Jared Harris
Valery Legasov
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Episode Guide
- 1. 1:23:45 May 6, 2019
- Plant workers and firefighters work to control an explosion at a Soviet nuclear power plant.
- 2. Please Remain Calm May 13, 2019
- Nuclear physicist Ulana Khomyuk fears that a second explosion could devastate the continent.
- 3. Open Wide, O Earth May 20, 2019
- Lyudmilla Ignatenko ignores warnings about her firefighter husband's contamination.
At Chernobyl, approximately 100,000 square kilometres (39,000 sq mi) of land was significantly contaminated with fallout, with the worst hit regions being in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Lower levels of contamination were detected over all of Europe except for the Iberian Peninsula.
- Reactor design and operator error
- INES Level 7 (major accident)
- 26 April 1986; 37 years ago
- Where Is Chernobyl?
- What Happened at Chernobyl?
- Pripyat Evacuated
- Soviet Secrecy
- Chernobyl Disaster Spewed Radiation
- Chernobyl Sarcophagus
- Chernobyl Elephant’s Foot
- How Many People Died in Chernobyl?
- Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
- Chernobyl Animals Thrive
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
Chernobyl is located in northern Ukraine, about 80 miles north of Kiev. A small town, Pripyat, was constructed a few miles from the site of the nuclear plant to accommodate workers and their families. Construction of the Chernobyl power plant began in 1977, when the country was still part of the Soviet Union. By 1983, four reactors had been complet...
A routine exercise to test whether an emergency water cooling system would work during a power loss started at 1:23 a.m. on April 26. Within seconds, an uncontrolled reaction caused pressure to build up in Reactor No. 4 in the form of steam. The steam blasted the roof off the reactor, releasing plumes of radiation and chunks of burning, radioactive...
Meanwhile, life went on as usual for almost a day in the neighboring town of Pripyat. Aside from the sight of trucks cleaning the streets with foam, there were initially few signs of the disaster unfolding just miles away. It wasn’t until the next day, April 27, when the government began evacuations of Pripyat’s 50,000 residents. Residents were tol...
It took days for Soviet leadership to inform the international community that the disaster had occurred. The Soviet government made no official statement about the global-scale accident until Swedish leaders demanded an explanation when operators of a nuclear power plant in Stockholm registered unusually high radiation levels near their plant. Fina...
The damaged plant released a large quantity of radioactive substances, including iodine-131, cesium-137, plutonium and strontium-90, into the air for over a period of 10 days. The radioactive cloud was deposited nearby as dust and debris, but was also carried by wind over the Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Scandinavia and other parts of Europe. In an at...
Over a hurried construction period of 206 days, crews erected a steel and cement sarcophagus to entomb the damaged reactor and contain any further release of radiation. As former liquidator, Yaroslav Melnik, told the BBCin January 2017, “We worked in three shifts, but only for five to seven minutes at a time because of the danger. After finishing, ...
Deep within the basement of Reactor 4 lies the Chernobyl Elephant’s Foot, a huge mass of melted concrete, sand and highly radioactive nuclear fuel. The mass was named for its wrinkled appearance, which reminded some observers of the wrinkled skin of an elephant’s leg and foot. In the 1980s, the Elephant’s Foot gave off an estimated 10,000 roentgens...
Ukraine’s government declared in 1995 that 125,000 people had died from the effects of Chernobyl radiation. A 2005 report from the United NationsChernobyl Forum estimated that while fewer than 50 people were killed in the months following the accident, up to 9,000 people could eventually die from excess cancer deaths linked to radiation exposure fr...
Apart from the ever-unfolding human toll from the disaster, the Chernobyl accident also left behind a huge area of radiation-tainted land. A 770-mile-wide Chernobyl Exclusion Zone around the site isn’t considered safe for human habitation and can’t be used for logging or agriculture due to contaminated plants and soil. By 2017, however, entrepreneu...
Meanwhile, wildlife, including boars, wolves, beavers and bison, showed signs of flourishing at the Chernobyl site, according to an April 2016 study. The researchers pointed out that while radiation exposure couldn’t be good for the animals, the benefits of the absence of humans outweighed radiation risk.
Learn about the Chernobyl nuclear accident of 1986, when a routine test went horribly wrong and released 400 times more radiation than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Find out how the Soviet government, the people and the environment were affected by the meltdown, the cleanup and the aftermath of the worst nuclear accident in history.
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Apr 29, 2024 · Chernobyl disaster, accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in the Soviet Union in 1986, the worst disaster in nuclear power generation history. Between 2 and 50 people were killed in the initial explosions, and dozens more contracted serious radiation sickness, some of whom later died.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Watch the critically acclaimed drama based on the true events of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion and its aftermath. Follow the stories of the heroes and villains who tried to contain the disaster and expose the truth.
- (824K)
- Drama, History, Thriller
- TV-MA
- 2019-05-06
Mar 1, 2020 · The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel. Two Chernobyl plant workers died on the night of the accident, and a further 28 people died within a few weeks as a result of acute radiation poisoning.
May 17, 2019 · Learn about the worst nuclear accident in history, how it unfolded, who was affected, and what remains of the contaminated zone. Explore the long-term consequences for human health, wildlife, and the environment, as well as the political and cultural implications of Chernobyl.
Learn about the worst nuclear accident in history, which occurred in 1986 at the Chernobyl power station in Ukraine. Find out how the disaster affected the environment, the people, and the politics of the region and the world.
