Chernobyl

[NannaNoodleman]

Bloody hell! We've just watched episode 1. That was intense.

I'm a bit shocked.

This was excellent.

Outstanding series. I knew what happened was bad but I had no idea the enormity of what happened and how bad it could have been. I still can’t get over the lies that we’re told just to save face. Incredible.

Still can't stop thinking about the reactor lid 'jumping' before it blew... chilling series but such a good (though difficult) watch.

Absolutely brilliant. Desperately sad but brilliantly done. Finished it last night and thought about it repeatedly today.

At the end of the last episode, the song they are singing (which is also the title of the episode) is vechnaya pamyat, which means ‘memory eternal’ and is sung during Orthodox funerals

Amazing, I've been thinking about it all day. Apparently a very harrowing scene was cut from the dog episode as it was thought to be too much

This was the most brilliantly written, produced and acted drama I've ever seen.

The story is so harrowing. It's almost unbelievable.

I don't however quite get how everyone who was on the bridge but people who were in the plant that night survived.

I also don't get how one chap who was sentenced to 10 years labour then went back to work at....................a nuclear power plant. I get that he was but a small cog in a big machine but if he turned up to work next to me I'd be checking his work!!

When I was at High school in the early 90s we had kids our age from Pripyat visit. Despite being only 8 in 1986 I vividly remember it being in the news (great long term memory one of the few joys of aspergers I guess!)

What a show. DH and I both rushed home from work each week to watch it.

DH is a nuclear power engineer, currently constructing a site, and said its excellent. He was concerned that it would perpetuate the myth that nuclear = bad but has been really impressed with how factual it was. It was a freakish set of circumstances that led to it, so DH was keen to see how it was presented to the layman.

flowerycurtain I don't however quite get how everyone who was on the bridge [died] but people who were in the plant that night survived.

The ones inside the plant were protected to a certain extent by the structure of the plant itself - they were inside thick walls/ceilings. The ones on the bridge were literally bathed in the early radiation, and were showered in radioactive dust/debris from the explosion.

I just finished watching it today and had to talk to someone as no one i know has seen it/finished it yet. I knew there would be a thread!

I wasnt born until 1989 but studied contemporary history so knew something of it and have watched a few documentaries on it (did anyone watch the one about the making of the sarcophagus that was completed only recently?) But watching this i didnt realise how little i knew!

Its left me feeling really disturbed (if thats the right word) its not stopping me googling everything about it though!

It's haunting. It stays with you.

I thought I knew a fair bit about Chernobyl but seeing it like this is something else.

That baby on the bridge haunts me.

I can't get the burial in concrete out of my mind. One of the most gut wrenching things I've seen on tv.

The concrete burial was pretty confronting

Who is looking forward to the bonkers Russian version where the CIA is involved? www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/russia-making-own-tv-series-chernobyl-nuclear-disaster-1216383

Thought this was brilliant ( though I had to fast forward through last week's hunting scenes). The final frame with the official number of deaths as 31 said it all.

I started the podcast today on a run, it was the most interesting 5k I've ever done!

It's made me want to watch again

What’s the name of the podcast MozzChops? I can’t seem to find it!!

It's called The Chernobyl Podcast.

Thankyou

The podcast was almost as good as the show, I've started reading Chernobyl Prayer on their recommendation.

It's brutal but fascinating.

When this came out I thought it was like one of those documentaries where they have people talking interspersed with (usually pretty poor) dramatisation of the events.

Watched the first episode and was just like

We watched episode 3 last night and jesus christ, those poor men. It's literally unimaginable. I was another who just thought it was so barbaric keeping them alive. I can't believe it happened in real life tbh.

What I thought they captured so well in the first episode was the total ignorance/naivety/denial of what was happening. The way the firemen just went there as if it was another job. And then the plant workers realising what was happening but by then it was just too late and they had already been soaked in radiation. The sense of doom is so palpable.

Would they (the plant workers) have known the effects of such high doses of radiation at that point? Even when they knew they weren't going to survive, would they have known how horrific their deaths were going to be?

The plant workers didn't how exactly how much radiation they were getting at first. The instruments only went up to 3.6 Roentgens so they were falsely reassured it 'wasn't that bad'. Poor buggers. It was only later they discovered just how bad it was.

Nuclear power is always highly politicised. Windscale was squarely blamed at the staff who tried to minimise the damage at first. It was a military installation and the UK did not want the Americans to believe that we are incompetent.

YahBasic I am trying to convince DS (11) to be a nuclear engineer. Decommissioning is a job for several lifetimes.

@Elenade I do think it is the way forward to bridge the gap between fossil fuels, until we can store renewable energy.

DH loves his job. He studied mechanical engineering so can technically cover most types of power plant. Like you say, it is a decent job with skills for life, and DH earns good money (75k+ in the UK and more if abroad). There are such skills shortages in the UK around nuclear plus most companies are offering apprenticeship schemes so debt free!