History NightmareFuel / Chernobyl

* The fact that what you're looking at on screen actually happened for real, somewhat as portrayed given the necessity for dramatic license, that it ended hundreds of real lives and uprooted countless more. It left huge swathes of land uninhabitable, and spread a cloud of radiation that made it as far as Western Europe, necessitating such things as having to dispose of millions of litres of fresh milk from dairy herds who had potentially eaten contaminated grass before it got into the human food chain. And that it's still happening now, under the Chernobyl New Containment the remains of the exploded reactor are still radioactive and will remain so for the foreseeable future, and the surrounding area will remain unfit for human habitation for decades. And it all happened because of some very poor decisions made all across the USSR's nuclear industry. And there's really not much stopping people who build and run nuclear reactors from making s similarly catastrophic chain of mistakes and poor decisions which may lead to another catastrophe some day.

* We see Toptunov turning red, Vasily turning black and yellow, and even Dyatlov pale, white-haired and emaciated. But Akimov is kept offscreen. Later, Khomyuk mentions that by the time she met Akimov, ''[[FacialHorror he had no face left]]''. [[TakeOurWordForIt Yeah, you've heard that right]]. An instance of BodyHorror was apparently so extreme that Creator/{{HBO}} -- no stranger to {{Gorn}} -- was ''[[EveryoneHasStandards unwilling to]] [[GoryDiscretionShot show it.]]'' [[NothingIsScarier Think about that for a minute.]]

** Not a nuclear bomb in the conventional sense, mind -- rather, the water inside the reactor boiled to produce steam, and when the pressure grew too high, it blew apart the core, lifting the massive Upper Biological Shield with it. To elaborate further, the AZ-5 button was effectively the impromptu bomb's detonator because the boron control rods (which absorb neutrons, and slow the reaction) had tips made of graphite, which moderates neutrons and thus ''increases'' reactivity, and therefore the power output (when they were inserted, the high pressure inside the core damaged the rod channels and jammed them in place, with only their graphite tips actually inserted. One guess as to what happened next...) When a prosecutor asks the reason, Legasov gives a small tirade ending in a simple answer:

** When Legasov announces that the reactor hit 33,000 megawatts before exploding, the entire room is completely and utterly [[StunnedSilence silent.]] It's as if you can see the exact moment that everyone, even Dyatlov, realizes that yes, RMBK reactors ''do'' explode. In reality, much like the 3.6 roentgen initially reported as the radiation level, this was merely [[ReadingsAreOffTheScale the highest amount of power that the meter could display]]; indeed, Legasov acknowledges that 33,000 megawatts couldn't have been the actual power output given how far the deadly combination of terrible reactor design and a tyrannical PointyHairedBoss calling the shots had caused things to spiral out of control. Estimates done in the years since indicate that at the moment of actual explosion, the power inside the reactor was on the order of ''300,000,000'' megawatts - in other words, 300 '''''terawatts'''''. As a fair comparison, this is about ''seventeen times'' the amount of power used across the ''entire planet''.

* The worst case scenario described by Ulana to Gorbachev, of what she thinks could happen if the radioactive lava melts into the plant's underground levels and comes into contact with the water tanks, sounds downright ''apocalyptic'':

** This scenario is so horrifying that even Charkov, the [[NervesOfSteel normally unflappable]] [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre KGB spook]], [[HorrifyingTheHorror is momentarily shocked into jaw-dropped silence at it]].

** This scenario is so horrifying that even Charkov, the [[NervesOfSteel normally unflappable]] [[MoscowCenter KGB spook]], [[HorrifyingTheHorror is momentarily shocked into jaw-dropped silence at it]].

** This scenario is so horrifying that even Charkov, the [[NervesOfSteel normally unflappable]] [[MoscowCentre KGB spook]], [[HorrifyingTheHorror is shocked into jaw-dropped silence at it]].

--->'''Legasov:''' You are dealing with something that has ''[[OutsideContextProblem never occurred on the planet before]]''.

