Chernobyl miniseries - coming to Sky and HBO in May 2019

Deleted member 651465

D

Deleted member 651465

that poor sod in the first episode who was basically forced up on the roof, he knew he was going to be screwed but had no choice. radiation or the firing squad. **** that for options. though i'm guessing with hindsight he'd have taken the bullet!
He knew that if the reactor was open he’d be dead (if he looked directly down in to it).

Like you say, he also knew that he’d be shot for not following orders... so he probably went there knowing that either way he was a goner.

I’m rewatching from episode 1 and I’ve already studied it and seen countless documentaries... it’s that good. The podcast posted above is excellent too, as it perfectly compliments the show and gives you some behind the scenes info that puts you in the mind of the director/writer.
 
Soldato
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I've been watching this intently, I've watched most of the other documentaries and stuff about Chernobyl, but I think HBO's is the best yet.

They've done a spectacular job of capturing the bleakness of the whole thing. Probably one of the best series I've seen for a long long time.
 
Associate
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Yeah i think if i were that chap in the beginning looking into the reactor i would just stay there until i fried and passed oot which would have been a much better way to go that having a quick peek at **** loads of radiation then having a think about how bad an idea it was over the next week or two while dissolving away.
 
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It's incredibly accurate, probably the most accurate of any drama based on a real event that I've ever seen.

I only said not entirely accurate, and also that it doesn't detract from the overall experience. I think if it were incredibly accurate it may make it less interesting..

E.g. the helicopter crashing part wasn't actually during the boron/sand dropping exercise but during the creation of the concrete sarcophagus, and that it was due to hitting a cable from a crane or something, but it's inferred that it is entirely due to flying directly over the core. Similarly the numbers relating to the explosion if the core melted through to the water tanks were, apparently, greatly exaggerated. Both things not historically accurate but increase the impact of the show, IMO.
 
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Similarly the numbers relating to the explosion if the core melted through to the water tanks were, apparently, greatly exaggerated.

Yeah did they not say it was in the megatons ... Thats wildly massively out of proportion to what it would have been, ok it would have been a bang but nowt goes off with a megaton of bang other than earthquakes, impacts and big nukes (my gut after a heavy session might)
 
Associate
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Yeah did they not say it was in the megatons ... Thats wildly massively out of proportion to what it would have been, ok it would have been a bang but nowt goes off with a megaton of bang other than earthquakes, impacts and big nukes (my gut after a heavy session might)

Whilst this is just someone on the old readit, they did more math than i'm capable of and their flair says "Nuclear Engineer" so definitely 100% reliable...

It wouldn't be 4 or even 2 megatons, even if that's a quote from a youtube video of a Russian scientist. 2 megatons is ~2,350 gigawatt hours. The Chernobyl reactor at full power was about 3 gigawatts thermal. It would take 32 days of full power operation to have that much thermal energy available for the explosion.

In the limit of what is possible of thermal energy stored in the molten fuel... if we imagine the entire core is at the boiling point of uranium of around ~4000 degrees C. Say the heat capacity (https://info.ornl.gov/sites/publications/Files/Pub57523.pdf) is about 400 joules per kg/K (it's kinda all over the place so I'm taking a good looking midpoint to me) plus the heat of fusion of 260 kJ/kg, and we get 1.86 MJ/kg available to be dispersed. There are 1,693 fuel channels. About 131 kg UO2/fuel channel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RBMK). Thats ~410 GJ total. This converts to about 0.0001 megatons.

So this is a gross exaggeration no matter how you cut it.

That said, a second steam explosion that would have sent a good deal more radiation up in the atmosphere was a very real possibility. This video gives you an idea of what the physics would be like:
 
Man of Honour
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Been enjoying this. Harrowing viewing and no doubt well documents matters well (as far as I’m aware).

That said, I do think the acclaim is slightly OTT. The subject matter is naturally extremely interesting and, far, far more interesting than the drama / acting is good, IMHO. But then again, the drama and acting is always going to be eclipsed by the subject matter.

The lead guy with glasses is a bit meh/annoying... just no real character development and he’s all round pretty flat. Not what the show was going for I guess but I’m surprised there is little emotion / personal drama from the lead actors.

The accents were really jarring at first, got used to it.

Also it reminds me of that old Hillsborough docu-drama with Ricky Tomlinson, if anyone remembers that. Just that sort of... sad and harrowing watch. You’ll probably like that if you liked this.
 
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