Disaster: The Chernobyl Meltdown (2026) s01e01 Episode Script

NUCLEAR POWER PLAN
FORSMARK, SWEDEN
I worked at the nuclear power plant.
In Forsmark, Sweden.
APRIL 28, 1986
To go to a controlled area,
you had to pass a check-up
to see
if you brought radioactive contamination.
It was a normal procedure,
but that morning an alarm went off
and no one could pass,
why didn't the alarm go off?
I didn't believe it was really happening,
so I asked a colleague
who was waiting in line to borrow
a shoe and we analyzed it.
The peaks in the waveform
indicate radiation,
and this time it was launched.
It was scary.
The alarm went off.
To evacuate the station.
Initially, the Swedes thought
that they had a nuclear accident.
Later,
Swedish scientists have concluded
that the origin was
somewhere in the Soviet Union.
ON APRIL 26, 1986
THERE WAS AN EXPLOSION
AT THE NUCLEAR PLAN
OF CHERNOBYL IN UKRAINE.
To the right,
central hall, unit four.
Today we learn
details about the accident
in a Soviet nuclear
factory in Ukraine.
Higher, here and here!
Stay there! There!
It is considered the worst nuclear
accident in history.
Experts say that a reactor
suffered a nuclear meltdown.
There are fears about radiation,
the silent killer,
and obviously continues
to be released from Chernobyl.
It can cause
immediate illness and death.
There is a dramatic increase in a form
thyroid cancer in children
who were exposed to radiation.
The longer you live, the more you
eat and drink. in contaminated areas
radiation accumulation increases
in your body.
- Was there a collapse, Mr. President?
- I can't comment now.
President Reagan was out of the country,
but then Vice President George W. Bush
He asked me how bad the accident was.
And I said that, in my opinion,
as a nuclear engineer,
it was the worst.
FORTY YEARS LATER, SURVIVORS
THEY TELL WHAT HAPPENED THAT DAY
AND THE WEEKS THAT FOLLOWED.
SOME ARE TALKING FOR THE FIRST TIME.
There were incredible acts
bravery and heroism,
sacrifice and extreme patriotism.
We lost friends, neighbors,
many young people died.
How will we understand what has happened,
What if the Soviets don't tell us?
It was a global disaster.
Millions of people were wondering
if they were in danger,
if the food was safe,
and the Soviets were not talking.
It was an uncontrollable
nuclear meltdown.
EPISODE ONE: HELL
The last 40 years
I never had the chance.
To speak publicly about it.
The CIA agents
We have no relationship with the media.
In 1986 I was a nuclear analyst.
For the CIA,
I was 27 years old,
I worked for the CIA for four years.
I remember coming back from lunch.
On Monday, April 28,
and the Soviets finally admitted
that there was a problem.
Assistance is provided to those affected,
but no information was given
They issued an announcement.
That there was an accident
at the nuclear power plant
of Chernobyl, which is ominous,
because we suspected factories
closer than this.
MOSCOW, USSR
Sweden and Denmark
they sent envoys
at the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
asking for more transparency.
Wyatt Andrews, CBS News, Moscow.
All the diplomacy
and the journalistic community
bombed the Soviet authorities
for answers.
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE SERVICE (CIA)
LANGLEY, VIRGINIA
We started immediately.
To utilize our resources,
to learn more.
Of course, we enlisted.
Reconnaissance satellites,
which were not so widespread
as much as today.
So we had to justify
what we needed satellite image.
We convinced them that we wanted to see
the Immediate Action teams.
The next morning our leader
received an exciting call
by the analysts. They said it was done
explosion in the reactor, as we said.
We answered them:
"No, we lied,
"reactors don't explode."
The pictures showed
that the building was completely destroyed.
As a nuclear engineer
I was surprised that it exploded.
In such a way that it would explain
such a widespread disaster.
Such an explosion in a reactor core
It had never happened before.
Such radiation emission
had never been noted before.
It was scary.
The nuclear reactor is being installed
and in front of him
new horizons are opening up.
Soviet propaganda
for years he insisted
that the nuclear technology of the USSR
she was the best in the world.
The construction in the factory
Chernobyl began in 1970.
Until 1986, there were
four active reactors.
A unique feature was
their enormous size.
They were much larger than similar ones
reactors of the West.
Each reactor produced
thousand megawatts of electricity,
enough to power
one million modern homes.
The factory was located
northwest of Kiev,
about 1287 km
from Forsmark, Sweden,
the first point of the West
where radiation was detected.