** And once AZ-5 was pressed, the power shot up from 200 megawatts to ''33,000'' (over ''ten times'' the output the reactor was designed for) and led to the core exploding, but not before we see the lid covers (each of which weighs ''350 kilogrammes'', about the weight of a ''Grand Piano'') start jumping and clanging randomly due to the pressure buildup, only for it to ''immediately explode upwards'', opening the core. And it becomes worse as Legasov describes oxygen entering the core, ending the chain reaction with causing a '''bigger''' explosion, all while the scene shows the graphite control rods flying out of Chernobyl and the eerie radioactive blue light rising out of the burning crater.

** The actual explanation of how AZ-5 caused the explosion takes a full three minutes. As Legasov narrates, it actually took place in ''five seconds''. The amount of time from Akimov making the best could he can and pushing what should be the stop button to an explosion that destroyed countless lives and endangered even more was '''''5 seconds'''''.

* There's something very unsettling during the funeral of Vasily and the other ARS victims. Their bodies are so irradiated that a traditional burial or cremation isn't possible due to contamination risks. Instead, the bodies, still in plastic mortician bags as they're basically ''skeletons holding human sludge'' at this point, are put in lead-lined wooden coffins nailed shut, which are then put in zinc coffins welded shut, which are ''then'' put in a mass grave filled with several feet of concrete. Knowing that even in death, these people are still a danger to everybody for ''centuries at least'' due to all the radiation they soaked up, to the point that they can't even have a proper burial and must be disposed of like toxic waste... Radiation is the gift that keeps on giving.

** To begin with, the safety test goes up in smoke when the reactor stalls out due to xenon build-up. Rather than shut the reactor all the way down as they're taught to do, a royally pissed-off Dyatlov demands that they continue the test ''anyway'' and raise the power back up by any means necessary, including turning off '''almost all''' of the checks needed to stop the core from overheating (for perspective, this is like trying to fix a car that's not accelerating properly... by ''disconnecting the brakes''). And when Akimov tries to stand up to him...

* Everybody with a somewhat advanced knowledge of Chernobyl knows about the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant%27s_Foot_(Chernobyl) Elephant's Foot]], a mass of corium located in the basement beneath Reactor #4 and the most radioactive part of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. At the time of its discovery, six months after the explosion, the Foot was emitting 10.000 roentgens per hour, enough to give you fatal radiation poisoning (as in ''you drop dead'') in 300 seconds. So radioactive was the Foot that the person who took [[https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/chernobyl/id/233/ this photo]] in 1990 reportedly died not long afterwards. While its radioactivity has significantly decayed over time to the point that it can be approached for a few minutes with proper protection... Just imagine how much radioactivity this thing was emitting immediately after the explosion. Estimations vary, but the consensus is that exposure was fatal in less than 30 seconds. For a few weeks at least, this mass of nuclear lava was '''the absolute deadliest thing on Earth'''.
** The Foot has a "little brother" in the form of a pile of discarded uniforms from the firemen who arrived after the explosion (which is briefly seen in the series). That pile of clothes is ''still'' sitting in the basement of the Pripyat hospital and is still highly radioactive (it is, in fact, the most radioactive thing in the Zone save for the Foot). Standing near it for extended periods of time will make you sick. [[TooDumbToLive Putting these clothes on]] will irradiate you enough to contract [=ARS=] in a few minutes... and the firemen were wearing these for ''hours'', immediately after they were irradiated, 33 years before the series aired.
** Although many people are aware of both the Foot and the firemen's clothing, there's a radioactive artifact that most don't know about... [[https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/the-claw-of-chernobyl-most-dangerous-thing-in-the-exclusion-zone/news-story/533246f01b396bd8deb106c315aecf61 the Claw]], a mechanical claw that was used to move radioactive material off the roof of the power station. When its work was completed, the claw itself was so radioactive and so dangerous to approach that it was dumped in a remote and hard-to-reach part of the surrounding forest in the hopes that people would never be able to find it, much less go near it.

