to Lyudmilla Ignatenko, wife of Vasily the firefighter. The show went to fairly great lengths to show how she was stonewalled in trying to see her husband or find out anything about his condition. Through sheer force of will, she manipulated and bribed her way to find out where he was hospitalized in Moscow, and defied everyone's rules to visit her husband. In the show, the hospital administrators did not want to tell her anything about her husband, and she only learned about him being radioactive because she happened to be at the Moscow hospital same time as the Emily Watson character, who saw her in the room with her husband and pulled her away.

If I recall correctly, Lyudmilla was told about the radiation exposure by the Emily Watson character, a nuclear physicist who didn't care about the party rules. I think everyone understands these events were not 100% accurate, but you implied that the hospital in the show was letting in visitors and was forthcoming with information about radiation, and this isn't at all what is depicted in the show. The Emily Watson character was granted access to the radiation patients because she was serving in an official capacity to get their account of what caused the disaster. I don't think any other hospital visitors were shown, whatsoever.

 

I am not implying anything of the sort.

What I am definitely stating is that people who are exposed to radiation, even high doses of radiation, do not become radioactive.

Anyone around them is completely safe from a radiation standpoint. Don't care about the woman or why she was there, this is completely incorrect.

 

Ah, sorry I misunderstood. There is conflicting info about this, but CDC's web page states:
People who are externally contaminated with radioactive material can contaminate other people or surfaces that they touch. For example, people who have radioactive dust on their clothing may spread the radioactive dust when they sit in chairs or hug other people.
People who are internally contaminated can expose people near them to radiation from the radioactive material inside their bodies. The body fluids (blood, sweat, urine) of an internally contaminated person can contain radioactive materials. Coming in contact with these body fluids can result in contamination and/or exposure.

Radioactive Contamination and Radiation Exposure | CDC

 

Everything in Chernobyl is contaminated. You should think twice before touching anything.

 

The music is well done by Hildur Guðnadóttir, a well deserved Academy award (for once).

 

For sure, it's not on my list of places to visit in this lifetime.

 

Duh... People who have mustard on the outside of their bodies or clothes can pass it on to another person or object.

They didn't bring radioactively contaminated clothes into a hospital facility. Any radioactive contamination that anyone has on the outside of their bodies is removed by scrubbing and verified by a geiger counter.

That happens when nuclear tests are administered at a hospital. This is where the test subject is administered a short lived radioactive tracer for radiological imaging purposes. A tracer, like technetium 99m, is a pure gamma ray emitter that penetrates the surface of the body, from within.

Technetium 99m has a half life of 6-hours, so if others are around the test subject for long periods of time, within a couple of days after of the procedure, then others can receive gamma radiation.

If you took in fission fragments from the reactor, these products decay by beta radiation and would not penetrate to the outside of the body.

 

The contaminated clothing is still in the hospital. The absorption of Cs-137 and Sr-90 is one of the serious side affects of a nuclear accident. In the immediate aftermath, I-131 would be a problem, although less so in the weeks following the accident. The absorption of Sr-90 by children who grew up during the atomic weapons test era of the 1950s and 60s is well known. Also, many of the liquidators have limited protection. Even in the subsequent decades, scientists working of finding what happened to the core, were carrying out procedures considered dangerous in the west, like drilling into the reactor (which is empty apart from tangled bits of metal - the reactor had likely undergone a nuclear exposion, albeit a small one).

 

I wouldn't eat anything grown or lived in the exclusion zone for sure. There are areas where radiation levels are relatively low, like similar to the background levels found in major cities. But some things (the claw) are highly radioactive. Someone did a tour of the hospital and saw a fireman's helmet. Do not touch under any circumstances.
Pripyat Hospital | The Chernobyl Gallery

I wouldn't really be keen on visiting the reactor 4 control room.

 

You have to remember the first the west realised something had gone wrong was when workers at a nuclear plant in Sweden had excess level of radiation on their clothing. The Swedes originally thought there was a problem at their reactor. The Soviets only came clean when Sweden threatened to report the incident to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Radioactive particles get everywhere. I remember they stopped Welsh hillfarmers from selling meat because of the high levels of radioaction.

 

There was no nuclear explosion. Most likely there were two: first thermal explosion inside the reactor and then the explosion of volatile mix that was created inside the reactor room.

In some of the newer videos from the hospital basement it was revealed that the helmet is already gone.

There are actually official tours into reactor 4 control room. I'm thinking about going there once the COVID restriction are finally lifted.

 

Chernobyl Appendix 1: Sequence of Events - World Nuclear Association
The first explosion was a steam one. The second one was probably due to the build up of hydrogen. The fuel melting down to the water table could well have led to a nuclear explosion, but it is most likely the hydrogen just ignited, causing the second large explosion.

Hopefully, the authorities removed the helmet, and not some visitor. I think you get about 5 minutes in the control. You can see the actual button the operator pressed (AZ-5).

 

In the basement or wherever the clothes were removed. They pose no danger to anyone that is not in the immediate proximity.

Ceasium-137 is chemically similar to potassium and does not tend to accumulate in the body. The dangers of Cs-137 are from external exposure to its gamma radiation.

One does not just "absorb" physical particles.

The problem with the exposure to Iodine-131 can sublimate into a gas that can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin. It can also work its way into milk and dairy products and is absorbed by the thyroid gland. While it has a short half life of 8-days, the problems in Chernobyl were due to the delay in the government providing Iodine pills.

Strontium-90 is chemically similar to potassium and does accumulate in the bones. This is something that occured over long periods of time that occurred during the periods that atomic weapons were tested above ground.

No!

 

If I had to guess, I'd say it's in someone's private collection now.

 

Were still there in Summer 2020