A huge cloud of radioactive material
crosses Europe.
Due to the long distances
and the amount of radiation
which was measured,
that the release was great.
The impact is difficult to quantify.
That have these radioactive isotopes
to your body and health.
And at low concentrations they can
to cause cancer
which may manifest itself years later.
SWEDEN
I remember on the road from Forsmark
to Uppsala to see
children to play
and I wanted to get off the bus
tell them not to play here.
But those buses
it was impossible to stop.
No one knew what effect
would have this level of radiation
in the atmosphere,
how far the infection would spread
and how dangerous it would be.
In Forsmark, we talked a lot,
everyone in the control room
were thinking the same thing:
What was it like to be in Chernobyl
in a nuclear power plant
who met such a fate.
On the night of the accident
I worked as a chief engineer.
Generator control in Unit 4.
I was 28 years old.
IGOR KIRSENBAUM
FACTORY OPERATOR
Why did you remain silent?
For 40 years?
I started a new life.
And I didn't want to go back to the past.
APRIL 28, 1986
APRIL 27, 1986
APRIL 26, 1986
APRIL 25, 1986, 11:30 PM
TWO HOURS BEFORE THE ACCIDEN
UNIT 4
CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR POWER PLAN
We arrived at work about half an hour ago.
Before the shift starts.
My position was on the right,
on the generator console.
As soon as we took over the shift, we
started preparation for an experiment.
Reactor four would shut down
for routine maintenance
and the operators took advantage
the opportunity
to do a safety test
which was very late.
The irony is that the experiment
was intended to allow them
to achieve better security
in case of power loss.
They started the experiment one day
before the accident.
Unfortunately, the
experiment was interrupted,
because they needed more power,
so the shutdown was extended.
This meant that they would
the evening ones the test.
I didn't know.
That an experiment had been arranged.
No one had informed us.
The unit manager took me,
He explained to me what we would do.
And in what order?
IGOR KIRSENBAUM
Together with Igor Kirshenbaum,
the two members of the shift
who are directly responsible
to conduct the test
was Alexander Akimov,
the shift leader,
and Leonid Toptunov,
which controlled the reactor.
LEONID TOPTUNOV
The reactor was notoriously unstable.
During the deactivation process.
Toptunov didn't have much experience.
He would oversee the deactivation
a nuclear reactor
for the first time in his career.
In transitions, in starts
and the deactivations
I will just say
that the world was running left and right
and you felt the tension.
They were tired.
And they wanted it to end,
because they rarely had the opportunity
to do such a test.
The senior in there
was Anatoly Dyatlov,
who was the second chief engineer
throughout the entire factory.
There were many disagreements
for the test protocol.
The test was so delayed
where some were threatening to leave.
Dyatlov,
who was a hot-tempered person,
he was awake almost 24 hours.
The last thing Dyatlov said
to Akimov before the test was:
"What are you waiting for?"
I was given the order to start.
I pressed the off button,
to disconnect the generator
from the network.
In the final stage of the test,
Toptunov stepped on
the AZ5 safety switch,
to shut down the reactor.
01:23 AM
A terrible noise was heard.
Something had happened,
but no one knew what.
ALEXEY MOSKALENKO
POLICE INSPECTOR
In 1986 I was 29 years old.
That night
we started patrols
around the factory.
There was a cooling lake
near the factory.
We saw two poachers.
To cast nets.
I had to get them out of the water,
so I undressed
and I was left with my underwear.
I remember we were 400 meters away.
From the reactor.
As we were getting ready
to arrest them,
We heard a rumble of thunder behind us.
We all turned and looked.
And immediately another one was heard.
Thunder, dust began
to fall from the ceiling.
IGOR KIRSENBAUM
OPERATOR
The lights were flickering.
The emergency lights came on.
A cloud swirled above us,
It was raining ash.
It was terribly smelly.
At that moment, the warning lights
radiation in the control room
from green they turned red.
We crossed 200 meters and stopped.
In front of the fourth reactor.
I said: "My God,
"What's left of the building?"
Half the building has been demolished.
1:30 AM
FIRE DEPARTMENT, KIEV
Pripyat?
Hello!
In the third and fourth units?
Yes.
As a result of the explosion?
Yes.
Did the roof catch fire?
Yes, the roof is burning.
Various messages started coming.
They transported a person with burns,
it was Sassenach.
Vladimir Sashenok,
who monitored the generators,
it was enveloped in radioactive vapor.
It was soaking wet and moaning.
They took him.