* As of 17 May 2021, 35 years after the explosion, there are apparently credible reports that the radiation levels inside the remains of Reactor 4 are ''rising'', and another explosion could possibly occur.
* During the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, it was reported Russian soldiers were digging in the Red Forest, an irradiated forest close enough to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant that it's advised to visit it for either very short periods of time or to wear appropriate gear, and to not dig in the earth and potentially disturb the ground. One soldier was finally admitted to have ARS, and several others showed 'mild and manageable' signs of radiation poisoning. As to the dozens of other soldiers who were digging in the irradiated earth and camping in the area [[NothingIsScarier there has been no word on them.]]
** Another incident during the conflict was as Russian forces began driving convoys through the city--several monitoring centers reported in alarm that there was a ''massive'' radiation spike coming up from Chernobyl, leading to initial fears that the fighting had damaged or possibly even ''destroyed'' the containment dome over the remains of the reactor. Eventually however, it was discovered that it wasn't the reactor itself, but ''irradiated dust'' kicked up by the passing Russian vehicles. While it may not be as serious as a full containment breach, let it sink in for a second--all these years later, even the ''dirt'' there is so radioactive that it can still set off radiation alarms just from being disturbed by passing vehicles.

* We see Toptunov turning red, Vasily turning black and yellow, and even Dyatlov pale, white-haired and emaciated. But Akimov is kept offscreen. Later, Khomyuk mentions that by the time she met Akimov, ''[[FacialHorror he had no face left]]''. An instance of BodyHorror was apparently so extreme that Creator/{{HBO}} -- no stranger to {{Gorn}} -- was ''[[EveryoneHasStandards unwilling to]] [[GoryDiscretionShot show it.]]'' [[NothingIsScarier Think about that for a minute.]]

* Some residents of Pripyat, including children, gather along a bridge to watch the distant fire, unaware that the thing burning is an ''exploded reactor core''. And then, the wind picks up and all these flakes of ash begin falling like snow, collecting onto their hair and clothing, while their children start to play in that ash. To the viewers, fully aware of what's happening, this seemingly innocent scene is more terrifying than most slasher films. The next we see of them, they're all in the overflowing hospital, all with radiation burns. ''Including the same man and his infant son from the earlier scenes''. He even ''begs'' Lyudmilla to take his son away from him, but she has no response and is instead horrified as she walks away to find her husband. To quote the epilogue crawl, it's been reported that nobody from the bridge survived[[note]]Thankfully, the events surrounding the Bridge of Death have been proven to be nothing but an urban legend.[[/note]]

* Some residents of Pripyat, including children, gather along a bridge to watch the distant fire, unaware that the thing burning is an ''exploded reactor core''. And then, the wind picks up and all these flakes of ash begin falling like snow, collecting onto their hair and clothing, while their children start to play in that ash. To the viewers, fully aware of what's happening, this seemingly innocent scene is more terrifying than most slasher films. The next we see of them, they're all in the overflowing hospital, all with radiation burns. ''Including the same man and his infant son from the earlier scenes''. He even ''begs'' Lyudmilla to take his son away from him, but she has no response and is instead horrified as she walks away to find her husband. To quote the epilogue crawl, it's been reported that nobody from the bridge survived.

--> '''Dyatlov:''' Raise the power. \\

--> '''Dyatlov:''' Raise the power.
'''Akimov:''' No... I won't do it, it isn't safe!
...
'''Dyatlov:''' Safety first. Always. I've been saying that for 25 years. That's how long I've done this job, 25 years. Is that longer than you, Akimov?
'''Akimov:''' ...yes.
'''Dyatlov:''' Is it much longer?
'''Akimov:''' ...yes.
'''Dyatlov''' (turning to Toptunov): And you with your mother's tit barely out of your mouth?
'''Toptunov:''' (silence)
'''Dyatlov:''' So if I say it's safe, it's ''safe'', and if the two of you disagree you don't have to work here, and you ''won't''. But not just here, you won't work in Kursk or Ignalina or Leningrad or Novo-Voronezh, you won't work ''anywhere, ever again''. I'll see to it. I think you know I '''will''' see to it. '''Raise the power.'''
*** It's not an idle threat either. Dyatlov's position was such that he ''could'', theoretically, blacklist them from the USSR's nuclear power plants as well as fire them. Which means they'd not only lose their flats in Pripyat (one of the better company towns in the USSR, built exclusively for the plant workers and their families), but could also be unable to find work in their profession '''anywhere''' else in the Soviet Union, and would likely have to switch careers entirely.