Chernobyl HBO

[South Austin 52,186]

Carnies. Smell like cabbage. Small hands.

[RPM 26,267]

I'm a nuclear physicist. Before you were Deputy Secretary you worked in a shoe factory.

Yes, I worked in a shoe factory. Now I am in charge.

 

 

Hard to imagine how the USSR collapsed.

[RPM 26,267]

Wow, the last 15 minutes was pretty intense.

[JOSEYWALES66 1,793]

How did she surmise that there was still water in the tanks? 

[Bigbend1812 12,907]

This show is scary As fuck. 

[kevwun 15,680]

59 minutes ago, Bigbend1812 said:

This show is scary As fuck. 

and really, really good.

[Bama Chick 28,596]

How did she surmise that there was still water in the tanks? 

Because she rightly figured out the explosion had busted all the water pipes and that the fire hoses had been pumping water in the building for going on two days.

Thus draining down into the tanks and filling them - and all the structure around them with water.

And holy shit those divers. What a horrific way to die. I can’t imagine the panic.

[AUS-97HORN 11,725]

55 minutes ago, JOSEYWALES66 said:

How did she surmise that there was still water in the tanks? 

she said it herself, she knew that no matter which of the 4 reactors blew, the force of the reactor blowing would have ruptured every waterline in the whole plant, and the water had to go somewhere, so it was going to flow via gravity to the lowest point, which happened to be the "empty" holding tanks directly under the reactors. and since every pipe was broken, the water went into those tanks. 

 

I had heard about the scuba teams and what they had to do briefly, but I didnt realize it was so immediately after the accident.   I did read about the helicopter pilot  Anatoly Grishchenko who basically hovered over the reactor to make sure the sand and boron made it on top of the correct part of the reactor.

although I dont know enough about the accident to know if the world was really 72 hours away from a 4 megaton nuclear explosion.  

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4,968]

5 minutes ago, Bama Chick said:

 

Because she rightly figured out the explosion had busted all the water pipes and that the fire hoses had been pumping water in the building for going on two days.

Thus draining down into the tanks and filling them - and all the structure around them with water.

And holy shit those divers. What a horrific way to die. I can’t imagine the panic.

 

I think I read where someone managed to track them down and they lived.

[AUS-97HORN 11,725]

for me the frustrating part of watching the show is seeing how often the party members, who obviously had no fucking clue what they were doing, would immediately accepted the most minimal and 'safest" explanation, and then immediately turn on anyone who dared to say things were worse than that.

the idea that neither the Chief Engineer nor the Deputy Director of the plant had bothered to actually inspect the fire from anything other than a safe distance away while telling everyone else "all is well" is just mind blowing. 

[TwiceHorn 31,349]

22 minutes ago, AUS-97HORN said:

for me the frustrating part of watching the show is seeing how often the party members, who obviously had no fucking clue what they were doing, would immediately accepted the most minimal and 'safest" explanation, and then immediately turn on anyone who dared to say things were worse than that.

the idea that neither the Chief Engineer nor the Deputy Director of the plant had bothered to actually inspect the fire from anything other than a safe distance away while telling everyone else "all is well" is just mind blowing. 

Yeah, it's frightening.  It's the specter of having total government/political control of everything.  You get Rick Perrys everywhere, and usually for life.

I'm reading Gorky Park, and it has a lot of side references to Soviet life at all levels.  We tend to forget that allegiance to whatever communo-socialist orthodoxy was de rigeur was an absolute daily feature of Soviet life:  and failure to do so could be hazardous to your health, or liberty.  There were no failures of the Soviet state, government, or people.  Ever.  There were only flaws introduced by capitalism.  Political commisar-types were everywhere and the final word on anything, no matter how illogical or counterfactual.

Edited May 14, 2019 by TwiceHorn

[Patricio Swayze 17,058]

and really, really good.

Needs more car chases and shoot outs.

[TwiceHorn 31,349]

If you kinda enjoy nuclear panic as realistic horror, check out K-19.  There are a lot of similarities.  And K-19 is actually a little more vivid with it, at least so far.

[Bruh Man 3,160]

Finding conflicting reports on when the scuba divers died. What is the real story?

[RPM 26,267]

4 hours ago, AUS-97HORN said:

 I did read about the helicopter pilot  Anatoly Grishchenko who basically hovered over the reactor to make sure the sand and boron made it on top of the correct part of the reactor.

Lived 4 years. Dude had balls of steel.

[ChiTownDoc 21,112]

Can’t wait to watch.  And horn80 is a blind dog.  Take it easy on him.  

[Parliament 14,153]

Needs more car chases and shoot outs.

And a talking panda for comedy relief.

[usmc0331horn 951]

"To the workers of the world."

[Schulz2.0 28,855]

8 hours ago, Bruh Man said:

Finding conflicting reports on when the scuba divers died. What is the real story?

Got exposed to a shit ton of radiation. Didn’t die from it. 

[ChiTownDoc 21,112]

Growing up as a kid in the 80’s Chernobyl was a top 5 curiosity for me.  MOAR I say

 

[Deej 76,620]

The Soviets loved them some ugly wallpaper. 

[Nolacycling 893]

Will this lead to a retelling of Hiroshima or Nagasaki? And no, I'm not going to settle for Hugh jackman or Godzilla.

[Mach 1 1,677]

This show is great. 

The scene with the scuba divers was tension x 1000.  I guess I should spoiler it. 

Spoiler

The poor guys are fucking lost in a radiation pool, while the Geiger counter is going nuts.  And then the flashlights go out?  I was gripping the edge of the couch.