And then he died.
Dyatlov went inside and said: "I
don't understand what happened."
There was complete confusion.
In the control room.
They knew something was wrong,
but they didn't know what.
They didn't believe that the reactor
could be destroyed.
The factory had been built
along a central corridor,
with the four reactors in a row.
Each reactor had
its own control room,
and each control room was separated
from the reactor room
from many fat people
concrete walls.
Reactor 4 was destroyed,
together with all sensors
and the equipment,
which would indicate them
what was happening
in the reactor core,
so they were completely ignorant.
01:34 AM
FIRE DEPARTMENT, KIEV, UKRAINE
What's burning there?
There was an explosion on the third,
in the main building,
in the 3rd and 4th units.
Between the 3rd and 4th.
- Are there people there?
- Yes.
Everyone, everyone,
all the officers to come.
PETRO KMEL
FIRE FIGHTER
We started driving
and I saw the fire
to burn like a candle.
There was a pillar of light
which was rising to the sky.
PETRO SAVRI
FIRE FIGHTER
The firefighters had not seen
nothing like that,
a strange glow
was coming out of the reactor.
We cross the bridge.
And I see a strong glow
and Yura Kailko says:
"Guys, it's a one-way street."
And I said, "What do you mean?"
He said: "Do you see what's happening?
We won't go back."
The firefighters risked their lives,
like firefighters
at the World Trade Center,
they knew where they were going
to get into trouble, but they went.
There was a huge
round black cloud.
They told us to go to the roof
of the fourth reactor.
The building had been torn to pieces.
There were pieces of cement, graphite,
fire, flames.
The most difficult thing was
to take control of the situation.
We didn't know how much
radiation we were receiving.
Radiation is an intangible,
odorless, potentially deadly force,
and it is the invisible enemy.
The most terrifying and deadly form
radiation are gamma rays,
that penetrate the body
as if you are being shot with bullets,
dissolving the body into cellular
level, damaging DNA.
They can cause serious damage
and from a great distance,
and they can stop them
only thick layers of lead
or huge pieces of cement.
In the immediate aftermath of the accident,
pieces of the reactor itself
they emitted radiation
thousands of roentgens per hour,
capable of killing anyone standing
nearby in a few minutes.
All we had were masks
for protection from smoke,
nothing else.
We didn't have protective suits.
About radioactivity.
02:27 AM
FIRE DEPARTMENT, KIEV
They have been engulfed in flames
already 10,000 sq.m. of roof.
If the roof burns down,
The whole station will burn down.
All four units.
02:31 AM
We sent 30-40 units,
The whole area has been in uproar.
There were flames everywhere.
I started climbing onto the roof.
I saw that the ceiling
had many holes,
It had shattered and was shaking.
He was there,
armed with water and foam,
such as in an industrial fire.
Darkness,
smoke, fires,
parts of the roof collapsing
and people covered in asphalt.
We didn't have time to talk,
let's look around.
Was it scary?
What do you mean? I had to concentrate,
to move quickly.
Some were shouting:
"Where are the hoses?"
I was thinking about them,
not how scary it was.
"Bring hoses, bring water!"
Do you have time to get scared?
I was scared afterwards.
03:25 AM
FIRE DEPARTMENT, KIEV, UKRAINE
There is a danger.
There is a risk
radiation contamination.
Radiation fields on ceilings
of the reactor buildings
were so big that almost immediately
some firefighters had immediately
syndrome symptoms
acute radiation,
and they were already vomiting,
when they were removed.
One by one they told me:
"Peter, I feel bad."
I told them to go down.
And the ambulance took them away.
Still in the control room
they didn't understand what had happened,
even hours after the explosion.
Dyatlov is back.
From another surveillance.
In a calm tone, he said:
"Unnecessary personnel should leave."
Later Dyatlov came
and he saw me again.
He shouted: "I said the unnecessary
personnel to leave the control room."
Twenty minutes later,
The station's chief engineer arrived.
He demanded that water be pumped.
In the reactor.
The reactor was not receiving
no cooling water,
something that would cause a collapse,
so at that time they focused
to channel water.
But the cooling valves had to
to open manually.
Akimov and Toptunov
They went to open the taps.
And cool the reactor.
They stayed there for a while, exposed.
To huge amounts of gamma rays.
They didn't know, however, that opening
the valves was a waste of time.
Unfortunately, the reactor
had already been destroyed
and they could do nothing.
ALEXANDER AKIMOV
Akimov and Toptunov received
lethal doses of radiation.
