re: Chernobyl starting tomorrow on HBO

I was surprised when I read the death toll was so low.

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I was surprised when I read the death toll was so low.

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Forbes Article - "The Reason They Fictionalize Nuclear Disasters Like Chernobyl Is Because They Kill So Few People"

After watching the show (great first episode) I came across this article. I was curious to see how close to real life this show depicts the disaster. A few points that stood out to me from the article:

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I was thus pleasantly surprised when HBO’s “Chernobyl” writer and director, Craig Mazin, tweeted on April 8, “The lesson of Chernobyl isn’t that modern nuclear power is dangerous. The lesson is that lying, arrogance, and suppression of criticism are dangerous.” Mazin later told a reporter, “I’m pro-nuclear power, I think that nuclear power is essential to combat climate change.” He later agreed with a tweet that said Chernobyl could not happen in the US. Mazin insisted that his mini-series would stick to the facts. "I defer to the less dramatic version of things,” Mazin said, adding, “you don’t want to cross a line into the sensational."

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I was left thinking that dozens of workers and firefighters were immediately killed, but according to the official United Nations report (p. 66) on the accident, just two workers, not dozens, or hundreds, were killed within a few hours of the explosion.

Neither of the workers died from radiation. One was killed by the rubble from the explosion and the other by thermal burns from the fire.

Two weeks later, firefighters and first responders started to die. Having been burned in the fire appears to have played a major role.

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If the body of the man who propped open the door to the reactor hall really did bleed, it would have had to have been from the fire, or hot metal door, not the radiation.

Similarly, the red faces of the workers would have been from the fire, not the radiation. Radiation can redden skin but not until many days after exposure.

I don’t know if Mazin and HBO meant for viewers to assume that all of the symptoms that viewers witnessed were from radiation, instead of from fire, or that many more workers and firefighters died right away than actually did, but that was the impression I was left with.

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Chernobyl’s total death toll is small compared to other famous disasters. According to the United Nations, 28 first responders died a few weeks after the accident, and since then 19 died for ”various reasons” including tuberculosis, cirrhosis of the liver, heart attacks, and trauma. The U.N. concluded that “the assignment of radiation as the cause of death has become less clear.”

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Absolutely, I’ve worked places like that, I guess we probably all have.

When someone made a mistake. Their first move was to downplay it, hide it, or find a way to blame someone else.

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Chernobyl’s total death toll is small compared to other famous disasters. According to the United Nations, 28 first responders died a few weeks after the accident, and since then 19 died for ”various reasons” including tuberculosis, cirrhosis of the liver, heart attacks, and trauma. The U.N. concluded that “the assignment of radiation as the cause of death has become less clear.”

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I distinctly remember watching a history channel show on three mile island where the narrator reported the deaths attributed to the Chernobyl disaster was in the thousands. Strange that there is so much misinformation out there.

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Does the red stuff make me an X-Man?

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No...it’ll just kill you very quickly...the red that has sunken into the basement at the very bottom is known as the elephants foot...google it for an interesting read

As a former Nuke, I watched it after reading this thread just out of curiosity. I will likely continue to watch it as time allows just to see how they present the rest vs what I have been briefed about it, which was a long time ago.

It surely awakened a lot of topics and information that I have not thought about for a very long time.

I actually wish they had done the series in Russian with subtitles. The way it is now feels a little "Hunt for Red October"-ish.

It is amazing that the plant stayed operational producing electricity until 2000.

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Thank you for the link.

I had always assumed, like a lot of people I suppose, that thousands died.

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According to the official United Nations report (p. 66) on the accident, just two workers, not dozens, or hundreds, were killed within a few hours of the explosion.

Neither of the workers died from radiation. One was killed by the rubble from the explosion and the other by thermal burns from the fire.

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wow even more interesting regarding thyroids:

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Since thyroid cancer has a mortality rate of just one percent, that means the expected deaths from thyroid cancers caused by Chernobyl will be 50 to 160, with the vast majority of them occurring in the elderly.

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LINK

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This is what I can’t find an answer to. How did all the workers keep the other generators going. Wouldn’t they be very close to the radiation each day? How did that work?

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i just assumed they ran it remotely and it was more dangerous to shut the other 3 down than just let them continue to run while they came up with a solution to ease them into retirement but i'm talking out of my arse