Going back to the Geiger counter I understand why they added it, it really ratcheted the tension to the scene, but in reality they knew the radiation was off the charts before going in, they really didn't need them.  All it did was make them nervous and distracted.

 

[4th&Five 41,474]

Loved the second episode. 

[bolverk 29,474]

Don't really have a lot of substance to add but I'm going on the record as loving this show. Yeah, that's quite a limb to climb out on.

Like ChiTown, Chernobyl was such a mystery when it was going on and I distinctly remember being in high school and watching Peter Jennings report on those shitty black and white photos and blurry Soviet camera shots where it was just a smoking mass. Also, the graphics they would put up showing it spread across Europe.

Gotta be honest, a couple of years later when I was planning to become an exchange student it still made me a little nervous knowing I was going to be eating European farm products and livestock for a year.

[Horn80 6,109]

Second episode was great.  

[Radical Larry 28,533]

We need your permission to kill three people. 

 

[RPM 26,267]

You want me to do this for 400 rubles?

[Texas_Rocks 346]

“We’ve compiled a list of individuals to hold accountable.”, or something like that, but it was a knee slapper when it happened.

Did a helicopter really go down after getting too close, or was that added for TV effect?

[Patricio Swayze 17,058]

“We’ve compiled a list of individuals to hold accountable.”, or something like that, but it was a knee slapper when it happened.

Did a helicopter really go down after getting too close, or was that added for TV effect?

Yes. Wiki says the main rotor hit a construction crane and crashed near the reactor.

[Eskimohorn 5,623]

Looks like they filmed this in College Station.

[Deej 76,620]

Looks like Soviet leadership was educated in College Station. 

[RedDirtTexan 209]

Educated or indoctrinated?

[Zepol87 9,173]

3 hours ago, Texas_Rocks said:

“We’ve compiled a list of individuals to hold accountable.”, or something like that, but it was a knee slapper when it happened.

Did a helicopter really go down after getting too close, or was that added for TV effect?

Yea that was the first thing said. Crazy with all that going on that is what they were worried about.

[Constant 6,722]

Just finished up episode two. Holy hell that last scene was intense. 

[bschoolprof 6,242]

2nd episode was great, and far easier for me to get through than the first.  The diver scene was just so unnerving though.  

[Quagmire 2,146]

Good show , always had interest in this since I was young .

Also love the current day photos of the area. Shows how quickly nature takes shit back.

[RPM 26,267]

2 hours ago, Quagmire said:

always had interest in this since I was young .

I remember being scared shitless. First Three Mile Island, then this. I was calculating how far I was from the Comanche Peak kill zone.

[Buzzrock 14,881]

The estimates of the blast zone and the after effects had the fuel hit the water are almost incomprehensible. Entire nations devastated.

I’m pretty pro-nuclear power but the potential for disaster is chilling (no CR, I know they are built much differently these days).

[mchookem 16,251]

33 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

The estimates of the blast zone and the after effects had the fuel hit the water are almost incomprehensible. Entire nations devastated.

i found that terrifying, especially since they had like 50 hours or something to figure it out. i had no idea.

[Buzzrock 14,881]

I have a feeling that scene might become legendary. I’m gonna go back and watch it again. And they’re talking to Mikhail Fucking Gorbachev!

 

And MG is all like “Do you understand how bad this could be for our reputation?” and then Valery and Ulyana drop the serious knowledge on him. Oh, and we’re going to need to kill three people to have a chance at stopping this.

[Zepol87 9,173]

i found that terrifying, especially since they had like 50 hours or something to figure it out. i had no idea.

Yes that shit is crazy.

[Buzzrock 14,881]

Yes that shit is crazy.

They’re all like, “Apollo 13? Amateurs.”

[Zepol87 9,173]

Then he hits then with 72 hours!!! Had to be nuts. Anyone know of a good book that has some of the insights from those talks?

[HouTex 1,851]

Some of you are total pussies.  The UN can only directly link under 50 deaths to this event.   And this was fucking bad.  Some of you act like thousands (millions?)  have died from nuclear power.  That's just not the case.  We should be maxing out our nuclear power capability and reducing coal power.  

[RPM 26,267]

2 minutes ago, HouTex said:

The UN can only directly link under 50 deaths to this event.   And this was fucking bad.  Some of you act like thousands (millions?)  have died from nuclear power.

Wouldn't see you white knighting if they waited 72 hours. You see, radiation gives zero fucks.

[Deej 76,620]

Yep. We're all safe as long as aggy doesn't have a nuclear engineering program...oh, shit...we're doomed.

[irvingtwosmokes 34]

6 hours ago, RPM said:

I remember being scared shitless. First Three Mile Island, then this. I was calculating how far I was from the Comanche Peak kill zone.

The Green Run at Hanford 1949

 

Idaho Falls SL-1 1961

[RPM 26,267]

Just now, irvingtwosmokes said:

The Green Run at Hanford 1949

 

Idaho Falls SL-1 1961

I wasn't alive when those happened. 

[LonghornJudas 1,093]

On 5/12/2019 at 9:09 PM, Red Five said:

There was also The Day After, which I was made to watch in the 8th grade. 

I still watch that every now and then. I find that 3 minutes after they all start getting out of their cars to still be pretty intense.

Only through the first episode, but as others have mentioned, the clear denial of the core exploding is just amazing.

“I walked around the exterior of building 4. I think there’s graphite on the ground, in the rubble”

”You didn’t see graphite.”

“I did.”

”You didn’t...YOU DIDN’T BECAUSE IT’S NOT THERE!”