They died a few weeks later.
LEONID TOPTUNOV
They gave their lives, trying
to do everything they can.
If Dyatlov hadn't chased me,
I would have the same luck.
I can say
that Dyatlov saved my life.
On the morning of April 26th
the fire on the roof of the building
of the reactor had gone out.
Firefighters saved the building.
And the rest of the band,
and I have boundless admiration
for them,
many of whom died
within a few days or weeks.
7:00 AM
FIVE AND A HALF HOURS AFTER THE ACCIDEN
At 7:00 in the morning an alarm sounded.
Everyone had come down from the roof.
At first, I felt relieved,
I relaxed,
but then it all started.
I already had serious burns on my legs.
And suddenly I felt very bad.
Then I fainted.
Then I woke up.
And I was there
in the Pripyat hospital.
Among the firefighters
who went to the roof
many received
lethal doses of radiation.
We felt terrible.
We were constantly checking
if they were all alive.
One was lying here,
another one there.
The firefighters who went first
Their skin
it had become like roasted meat.
The reactor lid
was three meters thick
and weighed over 2000 tons.
This whole thing blew up.
About 100 meters in the air.
Two thousand tons.
The energy released
It was impressive.
One hundred and eighty-six firefighters
They extinguished every fire they found.
On the roof of the building
of the reactor
and throughout the region,
but something was still burning.
The fire in the reactor core
it had not been extinguished
and it was a much stronger one
and difficult to manage fire.
All this radioactive material
goes up with the smoke,
transported to the factory
and, by extension, in other countries
and parts of the world.
We are talking about unprecedented
radiation release
in the air. Every minute, every hour,
it rained in huge quantities
radioactive particles.
The nearest city was Pripyat,
three kilometers from
the Chernobyl plant.
No official announcements were made.
To inform
that an accident had occurred.
The residents of Pripyat did
whatever anyone would do
spring morning.
Nobody told them.
That they were in mortal danger.
Our apartment was two
kilometers from the factory,
so it was very close.
In 1986 I was eight years old.
OLENA MOCHNIK
RESIDENT OF PRIPYA
Pripyat was built
to serve the factory.
It was a happy city, I would say,
with many children, many flowers.
They planted many roses,
They photographed me in front of
the flowers. for the city brochure.
OLENA MOCHNIK
I was the chief architect.
Of the municipality of Pripyat.
MARIA PROTSKENKO
PRIPYAT CHIEF ARCHITEC
My job was to help.
The city to develop.
Most of the residents were young,
Our average age was 27.
When you have so many young people,
What are you waiting for?
Young people mean love,
means a lot of children!
8:30 AM
SEVEN HOURS AFTER THE ACCIDEN
We woke up normally and,
As usual, we went to school.
Soviet schools
were open on Saturday,
so everyone who was present
were exposed to radioactive contamination.
They weren't talking before the accident.
For security measures.
The factory was considered
the safest thing,
no one thought it was possible
something dangerous to happen.
PRIPYA
There was no panic at school.
The teacher gave us iodine pills.
They said we had to take them.
They didn't explain the reason to us.
We went to the toilet and threw them away,
because the pills were no fun.
We studied earlier, but they told us
let's go straight home.
It was spring, the weather was nice,
we were Happy, we went to school earlier.
09:00 A.M.
SEVEN AND A HALF HOURS AFTER THE ACCIDEN
Around 9:00 on Saturday morning,
local government
convened a council,
where they concluded that everyone should
to do what they usually do
and not to panic.
On the day of the accident
we had a meeting
and we were officially informed
about the accident at the factory.
Someone asked how dangerous
was to be in the city,
but no one spoke
for radiation levels.
The Soviet soldiers
they measured the radiation,
scattered throughout the city.
I asked them: "Who is it?"
"the levels out there?"
They said: "Everything is fine."
Video taken in Pripyat
on April 26 and 27
has intense, white flashes
due to radiation
which was hitting the film.
They were military, obviously, they knew
that they shouldn't have spoken.
People acquired
from their childhood,
since the Stalin era, the habit
to keep their mouths shut.
The Soviet authorities wanted
to keep secret
what had happened in Chernobyl.
They set up police checkpoints around
from Pripyat and very quickly,
the KGB cut the telephone lines,
so that no one can call.
The Soviet reaction to every problem
was to cover it up
until they find a solution.
As the extent of the destruction
was becoming more and more apparent,
the responsibility for management
of the accident reached Moscow.
The Central Committee in Moscow
held meetings non-stop
and appointed a government committee.
