Chernobyl

[Figgygal]

Anyone watching?
I work in the nuclear industry but not in a direct technical role
It's fascinating

I can't believe how casual they all are

Though everyone speaking in very English accents is a but offputting

I watched it last night and was horrified.
The scientists/plant workers knew the gravity but the execs/councillors wouldn't believe them.

The poor firemen being sent in. Just heartbreaking.

I watched a great programme a few years back about the construction of the huge structure built around the reactor and how it has slid into place etc. I'd really recommend that.

I watched this on catch up last night and it was horrific! I mean, I know the story, because I was 12 when it happened and I've seen things on TV since then about it, but I thought it was very well done in terms of no one knowing what had happened straight after, so the civilian population were all horribly expose. The poor firemen, the families all watching as the toxic ash fell on them, the lone voices of good sense being immediately shut down and accused of being unpatriotic. Horrendous

Why was. Cumbria such a risk area. I was a kid in the 80s and have vague memories of it on the news and the fear of it reaching us. But wouldn't it have hit Yorkshire or Cleveland first? Had no idea there were border/restrictions in Cumbria? Were you not allowed past theend of the road then FabulouslyFab?

Was this connected to the acid rain fear in the 1980s? There was a lot about acid rain on newsround and it's not a thing now? But it always seemed to be heading to us from mainland Europe?

I watched it last night. Great programme, but kept thinking 'Holy shit, this was real'. People so terrified of the establishment that they obeyed orders knowing full well it would result in their death. It's hard to comprehend how people stood back and did nothing to try and limit the fallout. It must have affected a much much wider area than anyone ever let on, most of Europe and Russia, surely?

I think the issue with Cumbria was that the radioactive cloud passed over Britain and it rained while it was over Cumbria, dumping radioactive material. Sheep then grazed those radioactive hillsides and became radioactive themselves, including their wool (which I think was how it was discovered). Something like that ...

A friend of mine was in Cumbria on holiday that summer (her parents had a cottage), and they were told not to drink the milk from local cows.

And no - acid rain is a separate issue due to air pollution containing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide (i.e. from vehicle exhausts, industry, even volcanic eruptions!)

It was horrific realising this actually happened and they where real people with real lives.

There's a beautiful, haunting, heartbreaking, devastating book about it. It's an oral history and it's called Chernobyl Prayer

Gingernaut

I just watched that Youtube link you posted - it was excellent, very informative and sad and horrifying. Those divers were so brave.

Checking in for tonight

Is there anyway you can watch it without Sky?

The episode is available on Sky Anytime- DH and I have just watched it.

I can't help watch it but honestly my breath goes short as soon as it starts!

It was even more gripping last night, which feels sort of wrong to say as it's obviously not fiction.

Those volunteers :/

Emily Watson, brilliant as ever.

*Is there anyway you can watch it without Sky?
*
I don't think so as it's so new but it could change.

@hedgehog thank you, I’ve just ordered that book on your recommendation. Sounds harrowing and interesting.

www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/chernobyl/backgrounder/en/

I haven't watched it yet I know a few people with thyroid cancer which is very rare, all mid 40s - just wondering .....

We watch via now tv. Dongle thing cost £20/£25 and get 3 months free! Big little lies coming back soon (and also game of thrones) so good time to buy! Think its then £8 a month.

I was about to recommend the same film as Gingernaut.

Chernobyl was one of the reasons the USSR opened up, Gorbachev was being told everything was fine but then had Sweden contacting him to say it wasn't fine at all and that they were detecting radiation.

The mayday celebrations went ahead in Kiev that year, no one knows how many more deaths were caused by that.

Whilst this was all happening the power station continued working, and carried on until about 2000.

I am obsessed by this series - it's so well done and the musical score is perfect and increases the feeling of creeping dread. The performances are fabulous. The podcast is really good too and I recommend listening - it's available on youtube. Brilliant and heartbreaking stories of bravery. Those three volunteers last night - what heroes.

It's an amazing show and so heartbreaking to watch. I've been keeping it together but just watched the last episode and of all the things to set me off into tears was the buses leaving and a dog chasing after one.

One of my best friends grew up in Poland and she said it used to be a bit of a dark joke in her family that she got radiation 'powers' because she's so much taller than everyone else in her family(she's been 6 feet tall since age 13 I think). Joke because obviously it wasn't that, it was just 'how else do you explain when the milkman wasn't even tall'.

Then they found out years later that they were in a highly effected region, and her Mother ended up with far too many cancers and dying early.

There's a woman who does wonderful nuclear podcasts and has one about Chernobyl, her trip there and some of the books/personal testimony about it if anyone is interested. Her name's Julie McDowell and you can find them under Atomic Hobo.

And please Mumsnet, let the paragraphs show on this post so I don't look like a total rambler.

Your paragraphs are perfect Rugger .

I remember Chernobyl very well, as I was 28 in 1986. This series perfectly illustrates the Soviet "the State is never wrong and nothing can go wrong under Soviet administration" shit that they used to parrot.

Thank God for Gorbachev.

There is another film "Citizen X" about a Russian serial killer (true case) that takes place over several years under changing Soviet regimes, and how the attitude at the top starts with "there are no serial killers under the Soviet system, only in the decadent West", to proper detection under more enlightened leaders (watch the portraits on the wall). Brilliant film.

Deadwife