It’s was well done but deeply disingenuous about the effects of radiation in places. I loved the show, but for anybody else watching, it’s worth realising that it’s very exaggerated in places.
Off the top of my head, for those that are curious:
The show depicts radiation as similar to a contagion. In real life, once you strip and wash someone exposed to radioactive contaminants, they pose no danger to others.
The reactor was never in danger of turning into a nuke or rendering huge swathes of Europe uninhabitable. Nuclear explosions only happen under tightly engineered conditions.
A big pile of molten reactor slag, while certainly dangerous, can’t turn into a bomb.
However, the utter incompetence of the USSR is very accurate.
The reactor was never in danger of turning into a nuke or rendering huge swathes of Europe uninhabitable. Nuclear explosions only happen under tightly engineered conditions. A big pile of molten reactor slag, while certainly dangerous, can’t turn into a bomb.
The danger wasn’t that it would cause a nuclear explosion, it was that it would melt its way into a large reservoir of water underneath the reactor, instantly turning it all into steam, causing a massive explosion that would fling radioactive material over a much wider area
I don’t know if there was a risk of that happening in reality, but that’s how it was portrayed and explained in the show
It’s was well done but deeply disingenuous about the effects of radiation in places. I loved the show, but for anybody else watching, it’s worth realising that it’s very exaggerated in places.
Off the top of my head, for those that are curious:
However, the utter incompetence of the USSR is very accurate.
The danger wasn’t that it would cause a nuclear explosion, it was that it would melt its way into a large reservoir of water underneath the reactor, instantly turning it all into steam, causing a massive explosion that would fling radioactive material over a much wider area
I don’t know if there was a risk of that happening in reality, but that’s how it was portrayed and explained in the show