It was a top secret matter back then.
VITALI SKLYAROV
FORMER MINISTER OF ENERGY, UKRAINE
Everything related to nuclear weapons
it shouldn't have been made public.
Sklyarov was a minister
who was directly accountable to the
head of the Communist Party of Ukraine.
He was in the first batch of officials
which were sent to the factory
to find out exactly what had happened
and face the consequences.
I went to all of them without exception.
The committee meetings.
In Pripyat
I was welcomed by my deputy minister.
We went to Unit 4.
I was standing there.
And I couldn't believe my eyes.
I felt like someone
It made my heart ache.
I froze.
02:00 PM
TWELVE AND A HALF HOURS AFTER THE ACCIDEN
At two o'clock,
It was incredible what he knew.
The Soviet high command.
They knew the nuclear core was breaking
loose unprecedented amounts of radiation
in the atmosphere,
they knew that all this radiation
was pounding Pripyat
and they said nothing
to the people of the area.
The city authorities
they told my mother
not to panic
and do what we had planned,
along with the wedding.
IRINA AND SERGEY LOBANOV
RESIDENTS OF PRIPYA
I fell in love with Irina,
when I saw her in the square.
I was captivated by her beauty.
I proposed to her that same night.
The ceremony was planned
for 2:00 p.m.
This was the last wedding.
In Pripyat.
05:00 P.M.
FIFTEEN AND A HALF HOURS AFTER THE ACCIDEN
OFFICES OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF PRIPYA
On the afternoon of the 26th,
the members of the government committee
they arrived completely unprepared
for what they would find there.
We had a meeting at the office.
The secretary of the Municipal Committee.
I was surprised that the committee
did not include specialists
which would solve the issue
quickly and safely.
They hadn't even brought a specialist.
In nuclear energy.
There was a misunderstanding.
Regarding what was happening in Moscow
and what at the scene of the accident.
There was no transparency.
And there were frictions,
and this made it difficult to respond.
Proof of this was the delay
in the evacuation of cities.
The committee members disagreed.
About whether it should
to evacuate Pripyat.
This happened mainly because
the need for secrecy,
because they didn't want to
to leak what had happened
together with the residents
who would leave the area.
There was no indication
that such a disaster had occurred.
Life was going on normally.
Someone had a wedding.
I saw it somewhere.
6:00 PM
SIXTEEN HOURS AFTER THE ACCIDEN
We exchanged our vows.
And we became husband and wife.
We danced our first dance
as married people, a waltz.
At dinner everyone only talked
about what happened at the factory.
The radiation in Pripyat was
more intense as time went by,
so in the evening the measurements
were outrageously high.
The world was beginning to learn
in the city that something had happened,
but no one knew
the scale of the accident.
We went to the apartment.
Tired, but happy.
My bouquet had wilted,
the roses
it was as if they had been burned.
I put the roses in the bathtub,
because I thought they would recover.
On Saturday night
the committee members themselves
preparations began,
in case
who deemed evacuation necessary.
We did the calculations.
And we concluded that we should
to bring almost
1500 buses in Pripyat!
Imagine
how much work had to be done.
They called any bus.
They were able to find last minute.
In retrospect, it's impressive.
Eyewitnesses who saw the convoy
by bus they said
that it was kilometers long.
Saturday night
the head of the committee
still refused to order an evacuation
or to inform
the world about what was happening,
even after they had come
the hundreds of buses.
The majority of residents
stayed at home,
waiting for update
about what would happen next.
No phone was working,
We were completely isolated.
I remember seeing something unusual.
To happen in the factory,
and I asked my mom: "Is it burning?"
and she, who was a little spicy,
He told me to stop,
and I understood
that something was really happening.
But we fell asleep as if it were
an ordinary Saturday night.
The Soviets were waiting
that the story wouldn't spread,
even if it had happened
a nuclear meltdown.
The Soviets were facing
an unprecedented nuclear disaster.
They had to find a way out.
Thousands of workers were informed
that they would become heroes of the USSR,
that they had to get a job.
The radioactive material was melting
and it would reach the groundwater.
This would destroy agriculture.
And livestock farming for decades.
They took desperate measures.
They brought miners to dig
tunnel under the reactor.
They asked the helicopter pilots
to fly on bursts of radiation
and to limit
the results of the explosion.
With fire at the core
still burning,
columns of smoke filled with radioactive
material material enters the atmosphere.
It was a threat to the entire planet.
Performance: Evangelia Liakou